Are console manufacturers shifting their focus to casuals only?

With the last E3, Xbox 360 fans seemed to be left out in the cold, as the majority of the show was focused on Kinect... just recently, Nintendo announced it has no plans to bring the missing Wii games to NA, and (even though this is only just speculation at this point), the Sony Spain guy commented that the next PlayStation will most likely go after female gamers, and we already know they won't invest nearly as much in horsepower as they did in PS3... so i'm thinking a Wii clone...

which leads me to think that the console industry as a whole is shifting evenfurther tocasuals now, and especially will be in the next gen...

more and more of my attention is being shifted to PC gaming, and in the next generation I fear that motion/casual gaming will be the absolute standard for consoles, with ofcourse call of duty on the side...and those geeks like me will have to seek out PC games to get the fix we need...

of course, I could be completely wrong- haha, i admit that. this is just my 2 cents.

thoughts?

Consoles were always designed for casual gamers. Its the largest market. It just happened to have some hardcore games. This is not suprising in the least bit to anyone.

Consoles were always designed for casual gamers. Its the largest market. It just happened to have some hardcore games. This is not suprising in the least bit to anyone.

XaosII

not so.

many consoles have been designed for the "gamers" and only them... just look at the SNK Neo Geo, Saturn, Dreamcast... even the Genesis/SNES didn't really bring in the casuals in the droves the current gen does... the PlayStation is the first machine i can think of that really just zealously went after the casual crowd... which is one reason why it was so successfull.

[QUOTE="XaosII"]

Consoles were always designed for casual gamers. Its the largest market. It just happened to have some hardcore games. This is not suprising in the least bit to anyone.

Scoob64

not so.

many consoles have been designed for the "gamers" and only them... just look at the SNK Neo Geo, Saturn, Dreamcast... even the Genesis/SNES didn't really bring in the casuals in the droves the current gen does... the PlayStation is the first machine i can think of that really just zealously went after the casual crowd... which is one reason why it was so successfull.

Also, the original Playstation was largely geared towards the young adult audience and not the casual market. In any case, it certainly didn't zealously go after the latter.

Casuals...oh how I hate that word. Its tossed around too much and its as if they're less of a gamer as anyone else. Who determines who a "hardcore" gamer is and what a "Casual" is? Is a person who wakes up at 3am to harvest their farmville crops not hardcore? Or someone who does Wii Fit twice a day everyday?gmaster456

granted, perhaps it is tossed around too much- perhaps i should have said "traditional" gamers as opposed to those using consoles only for netflix, espn, or fitness? its a bit simpler to just use those words than trying to define each crowd in greater detail.

[QUOTE="Scoob64"]

[QUOTE="XaosII"]

Consoles were always designed for casual gamers. Its the largest market. It just happened to have some hardcore games. This is not suprising in the least bit to anyone.

1PMrFister

not so.

many consoles have been designed for the "gamers" and only them... just look at the SNK Neo Geo, Saturn, Dreamcast... even the Genesis/SNES didn't really bring in the casuals in the droves the current gen does... the PlayStation is the first machine i can think of that really just zealously went after the casual crowd... which is one reason why it was so successfull.

lol, i don't need a history lesson. jeeze i forgot that in system wars one must bring their flame shield, as everyone has a such acynical response... ^_^and the Neo Geo wasn't exactly a failure... they invested far less than Sega did in their consoles and it continued to sell games for years and years.

Contrary to SW belief, casual gamers have historically played "hardcore" games as well as casual garbage. It's true that these new (terrible) systems are meant to grab their attention, but they're a distraction from what has historically brought over "casual gamers." The games. Casual gamers have played games like Resident Evil 4, Final Fantasy X, and many other beloved titles amongst so called "hardcore" gamers.

It's not a shift away from "hardcore" to "casual," it's a shift from game libraries to the systems themselves. You don't buy a Wii because you want Zelda. You buy a Wii because you want to play "Wii." MS wants casual gamers to be excited about "being" the controller, rather than their actual game library. Perhaps this is why games like Xenoblade aren't being released in America. The games are largely irrelevant, as long as they buy 2 or 3 and pay into profitable hardware platforms. Sony's move failed to grab casual gamers because of the change in the way the PS3 was designed (PS2 was the "every-console," PS3 was designed as the "luxury model") and because the Wii is simply no longer exciting to consumers. Hence Wii U. Nintendo is hoping that new consumers will buy into their system due to being excited over the design.

