Messages

401

TalkBack / Re: Rayman Legends Delayed To September

« on: February 08, 2013, 07:58:23 PM »

Maybe they can accidentally release it for a day on the Wii U eshop?  It's not like it hasn't happened before . 


I played Rayman Origins and I didn't really get into it that much.  This was never a $60 game for me.  I think I got Origins for either $10 or $15 which seems about right to me.  I'm much more upset that EA is showing no support.  They have a great collection of games even if you don't like their sports games. 


I'm really upset at Nintendo for letting this occur.  We may legitimately be looking at another Gamecube generation in terms of sales.  I get that the Wii U is lacking in games and that was probably the game of the first quarter.  But we shouldn't be that upset over the delay of one game.  After a decent launch (though many ports), Nintendo hasn't given us anything until summer.  Way too long of a drought for a new console. 

402

TalkBack / Re: Madden 25 Not Coming to Wii U?

« on: February 02, 2013, 08:18:31 PM »

For the record, Madden on 3DS is dead. That ain't happening again.

Sadly, you are probably right.  My hope was that with 3DS sales taking off (including me getting one) and Vita struggling mightily they would give the 3DS another shot.  Especially since most of the base game doesn't need rebuilt.  New rosters and stat tracking would probably be enough to make me purchase a new version.  No stat tracking in the 1st title is a big deal to me. 

403

TalkBack / Re: Balloon Fight Impressions

« on: February 02, 2013, 08:50:43 AM »

I think that the gamepad not being the first player is meant for the people who want to play offscreen with two players... which I'm pretty comfortable with

Not having the game, the post above yours seems to indicate that you would need 3 controllers to have 2 players.  I think that is an odd design especially when controllers cost $40+. 

404

TalkBack / Re: Madden 25 Not Coming to Wii U?

« on: February 01, 2013, 08:44:15 PM »

Hopefully they'll both release for the Wii U and 3DS.  Both games had the same complaints.  They had a solid base, but glitches and lack of features means hold off on buying the initial release.  Well, if their is no second release......

405

Nintendo Gaming / Re: An Upgraded Wii Mode for the Wii U

« on: January 30, 2013, 11:10:14 PM »

Unless they can cover up all the exploits don't expect it.

It'd take too much effort for Nintendo to cover up the exploits.  Wii mode is done and finished.  I don't expect any updates at all with Wii mode.  It's too costly for a small feature of the Wii-U.  You also have to remember that these games play online with the Wii.  So you tinker with these too much and you no longer have a Wii mode. 


I'd love to have seen an updated Wii mode or even free updates for VC or Wiiware games.  But Nintendo has already announced their plan for VC.  Off TV play seems like the biggest selling point to get you to update a VC game.  If they gave it away for free, there would be almost no reason to pay their update fee.  Select Wiiware may get updated for Wii U but I'd have to think licensing would hold a majority of them back. 

406

TalkBack / Re: Yoshi's Epic Garbage

« on: January 26, 2013, 09:56:44 AM »

Am I the only one who doesn't like Yoshi's Island?

In spite of the fact that I own virtually every version of it, I've never been a huge fan of it.  I wouldn't say I don't like it, but it's never managed to keep my attention for a full repeat playthrough.

I like Yoshi's Island, but I don't think it deserves to be up there with SMB3/SMW or some of the other games that I would consider to be the best 2D platformers ever.  So I've never understood that type of praise for the game. 

407

TalkBack / Re: Independent Thoughts: How Indie Developers Feel About The Wii U eShop

« on: January 26, 2013, 09:53:53 AM »

I think it's more of an opportunity cost situation, where they only have so many dev teams and they think they'd make more having them do something else.

This is definitely true.  These are highly profitable games.  It makes more sense to have the development teams move to a sequel that could make several million rather than try to squeeze every dollar out of a game.  Take GTA 4 for example.  It grossed over $500M in the first week.  Would you want to work on a Wii U port that could make you $3M and possibly delay GTA 5 for 6 months?  Probably not a good financial move even though I would love more Wii U games. 

408

TalkBack / Re: Wii U Virtual Console Detailed

« on: January 26, 2013, 08:39:02 AM »

A GOTY Edition includes content that someone who bought the original release would have to pay for separately. If you want the extras of the Wii U Virtual Console releases, you're going to have to pay for them. You want the prices for Wii U Virtual Console games to be adjusted to what you would have to pay if you upgraded. Well, that's not how that works.

