Well, The Nintendo Wii is dead, is what a lot of Sony and Microsoft fanboys around the internet would have the masses believe. We're not going to dispute this or attempt to counter this argument, simply with everything being said, it's accurate. There is not really any more notable games coming out for the console, minus maybe one or two. I know The Last Story is coming, so don't hate me Operation Rainfall. Sales of the Wii are also down significantly, And we are mere months away from the launch of a new Nintendo console. The Wii is indeed, for the most part, dead. So the real question now, is did Nintendo deliver with the Wii? Did they give gamers what gamers want, or did they merely cater to 'casual' gamers and forget the rest of the gaming community?
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...runs over to check to see if wii still turns on...
Whew, mine is still alive. Im glad too as I picked up Sin & punishment for $5 from best buy.
Nintendo president backtracks on commitment to casual and family audiences over core gamers, betraying a profound misunderstanding of past strategic mistakes.
President Satoru Iwata continued to address Nintendo investors’ fears in an investor question and answer session on Monday after reporting the company’s first-ever fiscal year loss at the end of April. In addition to announcing new digital download initiatives for both the Nintendo 3DS and the upcoming Wii U, Iwata said Nintendo is refocusing its development on gaming enthusiasts rather than casual and family players. It was a bad move to abandon the core according to Iwata.
“The Wii was able to reach a large number of new consumers who had never played games before by bringing hands-on experiences with its Wii Sports and Wii Fit. However, we could not adequately create the situation that such new consumers played games frequently or for long, consistent periods. As a result we could not sustain a good level of profit,” said Iwata.
“Moreover, regrettably, what we prioritized in order to reach out to the new audience was a bit too far from what we prioritized for those who play games as their hobby. Consequently, we presume some people felt that the Wii was not a game system for them or they were not willing to play with the Wii even though some compelling games had been released.”
Nintendo’s underwhelming announcement of the Wii U at E3 2011 was a less explicit admission of the same mistake. The naming of the new console according to Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime was supposed to reconcile the casual and core audiences of Nintendo’s games, a console for “me and you.” Hence the hybrid of traditional control inputs and something simpler like a touch screen.
Iwata’s comments to investors though betray the fact that he and the rest of Nintendo’s corporate leaders in Japan misunderstand the chief failing of the Wii: The machine needed more games, more frequently. The casual audience lured by titles like Wii Fit in 2008 and earlier during the height of the Wii’s success are the same players that went on to pour money into free-to-play social games like FarmVille and mobile titles like Angry Birds in the years that followed. They are more than willing to play games for “long, consistent periods” as long as they’re given a reason to. Nintendo failed this audience by not giving them a wider selection of titles at lower costs.
Nintendo failed its core audience in a similar way. There simply weren’t enough games to maintain a healthy community of users. Releasing the Wii with limited technical capabilities wasn’t a mistake, but releasing it with no ability whatsoever to support high-definition television screens was nothing short of insane. It automatically alienated hobbyists and encouraged them to seek other solutions like the Dolphin Wii emulator. That’s not to mention the system’s asinine online gaming structure.
While the Wii U could be a hit for Nintendo, it’s concerning to see that its leadership still doesn’t understand the failures of past business decisions.
Read more: http://www.digitaltrends.co...
There you heard it from the horse's mouth.
Nintendo abandoned the core since ultra Nintendo
The only difference is that third party support insisted on making shovelware. Therefor shadowing the games that were worth it.
Nintendo didn't abandon anyone.
And for the sake of the argument...where were all these "hardcore" gamers with the N64?
Oh yeah that's right. They were at the playstation 1 playing sports games.
Thought i'd correct that for you. Hell yea we were.
You don't even know what are you typing anymore.
Wii and DS come along. Now their in first place in Sales. lol.
They need to show me they atre more than just same few games every other year and they need to show me they can get a online store/network that works like xblive/psn
and they need to prove that 3rd party support will be there not just for gimmick games but for real AAA titles
i said it before and i will say it again wii-u can make or break nintendo so this is quite big for them, They have the most to gain but they also have the most to loose
Although, I would say that the Wii "slowed down," instead of the word you used to express its current state.
I don't believe it was announced officially by Nintendo, but its Wii console is suppose to drop in price, to $99 dollars. Jadeds (the disinterested consumer base) might actually be interested (make sure to ask the retailer if your Wii model features Gamecube playback), which is the perfect time because of its above average software library.
TL;DR - $99 Wii, above average software library (or you can just for the Wii U).
@RoBoT666
C'mon man...
