Casual gamers and the state of the industry
It seems that ever since the PlayStation hit the market, the video game industry has become more and more focused on bringing in people who aren’t really into video games. These people are sometimes referred to as “casuals” or “casual gamers”. Over time it seems as though the industry hasn’t even come close to getting this particular audience interested in gaming. As consoles become more about social networking, motion control, and television, they never change how these people view video games. To them, these devices are just another means to utilizing what they’re already interested in, with video games on the side. One example of this would be a friend I talked to the other day. He has little to no interest in video games at all, but did happen to read about the Xbox One. The only thing he even noticed about Xbox One was the aspect about it that had to do with television, in fact that was what generated his interest in it.
While it may be true that companies are capturing a larger audience than before, the people they’re courting aren’t changing. They have no more interest in video games than they did 20 years ago, and probably never will. All that really matters to them is how this hardware will facilitate their interests that don’t have to do with video games. What is worrying, is how far the industry may go to placate this particular group. Microsoft has already taken it a step further with the way it has designed its new platform. How much longer before the focus on these extra features becomes even greater than video games?
Of course, another question would be how sustainable is this business model? It appears to be short term profit, as this particular group of consumers doesn’t seem to stick around for long before getting bored and moving onto the next thing. Smart phones after all, are capturing more and more casual gamers, and appear to be gaining a lot of steam as the years go by. This could be good or bad depending on the industry’s next move. Companies may try even harder to focus their attention on casuals in an attempt to compete with the smart phones and other devices; or they may find that they can never possibly compete with these devices, and figure it’s simply not profitable to even bother.
Time will tell whether either scenario plays out, but it most certainly can go in any one direction. The night is always darkest before dawn, and we may experience consoles becoming nothing more than entertainment centers with very little focus on video games at all. If this does come to pass, companies may find that they’re simply not profiting from it and will put a greater focus on video games again.
Charles
May 22, 2013 @ 4:50 pm
As rivals gain access to similarly powerful hardware, their innovation will be based non-gaming features to help them stand out.
Like the Xbox One, it’s hardware is similar to the PS4. There is no doubt they would it would be able to run next gen just as well as the PS4. They made all those Kinect features to stand out from Sony. I won’t call it catering to casuals, but rather, they are casting a wider net.
You asked about how much long. I think it will be next gen. And even more so the generation after. Even if Sony adopts it late, I’m sure they have something up their sleeves for next gen.
Take a look at the Wii. They targeted the casuals and the everyday family folk who aren’t core gamers and came out top. This I suppose is what Microsoft is going for on top of being able to provide a platform for core gamers as well.
But why do you think that console makers going out of the way to target these audiences is worrying? Nintendo did it with the Wii. Microsoft is trying it now with core gamers still in mind. I see nothing wrong with it as long as core gamers can still get the performance they deserve.
Christopher Deleanides
May 22, 2013 @ 4:56 pm
I find it worrying because I fear that one day the focus on video games will be overshadowed by the extra features in an effort to placate the expanded audience.
Charles
May 22, 2013 @ 5:02 pm
I see. You might have a point.
But I feel that as long as core gamers have the standard quality of life features (ease of making a party, voice chat and so on), all other features are just bells and whistles to attract a new market. They want more money. Who can blame them for that..
Christopher Deleanides
May 22, 2013 @ 6:06 pm
Don’t get me wrong, I fully support voice chat, and ease of making a party. I think features like that have only helped make video games as a medium evolve. They don’t seem to obscure the medium either in my humble opinion
Naeem Ali
May 22, 2013 @ 6:35 pm
Lets face it, at the end of the day, the only thing all these big names, be it sony or microsoft care about is money, thats the whole point of all these meaningless gimmicks like social media and sharing being added on, it was painstakingly obvious when the XBOX ONE was announced as an all in one home entertainment system rather than a console
Christopher Deleanides
May 22, 2013 @ 6:37 pm
Indeed, and who knows…. maybe one day they won’t find it as profitable as they do now. You never know what the future may bring.
Charles
May 22, 2013 @ 6:51 pm
Granted, they could have shown more at the reveal. Even talked more about games. But with E3 less than 20 days away, I’m sure they have aces up their sleeves. They would have to keep some content for E3.
