Rhindle said:
It's too late in the game to be trying to "go after an older market." Metroid didn't do that for them in 2002, free Metroid isn't going to do that for them in 2004. They would be far better off capturing more holiday sales to parents with a Mario/WindWaker/SSBM bundle.
Metroid also had a horrible advertisement. Really one of the worst commercials I've ever seen (in general, not just for video games). And yet, Nintendo managed to reach out to *someone* since it became the #1 game in the franchise in the west.
And if you want to talk about successful bundles, Mario or TWW wouldn't be a way of going about it. The SMS bundle sold 600k units, and that was being bundled with a $50 game and a memory card for $10 or $20 more. SSBM makes Nintendo money each month at being $30 too, so bundling the game wouldn't be a great decision either. Parents will buy the system for their kids regardless since it is $100 and comes with a free game- or just get the $100 standalone sytem because it's the cheapest one out there.
Saying it's "too late" for Nintendo to go after the older market is about as bad as saying it's "too late" for Nintendo to go after the online market at this point. Though they can't take everything from Sony and MS, they can at least try to turn things around to have things all in order for next gen- something which looked like they were trying to do in 2000 with the N64 but forgot all about with the intro of the Gamecube.
They have at least three games in addition to their Mario lineup (Mario Tennis, Paper Mario 2, Mario Party 6) which parents will get for their kids. Since it's a given that those games will already sell to parents and the existing fanbase, Nintendo knows there's not much to lose by trying to capture an older market for their new Metroid, the FFVII-type market for Baten Kaitos, and casual fans of the N64 with GE2 (who judging by the commercials may think it's exclusive).