GUN, the largest consultancy firm dedicated to gaming, has told online gaming publication Industry Gamers that Nintendo will not be able to achieve the same level of success that they had with the Wii. GNU claim that Nintendo simply will not be able to capture the same market that engaged in the Wii phenomenon. Do you think Nintendo can achieve the same level of interest with Project Cafe as it did with the Wii?
“The thing is, Nintendo has to convince third parties to put their best hardcore games on this new platform or else it will just be a disappointing Wii 2,” says Dan Hsu, former EGM Editor-in-Chief, GUN consultant and co-founder of Bitmob.
“If Project Cafe can secure superior versions of Call of Duty or Grand Theft Auto, for example, then the core gamers will get on board. From there, it’ll be easy to convince the casual consumers to get on the bandwagon as well. Problem is Nintendo’s platforms haven’t been great for hardcore third-party titles for quite some time now.”
“Judging from the controller prototypes that we’ve seen so far, I don’t think Nintendo’s trying to replicate the Wii’s casual-market success with Project Cafe – and if it is, I’m worried,” comments Demian Linn, another consultant for GUN and co-founder of Bitmob.
“Rather, this looks like an attempt to create a console that bridges this generation and the next-gen Xbox and PlayStation; with the hope that Cafe’s install base will be large enough when those new boxes launch those publishers will keep Cafe as the lead platform and port titles to the other hardware”
“If Nintendo wants to continue to show positive growth in the causal market, I think they need to allow for the free-to-play model within their marketplace,” notes Wes Keltner, co-founder of GUN. “They don’t have to rely on big publishers like EA to make this happen.”
“This could generate a very unique opportunity for titles from the indie dev crowd via Wii-ware. The free-to-play model is showing a phenomenal growth curve both in participation from gamers and revenue for publishers. If Nintendo passes on this opportunity, it would be a huge missed opportunity for ‘Project Cafe’.”
I’m sure it’ll be a burst of selling at first, and then it’ll calm down when people realize that there won’t be any good launch titles. Essentially the 3DS all over again.
Wow seriously! We dont know about any games coming out for the system at all, and you automatically assume there are going to be bad launch titles!?!? You sir are a certified IDIOT!
yea dude stfu ur an idiot and who ever published this article is an idiot. ”If wii doesnt bring hardcore games to the console neither casual or hardcore gamers will be on board”. Uhhh helllo! does anyone need a reality check? Last time I knew Nintendo is all about casual games like mario and LoZ. It doesnt need games like CoD to be sucessfull. Casual gamers should already be on board. DURRR.
I take thast back the GUN consultant is an idiot.
Are you calling Mario platformers and any Zelda game casual? You sir, are an official idiot.
The future is too far ahead to say this.
Agreed.
I have never, and hopefully will never, pay for F2P games. If I pay for a game, great. But if I already have the game, I’m not paying for extra virtual content.
And I’ve been saying one of those points for a long time; Nintendo needs the Project Cafe to be such a presence that devs will be forced to make the games compatible with Cafe and then port it to the other systems. Just like with the 360 and PS3/PC. The 360 is much weaker than both of those systems, yet devs have to make games weaker so they can run on the 360 and then port it. Nintendo needs that sort of control over the market.
agree
what are you an idiot? The 360 is weaker then the 360? hello fanboy welcome to the real world. The 360 is slightly less in performance while the PS3 can handle more because of its processor that the same company who made it who also got hacked because they did not thnk they would need firewalls doesnt know how to use its processor to its max potential. Not to mention Nintendo has been straight on with backwards compabtabilityso far or have you not realised that?
What’s a Call of Duty?
Bring on the Next-Gen Exclusives Nintendo. Games are NOTHING like the ones available anywhere else.
exfuckingaclty
I love you, NOW GET A JOB AT NINTENDO AND MAKE THEM GET IT RIGHT!!!!!
I think their wrong on that. I believe this new system will be unique and different.
How could they possibly make a prediction like this when barely anybody knows ANYTHING about the system or what it can do or what games will be available? I think its a week too soon to make these kinds of calls guys
I actually agree that it won’t sell as well as the wii, since the wii attracted both gamers and non-gamers due to motion controls, so far project cafe seems to only have attributes that would attract gamers, which isn’t a bad thing in my opinion
I forget who said it, maybe it was Nintendo itself, but Project Cafe won’t have the same demographic as the Wii.
wow…. ever hear of don’t knock it till you try it? how the FUCK can you analyze something that isn’t even out yet, seriously
I think it makes sense, the Wii created an insane craze when it launched because of it’s fun and easy motion controls and its friendliness to casual gamers. Unless Nintendo have come up with some new way of capturing enormous casual gamer crowd that bought the first Wii, I doubt Project Cafe will create the same craze. Especially considering that this console seems to be aimed at the “hardcore” market.
That said, it still is looking like it’ll be a crazy good console.
I wonder if any of these consultants predicted the Wii’s success in the first place, or whether they joined the chorus in saying the Wii would be a giant failure pre-2006.
Why should they be believed now?
They where all part of the nintendo will die crowd. They have seriously lost touch with gaming.
Any 3rd party putting crap in the wii 2 is going to look so lame. They will not have the excuse of it being hard to program for or it being too kiddy since more adults play wii than kids apparently.
They falsely assume the hardcore is not made up of kid gamers. Just log on to live or psn. Kids every where! Most adults don’t even have time to beat or play there games.
On top of this all. Nintendo just got finish making almost all their franchises must play experiences. One 2d hd Mario later and the wii 2 could catch up to current hd systems easy. I mean which 20 million selling game do they need to put out to do this and then 3rd parties mist port to the wii just to break a good profit due to the cost of trying to wow graphic whore only gamers.
Put simply 3rd parties need intends next machine. Nintendo is simply improving on their formula which is gaming for every one which includes the casual and hardcore plus the old schoolers and arcade junkies.
I have to agree with the article. Though the new console may exceed predictions the Wii did enjoy quite the unusual success and so yes that will be hard to beat. But no that doesn’t make it impossible… Think about the PS2? Still the best selling console in the world on units sold so the Wii though successful still didn’t live up to another console. But thats not my point of course…
That GUN article was made before Nintendo have announced their release titles, upcoming titles and the full spec of the console so they haven’t adequately involved audience reaction and anticipation prior to launch. We are all hoping Nintendo do well and yes it may beat the Wii, but the Wii did do exceptionally well and GUN are quite correct predicting the new console won’t meet the same success. But everyone can be proven wrong, even the impossible is possible : )
Yep like who except Nintendo thought a graphically weak system would win this generation?
I would believe this, but it’s not all about sales, it’s about the customers. And it sounds like this is the console that will bring the hardcore audience that generally disliked the Wii back to Nintendo. So, if it doesn’t sell, I won’t care, as long as it’s good.