I think he's right to a degree. There's always a sampling of excuses thrown around this site as to why such and such third party title failed. It's either bad reviews, or little marketing, or limited appeal. For some reason though, this hardly ever affects Nintendo published titles. They don't have to get held up to the light and explain their weaknesses, because they sell regardless. This is not something new, and I don't know why it's such an issue with Nintendo, to the point of denial. Nintendo is a trusted brand, and games can damn well sell some extra copies for having that label on the box.

Look at Super Paper Mario. It's ridiculously niche, it had little advertising, and yet the title has sold nearly 3 million copies. Why? Because there is a built in fanbase that buys Nintendo platforms primarily for Nintendo titles. How about a scuba diving simulator featuring no actual goals selling damn near a million copies? It had like no marketing, bad reviews and if anyone else made it, you'd all have called it the most niche game ever.

It's not just the Wii either. Every complaint I typically see about the Wii's third party efforts isn't reflective of the DS's third party situation. Third parties put big effort into DS titles, bring mainstream franchises to it and get undersold by similar Nintendo titles time and time again.

Now obviously both platforms aren't devoid of customers willing to spend on third party published traditionalist titles. But to deny there isn't a huge advantage for Nintendo's own published titles is just ridiculous. It's the only major console maker in history where third parties were and still are not able to compete with the first party publisher.

What I think it is starts right here on forums. It's the word of mouth we all give out. Nintendo console owners are constently laying down excuses highlighting how imperfect the newest third party title is but giving Nintendo the benefit of the doubt anytime a mistake is made on one of their own games. It's the double standard that starts right here. We have had a Smash Bros. thread going on for ages that is primarily used by people playing online together. The online is absolute shit compared to any other game in existence that is known for it's online multiplayer. If this was any third party Wii game, this would be exactly why such and such new fighting game couldn't sell on Wii, crappy online. We do it all the time here. People defend New Super Mario Bros. Wii and Wii Sports Resort for not having online, and then turn on third party titles for making the same decisions. For some reason, these same problems will never affect a Nintendo published title. Bad graphics? So what. No online? Who cares. Nintendo titles will still sell, and we will tell ourselves bad graphics and no online is why everyday third party title didn't sell very well.

The bottom line is, Pachter is wrong with his way of making this demographic all encompassing as the Wii's "core audience". It's not. However, it exists, and it's a big fucking demgraphic, and third party titles will never be given the same consideration, no matter if they do everything in the world right.

I think the N64 era is a counter example to pachter's point - everyone bought Rare.

I think he's right to a degree. There's always a sampling of excuses thrown around this site as to why such and such third party title failed. It's either bad reviews, or little marketing, or limited appeal. For some reason though, this hardly ever affects Nintendo published titles. They don't have to get held up to the light and explain their weaknesses, because they sell regardless. This is not something new, and I don't know why it's such an issue with Nintendo, to the point of denial. Nintendo is a trusted brand, and games can damn well sell some extra copies for having that label on the box.

Look at Super Paper Mario. It's ridiculously niche, it had little advertising, and yet the title has sold nearly 3 million copies. Why? Because there is a built in fanbase that buys Nintendo platforms primarily for Nintendo titles. How about a scuba diving simulator featuring no actual goals selling damn near a million copies? It had like no marketing, bad reviews and if anyone else made it, you'd all have called it the most niche game ever.

It's not just the Wii either. Every complaint I typically see about the Wii's third party efforts isn't reflective of the DS's third party situation. Third parties put big effort into DS titles, bring mainstream franchises to it and get outsold by similar Nintendo titles time and time again.

Now obviously both platforms aren't devoid of customers willing to spend on third party published traditionalist titles. But to deny there isn't a huge advantage for Nintendo's own published titles is just ridiculous. It's the only major console maker in history where third parties were and still are not able to compete with the first party publisher.

What I think it is starts right here on forums. It's the word of mouth we all give out. Nintendo console owners are constently laying down excuses highlighting how imperfect the newest third party title is but giving Nintendo the benefit of the doubt anytime a mistake is made on one of their own games. It's the double standard that starts right here. We have had a Smash Bros. thread going on for ages that is primarily used by people playing online together. The online is absolute shit compared to any other game in existence that is known for it's online multiplayer. If this was any third party Wii game, this would be exactly why such and such new fighting game couldn't sell on Wii, crappy online. We do it all the time here. People defend New Super Mario Bros. Wii and Wii Sports Resort for not having online, and then turn on third party titles for making the same decisions. For some reason, these same problems will never affect a Nintendo published title. Bad graphics? So what. No online? Who cares. Nintendo titles will still sell, and we will tell ourselves bad graphics and no online is why everyday third party title didn't sell very well.

The bottom line is, Pachter is wrong with his way of making this demographic all encompassing as the Wii's "core audience". It's not. However, it exists, and it's a big fucking demgraphic, and third party titles will never be given the same consideration, no matter if they do everything in the world right.