Nintendo basically says, "There is no mafia."

[greenmedic88]

Almost no non-gamers will buy 8 games a year. That's closer to the buying habits of a core gamer. Price of the games due to peripherals is irrelevant (ie. one purchase of Rock Band plus an extra guitar does not = 4 games sold/bought).

If he continues to buy that many games a year or more, but doesn't play them, he's still a casual gamer, but this is pretty atypical. I would imagine he'll either buy far less games in the future if he doesn't play much, or he'll eventually morph into a core gamer who spends time in proportion to the amount of money he spends on games.

Console makers generally don't expect non-core gamers to buy that many games over the life time of the console. 3-4 is more realistic. 5-6 is not unusual.

Some refer to games like DDR, GH and RB as "casual" games, but they really aren't, any more than they are "hard core" games. They essentially fall into all categories of gamers which is why they are particularly big payoff titles for developers. Brawl and Kart actually fall into this category as well. Despite what anyone says about them being "hard core" the play mechanics are simple enough that anyone at a party can pick them up and have fun within minutes.

While there isn't any single definition for the "casual" demographic, buying habits, presumably linked to playing habits, over the lifetime ownership of the console are generally the best indicator.

The rare exception doesn't really disprove anything. Someone who buys a Wii and a dozen games for Christmas (for those in the upper income tax bracket) and then maybe buys one or two more games over the lifetime of the console is still a casual gamer.

A core gamer might buy as few as 8 games a year, but will likely do so every year until a new console replaces it. Other core gamers may buy at least one game a month, per console, many of which will own three or more consoles.

I've bought about 40 current gen console games over about a 17 month period (plus the older last gen games) and until I started spending more time gaming (due to all the good games on three good consoles) and less time watching TV or movies, I had considered myself more of a casual gamer as someone who used to work in industry and practically played games for a living in addition to playing them regularly during my off time.

Even back during the 6th gen, I only bought a PS2, but by the time the PS3 rolled out, I had bought over 50 PS2 games, most of which weren't played for more than a few hours. Less free time spread over other pursuits at the time made me a seldom gamer, often going weeks or even months between playing a game.

So I was a casual player who still had the buying habits of a core gamer. But very few casual gamers are former developer/hardcore gamers, so they really don't count.

By large, the typical casual gamer is either a first time console buyer, or someone who buys one console per generation (often late into the cycle when they are cheaper and there is a big back catalog of games) and doesn't buy games with any sort of regularity or regularly follow any sort of gaming press/news.