This is incredibly important given that developers, at least in Japan, are struggling to meet the demands of this gen and will continue to struggle if not die out in future generations. What this business practice does is make the efforts of the hardworking, creative, and inspired developers less relevant to the business model of the console developers.

They occasionally throw us a bone, but yeah they are shifting more and more towards casuals. :(

From a business standpoint it's perfectly understandable why they're doing it; the casual market is bigger, so therefore more money can be sucked out of them.

You're completely wrong, even though there have always been more casual gamers playing games on all platforms, including the PC. The Wii has always focus primaringly on casual gamers, but they have already said that with the Wii U, they will be trying to bring back more hardcore gamers. XBox 360 is still trying to push Kinect, that's true, but they too said they will be making hardcore games for Kinect as well. Microsoft main problem is not having enough 1st and 2nd party developers to make a substantial amount of exclusives hardcore games. RARE is strictly making casual Kinect games, Avatar accessories and tools for XBox Live. Lionhead Studios keep making Fable games. (sigh... where BC and Black & White collectors edition? )Turn 10 is making, whatelse, Forza 4. Microsoft needs to buy at least 3-4 companies for 1st line exclusives or buy a major companies like EA or Activision. Their E3 was the worse of the 3. No surprises at all except for Minecraft. Very disappointing.

In any case, developers are moving more toward game consoles, then they are PC's,

The manufacturers, yes(sony, microsoft, nintendo). The third party developers, no.

[QUOTE="Scoob64"]

[QUOTE="XaosII"]

Consoles were always designed for casual gamers. Its the largest market. It just happened to have some hardcore games. This is not suprising in the least bit to anyone.

1PMrFister

not so.

many consoles have been designed for the "gamers" and only them... just look at the SNK Neo Geo, Saturn, Dreamcast... even the Genesis/SNES didn't really bring in the casuals in the droves the current gen does... the PlayStation is the first machine i can think of that really just zealously went after the casual crowd... which is one reason why it was so successfull.

Also, the original Playstation was largely geared towards the young adult audience and not the casual market. In any case, it certainly didn't zealously go after the latter.

We'll see if Nintendo of America is "shifting" anything beyond releasing more mainline Nintendo franchises. If Xenoblade is any indication, we can't expect a real effort from the company. They wont even improve their library when the work is done for them.

Sony seems to be maintaining a good balance, but Microsoft is diving into the casual market nose first trying to chase Nintendo. Sony just keeps doing what they've always done and I'm fine with that.Timstuff

To be fair, Sony didn't receive as much encouragement as MS. If Move had been wildly successful, who knows what we would have seen.

Depends on which console manufacturuer you are talking about.

The 360 is.TheMoreYouOwn

So are Nintendo and Sony.

Yes. They're shifting to wherever the money is, casual games with micro transactions.

call of duty showed them casual is where the money is unfortunately

Yes, they aim for larger crowd. Core gamers will outlived their usefulness soon. We are expendable. :twisted:

So far the only console to blatantly focus on casual gamers is the Xbox Kinect system.

I would argue that console makers started to focus primarily on casuals back when the PS2/DC first came out and game busted onto the mainstream and mass market.

I would argue that console makers started to focus primarily on casuals back when the PS2/DC first came out and game busted onto the mainstream and mass market.

ZIMdoom

the DC went after casuals?

I wouldn't say casual games it is more simplistic maybe gimmicky experiences, you can be hardcore in wii sports, anyway I guess that the development cost of a game like kinect adventures is less than a third of say Skyrim, yet it will say more than a third part of skyyrims sales, which turns into bigger profit

also I am not willing to give it much tought but has microsoft released core games since the availability of kinect?

[QUOTE="ZIMdoom"]

I would argue that console makers started to focus primarily on casuals back when the PS2/DC first came out and game busted onto the mainstream and mass market.

