I'm not convinced people want dating sims at all. Japan is unusual, they have a large amount of schizoid-like males (if not simply schizoid) who prefer imaginary women to real ones for the simple reason that real women require some degree of maintenance. I don't know why they have this, but they do, and statistics show it's not as rare as you'd imagine.

Unless that personality disorder became widespread in other countries (maybe it's a result of population decline?), the dating sim genre isn't going anywhere.

Porn on the other hand...

"Also, they could try to make it appealing for the west by making it non-animesque."

It's not the visual style. Wii Sports and Miis are already animesque.

The dating sims in Japan i think gain their popularity from their semi-ecchi nature, something Nintendo wouldn't go for. Date sims in the west have always failed precisely because their developers haven't tried to make them ecchi enough (and thus part of the appeal that exists in their japanese counterparts is lost)

Something sort of closer to the Sims, period, Nintendo could totally do. Are doing already, infact, with Tomodachi Collection.

This would probably break down the last walls of gender difference in gaming. It would be HUGE. Though I couldn't play it. just not my taste.