I know what a game of the year edition is.  To my knowledge there is no additional content to these "editions" if you want to call them that.  Additional content would include levels, characters, new res'd backgrounds etc.  Let's just spell out what is new.

Social Integration that all $.99 apps have. 
Off screen TV play. 

Clearly these things have value, just not enough to me to justify paying the $60+ that I'd have to pay to get all my games up and running in Wii U mode.  To me that is not a nominal amount for relatively few features that I don't really care about.  And that is exactly how it does work.  I don't purchase things everyday from companies I don't feel provide enough value for their products.  Some of them stay in business so they must convince some consumers to purchase their products and those customers found value in them.  Sincerely, if you think there is enough value and want to upgrade go ahead.  I'm not trying to convince you not to, conversely I doubt you'll convince me to upgrade all my titles. 

Sigh. You nitpicked one line then took it completely out of context. Nintendo didn't have to offer the upgraded version to Wii owners. In fact, Nintendo didn't have to offer the system transfer at all.

See, I don't think I'm taking you out of context at all.  Your first post came off like I should thank my lucky stars that Nintendo is giving me options.  Well if I believe this is so poorly implemented that I don't intend to use it, why would I care that the option is available at all? 

What I don't understand is that you say that Nintendo doesn't owe you anything, but you're still complaining about value.

I buy stuff all the time that I regret purchasing later.  Some of the VC games I feel like I got my value out of and others I don't.  The problem is I never really felt like I got more than I paid for.  As a business owner, I like it when my customers feel ecstatic to do business with me because I'm providing strong value worth more to them than the money they pay me.  This leads to future business and loyalty. 

What makes Nintendo more money?  Micro transactions for anything that adds value or providing an excellent service and improving it over time.  The question is impossible to answer, but I left VC and I'm not coming back.  Had Nintendo offered this upgrade for free, I'd probably start purchasing VC again because I'd know it always have a home on a Nintendo console and they would throw in free upgrades from time to time.  As it stands, I'll probably never play the VC on another console since it's >99% likely that anything in Wii mode will not transfer to the next system.  To be fair though, I probably will buy the $0.30 games since I think that is too much value to pass up, but that is a special case. 

409

TalkBack / Re: Atari Follows THQ and Files for Bankruptcy

« on: January 25, 2013, 08:12:01 PM »

Infogrames released a series of Dirt Track Racing games back in the day that I really enjoyed.  Haven't been as fond of their more recent stuff. 

410

TalkBack / Re: Wii U Virtual Console Detailed

« on: January 25, 2013, 07:23:09 PM »

[size=78%]That's like getting mad because you bought a game on release day and a year later, a Game of the Year Edition comes out for the same price.[/size]

Lol, not quite the same.  Some of these are 30 year old games.  I'm not sure I'm paying to get anything in advance or enhanced.

[size=78%]They could have forced everyone to rebuy everything at full price. [/size]

They can't force me to buy anything.  Which is why there's no point in quoting your whole response or trying to respond to anything.  As I said, they certainly don't owe me anything so no point yelling at me like I'm a teen asking for a free lunch everyday.  It's all about value in when a consumer is spending their money and the value here falls short to me. 


I used to be a heavy user (40+ VC games in the first 2 years of the VC) and then I realized that Nintendo hadn't released a comprehensive plan about being able to keep the games over time.  You can talk about backwards compatibility being a perk, but digital changes the game.  Steam goes out of your way to make you feel like you own the game and they are doing you a favor by keeping it on their servers so it'll always be there.  Nintendo makes me feel like I'm renting it and they'll charge me more to keep using it if they feel like it. 


I haven't purchased a VC game in about 5 years because I don't like their approach.  If you do, good for you spend away.  Since I stopped purchasing VC games, I've picked up a Genesis, N64, NES, and Dreamcast and most of the games that I've ever wanted to play.  I'm happy with my own VC plan.

411

TalkBack / Re: Wii U Virtual Console Detailed

« on: January 25, 2013, 11:26:31 AM »

I get the whole Nintendo didn't promise anything argument, but the cost argument is a little sketchy. 


Nintendo had to emulate these games anyway for the Wii U to ensure that they were able to bring in new customers and have a service for the Wii U.  So while it did cost them money, it certainly didn't cost them anymore to make the emulator for people that already owned the games since they had to do it for people that don't own the games.  The kicker is they aren't charging the new audience the fee (because NES games are still $5, etc.).  They are only charging this to the existing customers that have supported this service since day one.   


