Miyamoto says that casual gamers are "pathetic"

"[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]."

Miyamoto's comments mark the first time a Nintendo executive, and a longstanding member on its board of directors, has publicly outlined intentions to shift away from casual customers.

In an age where Apple and Android smartphones have become the leading games platforms for the casual audience, Miyamoto says Nintendo no longer needs to reach out to those customers.

"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."

Source, but these are just bits from the big Nintendo feature in the new print issue of the EDGE magazine.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=883232

Slightly dumb thing to say aside, I do agree with his next statement. Take another step and a huge new world of entertainment awaits, even for more casual gamers.

Nintendo staying away from the casual market? Could this mean a new Wii system is coming out with decent specs?

Casual gamers like uninspiredcup are truly pathetic.

I think I like Miyamoto now :v

Uhhhh Wii?

He said their attitudes are pathetic, and he's right. The casual Wii crowd didn't support Wii U so yeah, catering to your dedicated fan base is the only option they have with Wii U.

Casual gamers are like fair weather friends.

This has been reflected in the games they've been releasing on Wii U. They've very clearly ramped up the harshness.

Just look at Donkey Kong Tropical freeze in comparison to what was already considered a very harsh platformer in Returns. Tropical Freeze on a normal play through is already the tougher game and collectibles are more well hidden. Not to mention that they removed the play guide option entirely. Then there's the new hard mode that not only takes away your partner and gives you a single hit, but also removes ALL CHECKPOINTS in a level.

Then you have Pikmin 3's brutal challenge mode, the hardest level in Mario history found in 3D World, new Super Luigi U just being harsh all the way through, New Super Mario Bros. U's challenge mode being essentially unbeatable and even Nintendo Land offering impossibly difficult challenges and we've got the term "Nintendo hard" coming back with a vengeance.

Yeah, the lack of third party really does make the Wii U seem like one of the more hardcore consoles I have ever owned. It just seems like most of the games being released right now cater to the hardcore gamer. I'm sure Kirby will remain a pretty casual series, though. I'd be kind of surprised if Yarn Yoshi is challenging as well.

Oooh I'm liking where Nintendo is going. We may see a return of the snes era but in HD

LOL yeah right.

Yeah, that seemed like a reasonable statement to me. Instead of viewing gaming as a truly passive thing, if they just got more involved they'd find there's a whole new world out there of fun.

Lol at people saying that they believe him and he's right, did you guys forget the last 12 years?

@Gue1:

You are ready for a career in sensationalistic journalism. He didn't say they are "pathetic". He said a certain attitude is pathetic to him. Attitudes change with moods and circumstances. He didn't label the casual gamer.

This is the first interesting thing i've heard this guy say. More of this and i may like him in the future

the wii was meant to get Nintendo into a huge number of houses.. which it did..Possibly turn those casual gamers into something more, unfortunately they failed themselves with the wii u. If it was the console it should have been and a real power house Nintendo would be on top, easily.

But they´re the majority of your audience.

And I really wanted to compare him to Phil Fish...

Some iOS and Android games are challenging. Some Nintendo games are so easy it borders on brain damage.

Seems like maybe a bad translation (pathetic doesn't seem like the word he'd use but whatever) but I agree in some ways. There's absolutely nothing wrong with enjoying laid back "casual" experiences but there's people who play mobile games 5 hours a day and are completely addicted but would still turn their nose up at playing an actual good videogame that's not just made to squeeze money from them.

Yeah they marketed towards casuals....it didn't work out on their next console, so he bashes the very people that made the Wii a success.....I don't like that.

this is the best thing I've read on this subject... I'm glad big companies start to realise that making games for the lowest common denominotor is starting to fail.

Casual gamers are thickle... why waste millions on making games that they barely give a s*it about.

Look at the Wii....... sold loads.... then discarded as nothing.... a big fad like the friggin hooler hoop or yoyo.

Get cracking nintendo... make your games challenging.... depthful! go!

We all warned Nintendo about going the casual route and people shushed us. Now the obvious has happened and they have moved on and Nintendo is in dire straights. Wow. Surprise surprise.

Miyamoto is a closet PC gamer.

