Nintendo President Sees a System for Every Demographic

Marshall Honorof

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Nintendo President Sees a System for Every Demographic


Reggie Fils-Aime discusses the challenges of marketing four different systems, but believes that they can all coexist - for a while, anyway.

Watching Nintendo's fortunes ebb and fall lately is a little bit like Jeff Bridge's words of wisdom in The Big Lebowski: "ups and downs [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/reviews/9218-The-Legend-of-Zelda-Skyward-Sword-Review]." For the moment, Nintendo seems to be riding high on Skyward Sword sales and the promise of Mario Kart 7, but Reggie Fils-Aime, president and COO of Nintendo of America, has plans to keep the momentum going. With the upcoming launch of the Wii U, Fils-Aime believes that each of Nintendo's four systems - the Wii, the Wii U, the DS, and the 3DS - can share the same market space for some time as long as they appeal to different demographics: core gamers, lower-income homes, and small children.

"We think the DS is going to sell well this holiday season," says Fils-Aime. "It's going to appeal to a different consumer ... For a parent with a 5 or 6 year-old, maybe that's the first handheld you buy them." The president believes that the Wii, too, will benefit from a lower price point in the coming month. "This is the first holiday that the Wii is available at $149.99 or below, so its (sic) an expanded demographic we're reaching. These are consumers who have heard about Wii for the past couple years, but at $199 or $249 it was economically out of their reach." In the grand scheme of things, an extra $50 may not sound like much, but for many families - especially with the financial burden of small children - it could be the difference between affording a console and having an extra much-needed night out.

When questioned about the Wii U and the 3DS, Fils-Aime turned his attention to Nintendo's occasionally-faithful core demographic. "The consumer buying Wii hardware today is going to be a different consumer than the one who will be buying Wii U in the future ... We haven't announced pricing for Wii U, but you can definitely expect that pricing is going to be different and that the games are going to be different." Films-Aime suggests that both the Wii U and the 3DS will aim to deliver more "dedicated" experiences. Given that the Wii's unprecedented success was due largely to the casual boom, it's difficult to say whether the core demographic still has much invested in Nintendo, but if recent 3DS sales [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/114477-3DS-Outperforming-the-DS] are any indication, gamers may still have a lot of faith in the house of Mario.

Nintendo's sales during the holiday season will be telling, but not nearly as much as the continued prospects of the 3DS and the eventual launch of the Wii U. If Fils-Aime's predictions come true, Nintendo could be sitting pretty once again, but if not, his reaction could be very, very different [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24Vlt-lpVOY].

Source: Time [http://techland.time.com/2011/11/30/nintendos-reggie-fils-aime-talks-zelda-the-future-of-handhelds-and-wiis-big-holiday-push/]

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Bento Box

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Woodsey said:
Which one appeals to core gamers?
The Super Famicom, obviously.

Aside from the core franchises (which I still enjoy from time to time, without shame), I really don't look to Nintendo for my gaming fix. If I want to roleplay, or butcher things, or do much of anything other than stomp goombas and stab tectites, I go elsewhere.

And so does damn near everybody else.
 

Woodsey

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SirBryghtside said:
Woodsey said:
Which one appeals to core gamers?
The Wii U, which is going to have third party support from core developers.

*shrug*
Ha, we'll see. Not too long ago Nintendo were claiming the Wii had proven a success with core gamers, and they have by far the worst track-record with third party developers.
 

dragongit

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the WiiU will compete with the other systems in terms of Graphical power for a while... untill PS4 and X-box... Sphere come out, and make the Wii's graphics obsolete. We'll see though, I guess.
 

Kopikatsu

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cursedseishi said:
Woodsey said:
SirBryghtside said:
Woodsey said:
Which one appeals to core gamers?
The Wii U, which is going to have third party support from core developers.

*shrug*
Ha, we'll see. Not too long ago Nintendo were claiming the Wii had proven a success with core gamers, and they have by far the worst track-record with third party developers.
Don't forget that they claimed the "Weee-ooh" is meant for core and casuals, as they claimed when they first announced the system, hence the horrendous and "core"-unfriendly name of the system.

I'm getting the feeling that this is just Reggie talking shit in order to try and get some "cred" for the future system. They don't want a repeat of the 3DS, that is definitely certain.
'

The 3DS sold more than the DS. Not that big of a failure. =x
 

RandV80

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dragongit said:
the WiiU will compete with the other systems in terms of Graphical power for a while... untill PS4 and X-box... Sphere come out, and make the Wii's graphics obsolete. We'll see though, I guess.
Rather than being made obsolete through graphics I would think it's more a matter of whether or not cross-platform games can translate to the Wii-U. The next Sony/MS console graphics jump shouldn't be that big, it could come down to a simple matter of being able to play the same game in 1080P on the PS4 or 540-720p on Wii-U.

...Well that and more competitive online capabilities, they'll need both if they want a legit Call of Duty or whatever port.
 

Outright Villainy

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Kopikatsu said:
cursedseishi said:
Woodsey said:
SirBryghtside said:
Woodsey said:
Which one appeals to core gamers?
The Wii U, which is going to have third party support from core developers.

*shrug*
Ha, we'll see. Not too long ago Nintendo were claiming the Wii had proven a success with core gamers, and they have by far the worst track-record with third party developers.
Don't forget that they claimed the "Weee-ooh" is meant for core and casuals, as they claimed when they first announced the system, hence the horrendous and "core"-unfriendly name of the system.

