I tend to think that the main problem with the Wii is marketing. Nintendo is trying to market to too many quite divergent market bases all at once and can't seem to pick a niche to stick with. They're trying to appeal to "hardcore" and "casual" gamers, as well as trying to make the Wii even into a handy tool for those who won't even use it to play actual games. Not to mention the very different tastes of the Japanese market vs. the Western market, and it is my belief that Nintendo is actually focusing on trying to beat Sony in Japan (it IS a Japanese company after all), and has all but given up the Western "hardcore" market to the 360. (NOTE: The 360 has failed on a Dreamcast-like scale in Japan, leaving Nintendo and Sony to duke it out basically by themselves for market share.) Being here in Japan, I tend to notice something about Nintendo's games this generation that perhaps others may not; they are also appealing much more to a Japanese-style aesthetic in general. Japanese gamers are eating up the brightly-colored, "cute" and anime-style games like hotcakes, which accounts for a larger portion of the Wii library here than those of the PS3 or 360, which tend to offer a lot of dark, gritty, grey-and-brown styles. The Wii also tends to offer more of Japanese gamers' preferred genres in JRPGs, puzzle games, and at least here in Japan, visual novels. The 360's primary focus on FPS and Western RPGs from launch hurt it big time here in Japan, and it has yet to recover, even after scoring some big Square Enix JRPG titles (and watching them flop hard, even here... you're not going to sell consoles if your games play like crap, even if they're S-E, Microsoft). And let's not forget the ever-dominating presence of Pokemon among kids here that has yet to subside. Japan is still riding the Pokemon frenzy hard, and Nintendo will go all out on that if it has to in order to bring in money. The point is, while the West may have "grown out" of Nintendo to a large degree, Japan still loves them, and Nintendo has moved hard to fill the market left by the absence of 360 sales here. I am seeing this also reflected in even the first-party software being released for the Wii and DS.
And focusing more on younger gamers in general, no matter where they live, will also have an effect on how we view them. As those who grew up with Mario, Zelda and Pokemon grow older, many of us have been looking for our games to "grow up" with us. Microsoft and Sony zoomed in on the adult market and offered a shit-ton of the "mature" experience many teen and adult gamers were looking for. Nintendo chose to focus more on being a "family" console... and cashed in, big time. Parents would prove to be a bit more uneasy about buying their kids either a console whose main titles included huge-muscled soldiers with machine guns as big as their biceps, or an overpriced behemoth featuring an enraged warrior god as its main attraction, instead turning to the lovable home of Mario for their kids. It also helped that for once, they could actually find something that they would be able to enjoy on it themselves. What do you think Nintendo is going to do, scrap all that because some "hardcore" fans want Mario to start kicking a little more koopa ass in his games? Hardly. They'll go where the cash is.
So I don't blame Nintendo for being a business about games and going all out for the markets that now have the highest demand for the same types of products they have offered in the past. If we "hardcore" gamers now prefer to game on the 360 or the PS3, so be it. Let's game on those. TBH, I have both a 360 and a Wii, and my 360 easily gets the lion's share of the play time. But that doesn't mean I'm going to feel betrayed or begrudge Nintendo for "turning its back" on me. Nintendo had no obligation to me to begin with. I will still play my favorite Nintendo series, like Mario, Zelda, and Kirby, because they are fun, and I will not be embarrassed about saying it to other gamers. So what if it's not "cool"? It's fun and it appeals to me, and that's all that should matter. Play the games that appeal to you, no matter what platform they're on.
And focusing more on younger gamers in general, no matter where they live, will also have an effect on how we view them. As those who grew up with Mario, Zelda and Pokemon grow older, many of us have been looking for our games to "grow up" with us. Microsoft and Sony zoomed in on the adult market and offered a shit-ton of the "mature" experience many teen and adult gamers were looking for. Nintendo chose to focus more on being a "family" console... and cashed in, big time. Parents would prove to be a bit more uneasy about buying their kids either a console whose main titles included huge-muscled soldiers with machine guns as big as their biceps, or an overpriced behemoth featuring an enraged warrior god as its main attraction, instead turning to the lovable home of Mario for their kids. It also helped that for once, they could actually find something that they would be able to enjoy on it themselves. What do you think Nintendo is going to do, scrap all that because some "hardcore" fans want Mario to start kicking a little more koopa ass in his games? Hardly. They'll go where the cash is.
So I don't blame Nintendo for being a business about games and going all out for the markets that now have the highest demand for the same types of products they have offered in the past. If we "hardcore" gamers now prefer to game on the 360 or the PS3, so be it. Let's game on those. TBH, I have both a 360 and a Wii, and my 360 easily gets the lion's share of the play time. But that doesn't mean I'm going to feel betrayed or begrudge Nintendo for "turning its back" on me. Nintendo had no obligation to me to begin with. I will still play my favorite Nintendo series, like Mario, Zelda, and Kirby, because they are fun, and I will not be embarrassed about saying it to other gamers. So what if it's not "cool"? It's fun and it appeals to me, and that's all that should matter. Play the games that appeal to you, no matter what platform they're on.
