| pokoko said: I don't agree with everything he said but one line did grab my attention, that Microsoft "took the enthusiast gamers for granted" when they went after the casual/soft-core/mid-core/whatever crowd. I think that's pretty much true. The thing is, had they gone after the core crowd first, had they shown off all those games from the very start, I think a lot of core gamers would have been much less pissed off. As it was, however, their message was kind of, "uh, yeah, you gamers just wait your turn, we're more interested in other demographics right now, we'll get to you when we're ready." As the video says, that was a big mistake, because we're the ones paying attention RIGHT NOW. We're the ones who are going to make pre-orders and provide word-of-mouth advertising, we're the ones who are going to tell our cousins, co-workers, and friends which system they should buy if they want to play CoD or FIFA with us. Basically, Microsoft put the cart before the horse. Unfortunately for them, inverted horse-carts don't draw big pre-order numbers. |
Yep, the whole point is don't piss off the hardcore gamers, because that "mid-core" crowd who plays COD, Madden, NBA 2K and all the yearly franchises follow them. They follow the crowd. Even though later on it may seem like the hardcore are insignificant (especially the way guys like Yusuf made it seem), they tell their friends the 'good word' about the consoles. If the chances are higher that if the hardcore initially choose one brand when their party buddies who game part time follow thats the console they have the highest chance of buying. That is something that cannot be taken for granted. Microsoft and Sony share 90% the same library, so those "soft-core" will follow the leader. They are the majority who make games like COD sell so well, but if their friends aren't where they expected, they will mostly go where they expect their friends to be.