I'm getting the feeling that this is just Reggie talking shit in order to try and get some "cred" for the future system. They don't want a repeat of the 3DS, that is definitely certain.
'

The 3DS sold more than the DS. Not that big of a failure. =x
Uh, what.

Wikipedia said:
DS Units sold Worldwide: 149.00 million
Wikipedia said:
3DS Units sold Worldwide: 6.68 million.
Oh yeah, the 3DS is way outselling it. /sarcasm.

Also, how would it even make sense that it would sell more when it only came out this year? I also severly doubt the 3DS will ever outsell the DS, not matter how many price cuts. the iPhone and Playstation portable (the former in particular) are giving way too much stiff competition for Nintendo to have the kind of dominance they had in the handheld market in the past. They won't get that back for a long time, if ever.
 

Kopikatsu

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Outright Villainy said:
Kopikatsu said:
cursedseishi said:
Woodsey said:
SirBryghtside said:
Woodsey said:
Which one appeals to core gamers?
The Wii U, which is going to have third party support from core developers.

*shrug*
Ha, we'll see. Not too long ago Nintendo were claiming the Wii had proven a success with core gamers, and they have by far the worst track-record with third party developers.
Don't forget that they claimed the "Weee-ooh" is meant for core and casuals, as they claimed when they first announced the system, hence the horrendous and "core"-unfriendly name of the system.

I'm getting the feeling that this is just Reggie talking shit in order to try and get some "cred" for the future system. They don't want a repeat of the 3DS, that is definitely certain.
'

The 3DS sold more than the DS. Not that big of a failure. =x
Uh, what.

Wikipedia said:
DS Units sold Worldwide: 149.00 million
Wikipedia said:
3DS Units sold Worldwide: 6.68 million.
Oh yeah, the 3DS is way outselling it. /sarcasm.

Also, how would it even make sense that it would sell more when it only came out this year? I also severly doubt the 3DS will ever outsell the DS, not matter how many price cuts. the iPhone and Playstation portable (the former in particular) are giving way too much stiff competition for Nintendo to have the kind of dominance they had in the handheld market in the past. They won't get that back for a long time, if ever.
I meant the 3DS exceeded the DS's first year sales.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/114477-3DS-Outperforming-the-DS
 

FlorianLang

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Kopikatsu said:
I meant the 3DS exceeded the DS's first year sales.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/114477-3DS-Outperforming-the-DS
That's true, but the DS was mostly a flop during its first year; it didn't really gain traction until much later when it got its lite design revision and a strong library. So while the 3DS is doing better than the DS fat did in its day, that isn't saying much.
 

Eri

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The Wii U will have specs comparable to 6 year old systems? UNPOSSIBLE. Nintendo has been a giant disappoint for so long now.
 

-Dragmire-

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Mar 29, 2011
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I'll probably get the WiiU, I have every other non-handheld console they've come out with and I want to keep my collection up to date...

The 3DS though... it'll probably be years before I'll get that, just no interest.
 

Xanthious

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Nevermind Nintendo hasn't made a console that has had the smallest bit of appeal to core gamers since the fucking SNES. The fact that Nintendo is of the impression this outdated abomination they are calling the Wii-U is going to appeal to core gamers shows just how out of touch they've become.

Off Topic though, does anyone else share the opinion that ole Reggie is about one hat size away from turing into The Face of Boe? Maybe it's just me.
 

OldNewNewOld

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Eri said:
The Wii U will have specs comparable to 6 year old systems? UNPOSSIBLE. Nintendo has been a giant disappoint for so long now.
Latest "known" dev. kits.


*Quad Core, 3 GHz PowerPC-based 45nm CPU,
*768 MB of DRAM ?embedded? with the CPU, and shared between CPU and GPU
*Unknown, 40nm ATI-based GPU


Since the only quad core IBM manufactured at 45nm is POWER7 architecture,that means that the cpu is pretty decent actually.
POWER7 is the latest IBM architecture,featuring HyperThreading as Intel?s Core i7 does.
The processor is LOT stronger than the one in the xBox 360.

There is a difference between dram and edram. EDRAM is A LOT faster than the dram. the xBox 360 has only 10.5 mb edram, while the WiiU has 768 MB. If my math is correct, the WiiU has around 73 times more edram than the xBox 360.

The information for the graphics card is too general?
But we do know is that WiiU will have a 5XXX graphics card.Because AMD (Ati) jumped at the 40nm process with the 5XXX series.

The "known" specs. of the WiiU show that it will be a lot stronger than the current gen.
According to the "leaked" info, it should be able to play the current games in 1080p with 60 FPS without a problem.

I haven't be disappointing by Nintendo for a LOOOOOOOOOONG time. I got everything I expected from Nintendo, a lot of fun playing games on their systems.
 

Montezuma's Lawyer

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Interesting, Nintendo, a company known to only care about their profit margin, decides to break one Console into 4, claiming they can concentrate on multiple Demographics at once.

I see it as an excuse to restrict services to each console, and piss all over that first rule, in order to force people to buy all 4 consoles, Nintendo, you greedy liars.
 

KeyMaster45

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Jun 16, 2008
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Nintendo if you can get me a third installment for this series on the WiiU:
I might consider giving you a second chance. That is a very big MIGHT.