It's little things like this why I stopped supporting the virtual console service after I bought 40+ VC titles on the Wii. 

412

TalkBack / Re: Wii U Virtual Console Detailed

« on: January 25, 2013, 08:00:44 AM »

I think what is most disappointing thing about this announcement is that in the era of steam (which always reworks it's emulators to work with new operating systems for free), this confirms that you need to pay money to continue to access your VC games on future Nintendo consoles.  Because it's very unlikely that the Wii U replacement has a Wii mode to transfer Wii saves.  Thus, if you don't pay up and transfer, the Wii U will be the last operating system you will get to experience your current VC games on.


It'll be interesting to see how Sony/Microsoft do their exchange.  My guess is not as harsh since they already allow you to use an account which can be accessed on multiple systems.

413

TalkBack / Re: Wii U Virtual Console Detailed

« on: January 24, 2013, 07:52:32 PM »

Not saying this would make a big difference, but I think it would be cool if Nintendo tried to reward the early adopters (whom they make the most $ off of) by at least offering a limited time to update their VC games for free.  Something like free for the first 6 months of the Wii U life and then charge for all updates after that. 


Maybe that would push people with Wiis that have a big VC collection to upgrade to the Wii U soon to take advantage of the change. 


Sony doesn't do everything right.  But allowing the classics to be played on PS3 and PSP/Vita was brillaint.  The VC would have much more value to me to be portable rather than tethered (within 20 ft) to a tv, but not using the TV. 

414

TalkBack / Re: 3DS XL Mario 3D Kart Bundle Coming Dec. 7 

« on: December 01, 2012, 11:57:10 AM »

The # of pixels are the same, so by definition the XL will not have as good of quality as the normal 3DS.  But it's not like going from standard def to high def. 


To me, it's more about comfort.  With the standard 3DS, I play with the 3DS closer to my face.  With the XL, I play with my arms more stretched and in a more comfortable position for me. 

This is a start at least, but I know $20-25 off was the standard this holiday season.  Add that in with all the game sales, you could have easily gotten an XL with a physical copy of Mario Kart for $200 this holiday season.

415

TalkBack / Re: EA's Peter Moore Talks Company's View of Wii U

« on: November 03, 2012, 10:17:13 AM »

It could be the reimbursement model (wiiware had to sell 5,000 copies before developer saw a dime) coupled with the lack of storage options that is putting EA off. 


I wouldn't completely absolve Nintendo of blame since this is a current theme of big name third party publishers not including things that they have on other consoles.  Having said that, I'm not sure their is any consumer that is download only and the disc will be available, so this doesn't really limit consumer options in any way. 

416

TalkBack / Re: Tekken Tag Tournament 2 Also Available on Wii U eShop As 16GB Download

« on: October 29, 2012, 07:19:46 AM »

they can put a 320 gig hard drive in the wii-u for the cost of 32 gigs of flash memory and makes it happen.

$20=$50?

Consumer prices are a bad indication of the cost to Nintendo.  There is almost no market for hard drives sub 500 gigs at the consumer level, but if Nintendo wanted to produce a hard drive in the 200-320 gig range and buy millions of them, they would get a heck of a deal.  The last isupply PS3 cost said their hard drive cost $38 to produce and that report was in 2009, they've had a couple of price decreases and became profitable since then.  So clearly speculative, but I don't see how a small hard drive would cost Nintendo more than $30 at this point. 

Either way, it looks like 8 gig should be enough for game saves.  Is $20 worth it to download one game on top of available game saves?  Seems so inadequate to me that don't see the point in having the 32 gig available since most people that want to download indicate they are getting an external drive or using one they have available.  Again, I don't think it's a dealbreaker, but I think it's a flaw and shows Nintendo's struggle with understanding the hard-core gamer. 

417

TalkBack / Re: Tekken Tag Tournament 2 Also Available on Wii U eShop As 16GB Download

« on: October 29, 2012, 07:04:23 AM »

Hard drives = spinning parts = more potential for things to go wrong, and higher repair costs. Seagate and Western Digital (the two major hard drive makers) have recently slashed their warranties down to a year when they would previously do 3-5 years.

Nintendo only warrantied the Wii for 1 year, is the Wii U different?

