Nintendo is absolutely concentrating more on the older demographic with both the Wii and the DS, but it's not in the way everybody thought back when "NINTENDO IS KIDDY" was the rallying cry amongst the throngs of acne-ridden, Xbox-crazed teenagers. Apparently, at some point during the GameCube's lifespan, Nintendo realized that there was no breaking into the 18-25 demographic. Sony and Microsoft held on to that age bracket with a grip so strong that to attempt to breach it would be completely futile, and so they did what they do best - make fun games that can occupy a small enough period of time to play wherever you are. Riding out the storm of the past generation was a good idea, and now that the Wii is ready for launch they've adopted an excellent new strategy - simplify video gaming enough to appeal to everybody. Nintendo has completely left the adolescent market behind and is now concentrating on marketing video gaming to everybody from children to their grandparents. As far as I know, this hasn't been done before - and should Nintendo succeed, they stand to gain huge amounts of untapped market share. The recent success of games like Brain Age and Sudoku Gridmaster prove that Nintendo is able to appeal to all ages, and should the Wii take off as well as the DS has and sell alongside the Xbox 360 instead of competing against both it and the PlayStation 3, this could very well be Nintendo's generation to take back the market.
Of course they're not. Now, I'm never one to agree with the casual gamer, but I can't help but be the one who admits it to his "acne-ridden, Xbox-crazed" friends that Nintendo is releasing another Mario title, or another Pikmin title, or that Nintendo is cel-shading another video game (I'll never live down playing Wind Waker, I swear). I'll agree with you on one thing though Matthew, Nintendo has given up on the 18-25 demographic. The only problem with this, is that this is the demographic that is spending the millions of dollars on the ‘Halo's and the ‘Grand Theft Auto's. Going after the few hundred grandparents who will play "Grand Theft Ear Medication" or "A Halo When You Die" isn't going to secure Nintendo's spot anywhere. The Touch Generation is the wrong generation, I don't care what Japan tells you.
You say that Nintendo spent this generation "riding out the storm"? I say they spent this generation making the same old Nintendo style mistakes. Let's take a look shall we? In 2001, the Nintendo GameCube is released with Nintendo's flagship title: Luigi's Mansion. In 2002, we get the "wonderously kiddy" Animal Crossing. Follow that up in 2003 with Nintendo's main E3 offering: Pac Man Versus (along with the ever so popular GBA connectivity). Nintendo then rolls out, in 2004, yet another Mario title in the form of Paper Mario 2, and follows that up in 2005 with a couple more Mario titles and an abysmal console Advance Wars title, "kiddified", into Battalion Wars. Add that to the fact that Nintendo went on to release 4 straight "family friendly" Mario Party titles every year on the GameCube from 2002 to 2005, and it shows that Nintendo isn't helping themselves shake their "kiddy persona". Take also into consideration the fact that the most "mature" titles offered on Nintendo's latest console (Eternal Darkness, Killer7, and Resident Evil 4 to name a few) were not even created by Nintendo, but by third and second party developers who took a chance on a little purple box (Writer's Note: Silicon Knights, the developers of Eternal Darkness went on to cut ties with Nintendo, while Capcom, the publisher of both Killer7 and Resident Evil 4, went on the release both those titles on the PlayStation 2 after mediocre showings on the GameCube).
So has their view finally changed with the Wii? Of course not. Again, Nintendo is making the same old mistakes, expecting third parties to bail them out with the core 18-25 demographic (in the form of UbiSoft's Red Steel), while they spend their time rolling out yet another Mario title, yet another Pokémon title, and yet another Animal Crossing title.
Bring on Mario Party 8, right Nintendo?
