Nintendo's next big system has been announced: the Wii U. That's old news. However, the system's design has raised quite a few eyebrows. Its specs are about on par with Xbox 360... which is five years old. And it's expected to retail at $300. Say what?
So what exactly is Nintendo's strategy? The new rumor: MMO's.
Supposedly, Nintendo's gotten their act together since releasing the Wii's lackluster online capabilities. The controller, which has a built-in screen, could contain items, stats, spells, and the like, thus freeing up the top screen to show the action. Pretty cool, right?
My issue is with Nintendo's marketing. Assuming this is where Nintendo is headed (and that's a pretty big assumption), they need to start pushing the online capabilities of the Wii U. So far the demonstrations have focused on simple, casual games with very little evidence of online function. This is not appealing toward the MMO audience.
On top of that, Nintendo has never appealed to the MMO market segment before. They have strong footholds in the casual and old-school segments (though both seem to be slipping). It does not make sense for Nintendo to abandon both of these groups in search of another audience to cater their products to.
I have doubts that Nintendo actually plans to take this route. If they do, Nintendo needs to change their marketing strategy now.
