Archive notice: This article was originally published on February 8, 2008. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
According to pressetext, the games industry wants to achieve its definitive breakthrough into the mainstream this year. 2008 is intended to be entirely about casual gaming — in other words, mass-market games — which can sometimes be played through within a short time. As Wired Magazine reports, casual games are also shaping the DICE Summit games conference taking place in Las Vegas this week. According to the experts, games that appeal to average players who devote themselves to this medium only irregularly are becoming an increasingly central pillar of the industry.
‘Five years ago, there was paranoia that our industry might disappear and gamers turn to another form of entertainment,’ says DICE spokesman Tetsuya Mizuguchi. Now, however, precisely the opposite is happening and the industry is expanding with casual games across platforms such as the third console generation, but also with the help of low-cost downloadable games from the web. Family-friendly games such as Sims or party games such as Sing Star appeal to the broad masses and generate target groups outside the former hardcore-gaming scene.
‘Two sides have now prevailed in the video-game industry. The hardcore players from the beginning and the casual gamers. We also want to focus increasingly on the latter in future; this is quite clearly the direction in which things are continuing,’ says Reinhard Leeb, Managing Director of Electronic Arts in Austria, giving his assessment to pressetext. Consoles for which there are a large number of mass-market games are currently selling like hot cakes. Nintendo’s Wii and DS are currently the leaders.
A few years ago, there were only a small number of devices aimed at casual games, and games in that area developed correspondingly cautiously. But now the situation is completely different, says Mizuguchi, who was already involved in developing creative games six years ago. Initially, prices were also often still too high, whereas games can now be downloaded for as little as ten dollars through online services such as that of Xbox 360.
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