Many gamers would have you believe that Nintendo is responsible for the flood of casual gamers and non-gamers who have been introduced to the videogame industry. While I agree that Nintendo is succeeding greatly as they focus their effort appealing to new and untapped audiences, I disagree that they are the ones that encouraged growth in this direction in the first place. Nintendo is taking advantage of the foundation another company had already lain. The true leaders of this gaming revolution are in fact, none other than Sony with its PlayStation 2.
Unlike Nintendo who has shaped their current image to appeal to a new audience beyond the core gamer. Sony insists that their main focus has always been the core gamer. However, while Sony was saying one thing, they were doing something entirely different by encouraging and supporting the development of certain games that were definitely not part of the norm.
Games under the banners of the EyeToy, SingStar and Buzz! series did a lot to attract attention from casual gamers and non-gamers. Unfortunately, Sony never went full force with these titles. Most of them were released in Europe and Australia, some made their way over to the US and to my knowledge only the EyeToy had a Japanese presence. In any case, Sony did at least, make an effort to advertise these titles and they became quite popular in the regions in which they were sold. A lot of people outside of the gaming community, who had no idea about Wii at the time, all had their eyes on the PS2 and the titles mentioned. These were the first truly expanded audience titles appearing in the industry and they weren’t alone. Sports titles such as Madden NFL as well as racers, games based on movies and others such as Guitar Hero cemented the PS2 as the must have console for casual and non-gamers along with the usual core gamers. Granted, the PS2 wasn’t alone in its efforts, since The Sims, a PC game was just as influential, but I feel that the PS2 was the ignition that started the industry in a direction towards an expanded audience.
120 million+ PS2’s have been sold in its lifetime, and a lot of those units sold were thanks to these expanded audience games. As the last generation ended, the new began and the mass audience was introduced to the DS and Wii for the first time. What Nintendo did was and is one of the smartest business decisions made for the videogame industry. They were able to look at the industry trends and gauge, quite accurately, what people wanted even if they didn’t know they wanted it in the first place. Nintendo refined Sony’s efforts, but instead of making the expansion of the gaming audience one of their secondary objectives, Nintendo made it their primary goal.
What the industry has been shaped into with this generation is a place where both traditionalist gamers and new audiences can coexist with a selection of games that has never been so diverse. A lot of credit can be given to Nintendo for their effort, but their efforts wouldn’t have gone as far if it wasn’t for the PlayStation 2.
Dno says: As you all know i didnt write this but i completely agree. Now we are all adults (well most of us) and i know everyone will crush this thread because of the nintendo craze but please this is a Sony thread and i thought i would share. Fanboys are all welcome of all systems but try not to troll. Post what you think, agree or disagree?
