PS3 to be console for casual gamers - Will Xbox 360 remain hardcore?
By Dave Parrack
This generation console war is taking a decidedly bizarre twist, where there are two polar opposite sets of gamers being fought over. On the one hand we have the Wii, dominating sales, and soaking up the majority of the casual gamers there are in the world. On the other hand we have the PS3 and Xbox 360, technically superior consoles which appeal to the more hardcore and committed element. But the two worlds could soon collide.
There has obviously always been two schools of gamers - it’s not like Nintendo suddenly found millions of them living under a rock when it released the Wii. But the Wii has appealed to a greater amount of casuals, and from a wider demographic, than any console before.
Sony and Microsoft are no doubt jealous of the incredible sales that the Wii has managed, especially as its a relativity cheap and cheerful machine, and so we have already seen both attempting to move in to the Wii’s territory, and pick up some of those toe-dipping gamers.
Sony has more of a track record of appealing to the casual, mainstream market, as let’s not forget that the original Playstation and the PS2 were both consoles that straddled the line between hardcore and casual extremely well. But then came the PS3, which despite having some casual games available for it, is seen as the domain of the hardcore right now. With its high price, Blu-ray player, and sophisticated chip set, it’s just too damn clever to be accessible to all.
Sony do look set to change that however, with Kaz Hirai stating as much in a recent interview with MCV. In the interview, he states that while the PS2 is still on the market, there is no need for the PS3 to cater to a mainstream family audience. But that could all change once the Playstation 2 is no more.
We are the only platform holder to have two home-based platforms. And they both cater to a somewhat different demographic. We don’t have to rely on PS3 to appeal to everyone at this point in time. If we’re talking about the casual gamer, the PS2 is probably the right choice for them.
We don’t need the PS3 to feel like the console that will appeal to everyone at this point. We don’t need to have one console try to be everything to everybody just yet. Just as the PS2 marketing and positioning has evolved over the past ten years, we’ll make sure the PS3 messaging evolves as well.
It’s clear then that the PS3 will be handed the casual gaming baton once the PS2 is retired from the market, which could be in as little as two years, or even sooner if sales continue to drop. Which will leave us with the Xbox 360 as the only real serious console on the market that is designed to appeal purely to hardcore gamers. But even that isn’t guaranteed.
Not only do we have Microsoft introducing some very gimmicky stuff such as Avatars, there are continuing rumours of a Wii Remote style device being launched in the not too distant future. As I’ve stated before, the future is casual, and the sooner us dyed in the wool hardcore gamers realise it, the better.
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July 29th, 2008
Sony’s has the most and the best games for all type of genre. They need to bring games like Tomba! Jersey Devil and more IP they got from PS1 and PS2. Microsoft has nothing that appeals to casual gamers nada. Xbox 360 wannabe casual games really suck.
English: Xbox 360 es una porqueria…
Español: Xbox 360 is just garbage…
English: PLAYSTATION 3 is perfect for everybody…
Español: PLAYSTATION 3 es perfecto para todo el mundo…
July 29th, 2008
Meh, ‘hardcore’ stuff will always sell.
Just like Hollywood it will be! Tons of garbage with gems here and there.
July 30th, 2008
“It’s clear then that the PS3 will be handed the casual gaming baton once the PS2 is retired from the market,” - i really have to wonder just how much you’re getting paid from sony.
the fact you, nor sony, is admitting is that $199 is the sweet spot for casual gamers. which console will hit that first? if you guessed the ps3, you’d be wrong.
thanks for the laugh. oh well, it’s not like you’d have enough cajones to write a retraction when you’re proven wrong (as you often are).
what’s even sadder is your taking sony’s word for anything… haven’t you guys been lied to enough?
July 30th, 2008
A healthy balance of hardcore and casual wouldn’t do any harm. As long as they don’t flood the console with casual games in an attempt to imitate the wii’s success. But i agree with Kev, the console is priced way too high to be taken as a pure casual console and its hitting (ironically) well below its weight, as if the ps3 and 360 would try to take on the success of the wii, they’d have to lose the price of the console, or the hardcore gaming community based around them, which wouldn’t please a lot of people.
July 30th, 2008
Kev- your reading skills are really pathetic sometimes. The article clearly says that the paton will be passed from the PS2 to the PS3 on the Sony side of things. Why would he say that Sony plans on passing the paton to the 360?
