zorg1000 said:
Holiday 2008 did not have weak releases, those games u mentioned, Animal Crossing: City Folk & Wii Music along with Guitar Hero: World Tour were all big releases that averaged about 4 million sales each on top of evergreen titles like Wii Sports/Play/Fit, Mario Kart still moving units. This is why I hate the "casual" term, u are referring to all casuals as a single group of people who all share the same opinions/tastes, that's not how it works. Based on how ur talking, this is the video game market. Hardcore-$60 AAA console games Casual-free/$1 mobile games Im sorry but ur pretty ignorant if u dont think there is any type of middle ground between those 2 markets. |
I don't think there is much of a middle ground to be honest. Not as much as people think.
If I like playing simple games without lots of buttons, simple arcadey games, what appeal would any console offer me?
More intuitive control? No. Multitouch touchscreen is so easy even 3-4 year olds use it with no fuss, where motion gaming can actually be more frustrating (commands don't register, you have to point the pointer, the camera loses track of what you're doing, Wiimote constantly needs to be resynced, etc. etc. etc.).
More games? No. iOS/Android marketplaces are vibrant with tons of new games constantly being added.
Price? Not even close. Nintendo/Wii and Microsoft/Kinect are not even remotely competetive here. Cannot compete with free/$1 games.
Convienance? Nope. My phone is in my pocket all day and on my nightstand at night, I can play when ever I want, where ever I want. Wii or Kinect? You need to be in your living room, and you probably need to have family over to have any fun with the thing. No thanks.
Now gamers here will scream "bu ... but quality games!", but if I'm a casual, I'm not playing even a 3D Mario game. Forget Zelda or Gears or Last of Us or Halo or GTA. None of that matters to me.
All the break out casual hit games today are on iOS/Android too ... Candy Crush and all that. The last big break out casual game on home consoles was what? Just Dance? That's what? 5 years old now? It's not really that hard to see why the audience for simpler/more casual experiences is completely domianted by Apple and Google ... Nintendo and MS just do not stack up at all.
A 10-year-old wand controller isn't going to turn this tide.