Topic: Miyamoto: Nintendo catering more to "Core" than "Casual" now

Sorry guys, but the vast majority of developers are not coming back, I think most of them have there eyes set on the 8th gen, and with the higher than expected pace of sales for the PS4 and XB1, support for the 7th gen will probably wane faster than what was originally expected. As unfortunate and short sighted as it may be, the same goes for the Wii U.......and I think this is already pretty evident. Even if the Wii U gets a monster hit and sales pick up speed, to a great degree, developers will still be selective in how they support the Wii U.....

This isn't really a bad thing though, it just means Nintendo will have to try even harder to entice new customers and please it's current user basis......so if you like Nintendo games, this is a win.......and if you like 3rd party AAA titles, you'll just have to get yourself a new console to sit next to the Wii U.

The Wii U will be in effect a big N box solely, with a few AAA second party exclusives and a good number of indie / VC titles for good measure.

Again, not really a bad thing, Nintendo is really the only software developer that can in effect support a piece of hardware by themselves. They are still making money.

Best case scenario, the Wii U keeps on doing well in Japan, and we get a bunch of unique, Japanese titles to go along with the Nintendo exclusives, like the 3ds.

I expected support for 7th gen to wane already, but it hasn't. I also feel 3rd Parties expected PS4/XBO to sell faster than they currently are. I don't think it is too late for Wii U to get 3rd Party support, just maybe the bigger 3rd Parties. If Nintendo can start bringing back some 3rd Parties with Wii U then I don't see why their next console won't have a lot more 3rd Party support. This is 1 step Nintendo is making and they are going to have to take more, we will see what happens.

I disagree, respectfully, PS4 is currently the all time fastest selling console in consideration of its short lifespan, and the XB1 is outpacing the 360 in comparison to where that older platform was during its launch year.

Ubisoft has already stated that they want to cut support for the 7th gen by 2015, and I personally think it's likely that other large developers will follow suite considering how well the new consoles are doing and how far sales have dipped for the 7th gen. So the majority of the focus will be those two consoles along with PC and IOS.

I think Nintendo will try to augment it's first party lineup with second party AAA exclusives (just like Bayonetta 2 or Sonic), along with indies, and an odd third party title here and there (Skylanders, just dance) etc. it's not a bad thing, the big N will just be an exclusives box.

I think the market for that audience is there still....but they didn't explain their value very well. I never even got into the Wii, pretty much left gaming for 20 years, save a GBA and I love the Wii U.

Well, he's not using the stereotype "casual", he's talking about people who demand all games to cater to their whim or they won't touch them.
It just so happens that those the internet calls "casuals" fit into that category more often than not.

What's wrong with Nintendo aiming at the core gaming audience? What is a core-gamer? I look at it as somebody who actively enjoys console, portable, and PC gaming as a hobbie. That doesn't mean they are the IOS / android "only" gamer, although, by all means, we all probably play games on our phone or tablet, but we also look for more in depth experiences,......be it a first person shooter or a platformer.

Literally nothing, other than they won't hit Wii-level mainstream success.

Nothing its just how they plan to go about it. Personally for me I wish Nintendo would just bring in more features such as pre-ordering, pre-loading, and a online eshop.

That level of success is never coming back, so they really have no choice.

Here is my take on all this. The early success of the Wii led to Nintendo to try to incorporate both casual and active gamer interest in the next-gen system, but within the couple years prior to the launch of the Wii U, the casual market shifted away from the Wii, leading to its early demise, and in turn, a reduced audience for the Wii U. Because Nintendo was already dedicated and deep in development of the Wii U, they had no choice but to continue and hope for the best, attempting to take what they thought they could muster with the active gamers by getting games like Mass Effect and such brought over. That unfortunately didn't go well for them because they were only working with half an audience (the other half being the casuals, as mentioned, who already left years before), so the lack of a full audience led 3rd-parties, who were initially on-board, to leave as well. The Wii U is now only running on its dedicated fanbase. Probably the only thing keeping Nintendo afloat is their handheld line, which has seen success after success throughout its existence. As a company, they exist to make money and to expand. Leaving the console scene to focus on just handhelds would be the exact opposite of the company's purpose, so they're going to have to turn away from the casual market if they want their consoles to strive. That may mean they are going back to their roots (like many companies before them have started to do), which in turn may mean cutting deals with 3rd-parties, making a competitive next-gen console, etc. We won't know until Nintendo starts acting on their word.

