AceBandage said:
Yes.... it kept it on top with hardware sales. I have never disputed that, and in fact, that's exactly what I said.
However, it made the user base ignore most other games that weren't like WiiSports or weren't heavily marketed Nintendo items.
I can't agree, here.
The initial Wii user base had a lot of hopeful core type gamers who jumped on the Wii for the trade off of graphics for a new experience. A shitload of them got burned hard by early 3rd party turkeys like Red Steel, and convinced the Wii was just a joke.
The expanded audience did buy good games... when they were made and marketed correctly, and weren't pre-loaded with bad karma (such as Red Steel 2).
Not just Nintendo branded games either. Ubisoft knows that.
The expanded audience also proved they would fall over themselves to buy true bridge games, such as Mario Kart or New Super Mario Bros.
Where Nintendo failed IMO was in a lack of expanded audience software and bridge titles. Stuff like Wii Music and anemic, lifeless updates to Animal Crossing weren't good enough. They failed to support a key add-on, Motion+, which got virtually no games after Wii Sports Resort. They gave up entirely the year after that, with an almost insulting Wii Party game that was phoned in.
Nintendo needed 2 or 3 major bridge games like NSMB and Kart every year... not just one. They needed bridge games to adventure genres, shooters, action - bridge games to get the expanded audience into the heftier Nintendo series like Zelda. They needed a ton of M+ games to build on the great success of WSR. There was nothing.
3rd parties did their part by drowning the Wii in rail shooter versions of the real games people wanted to play with pointer shooting controls, and crappy games made by C level teams on no budget. Resident Evil 4 sold great early on 'cause people were excited about what it represented. Too much shit followed it. So they sold their Wii, or had it in the closet. By the time some brave souls did put out excellent core oriented games, most gamers had been burned.