Wii U

Kicking of the 8th generation of consoles is the Wii U, and ongoing with Nintendo's tradition of technologicaly unique controlers, the Wii U controler resemples a tablet, featuring a second game screen, with touch screen, motion controls and a layout of traditional buttons analougue sticks, d-pad and shoulder buttons. However the marketing directoin Nintendos taking thyis console seems a little bizzare in comparison to the Wiis marketing, as Nintendo ussually does, the Wii U is marketed towards the family market, however, Nintedo has made it clear that the Wii U isnt just for the family market and that this time, Nintendos console will appeal to both the family and hardcore gamer market. The fist and most obvious evidence is this is the, Wii U pro controller that is being marketed as an alternative controller, for more mainstream gamers, the pro controller heavily resembles that of a PS3 or Xbox 360 controller. Also updated is the online features that the new system uses. The Wii's online system was conviluted and overly comnplicated in its attempted efforts to make things more simple, basically it was a massive failure. The Wii U seems to utalise a much more traditional online gaming/social system complete with youtube and netflix. This seems like a sensible thing to do if Nintedo is trying to appeal to both the non mainstream soicial gaming market, and the hardcore gaming market as the hardcore gamer market will be more comforatable with this interface, and the casual market will apreciate the extra features such as video playing and internet browsers (similar to the PS3s marketing strategy as a universal entrtainmant system). This 'please everyone' marketing is also evident in the announced library of games for the console, as with previous nintedo consoles there is a wealth of family freindly games like mario, zelda, rayman and so on. However, many more mature rated games from the previous console genreation, such as mass effect 3, ninja gaiden 3 and batman:arkham city, are also being ported to the Wii U, aswell as some mature rated games, being produced soely for the Wii U, like Zombie U. Overall this seems like a risky marketing strategy for the Wii U, trying to claim dominance over both casual, and core gaming markets, wether Nintedo will succesfully grasp the hardcore market by the time Sony and Microsofts new systems are released, this may just be Nintedo nudging into the core market, and not dominating it, similar to the previous genreration were Sony and Microsoft attempted to cut into Nintedos success with the casual market with the Kinect and PlayStationMove. Only time will tell wether Nintedo's marketing strategy to please everyone with the Wii U will pay off or not.