Okay, first of all, I own a 360. I am a Gold subscriber and I enjoy every moment of playing with my friends. However, Trixie360 recently did a podcast talking about how Microsoft and the Xbox division has turned away from the core gaming that made Xbox Live so popular, and is now focusing on the casual audience. 

So the main question at hand is : Do you think Xbox has used and abused the core gamers (Ads vs Gold subs, Pay to play online, focusing on casual gamers, etc)? And do you think the new Xbox will be based around the casual audience?

What are your opinions on these matters? Personally, I think Xbox is doing great and isn't using us core gamers.

Many will argue 3rd parties have you covered when it comes to "Core" games and Kinect has gems

My opinion is: If people are willing to buy 3rd parties on the 360 over the competition (e.g Borderlands 2) And are happy with the cycle of Halo-Gears-Forza, the MS have no reasons to do ANYTHING but continue the way they are.

If Selnor is a reflection of 360 fans as a whole, then more Apps and Halos is the way forward.

The sales don't lie, even though I tend to ignore them, the numbers are undoubtedly in MS' favour so they have no reason to change their game plan

Microsoft studios has disappeared so most likely they're working on nextbox titles. They are trying to make this gen last as long as it can by expanding to the casual audience but when next gen comes they will be aggressive again. Smart business strategy.

you mean internet core gamer?of course,i even told my employee friend to ignore them

It is a business model that is working. When the 360 first came out their were exclusive titles around every corner. What they did was consolidate and work on the titles that give them money. This also works because most 3rd party games sell better on the Xbox 360.

People need to realize that the industry has changed since 2005. 7 years ago having the most exclusives and pandering to the "hardcore gamers" was a must. Now way more casuals play video games. More casuals than hardcore gamers actually. That is why when people keep fist pumping to all the Sony exclusives I laugh. Most of them don't sell well and it is a business model that died a long time ago.

The gaming industry is a business first and in any business the number 1 goal is to make money. I think Microsoft has done an exceptional job at making money.

Not at all. MS has a couple huge exclusive franchises it focuses on that consistantly review great and sell a lot. Halo 4 and Forza Horizon is plenty in terms of exclusives for the holiday period.

MS is just a smart business. They know the gen is almost over so they arent really going to release any new IP and with fewer better games they can market them well and get some solid sales. To those that have been paying attention MS has opened multiple new studios in the past two years that we have seen nothing from, obviously they are ramping up for the launch of the next box.

MS currently just stick with franchises they know will sell and let 3rd parties fill in the rest which is fine.

I wouldn't think a company with such a devoted core audience are going to say, "lets get just focus on the casual market and forget about our core fan base" That would be suicide to their business. I think they're just following Nintendo's idea to attract a wider crowd because lets face it the current core audience (For all three companies) aren't going to be gamers forever. A lot of them have lives to focus on (work, kids, family etc)

This is why during the time Nintendo announce the Wii, they said that the gamer audience (in Japan) was shrinking so the best business move was to get more people to play games. They expect that by introducing more people to games through their casual lineup, not all, but a lot of them would start getting into their more mainstream games (Mario, Zelda, etc) and thus become the new "replenished" core audience.

This is when, where, and why the comic book industry had fallen. They pretty much ignored the much younger audience (kids) and started to devote to the older core demographic. They started introducing things like more mature adult like stories, more graphic artwork, darker themes etc. Little kids aren't going to be able to relate to that despite the fact that younger audience often think that everything the older audience likes is "cool." If they didn't ignore the kid demographic earlier, then you would've still seen comics everywhere: New stands, groceries stores, convenience stores, and other non comic bookstore establishments.

IMHO, this strategy didnt really work. There really wasnt a large increase for sales of core games on the system. Even for some Ninty titles, Zelda didnt really see a large increase over the last couple of games. the people who didnt care about those games before would not start caring about them now, they would simply stick to WiiSports, fit whatever IMO

As for MS they are fine, its only the small internet dwellers who care about who made what game. Most people dont care and are satisfied.

In terms of multiplats and exclusives, not at all. There is plenty to play.

Just referring to exclusives, I'm not worried at this point. It's at the end of a gen and this is the usually time when less exclusives and new IP's are pumped out. Now if this continues into next gen I might be worried, but with MS building and picking up a sizable chunk of 1st party studios in the last several years, I think things will be fine.