I was really surprised when I read the Letter from the Editor column in this month's Play Magazine.  Before I post the text of that column I'll put the magazine into perspective for those who may not read or have not heard of the magazine before.  It's basically a North American videogame magazine for casual and hardcore gamers alike (even it's editor bills himself as a casual gamer).  It also does not court controversy and is very easy/nice to the people and companies it interviews or profiles and in my opinion it's too easy on the games it reviews. 

Anyways here's what the editor had to say this month:

Nintendo has officially gone off the reservation

"Leading up to the new E3 "business summit," we've been attending various Gamer's Days to sample the goods we once braved a week in LA to ponder.  Not only is this a more efficient way to see what each publisher has in store, but it's also more informative, given we get to spend quality time with each game, producer, and so on.  Sony, Sega, Ubisoft, Namco Bandai, EA, Eidos, Activision...everything seemed to be going as planned until we landed at Nintendo.  Eager to see Mario Galaxy, Battalion Wars 2, Project H.A.M.M.E.R., and Super Smash Bros. Brawl we were met with everything but.  In fact, outside of confirming Galaxy and Brawl, no other games were even mentioned, and aside from Corruption, not a single new title was on display.  What followed was like a trip to the Twilight Zone as Reggie took the stage to declare Nintendo's master plan.

Was he concerned that the machine has become the mecca for sub-par ports in its first year?  No.  Or that as third parties begin to develop dedicated PS3 and Xbox 360 games, even those ports will soon dry up?  Uh...no.  Did he announce any exciting new titles or at least explain where all the old ones were?  Negative.

No, what Reggie explained is that it's your mom they want; that games like Nintendogs would pave the way for generations of Wii gamers to come.  Nintendo's focus will now shift from the core gamer to the casual to very casual gamer.  He concluded the diatribe on their new demographic by throwing us casual gamers a bone, albeit a tiny gnawed-on chicken wing, by proclaiming that Nintendo would never forget who got them here - that would be you and me - but that doesn't change the fact that in one calendar year Nintendo has not announced a single first-party game for the real-gamer demographic.  They can't even be troubled to crank out a localization of Fire Emblem.  Wow...thanks Redge: I can stop dreaming about Heavenly Sword and Fable 2 now.

While the Wii definately has some great games left on the schedule (the same ones) along with a trickle of third-party exclusives, the future of the Wii does not revolve around us gamers.  That ship has sailed.  While we dust ourselves off and head for higher HD ground, yeah, it hurts a bit, but I wonder if it will actually work?  I don't blame Nintendo for stepping outside of the 360/PS3 arena and doing something different, but I don't understand why they have to ditch us to do it.  It makes sense to cash in on the virtual pet/brain/twister/pedestrian sports craze (I guess), given their hardware and unique controller (not to mention they're also sitting on the world's hottest hardware in the DS).  I just wonder if the casual gamer can support a console?  I was really looking forward to Wii exclusives designed to the system's considerable strengths.  Metroid Prime 3 Corruption really shows the potential of the machine, as do games like No More Heroes, NiGHTS, Red Steel 2, and Zake & Wiki.

In the meantime we'll of course relish every Mario, Metroid, and Zelda as few and far between as they may be, but for now let's take a moment of silence to remember the Nintendo of old...We never did get a Kid Icarus.

-Dave Halverson Editor In Chief"

Lemme predict that the fire of a thousand suns (in the form of Nintendo fans) will descend upon this thread and destroy everything in their wake...

Is this the same Play Magazine that praised Metroid Prime 3? 

 So you think the editor of the magazine who just visited Nintendo doesn't know about Mario Kart coming to Wii and we do right?

Play has had op-ed pieces like this since the Wii launch. 

In some sense it just goes to show how different Wii is from previous changes in gaming.

Once again ckmlb you have no clue what you are talking about. The standing argument is that Nintendo is holding off showing their new games because they want to show them all at E3, not a pre conference that will be posted on the internet within 5 minutes after opening. If they don't show something at E3 then you can start talking like that, but it's just stupid to do it now.

If this is the case why is the editor in chief reacting like this tell me? What is the point of this write up but to say that Nintendo is abandoning gamers for casuals. Did you read the whole thing?

Like he said few and far between will be the traditional games coming from Nintendo after the big three hit later this year. 

It's just strange coming from a magazine that gave Zelda: Twilight Princess game of the year and from a person who was always praising Nintendo.

Maybe he only knows as much as the people reading this but I can't help but think that someone who's an editor of a major gaming magazine and who knows a lot of the key players in the industry and attends a lot of events and talks to people behind the scenes must have some insight about what's coming.

nintendo is smart, they think that 3rd parties would make the FPS's for them. the FPS genre is pretty well established by now, most developers have a good idea of how to make good ones. with wii's point and click, and metroid seemingly being great, they'll have a model to copy and they will be good. it's a void they'll be eager to fill.

it's the same reasoning as nintendo not making M rated titles themselves. nintendo courts 3rd parties to make them--No More Heroes, Manhant II, etc--to fill the void.

but the casual markets--3rd party are slow to recognize its potential, and few if any really knows how to make those games, and nintendo is solidifying its market leader position.

it's just extending your competitive advantage. brilliant tactics. higher margin business. of course, it sucks quite a bit for the "real" gamers--nintendo games are quality, and they'll be missing that.

I kind of agree with that editorial .Nintendo has a master plan ,take all the grannies and executives and grow-up people ,all the fathers and mothers and little child and bind them to their brand with casual games .Add to that the Nintendo faithfuls that with Mario Zelda Metroid and Fzero have enought and you have all the support they need .But that master plan doesnt rely on us gamers at all .The best games on the Wii are Cube ports as Paper Mario (skipped from the Cube to the Wii ) ,Zelda TP and RE4 .Sure some Metroid Prime 3 ,Mario Galaxy ,Smash Bros Brawl ,Mario Kart will eventually appear .....they always do .But is that enough ?

Uh... lemme see. Editor in Chief versus consumer. Who knows more about the industry... hmmm...

No offense but I'll go with the editor in chief on this one.

Also I like how you slipped in the diss on casual gamers there, so now casual gamers don't know about games as much as non-casuals? But I thought they were the new blue ocean that we must all bow down to and accept the fact that Brain Age is the new Mona Lisa.