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Gaming After Hours
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Nintendo brings new hope to the faithful and targets the core fans
Miyamoto, the father of modern video games (Image: Edge)
Nintendo has for years catered to the widest possible audience. Reaching out to all age groups with their products. According to Shigeru Miyamoto, their focus has changed as they see no real reason to place so much focus the casual audience and instead, entertain its most passionate fans.
This is the first time in a number of years that a Nintendo executive has publicly summarized Nintendo’s intentions to shift away from casual customers and focus more on Nintendo faithful.
“[These are] the sort of people who, for example, might want to watch a movie. They might want to go to Disneyland,” he said.
“Their attitude is, ‘okay, I am the customer. You are supposed to entertain me.’ It’s kind of a passive attitude they’re taking, and to me it’s kind of a pathetic thing. They do not know how interesting it is if you move one step further and try to challenge yourself [with more advanced games].”
Given the success of the Nintendo DS and Wii, which shipped in 2006 and 2004, sold an astronomical amount. Both selling over 100 million units; expanding the gaming market and finding a new audience of video game players. Many titles on the Nintendo DS and Wii helped define their respected systems were New Super Mario Bros., Brain Age, Wii Music, Wii Fit and of course the Wii Sports series. These games were targeted at everyone and sold million around the world.
Unlike the original Wii, its next generation system has had the opposite effect, selling about seven million units since its debut in November 2012.
Once again, the gaming market has shifted though the casual audience is still there. They have shifted their interests towards smartphones like Android and Apple. Miyamoto says that Nintendo doesn’t need to reach out to that audience. And though the Wii U Gamepad has been “routinely questioned within the industry,” Miyamoto acknowledges that even they had some concerns but still stands behind it.
“In the days of DS and Wii, Nintendo tried its best to expand the gaming population,” he said.
“Fortunately, because of the spread of smart devices, people take games for granted now. It’s a good thing for us, because we do not have to worry about making games something that are relevant to general people’s daily lives.”
Of course we had some concerns (with the GamePad). After all, we’re human beings: our eyes cannot see two objects at the same time. But we were sure that, even with that kind of, say, weak point, we would be able to make something unprecedented and revolutionary.”
Though the Wii U is struggling now, Shigeru Miyamoto has several project in the works. It unknown what they are but hopefully it’ll give the Wii U enough muscle to stand proud. With the upcoming Bayonetta 2 coming this year, things are looking very promising.
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