Wii U still aims to attract ‘hardcore gamer audience’

Despite the Nintendo Wii U's lack of games to appeal to the traditional "hardcore" gamer audience, the company still remains committed to reaching out to them. At E3 we saw glimpses with Batman: Arkham City and Mass Effect 3, but for the most part we saw a lineup of games that appealed mostly to younger, more casual gamers. Nintendo has never really been known to cater to the core audience, but speaking to GameSpot, Nintendo marketing executive Scott Moffitt acknowledged they are still "very much part of our audience".

"It's a simple answer: the Wii U is designed to appeal to everybody. In the range of games we showcase at E3, you saw a lot of first-party content that will appeal to younger, newer, or more casual gamers," he said defending the Wii U's E3 presentation which showcased a rather casual lineup featuring NintendoLand, Wii Fit U, and Just Dance 4.

"A lot of third-party content that was shown will appeal more to core gamers. Oftentimes though, core and casual gamers live in the same household, so that's why so often you see households with more than one console, and the Nintendo platform is usually the most popular second console in some of those core gaming households," he explained.

Moffitt didn't rule out the core audience, however. In fact, he even suggested the Wii U could become the "preferred way" to play the more hardcore games. He even acknowledged that core gamers might find Call of Duty to be a better experience on the Wii U – even though it has yet to be announced.

"Do we want to reach out to the core audience? Absolutely. They're very much part of our audience and the group of consumers we hope will find the way you can reimagine games on the Wii U. The Wii U could become the preferred way to play those games for some of the core gamers," he explained. "You can imagine how a game like Call of Duty would work on the Wii U–the GamePad will allow you to declutter the TV and pull gaming items like maps down and not interrupt your interaction and enjoy the cinematic quality of the game on the TV. That's one application that could be exciting and could enhance gameplay for a core gamer."

One of the big problems with the Wii was that it didn't offer a similar experience to the more of the core consoles like Xbox 360 and PS3. Aside from the visibly sub-par graphics, the overall gameplay was hindered with the Wiimote controller. I think if the Wii U can offer similar graphics – which so far it seems to – along with gameplay that doesn't ruin the traditional core gamer experience than I think the Wii U could be a preferred platform.

Only time will tell, but we first need a launch date and price for the Wii U. Then we need some more core games to be announced. There have been rumors that Call of Duty could be headed to the Wii U, but so far neither Activision nor Nintendo have confirmed anything.

[GameSpot]