HD was 'biggest factor' in lack of Wii core appeal

Despite its sales, core gamers generally preferred other consoles over the Wii. As the company prepares to launch the Wii U, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata is opening up about some of the Wii's shortcomings, and says that the lack of HD played a major role in the system's perception as casual-only.

"One of the key reasons that such things as the core and the casual exist today is that we decided not to adopt HD on the Wii console," Iwata said.

"Of course, besides that there are things like issues with the controller and the challenges that it brings, network functionalities and many other things, but I think HD was the biggest factor that everyone was able to clearly understand the difference," Iwata added in the latest edition of Iwata Asks.

He went on to say that the Wii U will have both HD and a unique controller, so the system can support both casual and core games. Iwata said the Zelda series proves the company is capable of core games, but recognized "quite a number of people who assume that Nintendo is the equivalent of being casual."

Nintendo may be battling the same perception in the next generation, given the company's Wii U presentation at E3. Although Nintendo teased several hardcore franchises for Wii U during its E3 presentation, its demos were largely casual mini-games starring the cute Mii characters.