If you plan on downloading full retail titles this is pretty much proof you'll need an external usb drive which has a hard drive with moving parts.  Thus, not really sure how it's a positive that the Wii U doesn't have one unless you mean that Nintendo can point to the consumers hardware and blame that rather than have to fix it themselves.

418

TalkBack / Re: Tekken Tag Tournament 2 Also Available on Wii U eShop As 16GB Download

« on: October 27, 2012, 05:13:33 PM »

or high rendered Cutscenes.

Does Wii U not do high rendered cutscenes?

This was my problem with the Wii-U storage in the first place.  People kept saying that 8 gig was plenty for their 3DS, but that doesn't have 1080p games released on blu ray discs.  I'll probably pick up a Wii-U eventually, but I'm still hopeful that Nintendo realizes that they can put a 320 gig hard drive in the wii-u for the cost of 32 gigs of flash memory and makes it happen.  Nintendo is competing with Sony/Microsoft not with the Ipad.  Console games are not apps and need real memory space. 

419

TalkBack / Re: Wii Out of Stock at Multiple Online Retailers

« on: July 27, 2012, 10:05:26 AM »

Just put update. Both Target and Best Buy have the Wii in stock on their websites. Best Buy says it should only take 1 business day for the console to leave their warehouse.

Way to ruin the thread of our endless speculation. 


Lolmonade, I'm not going to argue.  There are good reasons to keep making the Wii and good reasons to cut it off.  They have a marketing deparment that makes a good deal more than me to make the decision and has better marketing data than I could dream of having. 
I think the issue is there aren't enough new games which leads to a lack of demand for the system rather than market saturation.  Still, http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/07/25/nintendo-earnings-idINT9E8I900020120725, 710,000 for typically the slowest quarter of the year isn't that bad for a console 6 years old with an announced successor on the way. 

420

TalkBack / Re: Wii Out of Stock at Multiple Online Retailers

« on: July 27, 2012, 08:52:52 AM »

Microsoft did not cut the Xbox off to boost sales of the Xbox 360, they did it (and several months before 360 even came out) because they were losing money on every Xbox sold and wanted to cut their losses.

Microsoft used the xbox to gain marketshare.  They knew it was going to be a money pit and weren't planning on making money that iteration. 
Microsoft had a spat with Nvidia and couldn't get new video chips after 8/2005.  Thus they were unable to produce any new systems without a major redesign with a new chip.  They chose to just push the 360 through production as fast as possible leading to the RROD issue. 

Spak-Spang
The thing is Wii U is backwards compatible with the Wii...so you really don't need the Wii on the market to add to confusion.

I disagree.  The Wii could easily be had for $100 last holiday season.  The Wii-U lowest rumored price is $300.  The Wii-U will have a limited selection and few cheap games when it launches.  The Wii (despite the drought) has a bunch of games that are good and low priced.  There are lots of reasons to buy a $100 Wii instead of a $300 Wii-U and one is you don't spend $300 on a system that doesn't have games that you don't want just because it exists. 


I also don't get the market confusion thing.  How many Ipad and Iphones are there?  Consumers are used to different iterations.  And if they weren't, they surely will ask an employee why the $100 Wii is cheaper than the $300 Wii-U. 


From a financial perspective there are benefits since Nintendo needs to sell their new model to get games to be profitable on their new system.  They also should make a bigger margin on the Wii-U than selling a Wii unit. 

But they'll have to be careful about losing the budget minded consumer.  The Wii is the budget console right now.  When the Wii-U comes out it will certainly cost more than the PS3 and 360.  Having the Wii available still allows them to pick up the market where cost is still the biggest factor. 

421

TalkBack / Re: Wii U Has 8 GB of Internal Storage

« on: June 11, 2012, 07:09:51 PM »

First, smallsharkbigbite... did you really just quadruple post?

I don't get on much.  I didn't duplicate data.

I fell into your misdirect though.  Whether you feel Microsoft gouges customers is irrelevant.  Nintendo doesn't follow the competition in other areas so they don't have to gouge for a harddrive.  I get half of your argument.  A small HD costs almost nothing.  I can buy a 120 gb WD harddrive off Amazon for $36.  Nintendo when they order 50 million can probably get them for <$20.  Also, they could go 80 or 60 gb and use a different manufacturer to save money.  Substitute out the 8 gig of flash and you are looking at a net cost of $0-$10 to add a harddrive.  Flash makes sense in an Ipod where there is no optical drive.  Doesn't make sense in a game console because the optical drive is the data limiting factor.  So I get the fact that a harddrive doesn't cost much.  Don't get why it then shouldn't be used?
 