No one said that the 360 couldn’t take over the casual demographic, but it would have to lose the FPS hardcore gamer persona first!
July 30th, 2008
360 has way more casual and social games the PS3 now. The new gameshow channel alone will apeal to millions of families. The ability to rent over 10,000 movies on NETFLIX and all of the social networking capabitlities blow PS3 out of the water.
360 has stolen some massive exlusive titles from PS3 like Final Fantasy, Devil May Cry, GTA and Resident Evil.
360 has the best exlusives, the best online network by far and it has the most variety.
360 will drop 100 bucks for the holidays and crush PS3. Gears of War II, Fable II, Too Human, Crash Bandicoot, In the Movies and 2 more EXCLUSIVE Square Enix RPG’s will kill the 3 games that PS3 has coming out.
July 30th, 2008
tgrass21-
why would i want to pay for a movie which takes ages to download and can only be used for a limited time? In Europe at least were getting the chance to download FOR FREE ,tv shows directly to our hard drive, which may include sports shows, movies etc (im talking about play tv). all for around £50-60.
You talk about social networking capabilites. Does this include msn. Yeah my mates have this on their xbox 360. It sucks because everytime i talk to them theyre in the middle of a game. Thats more of a gimmick rather than a usable feature. I guess you’ve never heard of ps3 home?
Since when was GTA a ps3 exclusive?!! It got released on xbox AFTER playstation version sure, but it was never a sony exclusive. Besides the fact that we get Bioshock.
Far the most variety? I dont call a million and one FPS’ and third person shooters variety.
The only appealing and potentially console selling game you labelled was Gears 2, while our console selling games include R2, LBP, M2, KZ2, GOW3 etc
July 30th, 2008
wylie - it’s your lack of comprehension you should be questioning. why does the “baton” automatically go to sony’s ps3? oh that’s right..because sony SAID so… regardless of the evidence pointing to the contrary…
they didn’t indicate “sony side of things”. they’re talking about casual gamers in general.
why do you guys claim fps are for hardcore players, then claim all halo players on ‘live are “annoying kids”? it’s very contradicting….
bourne - (holy crap i can’t believe i’m saying this) I agree with every single word you posted. my gawd, the end of the world can’t be too far away…
July 30th, 2008
bourne - yes, we’ve “heard of Home”.. unfortunately that’s all we know of it. it’s still vapourware.
July 30th, 2008
bourne - it’s hilarious you claim all the 360 has is “fps” therefore not attractive to the “casual gamer” then go on to hype TWO (count em), TWO fps in your list of ps3 games. nice one. lmao…
July 30th, 2008
Kev - lol what part of the comment did you agree with?
Home is not vapour ware….it’s just shrouded in mystery… and delays….But when it is released it will be fantastic, i cant wait to create my own apartment and invite round friends, some of whom i met on here! (Aka Royzy, wylie etc)
Two fps’ for the ps3…compared to a whole catalogue for the 360, cmon now Kev even for you thats unfair. I was referring to the fact that the enitre 360 catalogue is based upon one rule : shoot em up Where tgrass21 said that this was “variety”.
July 30th, 2008
bourne - it would help if you actually had a 360 before making claims like that. so far, i have racing games, sports games, flying games, RPG, card games, and tps and fps. sounds like a lot more than just shooters.
“Home is not vapour ware….it’s just shrouded in mystery… and delays” - ie; vapourware. so far it’s nothing more than promises w/o even a launch date.
July 30th, 2008
Kev said: “the fact you, nor sony, is admitting is that $199 is the sweet spot for casual gamers. which console will hit that first? if you guessed the ps3, you’d be wrong.”
Kev, WHO SAYS $199 is the “sweet spot” for casual gamers? YOU? Why do we have to accept that YOUR price point is correct yet not accept that Sony’s price point is correct? Okay, so $199 might have been the “sweet spot” for the last (i.e. PS2/XBOX/Wii) generation of hardware, it plain just doesn’t follow that it HAS TO BE the same for this generation. People make more money than people did back then. And what makes you so sure it WON’T be Sony reaching some magic “sweet spot” for casual gamers before MS gets “there”? It already costs MORE to buy a comparable X360 hardware setup than it does PS3 (despite the base Sony console costing more), so on what basis are you claiming that Sony can’t get “there” before MS? Sony is a MUCH larger company when it comes to hardware than is MS, and has FAR MORE resources it can pursue for reducing costs.
