New article written by this insightful ( and famous to some ) author:

http://malstrom.50webs.com/birdman.html

Some extract:

[...] The game industry was, and still is, distinctively hardcore. They generate their profits from sequels and big blockbuster games. The developers are all hardcore. The publishers are generally hardcore as well.

When a hardcore gamer looks at a hardcore game, he sees sophistication, magnificence, and, most important, art as if it were a mirror image facing him. When a hardcore gamer looks as a casual game, he sees simplicity, non-art, easiness, and, in sum, a retardation of gaming. Hardcore view casual games not as progress in gaming but as games tailor made for gaming retards.

“Retards!?” says a shocked reader. “Surely you can’t say what you mean!” Why not? When a casual gamer picks up the standard dual shock controller, he gets confused. He doesn’t have the patience to wade through these elaborate 3d worlds or memorize fourteen button combinations. While the hardcore call him “stupid”, he retaliates by calling gaming “stupid”.

Anytime you read ‘casual games’ in the news, just replace ‘casual’ with the word ‘retard’ and you will get how it is truly perceived by the industry. “There is a casual gamer boom!” should translate to “There is a retard gamer boom!”. The “EA Casual Games Division” really is translated to “EA Retard Games Division”. “Why are you calling casual gamers retarded!?” thunders one reader. I am not. I am saying that the hardcore industry is the one who thinks this way. ‘Casual’ is just a nice way of saying ‘dumb’ in their eyes.  [...]

[...] Nintendo’s worldview is simple: aim at making hits on the downmarket to make the Wii platform dominate the lower tiers. Then slowly move upmarket.

The rest of the industry has a completely different worldview: view the ‘explosion’ in downmarket games as a unique phenomenon (in this case, the fictional “Casual Games Phenomenon”), and then assign many teams to make these ‘casual games’. Instead of trying to understand Nintendo’s flight, they are putting on wings and trying to flap. Wii gamers become frustrated while Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 gamers laugh and say, “If you want to play REAL games, buy a real gaming console! Hah! Hah!”

Go back in time and look at the DS which was hated by the industry (who analysts referred to it as Nintendo doing another Virtual Boy). The industry did not understand the platform and just dumped many PSP ports or mini-game collections on it. While this was going on, Nintendo focused on the downmarket with games such as Brain Age and Nintendogs as well as a few tiers above that with New Super Mario Brothers. After a year on the market, Super Mario Kart DS and Animal Crossing DS came out. As you know, games like Brain Age and Nintendogs became huge hits which attracted new gamers. And these new gamers then swam upmarket to turn Mario Kart DS, New Super Mario Brothers, and Animal Crossing DS into huge hits (than they would have been without those lower tier games). The installed base for the DS surged which attracted more third party support but mostly meant support for upper market games such as Dragon Quest IX and the Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest remakes. As the DS swam upstream, the uppermarket games that were coming on the PSP began to be stolen by the DS.

The Wii is advancing in the same way. Nintendo focused on the downmarket with games such as Wii Sports, Wii Play, and Wii Fit which all became hits. Third parties become confused and made mini-game compilations. After a year, slightly higher tier Nintendo games come out such as Mario Kart Wii and Super Smash Brothers Brawl and Super Mario Galaxy. These games will become bigger hits because of the success of lower tier games such as Wii Sports sending new consumers upstream. Just as the DS has become the darling of hardcore gamers, so too will the Wii as the system moves upstream. [...]

Good article. It makes sense. I can see the logic in it.

I admit I find myself in astonishment. This is the process I am seeing:

