Casual Gamers, Wiis biggest enemy?

[madbeanman]

As a former gamecube owner Ive been slightly sceptical about the Wiis success. Wii is all about opening up the market and reaching out to traditional non-gamers. Apparently (sorry Ive forgotten the source) 360 gamers buy the most games and I dont see these new gamers helping the Wiis game sales. Can you really see your granny buying Twighlight Princess ? If Nintendo fail to poach gamers from Microsoft and Sony we may see a huge increase in hardware sales (which we have already seen) but software sales may not take off. If these new gamers fail to pick up Brawl, MP3 or Galaxy, surely we cant expect anything more than the fate of the Gamecube. :scared:

 

[guitarguy9]

Hahahaha... no.

First off, The Wii makes money with each console they sell, whereas the PS3 loses cash and i'd be willing to bet the 360 doesnt make much. So even if the wii sells less games, Nintendo itself is still profitable.

And who says casual gamers buy less games? A hardcore gamer may buy 5 halo-like games, a casual gamer may buy 5 mario party type games. Either way, there's money made. I really doubt casual gamers buy their console, buy 2 games, and then just stop looking at new games. That realllyy wouldn't make sense, as long as companies keep making games aimed at casual players we'll keep seeing game sales.

And if we're gonna have a problem selling games... why are Zelda and Paper Mario outselling pretty much everything? That doesnt make much sense, does it?

And the Wii has hardcore gamers. Just because the target market has shifted doesnt mean some serious gamers have gotten along for the ride. If they hadn't, we wouldnt see games like RE4 and Manhunt being developed.

 

[Brawny]

Ahem....online and 3rd party support plagued the GC...

WTF are you on about? The wii is running a risk of a Kiddy image atm. Casual gamers are it's bread and butter.

You should've made this thread on how we NEED more hardcore stuff....

 

[madbeanman]

Hahahaha... no.

First off, The Wii makes money with each console they sell, whereas the PS3 loses cash and i'd be willing to bet the 360 doesnt make much. So even if the wii sells less games, Nintendo itself is still profitable.

And who says casual gamers buy less games? A hardcore gamer may buy 5 halo-like games, a casual gamer may buy 5 mario party type games. Either way, there's money made. I really doubt casual gamers buy their console, buy 2 games, and then just stop looking at new games. That realllyy wouldn't make sense, as long as companies keep making games aimed at casual players we'll keep seeing game sales.

And if we're gonna have a problem selling games... why are Zelda and Paper Mario outselling pretty much everything? That doesnt make much sense, does it?


And the Wii has hardcore gamers. Just because the target market has shifted doesnt mean some serious gamers have gotten along for the ride. If they hadn't, we wouldnt see games like RE4 and Manhunt being developed.

Thanks for the hahaha. Here was me thinking this forum was about opinion. Anyway.

Firstly I was aware that Nintendo makes profit on each console while Sony doesnt but this isnt about profit. If retailers dont shift games they wont stock them anymore, the same thing that happened over here (Europe) with the Gamecube.

The last time I checked Zelda was only 15 in the charts and here in Europe paper mario aint even out.

I have to say I genuinely do believe casual gamers are more likely to buy wii play and be quite happy to play that and Wii sports and never buy anything else.

 

[Riviet]

I have to say I genuinely do believe casual gamers are more likely to buy wii play and be quite happy to play that and Wii sports and never buy anything else.

I personally did not feel that as time passed. I've owned my Wii since late december '06 and definitely have lost some interest in playing wii sports/play; I still play both occasionally but not as much as I did in the first month after initially getting them. Nearly any kind of gamer would want to try other games that they desire sometime later.

 

[Rolex]

I personally did not feel that as time passed. I've owned my Wii since late december '06 and definitely have lost some interest in playing wii sports/play; I still play both occasionally but not as much as I did in the first month after initially getting them. Nearly any kind of gamer would want to try other games that they desire sometime later.

To echo what MadBeanMan has said re. casual gamers(mom and pop) stopping at WiiSports / Play maybe Boogie - then it's what I have been saying since I got mine on launch day.

Riviet, you: I am presuming: have gamed for a while and have brand awareness of quite a few games, you certainly post on a forum and that pretty much is all the evidence one would need to presume that you play more than a couple fo hours a week or when you have friends round for a dinner party / Friday night pissup in the font room.

