Why doesn't Nintendo broaden their audience?

I wish Hotel Dusk was still a thing, the first one was so good, I dont know how they didnt make a 3ds one

Federation Force isnt the best argument for Nintendo :P

the cute visual is just that ... a visual ... Mario is a psychopath who eat mushroom to grow and kill thousand of goombas, koopas without an inch of remorse.

Pokémon ... young kids leaving their parents to travel around the world capturing animal and force them to fight ... yeah not dark at all

@Willy105: Splatoon did not help nintendo reach out past their current and core audience, it did not help them expand their demographic and market and broaden their horizon

Nintendo have been niche for a very long time, surprised there name gets mentioned.

Don't forget that they'll STILL have this kiddie view for as long as Mario/Zelda/Pokemon exist. A couple posters think Nintendo killing them off will do them some good, but in reality, would leave a massive shitstorm.

Sony vs Nintendo IPs: Nintendo may have more IPs, but over the years Sony has always catered to a larger pool of demographics in one way or the other. Regardless of critical or commercial success, they've always had something for someone.

Better to be "niche" like older rock bands, such as Foo Fighters, rather than as "relevant" like Team Young Money and Kanye West.

@lamprey263 Where do you get those numbers? Where does it say that Bayonetta has since sold near a million? VGChartz (which GS has all but banned from use here)? Otherwise, everywhere else has reported way under a million for that game.

But it wasn't Rare's fault they went to MS, Rare at the time ask Nintendo's help to buy the them, Nintendo said no to Rare cause Rare at the time had management problems, which is why Nintendo never bother to buyout Rare. In other words, Rare ruin Rare.

@emgesp:

Nintendo is all ages. Why limit a good game to one audience? For example, a game like Tropical Freeze is easily targeting someone who has been playing games for quite some time. It's the depth of play which dictates all that stuff. The M rating gets misused. It means it likely contains content which most would see as not appropriate for younger individuals.

What is the age requirement for M? 17or 18 years old? In the US ID say the majority of teens are immature. So really, sony and Microsoft are just going after the psuedo rebellious crowd, not adults. A mature adult sees buying games every week as a priority?

Sure, but they don't really create games that specifically target the 18 - 35 age bracket. They want 99% of their games to appeal to children and you can't say that isn't the case.

@emgesp:

No, they want it for all ages. There's a difference.

That's different from being targeted at certain age demographics.

@MirkoS77:

So what would you think if you were 10 to 15 years old?

What would I think about what?

Yup. As soon as I see Nx focus on games I want to play, then I will buy. Mario games dont do it for me anymore.

@lamprey263: The second game has a huge fanbase support and marketing budget compare to the first.

Problably why it sell better than the first game.

There's no better numbers to go on, and I stick to that unless you can provide ones that suggest differently. Regardless, I could concede even it sold half that and I'd still be right about it selling better proportionally better. Nonetheless I still stand by it being an excellent game and not you're typical Nintendo published game, and an exceptional one by any standard. And a worthy effort nonetheless to outreach to a new audience. It's not their fault consumers don't know what's good for them.

@lastcoin: I thought it was funny when the first game released how people were ripping on it for being a DMC rip-off. People didn't realize that Platinum was made up of Capcom expatriates, made by the very people that made DMC the series that it was and will never be again. Sales started out slow but good word of mouth spread helping it sustain strong sales a second month. It took me by surprise when it released, I had no idea or didn't care, then I tried the demo just before the launch, was pretty impressed so I picked it up. It was one of my favorite games of last gen so I couldn't pass up playing the sequel, even if it was on a Wii U which I admit I wasn't too thrilled about initially.

Stubborn and live on the past success. This is their main problem and until that's gone, Nintendo has a good chance of releasing yet another failure of a console.

@Heil68:

Of course they do. People have kids. Kids don't buy the games. Parent picks up the product. Has a E for 'Everyone'. That's a product label.

See that's completely false. A game like TLOU doesn't appeal to any rebellious crowd. It deals with mature themes children are often too young to understand.

I'm all for having games for people of all ages but to do that, we must ensure the games also appeal to children and that includes changes to aesthetics, atmospheres, characters and other things. More adult games doesn't necessarily mean pointless gore and violence. There is much more to adult themes than that.

Yeah, and I dont mind playing games of any ratings. I dont see a game rated "M" and automatically think its going to be better than an "E" rated game,

For me I'm personally burned out on Mario and Mario Kart games and wont be buying them for the NX,

Which is something Nintendo fans continually fail to understand. For some reason, adult to them equates to boobs, blood, and explicit gore.

