While the implausible success of titles like Carnival Games and Let's Imagine Babyz Quit Smoking Dogs and Hairstyle Experience would lead one to believe that casual games are easy sellers, Microsoft has declared that it is the so-called "hardcore" games that shift without difficulty, thanks to the fact that they sell themselves.
"The core are going to buy the games, we don't have to focus on marketing those -- well, we do, but those games in a lot of ways will sell themselves because they're such immersive and intense experiences that the core is going to buy, and buy disproportionally for the Xbox," says MS' David Dennis.
"It's a continuation of a strategy we've been articulating for a long time, which is that we have a powerful piece of hardware that enables a lot of different experiences. Let's start with the core users to really get their attention and get them invested and committed to us as a platform. Then as we look to broaden to new audiences, we have the hardware capacity and technology innovation to continue to evolve the experience, whether that's by bringing things like Facebook, Netflix and Twitter to give people more reasons to turn the console on, or with Natal in the future, with a more social, casual and interactive controller-free gaming experience that something like Natal brings."
... And more marketing speak.
I certainly see what Dennis is saying -- there is indeed a core fanbase that will always be following games and paying more attention to so-called "hardcore" games. That said, however, I don't think Ubisoft's litany of DS and Wii games are exactly struggling to find its huge target audience of retards.
Contest:
12:40 PM on 12.16.2009
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It is sad that those terrible games have been selling so well. Please try to steer your lesS-informed family/friends away from this stuff, it's our responsibility.
Hoot! XD
We're about to approach the point where companies realize it's more profitable to spend almost nothing making a game and everything on advertising it. Doesn't matter if the game sucks/isn't tested/is worthless, because the ad campaign will bring in enough preorders that it doesn't matter, and the less the spend on the game the more profit they make.
If the biggest game of all time can't get traction with a slight name change, then nothing in this industery can sell itself. I got Demon's Souls because I read it was supremely difficult. Without that review/word-of-mouth, the game would have been totally off my radar.
ewwwwww!
Oh yeah and the header should have been Captain Obvious.
Thanks for that. Didn't even know this existed. I guess you can disregard my earlier post.
I'm also pretty sure when one performs the Heimlich Maneuver, you need to remove any restrictive clothing, like a bra, and then feel around for the bottom of the rib cage, placing two fingers...
Oh, wait...that's CPR.
We just like to game.
What's stupid about this, is that every single company that has closed up shop this gen; Pandemic, Free Radical, Grin, Midway, Bottlerocket, etc.
They were ALL specilizing in hardcore games, that unfortunately, did not sell well at all.
i see this as what's most wrong with the gaming industry. it's been turned into the same shlock that hollywood seems dead set on producing. oh, and the fact that the majority of "hardcore" gamers are largely ignoring the biggest change to gaming that came this gen. yes, i'm talking about motion control. the biggest shame of all seems to be that the american game devs seem to be motivated only by the graphics that the different consoles can produce. as both the wii, and the ps3 are capable of much more than is currently being developed for them.
i'll stop my rant here, but it is really quite the quote up there about how m$ views their fanbase. i've got to say that this is easily the most disappointing gen of videogames i've yet seen, and i've been gaming since the atari 2600. i hope things change in the coming year.
We're actually witnessing a huge paradigm shift in gaming. If motion controls are just a "fad", then why is Sony and Microsoft in a rush to copy them with their own motion control schemes? Nintendo created this new market to make fresh customers to prepare for the day that the core gamers they've relied on for years ultimately dries up past, whereas Microsoft and Sony seem just happy to continue milk the hardcore gamers for their money. Unfortunately, we're beginning to see a backlash from the core gamers against Sony and Microsoft for doing this. The real problem is that there isn't much variety of games on the PS3 and the 360. You look at a lot of games on Destructoid's front page and a lot of the games could be interchangable with one another since they all look similar on the surface.
In the meantime, Nintendo has a very diverse variety of games, ranging from old-school arcade-like games, to hardcore games, to the new motion control games, and the like on the Wii. Also, if you're a core gamer, investing in a Wii for the future is only wise, since in Japan a lot of major third party titles are trending either towards the Wii or DS/PSP, mainly because console gaming in Japan is stagnant whereas handheld gaming is still thriving. As it stands, these multi-million dollar games being made are not going to be sustainable for much longer on the PS3 or 360 with their relatively small install base compared to the Wii or DS/PSP. It's really just a matter of time before the core market bubble bursts.
*changes mind, never wants to know*
So while it may look like core gaming is on the decline if you're judging by percent of the gaming audience, when it comes to raw numbers, the number of core gamers out there has actually increased, and they're spending more money. The likes of EA and Activision are taking in more revenue than they ever used to before, and it's not thanks to churning out casual minigames.
