Analysts Predict Rough Road for Project Cafe

Predictions are usually luck of the draw: It was predicted the Wii would flop, and instead it went on to be one of the best selling home entertainment systems ever. Still, it’s interesting seeing and understanding where they are coming from with the intense criticism.

“The thing is, Nintendo has to convince third parties to put their best hardcore games on this new platform or else it will just be a disappointing Wii 2. If Project Cafe can secure superior versions of Call of Duty or Grand Theft Auto, for example, then the core gamers will get on board. From there, it’ll be easy to convince the casual consumers to get on the bandwagon as well. Problem is Nintendo’s platforms haven’t been great for hardcore third-party titles for quite some time now.”

“Judging from the controller prototypes that we’ve seen so far, I don’t think Nintendo’s trying to replicate the Wii’s casual-market success with Project Cafe – and if it is, I’m worried. Rather, this looks like an attempt to create a console that bridges this generation and the next-gen Xbox and PlayStation; with the hope that Cafe’s install base will be large enough when those new boxes launch those publishers will keep Cafe as the lead platform and port titles to the other hardware”

“If Nintendo wants to continue to show positive growth in the causal market, I think they need to allow for the free-to-play model within their marketplace. They don’t have to rely on big publishers like EA to make this happen. This could generate a very unique opportunity for titles from the indie dev crowd via Wii-ware. The free-to-play model is showing a phenomenal growth curve both in participation from gamers and revenue for publishers. If Nintendo passes on this opportunity, it would be a huge missed opportunity for ‘Project Cafe’.”

This is all according to analysts at GUN, which is the largest gaming consulting firm. I understand and appreciate the well thought out logic, and it seems to be a common trend in thinking with regards to Project Cafe. It wont win the casual crowd on it’s own, and it wont win the core crowd by “only” providing top tier Nintendo games. It needs superior third party versions of top tier games, and even some excellent exclusives. I mostly agree with the points, even if I wish the system would be a major success simply because it’s Nintendo.

Source: Industry Gamers