8GB is more than enough for most people and I'd rather have the removable memory option.

This is where I strongly disagree with you.  You are basing your info off of two gimped online systems (Wii and 3DS).  The PS2 had 20% of it's users get online, 360 has about 60%, we are reaching an age where it's expected that an electronic have wireless.  More people will use online next generation.  And none of the consoles you are comparing are high def or have full sized games online for download. 

A few examples: 

1.  Exclusive games: NBA Jam onfire edition is 900 mb and reasonably priced.  Tons more games like this, some bigger.  If you're online and that's the only way to get the game, don't know why you'd pass up good games.

2.  Game patches.  GT5 has like 3 gb of patches.  Yeah, it'd be nice if they shipped a complete game, but they've added a bunch to this game.  And basically every game I put in my ps3 has some patch to update the game and most of them are sizely. 

3.  Demos/other online things.  If you're online and it's free, why not download?  Demo's and videos online can be several gigs in size.  And there could be new things to online next generation.  That's the point of a new generation, who knows what interactivity could be done. 

Also, the cost really doesn't matter.  If Nintendo can get people to start paying for things they'll make several times the cost of a harddrive.  Getting people to just download one retail game (which won't happen with 8 gb) will save them at least $20 in retail fees, shipping fees, and physical production fees.  And you can't resell that game.

For comparison sake, I have about 10 WiiWare games and about 50 vc games downloaded for a total size of about 1 gb.  On my PS3, I have not downloaded a full retail game.  I have about 30 downloaded games, patches, and save files come to about 65 gb. 

I really don't get the connection between being lazy and not wanting cords laying around.
 Also, I disagree with your idea that they don't want cords laying around.  How many times has the complaint came up about the Wii and Wii U not having a network jack/being WiFi only?  If people don't like cords, then this should be a good thing.

I see the only viable solution as having a usb hard drive, which requires 2 additional cables (to Wii and to Power) and addtional space on the shelf.  I don't see that as a good thing. 
 

Remember Twilight Princess?  It was the hardcore, super realistic Zelda that "everyone" wanted after Wind Waker...  Yet the sales didn't touch Wind Waker's performance.

Ignoring Wii sales to make a point? 
 

If you consider two full years "not too long", then sure.

The point is almost all electronic devices have multiple versions and some changes within the versions.  I don't think it adds consumer confusion to have multiple versions because if you buy anything you're used to it by now. 
 

errrr... Carts weren't "cheap".  In fact, they increased costs for the system and the games in comparison to a CD reader/discs.

Yeah, my point was storage lost the N64 war.  Nintendo's response wasn't let's fix the storage issue, as all of the next consoles they've made have had gimped storage.  The focus on being cheap now instead of matching standard features.  When a console is cheaper, people wonder why.  And when the answer is they cut standard features, they aren't impressed. 

This is all opinion based, the Wii-U may or may not add a better storage option and may or may not be successful.  Too many variables to determine which reasons are why it is successful or not.  Feel free to chop up my reply and add sarcastic comments.  What I'd like to see is a thread in 6 years and see if the people that say 8 gb is sufficient for them found that to be the case. 

422

TalkBack / Re: Wii U Has 8 GB of Internal Storage

« on: June 10, 2012, 09:18:16 AM »

As it stands I'm pretty confident the Wii U will be $350 at launch. With an internal hard drive or SSD, that would be up to at least $400. This is a compromise on Nintendo's part to keep the price as low as they can.

Consumer cost does not follow actual cost of the machine.  Nintendo kept the Wii at $250 when the 360 was $200 and the PS3 was $250.  They did it to increase profits, not because the Wii cost $200 to manufacture. 

But that's the biggest problem I have with the Wii-U.  The Wii-U is basically a 3ds (potentially) with your TV representing the top screen.  The PS3 comes with a bunch more for $250.  The xbox 360 comes with a bunch more for $300.  For $350, I want to see that the Wii-U is better than the current gen or at least on-par.  The only thing the Wii-U has that can be conceived as better is the touchscreen. 

