Lusipurr is also correct about indie being newcomer-friendly and the hardware discrepancy is also a notable fact, but I do think that while the indie scene brings in more new blood, Nintendo games are better suited to train life-long gamers.

I feel Nintendo’s biggest disconnect with modern gamers comes from the fact that we’re so familiar with the franchises, and because Nintendo is so frustratingly stubborn to swap out that which is unnecessarily familiar (8 cups in Mario Kart! 4 new, 4 classic! Forest, volcano, desert in Zelda! Same order of worlds in every side scrolling Mario!) that the games aren’t usually played in the long-form that it takes to get the most out of them. The way we did when we were younger. Seeing so much familiar tends to trigger a valid “NOT THIS AGAIN” reaction which makes it easier to ignore that Mario Kart 8 actually has tremendous balance and track design, turned up what’s needed to be skilled, and then rewards that skill in a way that is simply not present in recent iterations. The problem is that it’s not easy to see that at first, and being pummelled with shell after shell gets frustrating when veterans assume they should be instantly experts.

Nintendo has returned to rewarding skill in games in recent years, but has disguised this fact behind stubborn faces. I do think gaming needs Nintendo and I think game designers need Nintendo as something to aspire to, but gaming sure as hell needs not-Nintendo too so that everything can stop being so unified and palatable for “all ages”. Nintendo also, apparently, needs the reality check of terrible sales to stop jacking themselves off every few years.

I would put for that the indie scene, while excellent and vital to the survival of game design in the industry, is not made for newcomers.”

Not only is this untrue, it is massively and demonstrably untrue. The vast majority of indie titles are made precisely for newcomers. The ‘hardcore’ angle is a tiny side of the industry. Remember that most iOS/Android titles are indie productions.

Far, far more people play indie games regularly than those who ever bothered to consider purchasing a Wii. More ‘new gamers’ come from those titles than from Nintendo–the massive disparity in hardware ownership ensures that.

Nintendo, despite their faults, and which are many, brings in new blood. This is not something Sony, Microsoft, nor the Indie Scene can do.

I would put for that the indie scene, while excellent and vital to the survival of game design in the industry, is not made for newcomers.

Yes, it can lead to the easily labeled ‘casual’ or ‘for kids’ games, but the fact of the matter is Nintendo makes games that are mechanically simple and easy to pick up. Especially for younger players.

It is how they were able to bring in a lot more players with the Wii and the handhelds. The indie scene, for all its leaps and all, does not have the capability to bring in fresh blood like Nintendo can.

If they were to be relegated to such a role, then so be it. However, I still maintain that Nintendo’s place in the gaming industry is a vital one. Even it ends up being a pastiche for most players. And say what you will, but this year’s E3 made me want to purchase a WiiU and a 3DS because of the games they announced.

I think this might have been more true a decade ago than it is now. Indies–not big devs like Nintendo–are now the forefront of innovation and creativity. That doesn’t mean that *all* indies accomplish that, but that the best examples of innovation and creativity are found there–not, I’m afraid to say, at Nintendo. Nintendo, for all of its ‘evergreen’ quality that you mention, produces largely derivative titles. MK8 is a good example of this: what ‘new’ does it bring to kart racers? Nothing. It’s MK Wii with a worse battle mode.

Nintendo does occasionally turn out something creative or innovative, but more and more this seems to happen by accident in the same way that, sometimes, EA comes up with something neat for their grey-brown shooter franchise. ‘Even a broken clock is right twice per day,’ as the saying goes. But that doesn’t mean we should grant accolades to the broken clock for its accuracy, even if–in the distant past–it worked just fine.

The industry no longer needs Nintendo. It has sure and steady support from indies that do more–and, they do more with less. No big budgets, no five-year development cycles. Tiny teams on tiny budgets that turn out some of the most amazing games we’ve ever seen.

To put this another way, if I were to name the five most innovative, creative, and fun games since the year 2000, not one of them would be a Nintendo-developed title. In fact, I doubt any of them would even be on a Nintendo platform. That wouldn’t be the case pre-2000, but this is the new reality. It’s best to accept it, rather than to look longingly at the past, believing that the monstrous developers of the present are still the friendly developers of a time long-gone.