Rayman Creator: Wii U Is For The Core Gamer

You guys should make an article about what "core gamer" actually means. For me I think of a core gamer as someone who has played games all their life, or at least for quite a long time. Someone who knows about games and franchises and stuff. Not the people who started gaming with Call of Duty 4 and buy every western game that the super mainstream media hypes up. Monster Hunter and Pokemon are some of the most hardcore games I've ever played, Call of Duty is about as shallow as it gets.

Anyone who didn't own a Wii because they are a 'core gamer' is doing it wrong.

Lets just use your comment next time we are refering to "hardcore" in gaming, Lan.

I know it's not relevant but for me "Hardcore" means someone who plays a variety video games and knows about them and other games that are available and coming up.

This is shaping up to be a great game.
I'm glad Ancel is happy with the Wii U, unfortunately he doesn't know if it will hold up to his vision of Beyond Good and Evil 2.

I agree to what Lan said.
I've heard from several sources now that the Wii U has "slightly above par" graphical capabilities compared to PS3 and XBOX360 but a tremendous amount of memory (ram). Im curious to see how it will stack up compared to the competetion but could this mean that Nintendo this time is focusing on (only) Full HD since its widely spread now AND on enhancing gaming experiences by adding content, ai and clever game design therefore the extra ram could help in quicker processing (by storing extra information for quick access - thats how ram works)? An intrigueing concept. Can you imagine, maybe next XBOX and PS will have the "prettier" games (if you invest in horrendously expensive 4K resolution displays) and the Wii U this time will walk away with the "bigger multipalyer maps" or "more clever enemy AI" or (what I would want since the golden age of gaming) "MULTIPLE BOT support for 4-player splitscreen" in shooters or similar games. This is indeed interesting!

""enormous memory""

Awesome! Good news indeed.

We already know this console is going to be awesome. People spreading concerns are only spreading their narrowed vision on technical specifics, which mean very little.

For some reason i feel like WiiU is the very last chance for nintendo.

A next-gen is for definition, something new.
A console with only new graphical things it's new-gen.

You can say whathever but if you don't stress the definition you will be surprised by thinking all things differently.
This is the same way of thinking of Nintendo, i just have taken some definition given to me from some keyman inside Nintendo and put them toghether. That's the result. A really original way of thinking that is not for really powerful hardware to please everybody and make money.
Nintendo will never, ever make a console all about the hardware if they stay this statement and everybody knows it, so all the comments about last chanche about concerns for graphical are not from fans of Nintendo. I'm here in the game since 1993 and i'm here because of the series that i simply love because of what they are and the single games from other company that you can't found on other consoles. I'm here for games, you can talk about other things but i can accept you only if are in syncro with Nintendo thinking because it's the way i am.
The only thing i care in hardware of the Wii U is what i've already seen: ACIII looks brigther on Wii U then PS3, done, deal.

There is no difference between "core" and "casual". It was made up by the industry to label target audiences. The COD gamers and RPG gamers didn't like being lumped into the same group as the Angry Birds gamers, so labels were created to make us feel warm and fuzzy. The reality is we're all consumers, the industry wants us to spend our money on them, and they don't really care who spends it.

"usually associate"? Try "the ONLY thing they associate".
A change in focus is a more distinct sign of next-gen than "doing the same but better".

@ajcismo I think you're right about the money aspect, BUT then you have the difference in the AMOUNT of money a gamer spends. My wife is a gamer, she bought a 3DS puzzle game once and played a few levels of Peggle. I'm a gamer, I bought a new game every month for the past 15 years. There IS a difference. The Wii outsold the PS3 and Xbox360, but game sales lag. And since videogames work on the razor/blade sales model it helps to sell games. Everybody who buys a WiiU to only play Just Dance isn't making Nintendo a lot of money. Everybody who buys a new game every month because they play all the time are making Nintendo money. And since Nintendo themselves only put out a few games a year, they need 3rd party games to sell on the system. Games besides Just Dance and Zumba.

hardcore gamer is someone who plays lots of games and not focus on only one. like cod or battlefield fans.
hardcore gamers like graphics of course, but dont spit on less good looking games neither. As long as they show a good innovative potential OR that makes it like other games but with new twists.
hardcore gamers usually play since theyre young.
hardcore gamers usually tried many consoles from many brands, because what they seek is NOT the console, its the games.
hardcore gamers tried retro games and liked it. even if some are insanely frustrating (see angry video nerd for the best of them)
hardcore gamers also usually find nintendo's situation quite sad and hope they will bring a real console this time. and hope third parties will be motivated this time too, cause they keep creating low-end craps since the gamecube.
hardcore gamers miss the snes era if they lived within these years

Well Legends is the only good thing about Wii U,so.

