Microsoft are “unapologetic about the fact we want to appeal” to casual gamers – because Kinect ”put a huge shot of adrenaline” into their quest to make Xbox 360 No. 1 worldwide.
Microsoft are “on a journey for growth” in 2011 to take Xbox 360 to No. 1 status worldwide within a year – and they aren’t going to apologise about focusing on Kinect and a wider, more casual audience to do it.
Christopher Lewis, Xbox EMEA Vice President, said: “Xbox is defying the normal curve you might expect. There’s no doubt that Kinect put a huge shot of adrenaline into the arm of the business. What we are now seeing is massive swathes of families and younger audiences flocking to it.”
“I think we are on a journey for growth and we are unapologetic about the fact we want to appeal to those audiences [family and children],” he continued.
However, he does believe that the casual audience can grow to enjoy traditional hardcore Xbox 360 experiences – and vice-versa: “We are seeing people come to Xbox now because of the new user interface or Kinect. But once they are into the Xbox world they are finding they like the core games as well. That healthy cross-pollination is giving us this growth.”
“We were deliberate about the fact that the first Kinect experiences were focused on the family and younger audiences,” Lewis told MCV, but it was still important to find a way to marry the motion controller with the traditional gamer, just not in a “contrived” way.
“What you will see is us using Kinect to enhance the experience and not detract from it. I don’t think our core gamers will tolerate anything else from us.”
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