Luke's Wii Debate

[irixith]

Does anyone have documentation (from Nintendo) stating who the target audience is/was?

Reggie starts blabbin' his mouth at 9:23, and it takes him at least 60 seconds to get to the point.

[puke_face]

I didn't vote. I don't really think they had any sort of gamer in mind really. They were just trying to hit a large spectrum of people, from diaper shitting kids to diaper shitting adults.

[Gamerforlife]

Personally, I've always considered women to be a big part of the so called casual audience. So when people say they are targeting that audience I tend to think that it's implied that women are a big part of that.

To me casuals are:

People who don't play anything not called Call of Duty, Halo, or Grand Theft Auto
People who only play sports games or Madden games
Women
People who like music games pretty much exclusively
People who just play social media games like Farmville
People who just like puzzle games like Tetris
People who just like simplistic games you can get online for free, games on mobile apps or games already on computers like minesweeper

Now, not all women are casuals, but I think a large number of them are. That may be changing though and the Wii may have played a big role in that. However, I don't think you are your friend is wrong, women have often fallen under the casual banner

[AmishSamurai]

Echoing irixith- Nintendo was trying to focus on non-gamers, not specifically women.

[isiolia]

Thanks for the input.

Does anyone have documentation (from Nintendo) stating who the target audience is/was?

I linked to an interview in my post, but Google resulted in several, whether you choose to look back at 2006/2007 articles (here's another), or Wii U announcements where they talk about what they intended with the Wii (like here), the corporate line is that they wanted to make something for everyone in order to bring in new gamers.

[Inazuma]

Personally, I've always considered women to be a big part of the so called casual audience. So when people say they are targeting that audience I tend to think that it's implied that women are a big part of that.

To me casuals are:

People who don't play anything not called Call of Duty, Halo, or Grand Theft Auto
People who only play sports games or Madden games
Women
People who like music games pretty much exclusively
People who just play social media games like Farmville
People who just like puzzle games like Tetris
People who just like simplistic games you can get online for free, games on mobile apps or games already on computers like minesweeper

Now, not all women are casuals, but I think a large number of them are. That may be changing though and the Wii may have played a big role in that. However, I don't think you are your friend is wrong, women have often fallen under the casual banner

I love your list of casual gamers and agree completely. The people who only play Halo, Call of Duty and Madden are casual gamers to me also.

[J T]

At the time the Wii was being released, Nintendo officials kept talking about casting their nets out in the "big blue ocean". This is a business strategy where you stop trying to compete for the same target audience that you usually fight over with your top business rivals in the bloody red ocean, and instead you set sail to target an entirely different demographic in the wide blue ocean. While their blue ocean market certainly included women because women were not the traditional gamer demographic, the blue ocean included all other types of people as well: older adults, kids not familiar with traditional games, families, people that haven't played anything but Free Cell. They basically went after everyone that was not a gamer and left Sony and Microsoft to squabble over the traditional gamer market. This business strategy Nintendo used with the Wii is the primary reason the terms "casual gamer" and "hardcore gamer" came in vogue. Women are a big part of it (by targeting men almost exclusively, the other companies were ignoring roughly 50% of the human population), but women are by no means the entirety of the blue ocean.

[AppleQueso]

I love your list of casual gamers and agree completely. The people who only play Halo, Call of Duty and Madden are casual gamers to me also.

Pretty sure most of us can agree to that.

[Bikeage]

Out of the folks I know that have Wii's, the ones currently using them the most are female.

The guys my age (30+) and younger got on the bandwagon and played quite a bit the first year or so after launch, but between the lack of HD and novelty of motion controls, most of those consoles collect dust next to their PS3's and 360's.

The females, ranging from ages 20-50+ still get use out of it. I would say 75% of that use is Netflix, the rest the occasional Wii Fit session and playing children's games with the kids.

When I tell people from both ends of that spectrum that I use my Wii primarily for the Virtual Console I get strange looks. Makes me wonder if the Wii would have been just as successful without it, and glad that Nintendo threw a pretty big bone to classic gaming lovers.

[BoringSupreez]

I love your list of casual gamers and agree completely. The people who only play Halo, Call of Duty and Madden are casual gamers to me also.

Pretty sure most of us can agree to that.

If people who only play Halo, COD and Madden are casual gamers, what do you call those people who only play Angry Birds and those "300,000 Amazing PC Games" on one disc you see for $10 at Walmart?