Topic: Wii, maybe This is Nintendos Marketing Strategy?

So Ive been talking to a friend of mine about Wii. We are both married and older and will be having children in the near future, and both been big Nintendo fan for over 20 years. Wii has thrown a lot of gamers for a loop, either in a good way or bad, however you take it. Its no unknown fact that the Wii hasnt been my favorite console from Nintendo, but Ive never hated the system. With 3rd party backing out and Nintendo bringing not bringing a new system out anytime soon, I think I MAY have finally figured this whole Wii thing out. I wanted to see what you guys think. Nintendo has brought so many New Gamers to their system, and true us Hardcore Gamers dont like them mostly as they play Mostly just casual games and Nintendo is bringing more and more "gimmicky" or casual games out that dont appeal to the hardcore, but still have a few good games here and there. Most of us Hardcore Gamers and Nintendo faithful and getting older and do have multiplatform systems and Nintendo knows that. I really think they arent abandoning the hardcore, but more of appealing to their children and throw in a Nintendo Hardcore Appeal here and there for them, because of course they will have the system there for their children. Its a great strategy. Nintendo is the cleanest gaming system on the market and when I do have children in the near future I will be buying a lot of what I call "gimmicky" or casual games for them, and sneakin in some Metroid Other M or whatever it is then, but my main gaming will still be other systems as the newer system appeal more to me, as my friends also have them and we play online. So in wrapping up, yeah Nintendo ticked a lot of older gamers and hardcore off with the Wii, but its aight we got PS3/XBOX for the everything else. The world needs Wii for clean fun for our younger gamers in this world, with that little bit of Nintendo appeal that older gamers can enjoy too. What do you guys/gals think?

I dunno, I am 27 and have no complaints about the Wii. I guess why the Wii does not bother me is I bought it after a year and a half on the market and I had a general idea of what was to come, that and I do not consider myself a Nintendo die hard as I also play the original XBOX, PS2 and PC quite often. I see your points though, I just do not have abandonment issues when it comes to gaming ( not saying you do or anything). My philosophy was this generation I wanted a different way to play games and thats what I got. I like and enjoy all video game systems to at least some extent. I am just not a fanboy of any particular company. I guess you could call me a fanboy of video games in general though . I think Nintendo's strategy has been pretty clear from the start of this generation though. The marketing is usually pretty good at attracting people that normally would not have been interested.

@Slapshot off topic but do you play a lot of online FPS ?

So in wrapping up, yeah Nintendo ticked a lot of older gamers and hardcore off with the Wii, but its aight we got PS3/XBOX for the everything else

Funny I am and older core gamer and I flock to the wii because the games on the "mature" consoles were just boring and uninspired and being real gimmicks (interactive movies). I am 32, been playing since the Atari 2600 days and the Wii is probably the best buy I have ever made. I don't see anything on the other consoles that makes me go wow besides some downloadable games. The Wii has pure gameplay on its score, like the good old days of arcades and that's way more important for me as a gamer than the superdupermega graphics or the artsy values of games.

And the strategy of Nintendo was pretty clear since they announced the "Revolution": bring forgotten gamers to gaming, bringing new gamers to gaming and breaking the wall between the elitists hardcores and the rest of the worldl. I am tired of people whining that "Nintendo betrayed them" while actually is the inverse. Finally Nintendo does a great console but they turn their back on them because "is not for ze hardkorz". Did you wanted them to make another Gamecube or Nintendo 64 or what?

Worst for you. Is a shame you miss what they are bringing. But well down with the old up with the new. And I welcome that.

No. Tatsunoku Vs. Capcom, Shiren the Wanderer, Monster Hunter Tri, Metroid: Other M, Arc Rise Fantasia, Epic Mickey, Red Steel 2, Sin & Punishment 2, Monado: Beginning of the World, Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon, Super Mario Galaxy 2, Zelda Wii.

