Nintendo pwns notion Wii was only for casual gaming
Call of Duty: Mario Warfare 3, anyone?
The Nintendo Wii is often associated with family entertainment and the softcore games market, but the firm's boss insists it wasn't the company's intentions to focus on casual gaming.
In a Q&A with investors, Satoru Iwata insisted Nintendo would "keep pursuing 'gaming population expansion' as our fundamental goal for the future because we believe that it is worth continuously aiming at".
This doesn't necessarily mean more titles for inexperienced gamers and family environments, though.
"We do not think that developing video games for casual or light users is the only way to expand the gaming population," he said.
Apparently, casual gamers were never the company's focus when it launched the Wii console.
"There was a misunderstanding that Nintendo was dedicated to such games at some stage of the lifespans of the Wii and the Nintendo DS. We have made efforts to develop video games that are in tune with various consumer tastes. However, we have not been able to gain adequate consumer understanding regarding our intentions, while in the common perception there are no or few core users playing Nintendo platforms, which is not the case."
Instead, Nintendo had planned to build a bridge across the gamer-span in a process designed to slowly introduce the casual gamer to the core-game community.
"Unless we create a flow from beginner to expert by offering an entrance for beginners and the processes for a beginner to become an intermediate user and from an intermediate to an advanced player, the video game industry will gradually shrink."
The Wii U, set for a relaunch at E3 2012, will no doubt continue with this intended direction, but will the core market be convinced? ®
COMMENTS
I have a Wii and an XBox 360, and the Wii still gets alot of use. I would not be classed as a casual gamer. The games on the Wii I have played and enjoyed the most are Metroid, Zelda, Mario (New SMB, Mario All Stars and Mario Kart Wii), Golden Eye, No More Heroes 2, Sonic Colours, Tatsunoko Vs Capcom, Donkey Kong country Returns, and others that I can't think of off the top of my head.
It does have a lot of shovelware (consoles with large install bases do), and it does also have a lot of games for casual gamers, which is great. Like all consoles, it has it's advantages and disadvantages, good games and not so good games.
I find it complements the XBox nicely to give me a really good choice of games, and I believe that those who dismiss it because they think the Wii remote is a gimick, or because they think the console is not aimed at hardcore gamers are missing out.
Sir
My main objection to the Wii for serious games is the motion controller.
Sure, you can stick a Gamecube pad on there, but a M$/Sony controller it is not.
I mean, I abandoned a Zelda game because of the control mechanism, something I thought would have been phsychologically impossible.
Strategy
"Apparently, casual gamers were never the company's focus when it launched the Wii console."
I can believe that. A lot of Nintendo's efforts are misses or half-attempts (I mean, why no "DVD Channel" - purchasable or not - for the Wii? Homebrewers did it) so I can quite believe that they stumbled into the casual market completely by accident.
Question-mark-Paris icon because they should have asked her, she might have had more of a clue.
No mention of Super Smash Bros, sorry, you're a baddie casual. The only hardcore game on the Wii is SSB.
I think it's more...
"Look what we can occasionally do by accident when we're actually trying to do something else." For the Wii, that accident happened to be in their favour, but a look at their current financials and things like the mess of the 3DS it's pretty clear that's not always the case.
