Nintendo: the Wii appeals to more hardcore gamers than you think

While some feel that the Wii hasn’t captured the attention of the “hardcore” gamers, Nintendo of America executive vice president Cammie Dunaway presents a few figures that may make you do a double take on that theory. Check out the full article for more information.

Most gamers would probably think that the Wii hasn’t captured the attention of the “hardcore” gamer market. Nintendo of America executive vice president Cammie Dunaway recently gave out a few figures at the Electronic Gaming Summit which may prove these people wrong.

She pointed out that 79 percent of Wii gamers are male, aged over 18 with an average income of US$ 50,000 or more. In addition, half of these individuals clock in five or more hours of gaming a week.

Dunaway pressed on saying that while those who buy the Wii are pretty typical for gamers, others from the same household who also play with it aren’t. She cited that 45 percent of the these secondary gamers are female with 38 percent 25 or older. In addition, 65 percent of these gamers play two hours a week while 32 percent log in five or more hours.

So what does this say about the console? Dunaway concluded that what makes the Wii special is not that it appealed to gamers but that it introduced more people to video games and expanded the market:

The real break-through, the real magic of the Wii console is that it brought new consumers into the game.

We in the industry have a choice to make, do we want to appeal to the few or to the masses? Do we want to sell to more people or sell more and more and more to less people? Do we want to be inclusive or do we want to be expansive? At Nintendo we definitely believe in the power of the expanded audience.

This sounds like a good business move on the part of Nintendo. However, it makes one wonder what repercussions this will have on the content being released on video gaming consoles. Will it further expand the number of titles and genres we have now and will it have more developers focusing on developing games for the mass market?

Via Kotaku