@Samholy #13
I agree, too many kids think they are hardcore and all they own is FPSs. And for the love of God, fix that double negative, it's driving me crazy @_@

I believe a core gamer should be someone who plays video games on a daily basis and has a very good insight into the industry themselves. There are all kinds of core gamers who enjoy lots and different types of game experiences There's all kinds of "hardcore" fans like Sonic fans, Mario fans, Zelda fans, Halo fans, Final Fantasy etc. so the first person shooter people can be considered core gamers, just they gotta realize that there are different kinds of hardcore gamers

As for casual, casual to me means you might own one video game console, and play easy games (Sudoku or whatever) but you don't know much about the industry, whats going on and all that, you just love playing the odd game with family, one or two nights a week, if that

My idea of this is probably different from others, but it's how I look at things I kinda changed my idea of a "hardcore" gamer when I met a girl I worked with that had EVERY Nintendo video game hardware made and had only Mario games, but she basicly had ALL of them and played them all the time! I though I love Mario, but she showed me how much I sucked compared to her lmao

'enormous memory', apparently it's just 1,5GB with 0,5GB reserved for the OS.
So it isn't really that much, it's a rather small update from the 512MB for Xbox and PS3 (yes I know 256MB each for GPU and CPU), but maybe for Wii U's specs it's good.

Anyways I still hope Rayman Legends will be multiplatform, I'm don't have a lot of confidence in the Wii U and Rayman Legends is the only game that looks interesting/creative.

I do have confidence in Michel Ancel however Hope he'll also make a fully fledged 3D Rayman. (don't waste too much time with Jungle Run, and make Legends multiplatform, Origins sold the least on Wii!)

@hydeks Thats how I see it as well. just for casuals I view it as the literal definition. They just play for mostly the same reasons people play ios games or at parties/with friends and at best get caught up in the latest gaming fads(DDR,wii sports,cod, ect.)

@Cyrso While thats not enormous by tech standards thats a big step up for consoles, even most big AAA pc games require at least 2gb. Remember what it was like upgrading from those old intel pentium4 512mb pcs?

core blimey

@sgotsch I second that motion!

@Samholy I agree with this as well! Good stuff!

We'll let the games decide that, Michael. If Nintendo actually does a little quality control and prevents there being bucketloads of shovelware party games on this console, it'll do great! I just hope they learned from the Wii...

@Samholy At first I thought you were making a good definition of a harcore game, then I realised that you were basically saying that people are only harcore gamers if they have the same opinion as you. There are many hardcore gamers that think that the Gamecube and Wii are great consoles, with the latter being m favourite console. Sure, the third party support could have been better on them but there were still many great third party games on them.

@rjejr
Great discussion. I really like this topic because there is so much more than whats on the surface.
We're in a neat moment in gaming history because the "casual" gamer suddenly has a market share of phone and handheld/console games. They spend their money on the 99cents puzzler of the week or Farmville extras and the like. Meanwhile the "core" gamer continues to be just what it always was: spending their money on the games they like. The point is they're both doing the same thing: spending their money. Its just on different types of games. Therefore, my point being on the topic of the article is that I hope the Wii U caters to all types of gamers, sells a ton of hardware and gets quality software to the public in droves. There's no reason for it not to.
My wife is a gamer too, she likes her Farmville, Just Dance and Lego games (Ok, I enjoy the Lego games too), but she's also cleared Windwaker, Tales of Symphonia, and Ocarina of Time. Would I call her a casual gamer or core gamer? I'd just call her a gamer. And pretty cool for clearing those games.

Unfortunately this quote won't convince COD fans that believe they are "hardcore" because they'll just say, "What's Rayman?" or "That's a kiddy game because there's no blood."

Exactly! In my book a real hardcore gamer is a gamer who has played a variety of different games and franchises and not just COD or BF

Well that's great to hear!

Nintendo are releasing a console on par or slightly better than current gen because that's what there still competing with. But what if they made the Wii U Upgradable with some sort of add-on (like they do), so when the next next -gen are released nintendo can still be the boss and play that generation of games.

@drunkenmaster76
shhhh

I think of Core or Hardcore gamers as the ones that play all the marketing hype franchises like COD etc. They play hyped up games with good graphics and ok gameplay. They play a lot of the games that I've given up on because they don't live up to the hype or come anywhere near what review scores seem to suggest. Still there are a ton of games the Wii doesn't have that I like to play.