Nintendo: Hardcore gamers 'critically important to us'

via Joystiq


"Absolutely the hard-core gamer crowd is critically important to us." Which would explain why so much of Nintendo's E3 press conference was taken up by spirited flailing, smiling soccer moms and the worst rendition of the Super Mario Bros. theme the world has ever been forced to endure.

But Nintendo hasn't forgotten about the mythical "hardcore" gamer crowd, Cammie Dunaway tells Wired. The executive VP of sales and marketing, who insists that she's a "genuinely smiley, nice person," explains that "the Zelda and Mario teams are hard at work," possibly on something that could rival the infinitely desirable Super Mario Sluggers. "And even Super Mario Sluggers, which is certainly an expanded audience title, but what core gamer doesn't love Mario and baseball and finding out which combination of characters are going to do what kind of crazy things in the field?" she ponders.

Dunaway also notes that Nintendo is committed to a variety of games, catering to casual players with titles like Cooking Navi, and exciting tougher crowds with the DS iteration of Grand Theft Auto. We mean, she must have seen it, right? "I have not looked at the product. Have you?" Well, no ... but we haven't been incorporating it into our sales pitch either.

I don't think she quite gets it...

As gamers we let action speak louder then words.

Start acting and we'll start believing.

Nintendo is going to keep using their blue ocean strategy. That will grab the general audience and then they will attempt to impress the hardcore gamers. Right now the only thing "hardcore" they have is Metroid Prime 3, Super Mario Galaxy, and Zelda TP. These titles are good games, however these won't be enough to win the crowd over. They need to make sure each game that comes onto their system is not absolute crap. Nintendo must either do this or else their third party titles will be terrible. No wait there already terrible. They better get on the ball NOW

Okay, i've posted on this topic on other forums recently, so I'm just going to lift what I've said there to point out what teh problem is with the sentiment I'm seeing here. There's a quick sumup at the bottom of the post for those that aren't interested in reading the whole thing:


What this really boils down to is that Hardcore gamers are still expecting to be catered to. things are still happening for the hardcore gamer, they're just not getting their ass kissed anymore and so now they're feeling jealous of "casual" gamers getting the attention.

Good grief people, didn't we declare E3 dead about 2 years ago? The E3 that had nintendo announce the Wii was the last "real" E3. the present day E3 is a mass consumer showcase, which means nintendo will be showing off their more "casual" titles. Go look on the internet if you want to find out about hardcore titles. That's where they'll announce those because that's where hardcore gamers generally gravitate towards.



Wii Sports Resort was never made with casual gamers in mind. It was made with Hardcore Gamers in mind.

I hear you snickering and asking yourself what crack I'm smoking, but stop and think for a minute. I never said they designed Wii Sports Resort to be a game that Hardcore gamers would play.

Now I'm hearing sounds of general confusion, but don't worry, in a moment, it'll all make sense.

Think about the Top Selling Wii games. Within the Top 6 sellers worldwide, half of these have the name "Wii" in the title: Wii Sports, Wii Play, and Wii Fit. and Wii Fit is only about 1.5 million away from third place despite only being on the market, what, 2 month now?

I can't count the number of times I've heard "hardcore" gamers complain about how those games only sell because they have "Wii" in the title, and casual yuppies eat it up like crack cocaine. Now there is going to be a 4th game in that list.

Wake up and smell the strategy, people!!! This isn't about the GAME, this is about 1:1 motion. What have hardcore gamers been clamoring for? 1:1 motion, and Nintendo just gave it to them, and all the rest of us.

Oh but wait, in order for developers to actually USE it, we're going to need to make sure it gets set as a standard, but how can they possibly make such a small little addon a standard? Oh yeah, by packaging it with a "Wii" titled game that every casual consumer eats up like slow kids eating playdough and paste.

This is an obvious strategy by nintendo to ensure that the thing the hardcore gamers have been clamoring for will actually get supported by the casual crowd, which will in turn ensure that developers will see enough of these things getting bought to warrant making a game that supports this stuff. This game may be made for casual gamers to play, but the reason it's being made is so that Wii motion+ can be pushed through for use by hardcore gamers, and 1:1 doesn't fall to the wayside.

Besides, I'm willing to bet that half the reason developers were having trouble with motion controls is because they couldn't get the precision they needed with that missing axis. By having this in place, developers won't have to sacrifice precise movement controls to make up for that, which should make it easier for developers to use motion controls without it feeling like "tacked on waggle"

So seriously, sit down and shut up, Hardcores. Quit complaining or doomsaying so we can actually get 1:1, and get other developers besides nintendo to work with that 1:1 so you can get those challenging, intuitive, waggle-free, controls you've always wanted.




So to sum up for those of you who want to go the tl;dr route:

Hardcore gamers have become a minority, and also a minority that has become increasingly picky and increasingly divergent in what they consider good games. Nintendo is actually attempting to introduce things that are desired by the hardcore crowd (1:1 motion) in a way that will be supported by the majority that is the casual gaming crowd.
Hardcore games can get their news from the internet, just like they have been doing from the past 5 years or so anyway. E3 as you once knew it is dead and Nintendo is now using it as a way to bring news to the general public (ie, casual gamers) E3 is no longer for hardcore gamers thus you will not see that much that teh hardcore is interested in.