Microsoft is currently chasing the golden goose that is the so-called “casual” gamer, to the point where the Xbox 360 is about to be marketed as a source of karaoke games and wacky camera antics. A far cry from the “shooterbox” of old.
Cliff Bleszinski, creator of one of the Xbox 360’s biggest “hardcore” shooting games, hastalked abouthowGears of War 2fits into MS’ plans. He talked about this in London, where I live, but I did not see him myself because Microsoft’s UK PR is sh*t. He also talked about Microsoft’s current marketing strategy:
“Microsoft currently has to walk that line right now where they’re selling a game that’s a bit more hardcore like aGearswhile trying to expand the installed base in regards to casual gamers.
“Thankfully I’m in a position where I’m just trying to make the best game possible, but at the same time make sure that Casual [difficulty] is truly, truly easy, as well as having a little bit of heart in the story with a game that, yes, it’s about monsters, yes, it’s about chainsaws and blood, but it’s also about a guy who’s looking for his wife.
“There’s still a fair amount of jock, fratboy, macho bullshit in the game – I’m not going to lie. But at the same time, there’s a little bit more personal elements in there, and some of the themes in the game with loss, retribution and the sadness of war, I think they’re coming through a lot more in this game.”
Bleszinski also claimed that a lot of developers are “nervous” about this new trend in the industry, but only had this to say about the rise of the so-called casuals: “We say anybody playing videogames in our opinion is a very, very good thing.”
Yeah … just a shame that most of what they’re playing can barely qualify as videogames.