But like Loki, I don't even want to know.
Also, where has this "growth" of the gaming market come from? That's right, the Wii. Subtract all the new customers the Wii has from the gaming market, and we're left with a stagnant group of Core gamers who are gradually becoming more disenfranchised with the actions of the game industry. Sony and Microsoft haven't grown gaming as much as they've found new ways to fleece revenue from the Core market. But that market is beginning to show mounting hostility to these methods. Microsoft and Sony think they can cash-in on the "motion control" craze by releasing motion controls themselves, but the problem is that they miss the entire point of why Nintendo made their motion controls in the first place.
Back in the NES days, gaming was very accessible and inviting. As the hardware got better, and the console wars erupted, that ceased to be the case. Sony had the benefit of riding economic prosperity with the Playstation and PS2's success, but now that the economy is receding, we're seeing the ideals that brought them success are now weighing them down. People no longer have as much disposable income to throw around. Both Sony and Microsoft pricing their consoles as they did at the outset has hurt them more than can possibly know in the longterm.
The real problem with gaming today is that it is no longer inviting as it once was. That's why the Wii and DS are such successes: They're inviting to people that are normally put off by what games are today. There are games for the core market, for women, for old-school arcade gamers, and motion control games. That inviting sort of variety and experimentation is lacking on the PS3 and 360. Not only do the 360 and PS3 share most of the same games, they're all mostly the same. The variety just isn't there, and the kinds of games they make just are not appealing to new customers. Like I said, it's really just a matter of time before the Core Market as we know it becomes marginalized into a niche, or evaporates completely.
Also, can you explain the reasoning behind your header images, Jim? I... I just don't understand...
Short shipping a platform to increase demand and delivering new (based on decades old) IP's every 18 months isn't winning over the hearts and minds of casual gamers.
At 40, I know several people who still pull out RB or GH at parties and gatherings while the Wii they sat out for in the dead of winter has either been relegated to the closet or to another family on Craigslist long ago.
It's like getting rid of a trampoline...and we all know how that ended.
Oh marketing speak...
not to start a flame war, but you're a little off base. i'm not agreeing with vanor completely, but the idea that the consumer public sees nintendo as anything other than the industry leader is hogwash. you can dislike the big n as much as you want, but in the end, the wii is still putting the other consoles to serious shame on a monthly basis.
the topic at hand here is what's going on with the hd consoles, namely how M$ views their customers. the quotes listed above seem to the point that they know they can sell their games no matter the quality or artistic merits. this is the topic that should put you up in arms, because this means that they have no intent to make innovation, or art their driving force behind gaming. this WILL lead to the same stagnation that runs rampant in hollywood, and is the same mentality that lead to the gaming crash of the 1980's. if these aren't bad things for the industry, i don't know what is.
Sony and Microsoft are copying Sony because that's what companies in the same market do. Everybody does their best to "innovate" while taking the smallest risks they possibly can. Which is what they're doing now. You'll see this in every industry.
Your examples to prove your backlash theory are unconvincing. Guitar Hero is just as much of an appeal to casual gamers as it is to the hardcore, if not more so. All Activision has proven is that there's a limit to how much you can milk casuals. You say there will be a response to what they've done with Modern Warfare 2, but that's baseless speculation. So far their "middlecore" target audience still loves Activision and Infinity Ward just as much as they always have, if not more so.
In business the goal is to make customers, so you have to treat your customers well, or you won't keep them. They'll go somewhere else where they feel welcome, which considering all the hostility that we are seeing from "hardcore" gamers towards the Expanded Market, probably goes a long way towards explaining the success of the Wii and DS. Those systems are inviting. The way Nintnedo does things is inviting. The way Sony and Microsoft and a good chunk of the third parties have been doing things lately is not inviting. It's gradually driving people away.
What's happened with MW2 has laid the foundation for what's going to be coming down the road for Activision. People loved the first Modern Warfare, but we've seen with the sequel that the developers have sold out for the bottom line, for profit, not for the customers. The customers got the shaft, and in business, that's as good as signing your death warrant, just ask the American auto industry.
lol...
"whether that's by bringing things like Facebook, Netflix and Twitter to give people more reasons to turn the console on."
LOL
I've been a gamer since before the Atari 2600 (Intellivision, Acorn Electron, etc - had 2600, too), and unlike you I think this generation of consoles is by far the best, by a fucking country landslide. Go back and play the old games, on any old system, and I guarantee you about only 5% of them will hold yout interest for more than a few minutes. Nostalgia is a funny thing, and particularly exposed as fraudulent in gaming, IMO.