Sega: “Wii is in a strange place…”

If ripping out someone's beating heart isn't hardcore, I don't know what is.

Alan Pritchard, the vice president of Sega’s marketing division, had some thoughts to share about the Wii in a recent Game Informer interview.

Nintendo was supportive of the strategy. There was an intent to take the Wii console a little older, and make a more core machine. Things are different now. The Wii as a platform is in a strange place. It’s hard for retailers, and consumers are buying fewer products.

A lot of fanboys complained about the general lack of “hardcore” experiences on the Wii, and Sega stepped up to deliver something to curb their thirst for action. The result was incredible experiences like MadWorld, The House of the Dead, and The Conduit, but all of them were commercial failures – it seems the image of the Wii as a “family-friendly” system had already been too deeply inscribed within consumer’s minds for them to even credit these games’ existence. Now, Pritchard isn’t feeling too optimistic about the Wii’s future, which probably means Sega is losing interest in developing for the platform. If this is where things are heading, Nintendo should take note and market the Wii’s successor as something “hardcore-friendly,” so people come to know it as the place to get their gaming action fix – it’s what they’re trying with the 3DS, and that’s working beautifully so far.