So with this in mind - it would takea hell of a lot longer for the stereotypical CASUAL gamer to become fed up of WiiSports etc. They would only look at Wii as a cheap investment and some good laffs in company.

Casual gamers won't GENERALLY progress to buying magazines everymonth, checking IGN or Gamespot etc for the latest news...of course I am projecting a model here which may or may not be true but we can go on most of the evidence.

If all these casual gamers were interested in games then why kick off with Wii - lots of consoles out there, lots of games over the years. Wii has attracted people with simplicity and curiosity and herein lies the problem for them - 40 snots is a lot to buy something out of the budget which you don't know anything about and anyway "I'm still into WiiSport..sooooo I'll leave it for now"

If the majority of first time gamers have this attitude then where will the large volume of sales come from.

Of course it is looking the other way at the minute with party / mini game titles selling for the Wii so the above presumtion is way off......for now!!! MWUHaaaaHaaaaHaaaa..cough cough!! :sick:

 

[Wiily Good]

I believe the only way a casual gamer is going to buy other games is by word of mouth. They won't look on forums, IGN, etc. But if a friend comes around and tells them how great a game is, 90% of the time they will buy it.

 

[Shiftfallout]

Ahem....online and 3rd party support plagued the GC...

WTF are you on about? The wii is running a risk of a Kiddy image atm. Casual gamers are it's bread and butter.

You should've made this thread on how we NEED more hardcore stuff....

lets look at how the Wii makes a Fifa game.

I mean seriously, I couldnt play a soccer game that had kiddy style graphics implimented into it. This is Fifa 08 we are talking about. People wonder why ninty has a kiddy image, because its marketed towards kids the most. (btw, myamoto invented a way to have more realistic looking and better looking faces, like miis but actually a million times better looking. it was an addon for the n64, however, nintendo doesnt take myamoto seriously anymore and scrapped his ideas. Years later with the wii they reinvented his idea, though giving credit to someone else and made the miis look like kiddie drawn characters. You see the problem is, nintendo had a better system made available by myamoto himself, but gave him the finger and then released a childish mii system instead.)

Lets now compare the Wii Fifa 08 to the PS3 Fifa 08.

I really dont need to say more concerning this, because anyone with eyes can tell. The wii runs off a 700mhz system. The Gamecube was 500hmz. The psp runs a 333mhz cpu. The ds lite runs off a 67 mhz cpu. The 360 is 2.4 gigahertz (1000mhz is equal to 1 gigahertz ) and the PS3 is even more powerful than that. As you can see, theres a huge gap between the potential and capabilities of each system. Even the small handheld psp is half as powerful as the wii. For a hand held system, that says a lot about the wii.

What ninty needed to do was have better hardware in order to have cleaner mature looking games. As seen so far, games like the Godfather, which are more realistic in style look like old ps2 games. This is why we will see more cartoony looking games on the wii because with that style, its less apparent on how bad the graphics are.

The casual gamers will flock to the wii because they want that quick fix, but that quick fix is.. quick. It runs out, fast and many might end up getting tired of their wii when other consoles are still going strong. Its a double edged sword nintendo has given us. They know it too, as the wii is merely the mean in which they can make a quick buck to make up for the quasifailure that was the game cube. I think they will relize the wii is a one shot deal, they cant repeat the same tactic and have happy gamers.

 

[Brawny]

LOL, not seeing why you're quoting ME there Shift. Unless you are just elaborating, because you're post is what I'm saying...:/

 

[Shiftfallout]

LOL, not seeing why you're quoting ME there Shift. Unless you are just elaborating, because you're post is what I'm saying...:/

haha i should have bolded the middle line. You mentioned the thing about nintendo possibly starting to look too kiddy. I elaborated on it and merged it in with the OP's topic.

 

[madbeanman]

I have to agree with everything Rolex said and Shiftfallout that screenshot is not taken from an actual match (which looks similar to the PS2 game only facing downfield to implement Wiis controls) and Miis look as childish as you want to make them in my opinion.

 

[Smegma]

It also depends how you define a casual gamer. Is it someone who doesn't keep in touch with the community or is it someone who does but games lightly. I feel it is the latter, which describes me. I got a wii for a few upcoming games and the future, as well as the controller. For every other type of game, I invested in building a computer rig. Thing is, I'd rather have a wii + computer than a 360 or PS3. I don't game much, work and other hobbies take up time too, but I do game from time to time. I don't want 2 computers sitting in my room (well I do have 2 but you understand what I mean), I'd rather have one and something that Nintendo offers. Sure, it isn't as powerful, but I'd rather throw my money into upgrades than in a PS3. I can do more with it (with much less effort).