July 30th, 2008
davidb - must be young… let me help. around 70% of ps2’s sold were done at $199 or lower. The most aggressive sales of any console comes at $199 or lower, historically. sony has lost 3.3 billion and counting on the ps3 due to costs. At current pricing reductions the 360 (at almost $100 less) is easily positioned to hit that mark first. simple math. sony COULD hit that mark before ms IF they wanted to move those losses into the tens of billions, which their shareholders won’t allow.
and no, they don’t have “more resources” in reducing costs, especially given 1. ms owns the ip inside the 360 and 2. sony sold manufacturing of the “cell” to Toshiba, leaving one more hand in the ps3 cookie jar.
do some research before posting. this is really old news..
July 30th, 2008
Kev- I’ll give you credit, I had a misspelling on my post. Now back to the topic, the sentences you pulled out of the article and criticized were right underneath the quotes from Sony, so how could you not take that as being a Sony part of the article. They basically said that Sony won’t be concerned with the casual games on PS3 until they think PS2 users are ready to make the move.
I know Bourne got a little out of control with the FPS discussion. I agree the 360 has made quite an effort to get away from just FPS’s and now has a lot more to offer. However they still have the FPS persona and it may take awhile longer to get rid of it.
July 30th, 2008
HAHAHAHAHAHA shrouded in mystery!!!Oh man that’s a classic!!!
Hey where did winner go?
July 30th, 2008
wylie - agreed. the xbox was founded on fps, their controller was even designed with those in mind. but with the release of KZ2, R:FOM, Warhawk, mgs4, etc, it seems sony also likes the shooters.
if ms’ has a “fps persona” why would sony hype their shooters? seems destined to fail….
July 30th, 2008
Kev- not sure if it will fail or not, but they have to hype those because of the 360 FPS persona. They want FPS gamers to come to the PS3 as well. They can’t just sit back and let everyone think they can’t compete in that demographic.
July 30th, 2008
wylie - the fact sony still hasn’t produced a “halo killer” 5 years after halo launched kinda proves they can’t compete with the 360 in this genre.
July 30th, 2008
Halo killed itself.
Sony do try compete with the 360 in this genre, but admittedly the 360 has been doing the dance with the fps crown on for a while now. Will R2 and KZ2 steal the crown for ps3? I doubt it, but I hope they turn out awesome regardless.
As long as we don’t go down the wrong corridors in R2, I reckon it is looking pretty solid. Killzone I loved the graphics / style (Helghast look great), but I only played through story mode once, there wasn’t much incentive to play through again though. Still have hope for KZ2 though.
July 30th, 2008
Sony is making more FPS now while Xbox is diversifying.
360 games for 2008
Fable2 - RPG
Frontlines Fuel of War - FPS
Too Human - Action RPG
Ninja Gaiden II - Action
Gears of War II - 3rd person shooter
Banjo Kazooie - platform
Game Show Channel - Social Network Gaming
Lips - Kareokee with your own IPOD music
In The Movies - Create your own movies
Scene-it 2 - Trivia
PS3
HAZE - FPS
Resistance 2 FPS
Little Big Planet - Platform
Buzz 2 - trivia
MGS4 - 3rd person shooter/ stealth
I’m seeing alot more shooters on PS3 here. Too bad the PS3 controller is soo annoying for FPS games, I won’t even buy them for mine. I don’t even like the PS3 controller, it’s soo small, made for 4′8″ chinese people or something.
July 30th, 2008
Let’s be real.
If your a hardcare gamer, your not playing the 360. Your on a PC.
July 30th, 2008
wylie - “Halo killed itself”. please define that.
the franchise launched the xbox (both unheard of), broke sales records, garnered Game Of The Year from many sites and publications, won AIAS awards (the “oscars” of gaming) and has just recaptured the crown as the most played franchise STILL on xbox live.
so please, enlighten us all how it “killed itself”.
July 30th, 2008
Not everyone can afford to keep upgrading their PC so 360 has a more consistant base of friends and I actually prefer using a controller over a keyboard. A $1,500 - $2,000 dollar computer lets you play the highest end PC game for MAYBE a year, then you need to pay another 400 bucks to upgrade your graphics card and so on.