"The japan man"

What the ****?

They've seen the light!

OP seems to have reading comprehension problems, Miyamoto didn't say casual gamers are pathetic.

Anyway, it seems like they have been going this route for the last year or so but it's good to get some confirmation on it.

Miyamoto is right. Cows aren't gamers with their non games.

That's worse than my father calling asians oriental, lol.

Wii U is for casual gamers, PS4 and Xbox One is for normal gamers, PC is for hardcore gamers.

All great multiplatform games flop on Wii U. gta, call of duty, assassins creed flop on Wii U meanwhile Just Dance sells on Wii U well.

STEP DOWN!!!

Who said anything about cows?

His way of thinking is pathetic

ah well I can dream OuO

I think he's just saying for 2 reasons:

1. None of the Wii customers supported the WiiU and he's upset about that...which isn't their fault...the marketing for the WiiU is fuckng dreadfully stupid.

2. He wants all the gullible "hardcore" gamers to be like "omg....he's one of us!!! Imma go out and buy 5 WiiUs now!!!!"

Only to find out that some Nintendo games, like someone else said, border on brain damage.

I'm more concerned about the imitation gamer. Maybe that's a form of casual gamer? They are very dedicated to their image, not to gaming.
They buy a brobox, tweet 'Ima real gamur Im so cool', and become a SW warrior.

LOLZ NOJ just use the Sony playbook like MS did. You need a wide selection of quality games to cater to a wide selection of gamers. Stop looking at the market as what Nintendo wants it to be and adapt to what the market is I would say.

All Wii U users are casual gamers. If Nintendo has no casual gamers, then Nintendo would be dead. Casual gamers saved Nintendo

That's a bit ironic coming from him.....

so whos their audience? who was their audience for the wiiu? the dedicated nintendo fanbase is tiny. its nowhere near big enough to support a company the size of nintendo going forward.

if they were going to go for the PS3 and 360 gamer with the wiiu then they really got it badly wrong. the PC gamer? slightly less wrong.

as for the more casual gamers not trying other games im going to tell a little story.

In the linux world people constantly try and get other people to try the OS. the one way that is pretty much guranteed to fail is doing the following:

1. Install it for them.
2. Give them a quick tour.
3. Let them off.

Within a few days the vast majority of people go back to whatever they are used to.

The more successful way is to find out what they use their computer for, get the OS installed, get the best applications you know of for their requirements installed and setup, make sure their devices are working (camera, printer etc.) show them that all this is working and spend more time showing them how to do what they want to do.

Its still not guranteed success but its more successful.

Nintendo did the former with the wii. heres a wii and a simple game. liked that? well the wii has more games. there was no path going from wii sports to zelda or a 2d mario platformer to a 3D mario platformer.

perhaps they should have made a Wii_Gaming 101 type game that boils down a lot of the more common game mechanics down to their bare essentials and, in an entertaining way, gets these less experienced players used to these ideas. brain training for common gameplay mechanics essentially.

i have seen people just starting games playing something like mario galaxy. they miss the platform (timing is all off). then a goomba starts chasing them and they get hit. the player starts to get frustrated and panicks a bit and it all goes south from there. not a good first experience for a game.

Not really

Whats pathetic are people who treat playing videogames like it's a way of life or something.

It's a form of entertainment. Period.

He is just pissed they didnt buy the Wii U.

Yes, the lack of video games for a gaming console, that's what I'd want as a "hardcore" gamer a console that doesn't get video games.

Can someone give us the definition of a "casual gamer"? Is it dependent on time spent gaming? The genres someone like? Please enlighten me because just recently I classified myself as such due to the fact that I have a few franchises that I'm more or less loyal to. I game on a PC which I spent some pretty coin on. I recently bought my first console in 17 years, the 3ds xl and am enjoying Ocarina of time. However, I game from hour and a half to 3 hours a day. Hardcore casual?

Honestly, why do you care?

It wasn't worded well. What I meant was that there aren't third party titles diluting the hardcore titles incoming. It gives a much higher ratio of core to casual. Key word was "seem".

Isn't that pretty much every console gamer except those who play dark souls type games..

No...no it's not.