Scoob64

the DC went after casuals?

What were their top games? I only really remember people playing Sonic and sports games.

I don't think people are ever going to realize that manufactures never cared about the hard core market. That and I still have no idea what the hell a hard core gamer is. In all honesty people who only play CoD and gush about how awesome MW3 is going to be seem more casual to me than someone who only plays Wii Sports or Wii Fit.

thats the thing,

people dont realise nintendo has been releasing the same games as they have since nes

mario zelda dk etc

but i think people need to really learn the definition to casual and playing alot

casual is just playing less --eg for about a half hour or what not , its basically --not playing all the time ,

also , i think the term you guys are refering to is bargin bin titles, those have been around since snes nes ,,

the console with the most games always seams to be the one that is successful,

thats the thing,

see

snes

nes

ps1

ps2

wii

ds gb series

that said , what ever console has alot of types of games and alot of them thats the seller

thats the thing,

people dont realise nintendo has been releasing the same games as they have since nes

mario zelda dk etc

but i think people need to really learn the definition to casual and playing alot

casual is just playing less --eg for about a half hour or what not , its basically --not playing all the time ,

also , i think the term you guys are refering to is bargin bin titles, those have been around since snes nes ,,

the console with the most games always seams to be the one that is successful,

thats the thing,

see

snes

nes

ps1

ps2

wii

ds gb series

that said , what ever console has alot of types of games and alot of them thats the seller

mariokart64fan

well, i haven't seen anything new out of nintendo since the n64 days... pikmin is not exactlyan amazing revolution.

The casual market doesn't own 3 consoles. If all 3 makers all vye for the casual market, the console with the most hardcore games will win. Its would be flip-flopped of what it was last generation, where all 3 consoles took the hardcore approach but the PS2 appealed most to casuals (also hardcore). I think we can expect a healthy balence. When you look at Wii sales, we'll call them casual sales, they're less than the "hardcore" sales on the 360 and PS3 combined.

What's great about the Wii is how seperate it is from the 360/PS3. If MS were to join Nintendo next gen in seperating themselves from the hardcore approach, Sony would likely run away with victory as two consoles compete for the casual market and only one competing for everyone. They wouldn't do it. One console may always be more casual, I hope its Nintendo because their first party services us anyway, but there will always be the games that we want to play, those are the games that sell.

Well, yes the demographic is shifting, or rather the target audience is shifting...but the thing is that this is not a new thing. It has been happening for quite some time, although in a much less remarkable fashion. consider games released in the 1990s(say doom and quake) and how hardcore they would seem to even the core gaming audience of today. from those type of games we moved on to others in which more instructions were given to the player, game mechanics were less difficult to follow, and in general, the whole thing was simplified. Why? To reach a larger audience. So the only reason we are angry is because this time it is us who are feeling the pinch. Consider how popular RTS'es and other complex games were at a time. They also had a demographic. so when the industry moved on to other types of games with less complexity, naturally they also felt alienated and abandoned. However the majority, many of whom will include people posting in these forums, welcomed the change. We were the casual gamers of that, or at least 'some' age. Now the time has come for us to experience that shift.

So i think while it's ok to feel sad, you really shouldn't be blaming developers for betraying you or something. Publishers were always after the money, and all the changes brought about in the industry were to bring more monies in for them. Just because their behaviour once suited you and now does not, does not mean you should blame it all on the casual gamers who haven't done anything.

[QUOTE="Scoob64"]

[QUOTE="XaosII"]

Consoles were always designed for casual gamers. Its the largest market. It just happened to have some hardcore games. This is not suprising in the least bit to anyone.

not so.

many consoles have been designed for the "gamers" and only them... just look at the SNK Neo Geo, Saturn, Dreamcast... even the Genesis/SNES didn't really bring in the casuals in the droves the current gen does... the PlayStation is the first machine i can think of that really just zealously went after the casual crowd... which is one reason why it was so successfull.

Also, the original Playstation was largely geared towards the young adult audience and not the casual market. In any case, it certainly didn't zealously go after the latter.