That's pretty spot on IMO, I do believe that whatever there next step may be, they won't throw all of there eggs in one basket (fusion), some kind of redundancy and a fall back option seems to be key in how Nintendo views it's strategy.

The difficulty curve is the most important thing that needs to be set back to reasonable again. (With easier ones as well for the young).

Agreed.
Also for the love of god, remove the pitty power up/auto level clear or at least add the option for it to never show up. It's patronizing.

Nintendo is going to have a hard time winning back third parties. They're going to need to go all out with the console specs and make a graphical powerhouse if they want the third parties to remain interested, not just something that can match the PS4/One, but something that can surpass it and match the PS5/Nextbox. And that is something that Nintendo does not like doing, they usually like cheaper hardware. Like I said, they're going to have to change their business philosophy in some way, no one wants a gaming centered, underpowered, kid friendly console anymore, one of those things has to change.

I see what you mean. The Wii U is kinda more towards the core audience, so i guess its really nothing new that their trying to appeal more to core gamers.

I don't think matching (or surpassing) the next PS/Xbox power at a low price point/cost is a possibilty for Nintendo for the next generation, since they are focusing in the "system family" thing which means either a shared hardware architechture and/or a unified OS. We can only count on mobile tech powering up at the same rate as today in 2-3 years (which is the most likely thing to power the next generation of Nintendo hardware, if the AMD rumors are to be believed).

Agree

I always thought they were catering to the "core" gamer with Wii U. The system had ZombiU, Nano Assault, Black Ops II, and some other good games at launch. Then more games came out throughout the year. The releases were far and few between, but I think Xbox One and PS4 actually have a similar amount of games as Wii U did at tis point. The difference is that people thought Xbox One and PS4 were going to leave Wii U in the dust in how much content they would have, but that hasn't really happened, so the criticism has died down somewhat.

We knew about games like Xenoblade Chronicles X, Bayonetta, etc. ALONG time ago, It was just a matter of waiting like a couple years or so for all those games to come out, and now the other systems are going through a similar spot. Smash Bros. will be a big "core" game. I just think people expected more from Xbox One and PS4, so now Nintendo doesn't look as bad anymore, but that was only if you were trying to guess this generation's outcome literally years in advance. That's why it's just better to wait and actually see what happens.

So ya, in terms of games, I always thought the Wii U did good enough. It had 2K 2012 and Madden at launch, but people still didn't care, because they wanted it on the upcoming Xbox and PS, regardless of what Nintendo could have done.

I have two separate rebuttals.

1. People have said that no one wanted 2d platformers, horror games, dedicated gaming handheld systems, local multiplayer, single player, adventure games, Japanese games and my personal favorite, video games (lol 1983). And every single time they have been proven wrong. In an era where Xcom the strategy game can vastly outsell a Mass Effect clone game of the same series with half the marketing budget, Persona 4 can be one of the top selling games on a(n admittedly poor selling) Sony platform and both Antichamber and Dark Souls can succeed, I do not care about such irrelevant assumptions.
2. " no one wants a gaming centered, underpowered, kid friendly console anymore unless it is marketed halfway decently and hypes a new game in a popular, not overdone franchise, in which case it can outsell Xbox with one game even after it got a price cut" is what you meant to say

Its about d*** time someone at Nintendo says this but, this is not the first time some has said this type of thing. I just hope Miyamoto & Nintendo can keep their word. But I do have to say this. Like others have said here, its going to be very hard to get back 3rd-parties back. All I can say is maybe they can get them back in the next generation of consoles. Cause at this point they already lost them.