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Nintendo: Wii gamers are hardcore too
Author: Joe MartinPublished: 22nd May 2008
According to Nintendo, most people who buy a Wii are actually hardcore gamers.
According to Cammie Dunaway's speech at the Electronic Gaming Summit yesterday, the Wii is very much a console for hardcore gamers, as backed up by the numbers!
According to Nintendo of America, 79 percent of Wii gamers are males over the age of 18 and with an average income of $50,000 USD. More than half of that number game for more than five hours a week too.
In fact she said, although the people who buy the Wii are fairly typical hardcore players, it's the other household members who are seen playing the Wii that aren't typical gamers.
Around half of the other household members who play on the Wii are almost the exact opposite of the previous audence; women over the age of 25, 65 percent of whom play for only two hours a week.
"The real break-through, the real magic of the Wii console is that it brought new consumers into the game," she said before descending into teary-eyed PR speak. "We hope everyone will join us in showing everyone just how much fun video games can be."
Who plays the Wii in your house and why do you think the Wii has proven so popular? Let us know what you think in the forums.
Comments (17)
I'm very much the gamer of my household - and for years my girlfriend, parents, siblings etc could never see the appeal. However, with the wii, it's made it so much easier to get them involved. Even my mum likes a good bash on "Mario and Sonic at the Olympics".
As such, the real magic to me is the fact that it allows hardcore gamers like myself (and most other readers on this site) to involve friends and loved ones who have maybe never gotten into gaming before.
The console is selling well, trying to tell us that because in one country (I notice she doesn't mention the rest of the world) it's not overwhelmingly owned by younger people means the console is a 'hardcore gamers console' just isn't cool. The games for it are massively aimed at kids, and I mean massively.
While I confess that I don't know the Wii title line-up particularly well, the only games I can think of that're not aimed the younger market are Zelda: Twilight Princess, No More Heroes, Red Steel, Resident Evil: TUC, and Super Smash Bros. Brawl, although there are probably good reasons for saying SSBB is aimed at the younger players.
Nintendo are trying too hard to spin the Wii into the 'hardcore' arena. They're making a tidy profit on it already, there's no need for this pointless PR bullcrap, especially when the console is flying off the shelves like it is.
I'm not even sure what makes a hardcore gamer, these days. I mean, time commitments can't be taken into account, because otherwise people with jobs outside of the gaming industry/games journalism industry are immediately discounted, because they don't get paid to play/design/work on/work with/blahblahblah games.
It's certainly not about top of the range graphics, because consoles have killed the need to spend hundreds and hundreds of pounds/dollars to get the best out of a games engine anymore. Performance is a stalemate, too, for the same reason.
IMO: Consoles have made the line between casual and hardcore gamer so blurred, that it really doesn't make a blind bit of difference anymore. I know gamers who play top of the range titles, and things like bejewled, a game is a game to them, and to me.
it does matter, having a good fanbase means more sales and therefore better product support and game variety and console lifespan (see PS2 as a great example of this)
problem is for hardcore gamers, we want somethin that poses massive challenges in a traditional gaming style. ie, we don't want to see how uber we can get on wiisport, or mario galaxy, or zelda, any anything like that, we'd rather spend time getting good at CoD or unreal or warcraft or something with a serious, extended gameplay approach.
that's the main reason i wouldn't get it. it's a great console, introduces people, but there's just nothing that's mature about it, and i think in the long run that's going to dissuade a good legion of gamers such as myself from buying one.
Just because a game can be played by younger players doesn't necessarily mean its aimed at them. Take Smooth Moves for example, just as suitable for a 5 year old as anyone else. In fact, its best after a night out when everyone has had a couple drinks too many, so maybe that means its aimed at adults? A game does have to have an 18 rating to be enjoyed by adults
I think people are getting confused between "for kids" and "suitable for kids"
I did say I don't know the Wii's title line too well :p
As demonstrated by not even beginning to know what 'Smooth Moves' is.
When I see the local Game stores' Wii game range, though, I just don't see anything that doesn't seem to be aimed at kids.
I assume, not being a fan of the Wii to start with, that I'm not paying enough attention to see all the more adult orientated games. When games like Cooking Mama or Eledees/Elebits are at the forefront of the 'selling points' from friends, I'm not exactly going to get the best view of the games line up (Considering, IMO, Zelda and Mario games can go fall into a volcano as far away from me as possible). I'm not saying that adults can't enjoy those games, or any games like them. I'm just saying that their style (Basic design, large colourful environments and characters) are more appealing to younger people, and is saying to me "This game is aimed at younger people". Which more often than not, is the entire Wii display at my local Game store. Where as the 360/PS3/PC shelves are a much wider spread of games, more of which don't scream "designed to appeal to younger players" at me.
As for the rating thing, I don't have that many 18 rated games. Being an 18 isn't a guarantee of an adult theme. I mean, the Shrek series is a U (Or something equally far down the chain of ratings), and it was incredibly enjoyable, yet had some rather entertaining adult undertones that cracked me up.
Edit: From what I can see in the article, she never really defined what a 'hardcore' gamer is. Folks in this thread are defining 'hardcore' gamers as people who play X game or Y game; but, in the article it appears as though Cammie Dunaway is defining a 'hardcore' gamer by the number of hours played. So, in her opinion the Wii is suitable for hardcore gamers, for a given value of 'hardcore'.
Personally, I don't think it matters one way or another. The Wii is designed to play certain games. A lot of people are buying the console because they think those games are fun. The sales figures seem to indicate that CoD and Unreal aren't exactly critical titles.
-monkey