Nintendo Turns Their Backs on "Core Gamers" Yet Again

[HCK]

Oh, Nintendo...

"DS became a social phenomenon in Japan and throughout the world not because it was played by core gamers, but because their parents, grandparents, younger siblings and girlfriends bought and played it too. The question of whether Nintendo can replicate this broad ranging success with the 3DS came up during the Q&A session of Nintendo's investors meeting last week.

CEO Satoru Iwata admitted that the current 3DS software lineup, with exception to Nintendogs + Cats and Level-5's Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask, mostly target core gamers, and in particular young males. One reason the initial lineup ended up so, said Iwata, is that the system was released not during the year end sales rush season.

As a Nintendo platform, the system has relatively low adoption rate amongst female audiences, Iwata also admitted. However, he noted that for game systems it's not just a question of who bought and who didn't buy it. Once a 3DS system has been purchased, it's possible for members of a family to share the system, so the actual female usage is higher than the sales numbers indicate.

Still, admitted Iwata, when asked what customer makes up the majority of 3DS owners, the answer is young males. This trend is even grater in overseas markets.

One of the issues regarding younger players, those under six, has to do with misconceptions about 3D. Nintendo's message of younger players being able to safely use the system thanks to parental controls took a long time to spread, said Iwata. In Japan, misunderstandings related to this area are slowly clearing up, but it will take additional time. Nintendo will be spreading the message further leading up to this year's holiday season. This message includes the idea that the problem of eye fatigue associated with 3D can be adjusted using the system's 3D volume control.

Aside from the 3D issue, one of the reasons the 3DS adoption rate amongst younger players is slower than with past Nintendo systems is that the 3DS has yet to go through a single holiday season. Additionally, if you have multiple children, you may need to purchase multiple systems. The price was a hurdle for this area, something that was made clear through research following the system's release.

With the new price, Iwata hopes to change the male to female ratio as the holiday season approaches. Within four months, he believes the situation will change considerably."

[HCK]

Plus they're starting a micro transaction system! Guess that means we'll see more Namco games in 3D.

"During a Q&A session at Nintendo's Tokyo earnings briefing on Friday, CEO Satoru Iwata shared some details on Nintendo's plans for digital downloads.

One investor asked Iwata about his thoughts on paid download content. Nintendo is currently preparing a paid item transaction system for both 3DS and Wii U, Iwata revealed. For 3DS, this will be available to developers by the end of the year."

[Cyantist]

Is this really anything special? They did this sometime during the gamecube era when they started making mario everything (DDR etc). It's where the money is. Hence why Microsoft and Sony have followed suit.

[GodofHardcore]

Look I hate Nintendo as a company and all but I fail to see where this would be a problem. We're getting 2 SMT games, we're getting shinobi so stop bitching core games are still coming to the 3ds

[ASSEMbler]

Nintendo has NEVER targeted hardcore gamers, ever.

[Yakumo]

Nintendo lost all respect from me after the SFC. That was a fantastic system but it was the 3rd party games that made it. Nintendo DON'T make many great games. Many of their IPs are produced by 3rd party company software developers. Nintendo themselves only produce 3 or so games a year.

The N64 was a joke. Games took forever to be release (especially in the UK) and when they did turn up they were mostly a disappointment. Game Cube looked as if it could have been good but ended up being firstly designed as a kiddie Fisher Price block with software to match. The Wii looked promising but again the kiddie crap and shovel ware along with abusive over use of the shake the remote crap killed that system for me. The WiiU to me is just a continuation of he Wii. Yawn city IMO.

Honestly, I was a MASSIVE fan of the Super Famicom. I loved that system so much. What happened? The SFC had loads of gamer games for it as well as a lot of kiddie stuff. It's as if Nintendo just forgot about the gamer all together.

It's fine to have family games but you can't forget about your other users, the users that made the company in the first place.

Yakumo

[GodofHardcore]

Nintendo has NEVER targeted hardcore gamers, ever.

But in the mid-late 80s early 90s they sure helped create them

[CrAzY]

Nintendo lost all respect from me after the SFC. That was a fantastic system but it was the 3rd party games that made it. Nintendo DON'T make many great games. Many of their IPs are produced by 3rd party company software developers.

SFC was just a miracle of luck and good timing. I don't see a console ever matching its greatness, and maybe that is a good thing.

Sure, every Nintendo Console has a couple great titles (if not many more), but after the SNES, the DS was the only real come back for Nintendo for me (console wise).

& First Party titles went way downhill after the SNES for me as well, no Metroid has ever been better, no Mario has ever been better, no Zelda has ever been better.