@Heil68: still the gameplay. Nintendo has tried numerous other ideas. They don't catch on. Look at what they've done on DS and 3ds. The art direction lacks on their new properties created by the younger guns. .save for Splatoon.

Nintendo at its core is Mario though. he's the face of the brand. Nothing wrong with that, I just think the suits at Nintendo dont want to waver too far from it,

@Heil68:

It isn't their choice. It is what got them where they are. It's the image the consumer gave them. Maybe Apple should change the face of the company from an apple to a grenade?

Nintendo is stubborn and way the **** out of touch.

As game makers? No question they are some of the best, but it be nice if they did more new things. I don't need them to make M rated games to be honest, I have no problem with them being gaming's Disney/Pixar, but it be nice if they actually were gaming's Disney. Disney adapts and changes over time, Nintendo's idea of change is do it in a manner that can fit one of their already established formulas. It's what made Splatoon so fucking rad to play, it wasn't tied to anything. It's a shame Nintendo doesn't know how online works so it was missing basic features and launched as an early access game, but gamers are scum, so I almost don't even blame them for giving people less.

Nintendo has all the resources in the world to try more ambitious projects, and try way more new ideas. It's hard to tell why they don't, and also weird why their fanbase doesn't seem to care all that much that they don't. But maybe they'll try changing their ways after the Wii U. I'm sure Nintendo can live off 10 million selling consoles forever, but I'd assume they'd like more than that.

Their fans don't even acknowledge the fact that most of their games target the same audience. I mean you have people claiming Kid Icarus has mature themes. WTF?

That's my biggest issue with Nintendo. They are ignoring a large demographic of gamers who enjoy games with darker and more emotional themes. Nintendo is so afraid to crawl out of their shell and take risks with their software. IMHO, Nintendo needs to find better balance with their software. They can still keep on releasing new installments of Mario Kart, Smash and Zelda, but they also need to offer software that appeals to those who prefer games like GTA, Uncharted, Gears, Halo, Fallout. Witcher, etc....

Genres =/= Demographics

For all ages = Lowest denomination = Kids

It's similar to how the Nintendo haters are, they don't make deep and compelling arguments against Nintendo because they are lazy asses.

They already have the games for pretty much the most popular genres ( I suppose they don't have a FPS or a SIM) but what they really, actually need is marketing. Proper marketing. The WiiU did get its games right (even if it took a while to get there), but it got mostly everything else wrong.

Without getting a decent marketing team/effort they can try to make as many games as they want. They still wont appeal to a broader ( and by this I mean 'non-Nintendo' fans) audience.

Otherwise, a Bayonetta approach to the more gritty games (aka, letting studios with a bit more experience in that sort of look/lore/univers make them) seems, right now, the best approach for them. Let Nintendo do what it does best.

Splatoon is tied though, it's tied to that same tired fucking aesthetic that they use in nearly every game they make.

@emgesp:

Not ignoring, upholding their brand image. Look at Disney.

Metroid Prime and Animal Crossing.

@93BlackHawk93: Sorry, meant racing SIM. Probably should have been clearer about that.

Also when was the last Metroid Prime released? Wasnt there talk of a new one recently?

@Desmonic: ...

...

...

Federation Force

;_;

Well you can't argue that Disney does it way better then Nintendo when it comes to targeting different ages from kids to adults, Disney are the masters of brand images while Nintendo isn't Disney.

@93BlackHawk93: So....like I said....wasnt there talk of a new one recently? :v

@davillain-:

That part is irrelevant. It is still the same concept.

Moving on, why doesn't Sony or Microsoft create games with the same level of depth as Nintendo?

@Heirren: Define "depth".

@Desmonic:

East to pick up, hard to master. Complex rhythms with much room for player movement.

I think they try: games like Geist, Red Steel and ZombiU show they are interested in the shooter market for example.

It's just that Splatoon is a way better shooter than any of those, yet it's still considered kiddy by some...

A very interesting question here. Sony/MS are targeting different gamers for different taste but depending the games were talking about when it comes to easy to pick up, hard to master, I say it has to be Halo. Halo a first person shooter is easy to to pick up shoot, but at the same time, it's hard to master on the controller cause it's sluggish cause no KB/M support and that's all I can think. Nintendo however does it better from my experience but I can also say that Sony comes in seconds place and we seen what Sony could do when it comes to easy to pick up, hard to master.

@Heirren: Bloodborne ( and I suppose, Demons Souls but I never finished that one myself), DriveClub and GT from the top of the head (and that I've personally played a bit or a lot).