Awesome responses guys. Kinda respond to both you guys at the same time. I dont feel abandoned by Nintendo at all. Im a huge gamer and its my main hobby. I play ALOT of games. I actually was goin with the Wii as a sole system and there just wasnt enough there to keep my happy, and the company I worked for the the time layed me and most he company off, so to upgrade systems, I had to sell the Wii for the PS3. If your an older gamer and Love the Wii for a sole console, hey that is fantastic. My now wife and fiance at the time, lived with her brother before we got married and I would be over there watching him play Modern Warfare, Assassins Creed, Mass Effect, etc and the Wii was in a bad slump of games, as I beat all the big releases within a week or two of the games release, I just didnt feel satisfied with my hobby so I upgraded. Its not for Mature titles, Ratchet and Clank is one of my favorte series (new one has the voice of Mario in it lol) and most of the games I enjoy most arent Mature Rated. Nintendo has brought so many people to gaming, and I have deep respect for that. I still have my DS and DSi and adore Nintendo hanhelds all the way to the original. My biggest complaint with Wii is that I feel Nintendo does need to step in and do a more thourough job in the check on software before its release to decrease some of the shovelware that floods the system. I hate that some new gamers are getting shovelware as their first games instead on, well maybe the incredible NSMB Wii or Galaxy. One more thing that really buggs me, I play game for competition, I love a challange, and well example is Mario Kart Wii, the evening out the odds with the super strong powers from last place so you can be loosing and win, took all the fun out of the game, I ended up just working on World Record Times on the tracks instead of racing the circuits. I do still have access to a Wii, so I dont miss out on the releases, and I will buy another Wii down the road and grab all I do miss on the cheap.

@Ilikevideogames...... actually Im not a big FPS fan so no. Im more into the Ratchet and Clank, Uncharted, Tomb Raider and Racing Games/Music Games. Im currently hooked on MW2 big time online though. Ive put maybe 8 hours offline and over 130 hours online at the moment. My kills rank are now in the top 500,000 in the world at the moment lol.

Lol..... I didnt mean completely appeal to nothing but younger gamers lol. Like I said, Nintendo is bringing great games to the Wii for us older and hardcore, To me its just no enought to have as a sole console, you know how many games I play lol. Epic Mickey looks fantastic and Tatsonoku vs Capcom looks amazing, and the fightstick for it is AWESOME!

You said Nintendo throws in a "hardcore appeal here and there." The entire year of 2010 is a hardcore appeal as I see it, which is what the list was for. The past few years, no, but this year is undeniably a push in the right direction for long time fans. The majority of that list is third-party, too.

@slapshot82

What u are saying is: Nintendo is catering to a large and diverse audience u, your wife and your future kid. This is nothing new, everybody knows that. Nintendo is quite open about their strategy (understatement). Took you a while to figure that out (understatement)!

@Adam.... Sorry I didtn state it better up there in the original statement, but i meant from launch until now. Yeah Wii is starting to shape up toward the core gamers but you know as well as I do, its not been the case for the last two years. Yeah, i agree this push is Very Appealing and point I was making is that up until this last push, wich obviously is a Marketing Strategy to get some core gamers back playing Wii. Whole thing was kinda to give Wii some praise for the New Marketing Strategy of Wii in comparison to the last few years that honestly haven't been so great for the Core Audience.

@slapshot82

What's your point dude, i thought this topic was about u discovering Nintendo's strategy. Instead of complaining about the lack of "core" games the last couple of years, focus on the cool titles coming up!

@retrobuttons.... NEW Strategy, with the last two years of releases from Nintendo up until NSMB Wii, how many Wii Music, Wii Play, Wii Resort, etc have been released. Until NSMB Wii it looked as if Nintendo was going almost completely casual and children appeal only. As stated before even degrading Mario Kart Wii to make it "More Fair" by a guy in last being able to win with little to no skill, obliterating about any fun the game could be online. NSMB Wii is hard, and the Marketing Strategy shows that they are pulling more appeal to the Core Base, but still mainly focused on the younger audience. Keep us happy, KNOWING that most older gamers are going to spend more time playing other systems, by throwing in some Core Appeal here and there and keeping clean content there for the kids. It almost at one point did look like Nintendo could care less about their Core Base and were going on a Casual Only stategy. Aight let me sum this up for you man.....
Nintendo is NOT abandoning the Hardcore like so many people today are screaming all over the Internet!