You can't hold out on us like that. :P
If they do and Nintendo see's this then they'll ditch core gamers all over again
I think the reason they are trying to win back the core now, even though it looks like they can't make up their mind is because they wasnt to see if the casual audience can be continued to be milked for another gen.
I don't know anyone that could be so called "core" and still playing on a tube tv. so with this alone they abandoned the core gamers imo.
can't wait to buy their apology day one in the form of a WiiU = )
even though they ditched me for a gen, they still own my childhood and my heart, which is attached to my wallet <3 nintendo
So in other words "hardcore" gaming didn't exist before HD tech?
I would challenge anyone to answer your questions and try to explain exactly when did hardcore gaming start?
The CORRECT terms are "traditional" and "non-traditional" gamers. All this hardcore/casual nonsense is fucking stupid.
Exactly. They were just bitter because they weren't old enough to get their own money to even get a Wii let alone and XBox 360 or PS3, hence at the mercy of their parents.
Agreed with the terms. All this "hardcore" talk pretty much started in the 16-bit era with Sega portraying the Genesis as a more "mature" console while dismissing Nintendo's consoles as "kiddy" all just because Nintendo wasn't fond of M-rated games or having them on its consoles. Remember Mortal Kombat? The birth of the ratings system. This is where Sony and Microsoft got their schtick from.
playing hd games on sd tech is as casual as it gets..
That kind of logic is why i rather prefer it when Big N is doing their own thing
Wii had some nice 3rd party gems too.
Wii is a really good machine.. Mario Galaxy 2 will never be matched on any other console. Creativity is what describes the Wii most.
I buy recently a used cheap Wii to play this few games, those games specific is:
Xenoblade Chronicles
The Last Story
Monster Hunter Tri
Pandora's Tower
Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon
Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn
Phantom Brave: We Meet Again (PS2 port)
Resident Evil Archives: Resident Evil (GameCube port)
Resident Evil Archives: Resident Evil Zero (GameCube port)
Project Zero 2 (remake of PS2-Fatal Frame 2 / EU release day June 29)
That's it that's all the games I want to play from a console that is in the market 6 years not very impressive dont u think? and if we remove ports & remakes this number reduced to only 6 true exclusives between hundreds of tiles of the whole Wii library.
Most of the games I want to play released the past 1 year, Wii is dying yes but at least hes going with a BANG!
Let's see now if Nintendo plan to change strategy with Wii U, imo it's about time for Ninti to focus on core gamers and release more mature games for adult gamers and stop releasing en masse games for ages 6-12 like they did till now.
That's deep, brah -,_,-
The article is right though. Nintendo never let the core gamer down. It was third party devs that didn't make enough core content for the system.
N64 had some of the best games ever made, f-zero, goldeneye, conker, zelda oot/mm, mario kart, star fox, ssb exc. They needed stuff like mgs and ff which jumped ship. Nintendo is partly to blame for ditching the cd drive but publishers/devs also had no loyalty (as you see with ff, dmc, gta, mgs going multi this gen).
With the gamecube they made the most powerful system and secured core games like mgs twin snakes, re4, re remake, re-0, symphonia and made stuff like zelda ww, metroid prime, eternal darkness, mario sunshine, mk dd, baten kados and more core games. Gamers everywhere were too busy playing halo and gta to care.
With the wii they had a ton of core games along with casual games but the letdown was a weak sd system. The games stand up to any other hd systems but core gamers are blinded by pretty hd games and the genralization that its all wii sport casual games. They still released metroid prime 3, other m, 2 zeldas, xenoblade, last story, pandoras tower, fragile, fatal frame, tales of graces/symphonia 2, mh tri, new dkc, ssbb, kirby, new smb, mario kart, okami, muramasa and tons of others.
With the 3ds they secured 2 exclusive RE games in a year, mh tri-g, mh4, kingdom hearts, mgs3, tales of the abyss, tekken, doa dimensions, ssf4, and made kid icarus, mario 3d land, star fox remake, zelda oot remake, and many more.
Theyve not let me down since the NES, i truly love Nintendo. The N64 and Gamecube didnt have the volume of games the ps2 had but they were the best most well made quality games of their gen.
chocobo dungeon
sin and punishment 2
trace memory r
xenoblade
the last story
wario land shake it
kirby return to dreamland
fragile
cursed mountain
silent hill shattered memories
klonoa
harry potter
lego star wars
pandora's tower
disaster day of crisis
marvel ultimate alliance 2
spider-man edge of time
spider-man shattered dimensions
conduit 1 and 2
spyborgs
and many many many more