Also, I'd say most MP games these days fill that Bill. They're fairly easy to pick up and play but have loads of breathing space for you to dominate them (most recent example being the UC4 beta, which rewards map, class/power-ups and weapon knowledge).

PS: apologies for any obvious spelling errors, on mobile and sometimes things get weird with the autocorrect.

@Desmonic:

There's no logic to bloodborne. The hit boxes often don't make any sense. Driveclub? Sure. Haven't played it much but I won't doubt it as it's a racer--Mario Kart 8 adds a new layer of depth though. Some people dislike Mario Kart as what separates average to experienced players is a level of memorization. The tracks are almost like sheets of music with random composition changes imposed by other players.

I also agree on multiplayer. Street Fighter. Havent played the u4 beta. The big however is level design. I find that most maps today are poorly design geometrically, and visually. I get the feeling that people assume making X or y structure layout will work. Halo 2 and 3....it's why people still consider them great. COD could have depth, if the maps were designed to allow for it.

But really compare all that to what Nintendo does. It's literally in almost every game.

***no worries on the grammar. Recently got my first smart phone and the auto correct is a nuisance. Portrait mode it's almost necessary--kandscape mode and I can't see what I'm typing. I fear for the youth and what language will become in the future.

To me it seems like Nintendo is scared to move away from their tried and tested formula. I'm pretty sure they are aiming to be a family friendly console as well, at least for their IPs.

Most of what they make is cartoony stuff, I guess that appeals to a lot of their audience, what they don't realise is that puts a lot of people off, you can't just expect third parties to fill the gap there. It also seems like they never want to push the consoles hardware, probably because they know they have a weak system.

I've actually REALLY started thinking about this subject.

I'm beginning to think that Nintendo actually DOESN'T know what their target audience is.

We kinda give them the pass of saying their Target Audience is the "Nintendo Audience". But wtf is the "Nintendo Audience"?

Recently we've been scoffing at the notion of a Paper Mario with Stickers and less RPG and we have been VERY harsh on Metroid Prime Federation Force, And of course let's not forget the Animal Crossing Amiibo Festival and Mario Party 10 being NOTHING that their Fans wanted.

So Who is Nintendo Targeting to? Kids? Then what was the whole Deal with Bayonetta and Xenoblade X? Those games are not exactly meant for Children. But then again Why did they censor Fatal Frame when there was absolutely no need to, Everyone who was buying that game was 18 or Over or should be anyway.

When we criticize Federation Force it's mostly because we're trying to tell Nintendo THIS IS NOT HOW YOU MAKE A GAME FOR METROID. Nintendo in the Wii era got it. The People who Play Metroid or Love Metroid or are likely to Play Metroid are generally the Same people who play the Halo games. IT CAN'T BE A COINCIDENCE THAT THE METROID OTHER M TV AD LOOKS SO MUCH LIKE THE HALO REACH AD.

Now that is a reach (heh) but both games did Launch in the Same Year around the same time frame. I don't think Nintendo is stupid (or at least their marketing department), they know the target demographic for Metroid. But Nintendo gonna Nintendo and just Make games but don't take consideration of their Audience or their Brand.

To put it simply

To me I think this is Nintendo now.

I think the OP was talking about what Nintendo itself publishes, but the convo has included system exclusivity. For the latter, they have had a fairly broad range of games. Eternal Darkness was mentioned. What about MadWorld? HOD Overkill? Tales of Symphonia DOTNW, Conduit 1/2, Monster Hunter Tri, Baten Kaitos Series, Fire Emblem, etc...

The former would be a little more tricky. One could say that early Rare titles. Remember the NES days when Rare was essentially funded entirely by Nintendo. There are countless examples of this in the early days as well as Nintendo published games that were developed elsewhere. You don't see that as much any more which may be why we're even talking about it. Now if we're talking about publication and development, then you basically have Mario, Zelda, and Metroid.

Anyhow, I think the real problem is the lack of 3rd party support on these systems. They've made an attempt at having exclusives for gamers, but who in here thinks Bayonetta or MadWorld are going to get a Gears of War fan to switch over to a Nintendo system? Not sure that's their goal, or that it even needs to be. Would be nice to play COD on a Nintendo system with the same experience I have on a PS/MS system, but I doubt it will happen. Even if the tech side of it was better than the aforementioned, no install base for MP.

Why doesn't Pixar broaden their horizons? They should move into live action R rated movies because reasons because kids shouldn't have anything because I'm a selfish adult.