Nintendo: “We are following the strategy of disruption!”
NPD: “Nintendo wins!”
Journalist: “How are you winning, Nintendo?”
Nintendo: “We are following the strategy of disruption!”
Journalist: (ignores Nintendo) “What is going on here, analysts and third parties?”
Analyst: “It is a casual gamer boom!”
Third Parties: “OMG! Easy money! Quick guys, everyone start making casual games!”
Nintendo: “We are following the strategy of disruption!”
Journalist: (philosophically) “Will casual games cause the downfall of the hardcore games? Let me write many editorials about this!”
Analyst: (philosophically) “Is the casual game boom a fad? Let us pontificate over this.”
Third Parties: “Hey guys! How you like my casual games? They sure are snazzy! I will make millions! I am such the business whiz!”
Nintendo: “We are following the strategy of disruption!”
Journalist: (scratches head) “You hear something?”
Analyst: “It was just Nintendo speaking. They are saying the same thing.”
Journalist: “Yeah! Haha! Same old marketing speak. I am so much smarter about business than Nintendo. In my next interview with Iwata, I’ll give him some business lessons.”
Third Parties: (cries) “Oh no! My casual games are not selling!”
Journalist: “Obviously, this is because people buy Nintendo consoles for Nintendo games.”
Analyst: “Nintendo needs to assist these third parties in getting their casual games to sell.”
Third Parties: “That’s right! They need to do what WE want them to!”
Nintendo: “We are following the strategy of disruption!”
Journalist: (yawns) “Is that all they say? (becomes excited) Ohhh! Look! A new hardcore game is being made with fresh textures.” (runs off)
Analyst: “Obviously, Sony and Microsoft are branching with casual games themselves. Poor Nintendo. Too bad they are out of tricks. I expect Playstation 3 to be surpassing them in a year or two. The market revolves around technology you know.”
Third Parties: “My casual games aren’t selling? Why!? I do not understand!”

This part is awesome It made me laugh aloud ....

Yup, this guy's nailed it. The division of "casual" v. "hardcore" is something that everybody BUT Nintendo themselves talk about. It's a false dichotomy.

 Nearly all of the article is spot on.

Only exceptions are:

“Retards!?” says a shocked reader. “Surely you can’t say what you mean!”

The reader, most likely hardcore and not casual, would not be shocked, nor would he disagree with that description.  Especially if fully stated as 'gaming retards'.  But for a number of hardcore, retards is sufficient.

 "As you know, games like Brain Age and Nintendogs became huge hits which attracted new gamers. And these new gamers then swam upmarket to turn Mario Kart DS, New Super Mario Brothers, and Animal Crossing DS into huge hits (than they would have been without those lower tier games). The installed base for the DS surged which attracted more third party support but mostly meant support for upper market games such as Dragon Quest IX and the Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest remakes."

Yes to BA, dogs being casual.  But at best, AC gained from the casual, being casual to a great extent itself.  Only a few if any came from BA to any of the mentioned games.   At least, that is what I believe.  It could be that lurking in the hearts of many casual gamers is a modestly hardcore player.  Just one that couldn't come out for various reasons.  

Reasons such as: 

Didn't want to appear 'different'/'video games are just for kids'.  Kids, of course, being a male under 30 years old.  With WiiSports and BrainAge being 'acceptable', then more of the rest of the video games become acceptable as well.

Couldn't handle the complicated button patterns, difficult gameplay.  The hardcore LIKE the complications and the difficulties.  The Wii remote eliminates the first part and due to the developer  addressing the new audience, tones down the second part (of the difficulty).

Hopefully that last part will lead to more games with choices of difficulty.  If the hardcorer wishes to boast, there can be an ultra-difficult all the way down to basically a walkthru of the game.

Some developers will get it.  Some will not.  Whether a hardcore lumps Carnival Games in same trash bucket as Cruis'n, obviously the casuals do not.  And the better casual games will sell well.

I have to disagree with you about the 'false dichotomy'.  There is a difference, tho it might not be a big as some would make it.

I believe that the casuals want something a bit hard, but not too hard.  Easy to control.  Doesn't overwhelm them.  

Hardcore want as hard as possible, exacting controls, overwhelming effects (graphics/sound)

Where they met is both want to have fun.

HAHAHA. I love this guy. It is exactly what I said a long time ago, some developers misunderstood the Wii appeal. They try to make Wii Sports/Play clones, but they never got what is so good about these games.

Phew, what a long read... But he is completely right I'd say.

Good article, he raises an interesting point... he might very well be right.

Malstrom is one of the few individuals who really understands what's going on in the gaming world today. There are a number of things I wish he would do better: use less rhetoric, cut some of the fawning admiration of Nintendo, and split up his massive editorials into smaller parts for easier reading. But overall, these kind of articles are pure gold. This one really puts into perspective just how foolish the third-party approach to the Wii has been thus far.

It's a shame that we can't have everyone at VGChartz read through this. It might cut down on some of the ignorant comments that surface online so frequently.