 

[+Maniacal=Maniac+]

lets look at how the Wii makes a Fifa game.



I mean seriously, I couldnt play a soccer game that had kiddy style graphics implimented into it. This is Fifa 08 we are talking about. People wonder why ninty has a kiddy image, because its marketed towards kids the most. (btw, myamoto invented a way to have more realistic looking and better looking faces, like miis but actually a million times better looking. it was an addon for the n64, however, nintendo doesnt take myamoto seriously anymore and scrapped his ideas. Years later with the wii they reinvented his idea, though giving credit to someone else and made the miis look like kiddie drawn characters. You see the problem is, nintendo had a better system made available by myamoto himself, but gave him the finger and then released a childish mii system instead.)

Lets now compare the Wii Fifa 08 to the PS3 Fifa 08.

I really dont need to say more concerning this, because anyone with eyes can tell. The wii runs off a 700mhz system. The Gamecube was 500hmz. The psp runs a 333mhz cpu. The ds lite runs off a 67 mhz cpu. The 360 is 2.4 gigahertz (1000mhz is equal to 1 gigahertz ) and the PS3 is even more powerful than that. As you can see, theres a huge gap between the potential and capabilities of each system. Even the small handheld psp is half as powerful as the wii. For a hand held system, that says a lot about the wii.

What ninty needed to do was have better hardware in order to have cleaner mature looking games. As seen so far, games like the Godfather, which are more realistic in style look like old ps2 games. This is why we will see more cartoony looking games on the wii because with that style, its less apparent on how bad the graphics are.

The casual gamers will flock to the wii because they want that quick fix, but that quick fix is.. quick. It runs out, fast and many might end up getting tired of their wii when other consoles are still going strong. Its a double edged sword nintendo has given us. They know it too, as the wii is merely the mean in which they can make a quick buck to make up for the quasifailure that was the game cube. I think they will relize the wii is a one shot deal, they cant repeat the same tactic and have happy gamers.

Dude, Those Are Minigames IN Fifa 08... Not The Actual Soccer Field, Game, And Players.

 

[madbeanman]

It also depends how you define a casual gamer. Is it someone who doesn't keep in touch with the community or is it someone who does but games lightly. I feel it is the latter, which describes me. I got a wii for a few upcoming games and the future, as well as the controller. For every other type of game, I invested in building a computer rig. Thing is, I'd rather have a wii + computer than a 360 or PS3. I don't game much, work and other hobbies take up time too, but I do game from time to time. I don't want 2 computers sitting in my room (well I do have 2 but you understand what I mean), I'd rather have one and something that Nintendo offers. Sure, it isn't as powerful, but I'd rather throw my money into upgrades than in a PS3. I can do more with it (with much less effort).

By your description I am a casual gamer. I'm talking about people who would know little about games and who would be buying titles like Cooking Mama and Brain Academy. Id doubt they would have heard of this site or consider posting. I certainely wouldnt consider myself a casual gamer.

 

[TacosTacos]

I think there may be a different way to argue this.....

The gamer probably researches which games they want, and only buys games that get great reviews, or that are part of a series that they really like. They look for particular things in a game like graphics, level of difficulty, and things like that. They typically play a game until they beat it, then go buy another.

The non-gamer may do some research online, but may just go to the store and buy whatever looks good at the time. Probably a lot of impulse buys. They aren't too worried about graphics. Just weather or not the game is fun. If the game is fun, they play it every once in a while. If it is not fun, they probably only play it a few times, or trade in the game.

The thing is...even the gamer can't deny that there are some "non-gamer games" that are flat out fun. Even though they don't have the graphics and specs that they want, they are still fun. However, few non-gamers will be convinced to try an intricate "gamer type game". They like their games simple. The gamers games are only for gamers. So, more people end up buying the "non-gamer type games". Nintendo will do what they can with the gamer games, and try to make those people happy, but they will forever complain that their Wii doesn't live up to the PS3 or X360; Even though they knew everything about the Wii when they bought it. They knew everything from the megahertz of ram to the storage capacity, to the type of info chip or whatever, and knew that it could never be as "good" as the other systems. So, as I see it, Nintendo is making games for the people that buy Wii's, not making games for people who bought a Wii, and thought it would magically transform into a PS3.