Topic: What on Earth does Nintendo Want its "Image"to be re: the Wii U?

So here's what I don't get. Nintendo launched the Wii U to try and win back hardcore gamers. Yet this year's e3 shows that Nintendo has done barely anything to win them back. With the exception of Xenoblade Chronicles X, Nintendo played it extremely safe. Nintendo barely referenced Fatal Frame V (apart from a small segment of a treehouse presentation) and Devil's Third appeared nowhere at all. Nintendo also hasn't produced any mature third-party games whatsoever on its own, apart from Xenoblade Chronicles X. Now I'm not saying X is going to be a bad game (I think it will be incredible actually), but what on Earth is Nintendo trying to accomplish with its image now? Did they refuse to market, reference, or air much footage of Fatal Frame or Devil's Third just because it "isn't safe for kids?" Why on earth can't Nintendo have part of their presentation "rated G" and the other for mature audiences. What the heck is going on? Is Nintendo so insistent on having its platforms be completely safe for kids without any parental supervision whatsoever, that its willing to shoot itself in the foot?

It's so, so stupid.

PS: I'm not saying I'm not also excited for Star Fox/Zelda and that I don't like Mario games. I've purchased and have beaten/am close to beating virtually every Wii U exclusive out there, whether third or first party (working on Pikmin 3 now). I'm just saying that if Nintendo is trying to win back the hardcore, they aren't even trying.

My guess is that, given that Bayonetta 2 did poorly despite a great deal of advertising, Nintendo's investors and higher-ups are uncomfortable with taking further risks on the system. In other words, they have decided that the mature audience on the Wii U isn't large enough to justify advertising time.

Animal Crossing: House Arrest and Animal Crossing: Amiibo Scam are going to make tons of money. Probably the same with Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash. It makes sense that Nintendo wanted to spend prime advertising time on those games.

That said, that's not the E3 audience. The E3 Audience wants to hear about Zelda. They want to see a developer spotlight on Fatal Frame and understand the game better.

It's a repeat of the gamecube. They tried to be serious, sold poorly. Appealed to mass market, got the wii. Tried to win back core gamers, sold poorly. The NX will no doubt be some gimmick console in an attempt to bring back the Wii audience.

But they'll fail, because Smartphones and tablets have taken them and will never give them back. So I see nothing but dark times for Nintendo fans ahead, and possibly for Nintendo themselves.

I honestly have no idea. Based on what we've seen of the lineup this gen, it seemed like Nintendo simply thought they could repeat their previous success by continuing with the touch screen and motion control stuff this gen and making the same kinds of games. There's been no real desire to differentiate the Wii U from past gen devices, as evidenced by the amount of rehashes on the console and the uninterest in making Metroid Prime 4 (which would actually be perfect for the console). Maybe they thought that moving into HD would help them win back the hardcore? Or they're just lying and they don't have much of an interest in hardcore.

That's a gross oversimplification. Parts of the Wii audience are still around. They are still playing Wii, or they have moved onto other consoles.

Casual local multiplayer games don't have an equivalent in the smartphone world. People don't generally just sit around playing Candy Crush together. This is why they still release Just Dance annually, and why Wii Party U sold over a million units.

And really, that's a majority of the casual games that were made for the Wii that wasn't shovelware that sold like crap. You aren't going to get 30 year old women playing Mario platformers alone anymore, sure. But Wii Sports and Mario Party? Those still have mass appeal.

Then you have kids (probably the strongest and most consistent Wii market). Skylanders is still huge on Wii. And kids are still playing consoles. Nintendo's biggest weakpoint there is that they don't have Minecraft.

It's the local multiplayer gaming console for the family. It's the only thing the Wii U does better than the competition without any doubt in anyone's mind. Devil's Third just isn't up to snuff with what the competition is bringing.

I think this E3 was Nintendo basically saying they were done with putting immense resources behind the Wii U. It's clear it won't be a success, so the future console will be where they look for market share. That way, they won't frustrate people who buy a Wii U just wanting Zelda; they'll be able to buy their next system and not feel burned.

Nintendo have always had a rocky relationship with the so-called "mature" audience (I think mature roughly translates to anything approaching a realistic artsyle).

The WII U started out with all good intentions to win back hardcore gamers, they had a good looking console, a good pro pad, and quite a bit of 3rd party support. However when developer's started having trouble porting there big titles they just said "it's too much work".
So that just leaves Nintendo to make the big selling games for WII U.
Nintendos games (no matter how complex they may be) look quite childish, Mario 3d world, Mario Kart, Kirby, Yoshi, and even smash bros to an extent look like there aimed at mainly kids.
And that's where they're at, they have a console with no support, so the main of the games on it will be the nintendo games. So to show too much devils third confuses there place in the market.
Show the big Nintendo games people expect, sell consoles, release the odd mature title under the radar.

Yeah, you make good points. My post was too simplified.

Everyone is going on about Fatal Frame and Devil's Third, but FFV didn't exactly having glowing reviews in Japan, and Devil's Third footage has looked pretty bad so far. Maybe Nintendo knows it's a bad game and doesn't want to make it seem like it's one of the best things they have available this year?

I think Nintendo is trying to serve too many masters with the Wii U. ever since the beginning the Wii U was supposed to be the console made for everyone and you personally. It was supposed to have games for a wide audience and the games for the dedicated fans. Nintendo wants the Wii U to be for everyone, but in order to make the next home console successful they will need to focus on one audience, and I think that audience should be the dedicated. Hopefully E3 2016 will be more like E3 2014. While 2015 was good, it wasn't what people were expecting or wanted. We will see what happens.

On a side note, I encourage everyone to watch the Treehouse Live video about Fatal Frame (warning, mature content)

Had 3rd party devs stuck around, the Mature games would have been there and nobody would have really paid quite so much attention to Nintendo doing what Nintendo does with their games.
Something can be said though, with the big 3rd party dev's walking away from the WiiU, would Beyonetta 2 have ever been made, same as Hyrule Warriors and Pokken Fighters? Even with DLC for MK8 Smash Bros, how much Nintendo's hand was forced in those directions is hard to say. In some ways I'm glad that Nintendo did what they did.

1. Hopefully, they realize they can produce family friendly online titles with voice chat by implementing universal parental controls in the NX's OS.

2. They have to have big games at launch (those adventure titles like Zelda, Metroid, and Mario).

3. They have to have an online second party fps on launch day. The software that Nintendo puts on the console themselves will dictate what types of gamers buy the console.

4. The controllers can be one-handed 3D tracking remotes but they have to appeal to core gamers by having four face buttons and dual analog (so you can play non-motion titles without need of a special pad).

5. Nintendo's focus on not interrupting in-person game sessions will still drive their strategy. I doubt we will see an option for VR. Instead, they will very likely be focused on their patented gaze and head tracking interface which will create an inexpensive AR (augmented reality) experience by using gamers' existing television screens. Nintendo don't want to put the gamer under a mask.

6. To capture the gamers that are avoiding WiiU, Nintendo has to create hardware that is superior to PS4 (which will be easy given the gap between Sony's launch and Nintendo's).

So many parallels to the GameCube (and n64 to an extent) it isn't even funny. And I'm okay with that. All my favorite systems are the ones that seem to have "cult status".