Is Nintendo leaving behind the audience that Wii Sports created?
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/editorial/31630
In just a couple of days, all of our questions about the Wii U will be answered. Price, launch date, different bundles, launch games; these are the details Nintendo will finally be sharing after staying silent at E3 this year. However, there’s one question that’s been on my mind over the past few months, and I think it’s one we’ll have a clearer answer to after Thursday: where does the audience that Wii Sports created fit into the scheme of things?
I’ve noted it a few times on Connectivity, but I was shocked that there was no mention of a “Wii Sports U” at E3 this year. The Wii, for better or worse, is synonymous with Wii Sports, much in the same way Mario was with the NES. Though its charm has most likely faded with you, the reader of an enthusiast press site such as this one, there is no denying the strength of the brand and what it did to continuously propel the Wii to the top of the NPD charts for several years after launch.
So what gives? At first, I thought perhaps Wii Sports Resort had failed to sell particularly well, but according to Nintendo’s own fiscal results, the game has sold over 30 million copies worldwide as of March of this year. To put that number into context, Super Mario Galaxy has sold just over 10 million copies worldwide while having a two year head start on Resort. Clearly, the brand still has cachet. Its omission from the launch of the Wii U is glaring.
It's weird, too, when you consider that we know Wii Sports U exists in some form or another. When the Wii U was first announced at E3 2011, some uses of the GamePad were illustrated via Wii Sports, such as aiming and throwing a pitch or looking down at a golf ball on a tee before swinging. Several other tech demos for the Wii U from that year have popped up in other places, such as Nintendo Land, so it's not likely that Nintendo simply scrapped the Wii Sports-themed demos. It's possible that Nintendo couldn't figure out a way to use the GamePad in an engaging way across a series of different sports-related mini-games, but it's more likely that they are simply waiting to bring Wii Sports back at another time. But how will launching the game separately and further down the road from the Wii U appeal to people who thought the Wii was the same thing as Wii Sports, not a platform for other games?
It’s not that I’m necessarily pining for another Wii Sports game, but there is a whole market out there, which Nintendo helped create with Wii Sports, that simply isn’t targeted by the Wii U’s apparent launch line-up. Nintendo Land is great for lifelong Nintendo fans who want to learn the ins and outs of the new hardware with a game draped in nostalgia, but I promise you that my mom isn’t the least bit moved that Metroid and F-Zero are represented in the game. Moreover, the games of Nintendo Land aren’t going to be familiar to someone who hasn’t played video games before. This is the complete opposite of Wii Sports’ mantra.
The hardware itself, particularly the GamePad, isn’t helping matters, either. The Wii U seems to be targeting a younger, more tech-savvy generation who will come in with some amount of experience with motion and touch-based input systems. Further still, the inclusive, casual gestures of the original Wii Remote have been replaced by the ultra-precise Wii Motion Plus, requiring a greater finesse in use. This technology will seem absolutely foreign to an older audience which was able to easily pick up the Wii Remote and play a game of bowling.
The Wii U seems like it isn’t going to hit the same audience that the Wii did, but I’m starting to wonder if that’s by design. If one wants proof that Nintendo is focusing its efforts back towards more traditional games, he need look no further than the 3DS. Touch Generations, the branding under which more casual-friendly software would arrive for the original DS, has been discontinued, and I’m hard-pressed to think of any games for the 3DS, apart from Nintendogs + Cats, that strike the same level of wide appeal as those Touch Generations games did. Meanwhile, the spotlight has been on games like New Super Mario Bros. 2, Paper Mario: Sticker Star, and Luigi’s Mansion Dark Moon; games which certainly have a large audience, but not of the same makeup as one which we associate with the likes of Brain Age.
Come Thursday, we are going to know a whole lot about the Wii U. Assuming that Nintendo doesn’t throw a curve ball (no pun intended) and announce Wii Sports U as a pack-in title at launch, I think we’ll also know a good deal about Nintendo’s intentions with Wii U. For all those who have clamored for Nintendo to take a greater stake in creating more traditional gaming experiences, it would appear they've listened. Sure, there's SiNG and Wii Fit U to try and fill the void of Wii Sports, but games like these succeeded on the Wii because everyone had already bought one to play the pack-in game. Will the same be true about the Wii U? I'm doubting it.
"Nintendo ditching the casuals seems too good to be true. I'm waiting and seeing how the Wii U does."
I'm sorry, but you act like with the Wii Nintendo was devoting all their resources to that group when that couldn't be further from the truth. This post could be read like someone who is incredibly selfish and cries foul any time a company dares to not devote 100% of their resources to them -- i.e. a typical gamer.
Why would Mrs. Thompson care about Metroid? But what if she did? What if she bought this Wii U thing for some reason (it's a TV remote! And I could videochat with my son on it!) and then she plays this weird "NintendoLand" game and, lo and behold, gets sucked into Metroid Blast. And then a message comes up on the Wii U GamePad: 'Like this? Try downloading "Super Metroid" for SNES.' So mom does. And loves it. (Because I don't care who you are, Super Metroid is brilliant.) And suddenly we've taken a non-gamer into someone who might be interested in a new Metroid game that comes out in Fall 2013 and retails for $59.99.
I'm very interested in what ways you think Nintendo has been targeting anybody but casuals with the Wii.The inclusion of GameCube compatibility for one, as well as the following games:
Neal I know you are smarter then this but Ian was saying ditching and that is another way of saying abandon. Also how are you so sure that they haven't wanted to go deeper down the gaming hole as it were instead of sticking with Wii Sports type games? I mean it is a really great game but there is other things and I am sure they very well could have explored the options of the Wii and its library? There is tons of bridge games on it that can cross the divide.
@Luigi Dude
I'm with you about the Wii having a great selection of games, despite the widespread misconception that it doesn't. But I wonder if you over-value what Wii Fit U will do. If the different SKUs rumor is true, then it's likely we'll see a Wii Fit U bundle announced tomorrow, but I wonder if the strength of the brand hasn't weakened since Wii Fit Plus. Like Neal pointed out, there are a bevy of exercise games available now, from Kinect to iPhone, which replicate or improve upon Fit's offerings. Moreover, I think Wii Fit was a perfect storm; Wii consoles were in a crazy amount of households already, and it had huge mainstream buzz (Oprah!). I really don't think that's going to happen again.