Ubisoft CEO says NX could bring back casuals! (UGHHHH!)

Uh Oh!

Why must you destroy my dreams Nintendo!

I'll still buy because I want to play the next iteration of Nintendo's franchises, but it seems more and more likely that this will be a repeat of the Wii. It will be a Nintendo box at heart and if it succeeds it will receive a shit ton of casual shovel ware and not the AAA 3rd party titles gamers want.

Maybe a fresh approach is just what this stale industry needs?

More saps to scam.

How much more casual they expect us to become?

The Wii U Mii incoming lol :P

The "casuals" chose PS4 this round, which is why it's the best selling console... Whichever company wins the casual market, wins the sales war. How so many of you fail to see this is beyond me.

Casuls bring money. Money good.

Good, maybe it'll fail just like the Wii U leaving nintendo no choice but to stop making consoles/handhelds.

The faster they go 3rd party the better, that way i can play their games on my PC/PS4.

Its not that i dont like nintendo its just i dont feel like paying a premium price for their shit hardware just to play a handful of their exclusives.

For anything Nintendo related, I trust Yves Gulliemot as far as I can throw him.

Said the same thing about the Wii U.

over 90 percent of the AAA games out there are casual and catered to casuals.

Typical... *grabs a bottle and glass*

Who else do you expect Nintendo to aim for?

Lol Ubisoft

They say that about every console.

Bring on them casuals, well turn them into pros.

It's a sub-$200 console with a mobile SoC. About 2x Wii U Handheld will release at the same price and with the same SoC, but underclocked heavily. 100% shared library. Handheld is 720p, console plays all games in 1080 with otherwise the same visuals and frame rate as the handheld. 4GB of LPDDR4 RAM, ~500 GFPLOPS, 60GB/s bandwidth.

get ready for more mario kart and sports games then.

Don't know exactly why people get upset over "casuals". They are a big part of the PS4 success and nobody complains about it. It might just mean that unlike the Wii U, it will not be just for Nintendo fans.

Well...

1. Pre-release interviews are always positive hype
2. Its not a good thing... Wii reached casuals and what did Nintendo do?... Nothing
3. It should be obvious by now that Nintendo just doesn't give a flying f*** anymore from their approach to Youtubers and hardware not even mention their lack of software.

Personally I ignore all console hype as a PC gamer I pretty much know the hardware will be slow at that price the consoles are trying to hit its a no brainer so I don't listen and when it comes to software its all hype until its released.

They were Nintendo's most optimistic major third party dev last gen, but that didn't really amount to a whole lot from them. Wii U got Zombi U as a launch title. Rayman Legends was supposed to be a Wii U exclusive, but because of poor Zombi U sales it got delayed and made multiplatform. But hey, they released AC3 and AC:BF on Wii U too, Black Flag being maybe the best and last good AC game, that's gotta count for something. And despite being extremely late, they did finally deliver on Watch Dogs for Wii U.

~The same exactly thing Nintendo fans said for Wii !! And see where that lead in the long run ...

NX might sale , might be a commercial success but .. will be able to stand next to PS4/X1 value speaking ? Will be able to be for everyone while being casual friendly as well ? Will be able to NOT enter in life support way earlier than competition ? Will be able to stand as a primary console and not as secondary in this gaming era ? Will price/value ratio being great ? Will 3rd party support be there for people that are no into Nintendo Ips only ? New AAA caliber IPs ? Will console focus again on "kiddish" games or will blend things for all audiences ?

And the questions goes on and on about NX ...

Its not all about sales as we saw with Wii when it comes to casuals. Hope we wont have another Wii in the making but something different that will be equally fun for everyone and not only for casuals or die hard Nintendo fans.

Your perspective is not relevant to all potential customers in this industry. Try and see things from a different view, maybe from one who isn't a typical gamer that gets catered to in the current market.

Consumers like you and I are not all that should be considered, but also fledgling gamers, non gamers, new gamers ect. I know people who don't like most of what's available. They would like access to more easy games, less violent games and the like. Who are we to try to dictate what other people should want?

You've also got this false mentality that nothing from the Wii was good, and that simply isn't true for a lot of people. And you seem to think total sales are somehow more important than things like originality and profitability.

At this point we have absolutely no idea what the NX will be, but I'm not dumb enough to classify myself as someone above trying new things, or expect all things in the gaming industry to be designed with only me and my kind in mind.

It depends on what it means to bring in the casuals. For example the Gameboy was a product that really brought in the casuals, yet didn't alienate core gamers in the process, so hopefully the NX is more like that and less like the Wii/Wii U.

Also, this is the same guy who praised the Wii U and look how that turned out.

the only reason it was a bad idea with the wiiu is because the wiiu was a bad idea. If Nintendo has some new gimmick that can add a fresh perspective to gaming again, then I'm all for it. "Bringing casuals" doesn't have to be a bad thing. It can make normal people excited but still be a better experience than the wii was as well.

If it is a casual friendly product like the NES, Gameboy, or DS were, and not like the Wii was, then sure, I'm all for it.

Is this the part where I act like Nintendo "backstabbed" me, where I act like Nintendo hates everything hardcore gaming and where I act like Nintendo snuck into my house and murdered my dog?

Ninty better come out with a strong presentation, whatever the actual end product is. They've let people define what the still "imaginary" NX is or isn't for so long that without a strong, impactful entrance they may find themselves in a messy situation.

Why is casual a bad word?

because it implies a lack of depth

The entire industry is carried on casual titles and casual gamers. So why is it a bad thing to appeal to them?

@GoldenElementXL: Has a point.

