Topic: The Christmas battle Nintendo can win.

With the recent articles about GTA being too violent for Nintendo's image on this site (which I agree with), and Family Gamer's endorsement of the Wonderful 101, I started to think about kids of 3, 7, and 12 that are going to get a games console this year for Christmas. Nintendo is famous for it's family friendly games (I'm not going to list them- you know them), but what will the other 2 consoles have for anyone under 16 for Christmas this year? I had a nose on GAME's website, and listed them down:

Xbox One Line Up for under 16's

Forza (3)
FIFA (3)
Need For Speed (12)
NBA 2K14 (3)
Plants VS Zombies (12)
Madden 25 (3)
Skylanders Swap Force (7)
Just Dance (3)
NBA LIve (3)
Peggle (?)
Lego Marvel (7)

PS4 Lineup for under 16's

FIFA (3)
Drive Club (3)
Elder Scrolls (12)
Need For Speed (12)
Knack (?)
NBA 2K14 (3)
The Crew (12)
Skylanders (7)
Just Dance (3)
Madden (3)
NBA Live (3)
Lego Marvel (7)

So not including Sports or Racing games (some which clash against each other like the 2 NBA games), Xbox One has 5 games for kids: Plants Vs Zombies, Peggle, Just Dance, Skylanders, and Lego Marvel. Only 2 of these games are not coming to the Wii U. Playstation 4 has Elder Scrolls, Knack, Just Dance, Skylanders, and Lego Marvel- again only 2 not on the Wii U. In my opinion only Knack has the chance to be really fun for kids, and it isn't a safe bet like Mario or Zelda. I know a number of 7 year olds will undoubtedly get Killzone and Battlefield on December the 25th, but from a family gaming point of view, neither systems is as appealing as the Wii U.

It's pretty obvious what Nintendo has lined up for Christmas is aimed at this family market, and should push (if they haven't already planned it) in their advertising (if we get any). I think you can see not just Nintendo themselves but sites like this are emphasising the need for a system that caters for this family consumer that the PS4 and Xbox One just aren't doing at the moment. Nintendo still has Watchdogs, COD, AC4, and Arkham O for it's older customers, but it's universal age product should be the systems biggest selling point.

I wouldn't call Elder Scrolls an under 16 game and its on the xbox to boot.

Are you guys talking about Elder Scrolls Online? That won't be out until next year. :/

I think Nintendo already lost this year, maybe they can win the Labor day battles.

I am only what is listed on the GAME website and the age listing it had- it's listed as a 12.

Also didn't notice it said next year- just emphasises my point even more.

I agree with everything except this

It's one thing and a good thing for the Wii U to be the platform that has games that are family friendly. Wii Sports Club, Wii Fit U, Rayman, Wind Waker HD, 3D World and so on. All quality titles and it will definitely help them in that market. However I don't think them not having GTA helps them in any way. If you don't want to buy GTAV nobody is forcing you to do it.

Besides, the Wii U is getting Watch Dogs, AC Black Flag, COD: Ghosts which you could argue are equally as "non-family friendly". In Australia the big deal about GTAV is that it's one of the first major titles to get the new R18+ rating... what's interesting is that the first game to get the R18+ rating in Australia was Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge. So how is not having GTAV any sort of advantage?

@skywake It's good for Ubisoft and the Watch Dogs vs GTA battle... I would rather get WD anyway

@MrGawain

If were talking under 16 line up for Xbox One we have

Peggle 2
Crimson Dragon
Forza 5
Lococycle
PowerStar Golf
Zoo Tycoon

Still Nintendo has the advantage that all of their games have an inoffensive art style to my sometimes chargin.

Plus Nintendo themselves have made (some) effort to promote games like ZombiU and Resident Evil Revelations and is more than happy to pimp Bayonetta 2, games that wouldn't fit their "image". They even helped Rockstar to promote Chinatown Wars back in the day.

That will be as much of a 'battle' as a hammer vs. a nail. Watch_Dogs looks like it will be a good game and I've pre-ordered it for PS4, looking forward to it but from what I've seen it won't be near as great as GTA 5 is. Sales won't even be a contest.

GTA is a well established franchise like Mario so of course it will sell better than a newcomer... GTA3 & Vice City were my favs but it's time for me to move onto a more innovative approach to the sandbox genre, something where you use your brain instead of pushing little old grannies over outside the supermarket so you can steal their welfare cheques

LoL, well clearly you don't like GTA that's cool. Believe me I want WD to be awesome but I'm just not getting the feeling that it will be the innovative, mind blowing game I thought it could be when it was revealed. Each showing it looks worse, it looked really bad on Jimmy Fallon's show and that wast he PS4 version, the one Ubi is saying is the definitive one. That certainly is cause for concern.

I might get bored and just end up owning some fools with online WiiSports Boxing or Golf instead

Or bowling.

Yeah, why the hell not... I will get all those mofo's

But 7-12 yr old kids only play COD
It's true, why else do people hate playing online cuz there's always some little kid screaming some grown up words that he learned way too early before he even learned how to wipe his *** properly. You give the average parent too much credit, the average parent doesn't know crap about videogames so don't expect them to know how the ESRB works. They automatically assume any videogame cannot be bad for their kid because it's just a game (in their mind they see a game like Candy Land when the actual game is GTA). Have you been to Wal-Mart or Gamestop you just ask for the game and they hand it to you they don't explain what the ESRB (or whatever rating system used in your country) and what kind of content you find in the different categories. Also parents are just too lazy to deal with their kids, anything to get them off their back even if that means buying them a game that's not suitable for them (saw a kid at Wal-Mart throwing a tantrum because they didn't have Black Ops 2 available and his mom's like "ok calm down we're gonna go to Gamestop to see if they have the game ok?" I was just like O_O the kid looked like he was 6 yrs old and if he's throwing a tantrum clearly he's not "Mature" enough for the game).

Point is kids will most likely get whatever system they ask for, especially during Christmas when kids get even more spoiled than usual.

@LDXD

The Elder Scrolls MMO is coming to XB1/PS4.

I personally wouldn't want to have to pay a $15 a month fee on top of paying for Xbox Live and PlayStation+

I suspect Nintendo may have already won this year/christmas due to Pokemon and the 2DS alone. Forget the Xbox One or PS4, it's probably gonna be all about Pokemon this year...

Oh wait, Wii U and home console discussion. Okay. Yeah, I agree, Nintendo might well be in with a good chance this christmas. I mean, the big multi format games like Call of Duty are on the Wii U as well as all other systems, so the big boost in sales this series causes might not only help Nintendo's competitors. And Nintendo's exclusives like Mario 3D World and Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze are arguably better than the PS4/Xbox One's exclusives.

There is also the interesting issue of whether the PS4 and Xbox One crowd will even upgrade this year. I mean, I don't think they're backwards compatible, right? And certain big games like Grand Theft Auto V are on the existing rather than new systems. So I suspect a fair amount of the Microsoft/Sony fans might just stick to what they've got and play the likes of GTA and COD on those rather than try the new consoles.

Also games like Titanfall will be on 360 as well. There isn't much that is "next-gen" exclusive unless it is console exclusive which you would miss out on anyways unless you plan on buying both a PS4 and Xbox 1 but if you are then you aren't too worried about money anyways.