The SNES made me a gamer, & is the only reason I have to respect Nintendo no matter what.

[ASSEMbler]

But in the mid-late 80s early 90s they sure helped create them

The publishers and game creators did. Nintendo just made a convenient machine to put the media on.

[ave]

Nintendo has NEVER targeted hardcore gamers, ever.

:-P

[Evangelion-01]

genesis baby!!!!! I always wanted a snes though...... SEGAAAAAAAAA

[APE]

:-P

Wasn't that just for any game that sold well? Like the "Player's Choice" line? Greatest Hits? Etc?

I'd hardly call 1 million sales for a game marketing to the hardcore gamer. I figure people will see "ZOMG HAS SOLD 1 MILLION COPIES!!11" and realize it means that the game is really popular - enough to sell 1 million copies. Means the average "know nothing" gamer type who doesn't pay attention now knows that game is good enough 1 million people bought it.

He is now buyer $1,000,001.

Hardcore is the guy who owns 2 of every console for reasons that make logical sense (this XBox is my debug and this other one is a retail chipped. Oh? This Turbo Duo just complements my PC Engine GT) and both versions of Night Trap but plays everything regularly enough that he doesn't just hoard stuff.

[ASSEMbler]

Since when is mario hardcore??

Closest thing they ever had was killer instinct.

[ave]

It's not a Player's Choice-like seal, hence the text. ~_~
SMB2 FC-Disk is the only game on which this seal was added.

SMB2 was a sequel to SMB1 aimed at hardcore gamers. Lost Levels and all. It's mainstream, sure, but it was aimed at gamers who thought SMB1 was too easy or who just didn't feel challenged by it any more.

Was just kidding more or less anyway. :p

[HCK]

SMB2 is pretty hardcore. Try playing world 1-1 after you haven't touched Mario for a while. Mario get's hard really quickly! It's difficult to beat him!

[Segata Sanshiro]

Nintendo has NEVER targeted hardcore gamers, ever.

GameCube had some nice titles, otherwise I'd agree.

[Consumed]

Since when is mario hardcore??

Closest thing they ever had was killer instinct.

Which at the time of release was still a 3rd Party release, not in-house.

[la-li-lu-le-lo]

The N64 was a joke. Games took forever to be release (especially in the UK) and when they did turn up they were mostly a disappointment. Game Cube looked as if it could have been good but ended up being firstly designed as a kiddie Fisher Price block with software to match.

I disagree with both of those statements. It's true that both the N64 and the Gamecube suffered from relatively small libraries, but the few gems we got were worth it. The Gamecube was not just a kiddie machine, either. Look at games like Resident Evil, Eternal Darkness, Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes, Killer 7, Beach Spikers, Bloody Roar, etc. Those were not kiddie games. Not to mention there were lots of other games that had a broad appeal - i.e. both children and adults could enjoy them.

Also, I think "hardcore" is just a mindless buzz phrase that people use to make themselves feel like they're better than other people. It has no real meaning. Certainly, there are varying levels of interest/skill/knowledge of videogames, but there are a lot better words to describe that than "hardcore." I also think "hardcore" makes it sound a lot cooler and edgier than it really is - you're just sitting on a couch playing videogames. You're not juggling flaming chainsaws. Get over yourself.

[Shadowlayer]

Dude, look at the numbers:

The GC had some really innovative/experimental games like Pikmin, ED, Killer7, VJ, etc...

Nobody fucking bought it, most unpopular nintendo console after the stillborn virtualboy

The Wii is the biggest success for the company since the NES, yet its full of lastgen ports, shovelware and crappy party games, and most people just use the pack-in game anyway

Lets be honest: everybody likes to talk about the Dreamcast now, but back when awesome games like JSR, PSO and Shenmue were released nobody gave a shit, they were all too busy waiting for the PS2, and when that one was released the only game worth a damn was fantavision, a fireworks simulator...

Everyone likes to talk about complex and deep games, but guess what? if nobody buys them then nobody is going to make them!

[APE]

Lets be honest: everybody likes to talk about the Dreamcast now, but back when awesome games like JSR, PSO and Shenmue were released nobody gave a shit, they were all too busy waiting for the PS2, and when that one was released the only game worth a damn was fantavision, a fireworks simulator...

Yep, which is why cool kids like myself who have owned a Dreamcast since 1999 are the trendsetters. :thumbsup:

People are just realizing now that they had their head up their asses due to fanboy syndrome. Everyone and their mother wanted a PS2. I got a Dreamcast. Probably becuase my parents actually loved me instead of buying what was most cost effective.