@slapshot82

New strategy ??? Last couple of years wasn't a new strategy they just can't bring out a Mario, Zelda, Metroid every year. There's nothing new about their strategy, they where open about their strategy all the time.

What Nintendo should do is just to put in BIG letters in every Wii box "BEWARE, THIS IS FOR CASUAL GAMERS AND KIDS ONLY, HARDCORE GAMERS SHOULD STAY WELL AWAY OR BUY AT YOUR OWN RISK". Many many people buy it thiking that they will have what PS3 or XBOX have but with nice remote controls: big big big mistake.

@Mandoble.... funny thing is, before the Wii your rarely heard of the Casual and Hardcore Gamer thing lol. Wii is Nintendo and has that Nintendo flare. Thing is, I kinda put this in another thread as well, but I think as Ive grown older Ive lost my gotta run and buy every new iteration of Nintendo titles and some of us older hardcore gamers that grew up with Nintendo, haven't stopped loving Nintendo, just after twenty years of playing Mario, its not as fresh as newer IPs to me. Thing is though, after Twenty years, no other franchises can keep me coming back, again and agian, like Nintendo does. That there shows how great the company is.

Honestly? That it was incredibly difficult to slog through that paragraph of yours.

You will probably need that Wii again once you do have kids. Trust me when I say that you will start flocking to titles you can play with your children--or titles that they enjoy watching you play--once your children reach a certain age. My kids all love Mario, even if they don't play it that well themselves. Mario Kart, Mario Galaxy, even seeing Mario in Brawl--they can't seem to get enough.

I find that I'm better off sticking to a handheld system when I want to play something that appeals only to me--right now I've got Fire Emblem Shadow Dragon (thank you, Wal-Mart, for cutting the price to $10) and Resident Evil Silent but Deadly...oops, Deadly Silence, on my DS. I also have Resident Evil Remake for my Wii but do you think I ever get to play it?????? Only on vacation days with my youngest child in daycare and my oldest child (who gets freaked out by it) out of the room. My middle daughter loves watching it, though...

I know you said you weren't that into the M-rated stuff, but even a Metroid Prime game just won't end up on your television screen once there are kids running around watching what you're doing. Samus isn't as fun to watch as Mario, and even Ratchet and Clank had only limited appeal to them. Just thought I'd give you a heads-up for when you do have children. The Wii really is the perfect system for families...as long as the kids remember to use the wrist straps. "But Daddy said he wanted a new TV anyway..."

I love you. I mean, what?

This is pretty much what I've been saying all along, only with a better vocabulary.

@Moco Loco..... your response is EXACTLY what I feel toward the Wii. Me and my friend are the same age and both close to having our own children. Im kinda having them late lol. Ill prob be 30 by the time the first one comes in two years lol. But yeah, thanks for the reply man. You are the only one apparently got what I meant by the whole thing.

It's a matter of choice. There are less than ten titles between the PS3 and 360 that interest me, and all of them sold poorly. I definitely consider myself a "hardcore" gamer, but I have absolutely NO interest in Modern Warfare, Halo, God of War, or Assassin's Creed. Give me the "kiddy" games over those any day. They often involve much more imagination than "your mission is to kill this person" in one way or another. That's not to say I condemn games like that. No More Heroes is my favorite game of this generation, and I really liked Madworld as well. The games on the other two consoles don't interest me at all.

Nintendo hasn't abandoned its audience. Its audience has abandoned Nintendo.

That statement right there is so thrown out there. If anyone has abandoned Nintendo it the Third Party Developers for not developing True Hardcore Titles for the Wii. Street Fighter 4, Ninja Gaiden, etc The Rebirth Series and some WiiWare titles are really starting to bring some hardcore elements back to the system finally. But nobody has abandoned Nintendo. That is just fanboy language.