The Wii was big because nobody saw motion controls before.  Isn't Ipad 4 coming out?  Aren't we on version 5 of the DS?  People have seen touch controls and prefer $.99 games with them.  I just don't think people will be impressed with the Wii-U.  I could be wrong, analysts said the Wii was doomed and while it's fizzled, you can't exactly call it a failure. 

Plus, being cheap isn't always a good thing in the eye of the consumer.  N64 lost to the PS1 largely due to the stupid cartridge decision.  What if the Gamecube would have used real DVDs instead of mini, and played DVDs and cost $300 at the get-go?  I was in college at the time the Gamecube was out and you have no idea how many people viewed it as inferior to the PS2.  Would more games have came to the Gamecube if it would have used full DVDs and been able to make quick ports?  Would people view it as equal to the xbox/ps2 since it cos the same?  Would people look at it as a way to get a cheap dvd player like they did the PS2?  We'll never know, but most people think you get what you pay for and always being the cheapest make people think Nintendo develops cheap toys. 

423

TalkBack / Re: Wii U Has 8 GB of Internal Storage

« on: June 10, 2012, 08:46:21 AM »

Casual consumers are too confused by external storage, but offering them multiple SKUs isn't too confusing?

Do you KNOW how many customers asked what the difference between the black and white Wii systems was?

Moms and dads typically buy systems.  I expect the teenage users to be much more technilogical.  But honestly, it's not that bad of a question for people who came from the 360.  How many different versions of the 360 were there?  Some were better with RROD, some had different ports, etc.  And the black Wii wasn't out too long before they removed Gamecube compatibility.  Knowing changes can occur and asking about them doesn't seem to be ignorant to me.  Especially for people that don't go to gaming sites. 

424

TalkBack / Re: Wii U Has 8 GB of Internal Storage

« on: June 10, 2012, 08:36:41 AM »

Xbox 360 320GB hard drive 129.99 at walmart for the same price you can pick up a USB 3.0 2TB hard drive at walmart. So for the same price I could pick up 6 times more space for my Wii-U. I'll stick to non-proprietary hard drives. 

LOL, nice.  Alright, if we are going to play that game, the 250 gb with Kinect and 2 game bundle was on sale for $259 this last holiday.  So where are you going to buy a 250 gb hd, kinect, and 2 game bundle for $59?

This is another reason I like built ins.  While it may not always be a deal at MSRP, it'll go on sale for significantly less later. 

425

TalkBack / Re: Wii U Has 8 GB of Internal Storage

« on: June 10, 2012, 08:31:04 AM »

Forza 4 (assuming that you *want* it) - $45 on Amazon.
Offical 360 Headset (Wii U does voice chat without a headset, but okay) - $7.29 on Amazon.

So... $47.21 for the 250 GB Hard Drive...
500 GB Hard Drive on Amazon.com... $47.73

Fifty-Two cents, I get twice the memory and a hard drive I can use on whatever PC I want.

And the steering wheel?  Personally, 250 gb is enough for me and I'd rather have the built in option.  The bundle has been on sale often for $50 off so if the $47.73 that you're paying for the hard drive is a hold up, wait a few months and you won't be.

Also, the point is they give you the option.  And since you're so technical, you can buy an adapter and use the any existing hard drive you have laying around. 

Wait... Casual players are so stupid they won't understand external memory, but now we expect them to dissect their system and install a hard drive?

I never said casual players are stupid.  I said they're lazy and don't want a bunch of cords laying around.  I think a built in option or at least a bay makes this significantly better.

Anyone who says "I want the Wii U to fail" has already decided the Wii U is not for them.

I also did not say I want the Wii U to fail.  I'm hoping Nintendo gives me a reason to purchase it, but I haven't seen it yet.  But really, some people think that this is a big deal and some don't.  It's all opinion based and it's just one thing Nintendo has bet on with the Wii-U.  I just don't see the point in responding to every who disagrees with you on this point with "The Wii-U is not for You!"

Of course, they can. However, I think it's better to approach them by pretending that they can't.

If Nintendo should approach groups of consumers based on poor stereotypes of the most vocal within that group, then Nintendo should just assume that all hardcore gamers are whiny twits that will never be happy with Nintendo no matter what, so why bother doing anything for them anyway?

They should bother because the hardcore gamers spend lots of money.  They are whiney, but like Ian said earlier, Nintendo has really pushed that group away in the past.  I don't think their going to get mulligans on decisions until they show they are bringing something significant to the table.