Topic: Was Wii the peak 'casual gamer' console?

I'm not sure how much difference it would've made for the Gamecube but it probably would've helped somewhat. More interestingly it would have done is blurred the line between the Wii and GC even more. Because in terms of hardware the Wii was literally a Gamecube with a higher clock speed, WiFi/Bluetooth and full sized discs.

If the Wii was just WiFi + clock away from GC? It could've made for a more interesting transition. Think the transition from Gameboy to Gameboy Color, there were titles that were "Gameboy games" that could be played on the GBC with additional features. Could've been a similar transition with GC -> Wii if the discs were identical.

I think it’s a bit disingenuous to label any console ‘casual’ or (what is the term for a non casual console anyway?) I agree that a large number of the install base may lean towards the more light hearted games or there may well be many of those types of games available but I don’t see how it makes the console itself casual.

For example, I had a Mega Drive back in the early 90s and because I was a kid a lot of the games I owned were Disney or Sonic titles. Likewise, I’m sure that many people had a SNES with mainly Mario /Kirby games. Does that make it a ‘casual’ console as I didn’t play more mature games? No, because there were those sort of titles available. Now a huge amount of the interest in those two consoles were based on Sonic and Mario and probably influenced most purchases of the machines but I would never argue that either machine was ‘casual’.

The Wii benefited massively from games like Wii sports, but also had a fair few mature titles such as Resident Evil, House of the Dead, Call of Duty, Madworld, Monster Hunter etc many of which I played regularly on the Wii (I’ll admit I was in my late 20s when I got the Wii so I’m probably an outlier in terms of the average age of the install base, but still significantly younger than the ‘grannies who bought it to only play Wii Sports’ cliche).

I think there needs to be a distinction between a console being marketed to the more casual consumer and being ‘a casual console’. I would argue that it is either the case that there is no such thing as a casual console, just casual consumers or all consoles are causal as they all have more family friendly/casual games published for them.

@Gamecuber The Wii being labelled as casual has nothing to do with actual games, as all game consoles cater to a variety of people. Internet discourse, especially on a subject like video games, tends to be primarily made up of males in their teens and 20s so when they call the Wii casual it's usually just in frustration that it wasn't explicitly marketed towards them like 90% of games are. The Xbox One was marketed around the Kinect and multi-media entertainment yet no one defined it like they did the Wii because it had 30 year old bearded men making bad one liners while shooting things. Some people might argue that the graphics were the difference but the GameCube was significantly more powerful than the PS2 and was still considered a kiddy lunchbox console that didn't play REAL games like Grand Theft Auto or Halo. Nintendo's problem is ironically they don't cater to the largest section of casual gamers - the dude bros who play yearly sports titles and stuff like COD or GTA and not much else.

@PN93 oh I agree with you. I just find it funny that if you look at the actual games published for nearly all systems there are tons of casual games published for each and you’d think that the very thing they were made for (playing games) would be the determining factor but I agree with you about the whole internet culture issue. It’s just funny for me as I was in my late 20s and coming off the back of the PS2 and GameCube the whole idea of one system being casual compared to the others was quite bizarre.

GameCube suffers the kiddy image problem due to the controller layout and choosing purple as the primary colour. That and the handle didn’t help. The black model might have helped if it had been the more advertised model.

@Tendo64

I wanted to get a Nintendo console when we first had kids because I thought they were more family friendly and had more 4 player games than the other consoles.

Our friends had the Playstation, Xbox and one had the N64.

I liked that Nintendo consoles came out of the box with 4 controller ports. This hopefully meant more games would come out as 4 player, so . . . the family could play together.

So, for me . . . wanting the Nintendo Game Cube was because I considered it more casual / a more family friendly unit than the other consoles.

And, for what I saw around us, those that had the Wii, they were not so much hardcore players. And for the hardcore players that I knew with a Wii, they also had either a Playstation or Xbox as their "main console".

Personally, I think that is brilliant. I read an article where the author said Nintendo was brilliant in that they didn't try to fight for the hard core gamers based on technical specs, but instead targeted a broader market. They went after casual players that didn't care about tech specs and megaflops . . . LOL.

As for what happened next, after the Wii. I think the iPhone and iPad happened next.

After the Wii, casual gamers probably decided to play their casual games on the iPhone or iPad. It was a mobile device, so much easier to use. And easier to use in more places.

And I guess also, to a much lesser degree, VR might have pulled some gamers in that direction.

But, I am thinking Nintendo has made a pretty good move with the Switch.

But I am trying to wonder which is more brilliant . . .

1. Consolidating the set-top and portable line-ups so that they can focus and consolidate their development and marketing efforts.

2. Be that portable, easy to use gaming device that casual gamers might flock back to.

3. Or being a great 2nd console option for any gamer that primarily plays Playstation or Xbox, but wants a portable option. I think Nintendo should make stickers that say "My other console is a Nintendo Switch" so that Playstation and Xbox owners can stick it on their other console. LOL.

no

@Euler The Wii sold 100 million units. Considering that the average person buys 3 titles when getting a console, those numbers are low.

@faint It's a chicken or egg thing. People will buy more of a certain game if it's on a console with a wide install base, but people will also buy more of a given console if it has a strong library of games (you buy the console to play the games, after all). The overall software:hardware ratio is higher for the Wii than any other Nintendo console aside from the Gamecube.

https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/finance/hard_soft/