While i agree with you, i just need to correct one thing. The game cube wasn't Nintendo's biggest flop. That honor belongs to the Virtual Boy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_Virtual_Boy selling a wopping 900,000 units worldwide.
You see, i highly disagree with you. Not that this hasn't happened in the past, but that hard core gamers can't be fooled with pretty graphics and sounds. How many games out on the market now are "Oh, it's extreamly similar to halo, but the graphics are better and you get to use cooler weapons"?
Even if the casual gamer market does burst as your predicting, it will help create new genre's and more variations on gameplay that will help stay around after the crash. That being said, i don't believe the casual gamer market will "pop" as it did in the past, but it may fade. Back in the 80's the games being made for the casual gamer (even though hard core gamers were far and few between) were, as you said, crap. There was little merrit to the games other than a license from something popular. This time around is different because the appeal to the casual gamer is not a brand name. It is something they havn't seen before, meaning unique content. These are people who have been exposed to video games but havn't enjoyed what they have been offered. Therefore, yes, they may get bored again with what they are being offered, but it will happen when the industry just copies what was successful in the past instead of risking money on new ideas, causing the casual gamers to lose interest once again.
All i know is that i buy games based on what entertains me. Yes, EA is notorious for making generic sports games, and updating them every year, but they do that for a reason. People buy them.
With the move towards "innovative" games and the "casual gamer" it means there will be more hit or miss titles from EA that will appeal to some people but not others. Step back and look at "The Sims", which has released expansion packs every few months. It's different. It's unique. And people bought it. Not only did people buy it, but it was the casual gamer who didn't want a regular game that was the person buying it. If EA follows through on making innovative games, i can guarentee i will not buy some of them, but there will also be some really good unique games(i hope) because they took the risk.
Who knows if it's too little, too late. Only time and how EA acts can truely tell at this point.
Slashdot Mirror
And the glass is only half empty if you drank the water first, right?
While i agree with you, i just need to correct one thing. The game cube wasn't Nintendo's biggest flop. That honor belongs to the Virtual Boy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_Virtual_Boy selling a wopping 900,000 units worldwide.
Golden Eye for the nintendo 64 which defined the entire genre for a while.
You see, i highly disagree with you. Not that this hasn't happened in the past, but that hard core gamers can't be fooled with pretty graphics and sounds. How many games out on the market now are "Oh, it's extreamly similar to halo, but the graphics are better and you get to use cooler weapons"? Even if the casual gamer market does burst as your predicting, it will help create new genre's and more variations on gameplay that will help stay around after the crash. That being said, i don't believe the casual gamer market will "pop" as it did in the past, but it may fade. Back in the 80's the games being made for the casual gamer (even though hard core gamers were far and few between) were, as you said, crap. There was little merrit to the games other than a license from something popular. This time around is different because the appeal to the casual gamer is not a brand name. It is something they havn't seen before, meaning unique content. These are people who have been exposed to video games but havn't enjoyed what they have been offered. Therefore, yes, they may get bored again with what they are being offered, but it will happen when the industry just copies what was successful in the past instead of risking money on new ideas, causing the casual gamers to lose interest once again.
All i know is that i buy games based on what entertains me. Yes, EA is notorious for making generic sports games, and updating them every year, but they do that for a reason. People buy them. With the move towards "innovative" games and the "casual gamer" it means there will be more hit or miss titles from EA that will appeal to some people but not others. Step back and look at "The Sims", which has released expansion packs every few months. It's different. It's unique. And people bought it. Not only did people buy it, but it was the casual gamer who didn't want a regular game that was the person buying it. If EA follows through on making innovative games, i can guarentee i will not buy some of them, but there will also be some really good unique games(i hope) because they took the risk. Who knows if it's too little, too late. Only time and how EA acts can truely tell at this point.