Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo don't normally make very much, if anything on their hardware.  They make the most money on royalties from software, peripherals, and online sales/subscriptions.  So I ask, why do they go for casuals so much?  

I've seen so many people on this site say they bought over 100 games this gen.  A large chunk of that $6000 is going in Sony/MS/Nintendo's hands.  I don't know how many people would have to buy a piece of hardware to match the money they make from that one consumer's game purchases, but it's got to be a pretty damn high number.  

These people also are more likely to get PS+, Live, and peripherals.  The Wii was kind of fluky in that it made so much profit, but even if WiiU captures that same audience, it will be being sold near cost and they will only buy 2 or 3 games for it.  

So why not stop with the weird peripherals and controllers and start making/funding great games that people will buy and great services for people to subscribe to?  I don't get business sometimes.

Because Casuals obviously give these companies a lot of profit. They are easy targets, and business is always looking for easy targets.

Because there are more of them then there are of us, and contrary to a generation's worth of apocryphal/anecdotal evidence, they do buy games.

Those who believe that the industry should fully focus on the core gamer are the ones who are in folly. One only has to look at the snarl that is the anime industry today to understand why it's a bad idea to focus your business model on milking a small, dedicated group of people.

Who said MS/Sony don't make a profit from hardware sales?

I don't know about MS, but Sony has been making profits off of the ps3 since 2009 and the Wii was profitable from the start!

Lot's of moooniez come from hardware sales.

Games for casuals are a lot cheaper to develop, as a result not as many software sales are needed to create the same revenue. Also, even the Wii as a "casual" machine has a tie ratio of 8.5/1, I don't get your point of casuals only buying 2-3 games?

Oh, and at the point of Casuals only buying two-three games. That's not true at all. Nintendo didn't just make Wii Sports, Wii Play, and Wii Party. They also made Wii Sport Resort, Wii Play Motion, Wii Fit, Wii Fit +, and possibly more.

That's, possibly, more than 7 games that those Casuals bought!

No it isn't. I would expect 70% off all gamers to be casuals in some form.

I can't back that up with numbers, though. I'm pretty sure no one can since the definition of casual is very subjective.

Those Hardcore are only going to make the game sell 2-5 Million, though. The Casuals made Wii Sports Resort sell over 30 Million. I would say they are both easy targets (to some extent), but Casuals are an easy and large target.

No. That just puts the industry at a stagnation phase. No casuals, no new audiences.

Good luck finding new audiences with all this negative media on games and FPS saturated games market.

For industry growth you need accessibility and usability. No matter how "devoted" the hardcore base is it is nothing compared to the $$ that can be made from the masses.

Ex:Apple. Smartphones used to be for people that needed high-grade tech then Apple came with a Iphone then bam.

The simple answer is that Third Parties don't sell on Nintendo systems, right?

But here's my long answer; Third Parties didn't leave the Wii. They just made cruddy games for the Wii. They made games that most Casuals would end up buying. Can't blame them for wanting profit, but the way they tried to get it was horribly played out. (For people who weren't total Casuals, aka you and me.)