I want to believe.

@sHaDyCuBe321:

How are they destroying your dreams?

Look at the Super Smash Bros. franchise: casual-friendly and competitive-friendly gameplay. Easy as hell to get sucked into if you're a newbie, yet rewarding with no end in sight to veteran players.

I don't see this as a bad thing. Nintendo especially doesn't, but yeah ;) $$$$$$

It isn't a bad thing by itself, but it is generally coupled with neglect of the non-casual gamers and if you are a part of that market that might be problematic.

Yup.

Though it is Nintendo we're talking about and there approach to gaining back the mainstream could be an odd one.

@GoldenElementXL: Yep, you're right.

The most successful console of each generation is always the one that attracts the most casuals.

It was true of the PS2, it was true of the Wii, and it is currently true of the PS4.

And the Wii didn't really stand out in the long term. It had Wii Sports and casuals liked that. It didn't help turn it into a legendary system.

It has been quite a while since Ubisoft has done anything right. Finding a situation where Ubisoft hit it out of the park is like finding a moderate Republican these days...

@Planeforger:

How dare you compare the Wii to the great PS2? =(

He said the same thing about the WiiU....I'm not holding my breath.

PS2 was a casual system. Its dirt cheap dvd playback was a huge draw for casuals.

@bunchanumbers:

Can I argue DVD movie play back was just bonus because CDs were not enough.

I'm sure DVD storage space was the main concern over DVD movies. Sony were probably like,

"hey what the hell, let's allow PS2 play DVD movies as well. After all, we are in the movie industry too"

That's really the only market nintendo has left

@GoldenElementXL said:

The "casuals" chose PS4 this round, which is why it's the best selling console... Whichever company wins the casual market, wins the sales war. How so many of you fail to see this is beyond me.

Winning in sales doesn't automatically mean its for "casuals".

Just like if a console sells like shit it doesn't automatically make it "hardcore".

Look at the difference between winning a generation in sales with the Wii compared to winning a generation in sales with the NES.

NES has a gigantic amount of hardcore games. While the Wii is loaded with shovel ware and casual games.

Do people realise that the "casual vs hardcore" war is actually a very small vibration in a corner of the internet that doesn't remotely represent the real world?

I mean, I'm 33 and my first console was the original NES. I've grown up with games, and as far as gaming goes, I'm as "hardcore" as they come.

But honestly, there are also times where younger, less-experienced gamers would label me a "casual" - perhaps because I like playing Pac-Man 256 on PS4 in between bouts of Uncharted 4.

And you know, the amount of shits I give about that is pretty damn small.

Anyone who has any maturity can surely see that this casual versus hardcore divide is utterly ridiculous. It's a totally nonsensical and often arbitrary division.

As far as I'm concerned, the more people who play and love video games, the better! I want the market to grow, I want the medium to grow, I want it to be more respected in the mainstream...and I want to see more and more variety of software out there. I don't want to see carbon copies of PS4 stuff everywhere; that's boring.

So, c'mon Nintendo...strike hard with the NX. Make it innovative, make it fun and unique, and show us something that we didn't even know we wanted. :-)

@GoldenElementXL: Because that is a false narrative perpetrated by the XBox fanbase as a cop out excuse. The Wii stalled and flat lined at 90M while the HD consoles continued on.

Those Wii gamers didnt all go to PS4. They went to tablets and smart phones to a huge degree. Hence the Wii and subsequently the WiiU falling off the radar to them.

There is nothing about a $400 traditional console that appeals to people who rushed out to get a $250 waggle machine with fitness attachments. Get over it.

@GoldenElementXL said:

The "casuals" chose PS4 this round, which is why it's the best selling console... Whichever company wins the casual market, wins the sales war. How so many of you fail to see this is beyond me.

I don't play sales though bro. The NX needs to not only appeal to casuals, but also gamers. Nintendo doesn't know how to appeal to casuals anymore without a gimmick, a gimmick which could succeed (Wii) or fall flat (Wii U). The problem with gimmicks though is that they often attract 3rd party shovel ware, not solid games aimed at core gamers.

The last Nintendo console that appealed to casuals AND gamers AND didn't have a shit ton of shovel ware was the SNES.That's what I'm worried about.

I could give two shits if Nintendo sells or not, for my money the Wii U = Wii when it comes to quality games that I enjoyed. I just want to be able to consistently enjoy quality games on a Nintendo system that aren't from Nintendo themselves. And I've completely lost faith in Nintendo being able to make a system that sells through the roof while maintain quality 3rd party software.

Herein lies the problem. The last console on your list was released in 1985 (Although I would count the SNES on that list, but 1991 is still a quarter century ago.). Odds of Nintendo doing that again are slim, at best.

That is true, but I think when we are talking about "Casuals" - the type of casuals the Wii attracted was a different breed of customer.

Ultimately, the bulk of gamers probably just play stuff like Battlefield, Call of Duty, Madden, Battlefront, Grand Theft Auto. Not necessarily "casual games", but what makes one a "casual gamer" in the console space is usually that the person only gets into a few of those games. It's not the same definition as one would use for a "casual gamer" that plays Candy Crush or Pokemon Go or some other nonsense on their phone.

The Wii was different, in that it became such a fad that even grandparents and parents were getting in on the action. There was more crossover with the "phone-app" type players. Seems like that's the type of thing that would be impossible to predict, as far as having a captive audience. Hell, the Wii captured that audience and was basically abandoned by that same audience within about 2 years. It would be insane IMO to intentionally try and repeat the Wii - especially if it means weak console with gimmick controller.