Sony could afford to announce games because E3 was still distant back when they did it. Unless there is some large flaw of the Xbox One, then I would be inclined to agree. But at the end of the day, we know that the Xbox One can run the same games the PS4 can.
Meaningless gimmicks? That’s the same thing critics said about the Wii. And they came out on top this gen. Says a lot about these gimmicks.
A reveal isn’t going to make or break a console.
Christopher Deleanides
May 22, 2013 @ 6:53 pm
They make a lot of money for sure, but I personally don’t see the use of them outside of attracting the expanded audience. I’m a supporter of the Wii myself, it’s my favorite console of the big 3, but the motion control didn’t really do much for me. It was more so the games like Xenoblade that won me over.
Daniel Flatt
May 23, 2013 @ 7:09 am
I disagree as far as I believe a reveal may not ruin a console, but it’s seriously going to slow Microsoft down. Am I completely counting out Xbox One at this point? Well…..yeah. However, that’s mostly because currently I have no interest in a bunch of FPS games and little to no exclusives that plague the current Xbox.
This reveal though put complete breaks on the Xbox train, and now they have to rebuild momentum. They might have awesome games at E3, maybe all will be forgiven then. As of right now though it’s a massive failure marketing wise and a clear indication from MS on the direction they intend to head in. The simple fact is the people that they were talking to on a hardcore internet reveal that the common person didn’t even know about, clearly wasn’t the hardcore gamer that got them this far. Completely alienating your console pushers, your biggest fans, and your best source of marketing is really REALLY, stupid.
bleachorange
May 23, 2013 @ 3:02 pm
All this is just talk. If two tech items are similar, content drives sales. That’s why Microsoft got so many more sales late in the cycle. Better games were made for 360 than anyone else, barring a couple of Sony exclusives. Regardless of your opinion on that, it seemed as if every game was made for 360 and ported to the other consoles, resulting in a seeming lack of polish.
Christopher Deleanides
May 23, 2013 @ 6:26 pm
I have no doubt that the games were better graphically, the 360 clearly possessed greatest fidelity, but I wouldn’t necessarily say better quality wise. I thought Gears of War was pretty cool, and Halo, but the Wii and PS3 could also easily meet said games with exclusives like Xenoblade, Sin and Punishment 2, 3D Dot Heroes, and Killzone.
While hardware sales may have increased for 360 in the end, the total is still in Wii’s favor; but then this is why I never use sales as an argument for quality. You can view such a measurement in more than one aspect, like launch strength, end of cycle, and total sales. Depending on your point of view, any one of them can take precedent.
Daniel Flatt
May 24, 2013 @ 3:36 pm
I really think you are talking about early on in the console’s life cycle. The problems you are talking about are indicative of earlier releases on the PS3 and a time where Xbox 360 had pretty much every big game as an exclusive: Lost Odyssey, Mass Effect and the list goes on.
However, once things started balancing out and everyone got everything all of the sudden it was clear that Xbox was lacking in exclusives. They have literally had Halo, Forza, Fable and Gears as their main series with little outside of that. Especially in the last two years their exclusives have dropped to nil and all the sudden the third parties and Live that they counted on doesn’t cut it anymore.
This year even Sony is releasing a 6 or so exclusives and that’s in it’s last years. Microsoft has nothing left up it’s sleeve and hasn’t since Halo 4. Since, like you said, content drives sales that is all I care about. Once I saw which way the wind was blowing sales wise I jumped ship and haven’t looked back. Also, as a note the quality of most ports is so close that you would have to be playing them side by side on a TV. Obviously things like Skyrim and a game where performance is impacted is key, but all of these problems are all but gone.
Taylor Parolini
May 27, 2013 @ 1:12 pm
I don’t care about casual games and features anymore. As long as they keep making games for me like Armored Core, Dark Souls, ect, then they can have as many baby shit games as they can cram down their throats.
Christopher Deleanides
May 27, 2013 @ 6:53 pm
Oh hey Taylor, was wondering when you’d speak your mind about all this.