I never understood why people thought PC was soo hardcore when a mouse makes it soo much easier…shouldn’t that be called easeycore ?
I prefer RTS games on PC obviously but I would rather play with my friends on Live looking at a big screen and listening to my surround sound with a beer by my side.
Halo has far from killed itself, it just gets bigger and bigger. Halo Wars actually looks really good and apparently it is designed great for a console RTS.
July 30th, 2008
Tgrass you gotta hook up with a clan of older dudes man
the ones who have thier own money 
I love consoles for the whole put the disc in and go, but I love the PC side of things for all the addons, mods, customization, running your OWN servers, vent etc etc etc.
Oh, if you want a couch that bad, wireless mouse & kb, some component cables and hook upto your TV. Its what I do
(altho my 360 is hogging my last free component cable jacks atm 
.
July 30th, 2008
@Open your eyes
“If your a hardcare gamer, your not playing the 360. Your on a PC.”
I think that about hits the nail squarely on the head. the *REAL* hardcore gamers do generally own PC’s They spend HUGE amounts of cash on Video cards alone, then complain their game runs like a wet turd, mainly because they’ve only got 1 gig of ram and running vista. And they only run Vista for DX10 because the effects are so much better, and Vista is God to them.
And if you’re curious about my views on Vista? It blows like a Jazz Trumpeter.
July 30th, 2008
Kev- sorry, but that wasn’t my post (Halo Killed Itself), you’ll have to ask Royzy to explain it.
I don’t expect Sony to come out with a game that will beat Halo. If they did that would be awesome, but they won’t. That doesn’t mean that they should not do that genre at all though. I mean seriously, can MS come up with something better in the FPS genre that can beat Halo? They haven’t yet either.
July 30th, 2008
There ya go kev, making assumptions not grounded in any fact. You have no clue how old I am. But you still haven’t explained WHY $199 MUST BE the “sweet spot”? Just because it WAS last generation of hardware doesn’t mean it IS for this generation.
July 30th, 2008
Wylie
That Halo Killer game is Gears of War 2. Just watch when November 7 comes. I Guarantee it will beat Halo sales. But I’m a Halo Fan so don’t take it as a diss to Halo because is still a strong brand in the Xbox World.
July 30th, 2008
David
Kev said that $199 is the sweet spot as everyone knows in the industry, because 70% of PS2 sold after the $199 mark. Wii sells for $50 more and look how fast that sells. Price Point is everything.
July 30th, 2008
@Waldo
I believe we have the same views on Vista, completely.
I enjoy reading Dave’s articles, but I do think the title is a bit misleading. It puts two “under your TV game consoles” into a category neither should be in.
It’s would be just as accurate to say that Coke is for the casual drinker and Pepsi is for the hardcore drinker.
July 30th, 2008
DAVIDB- it’s not just last gen it’s been EVERY gen.
wylie - oops.
they don’t have to come up with a “halo killer” they have halo. altho cod4 removed halo from most-played on ‘live for a while.
July 30th, 2008
I dunno, pepsi with lime is pretty hardcore…
July 30th, 2008
Kev- I understand that, I’m just saying it would be quite difficult to unseat Halo. Although Cod4 did make a good run at it. That game is like a heroin, I just keep playing it until I can’t keep my eyes open anymore. As the late Kurt Cobain would say “blanket acned with cigarette burns”.
July 30th, 2008
tgrass21 u r a complete 360 fanboy
“360 has the best exlusives, the best online network by far and it has the most variety”
u could try backing that up!
then u tried to by scraping as many 360 games together as u could, then neglecting to mention loads of ps3 games, to make the 360 appear more “diverse” and more games released (if it was more diverse and the games where actually good, I would buy a 360, guess what I don’t have a 360 so they can’t be) face it the “ps3 has no games” argument is sooo early 2007
U r doing a poor job of trying to appear unbiased with that list (u could at least try to make a full list instead of censoring loads of ps3 games), another complete fanboy, u’ll fit in with Kev, CAD and Harry (assuming ur not one of them using a different name).
July 30th, 2008
Xbox 360 is now trying to get some RPGs because they had none while Sony has millions. Microsoft invented the Xbox because they saw Sony making money like crazy from the PS1. Before Micro$0ft acquired Bungie studios Halo: Combat Evolved was being develop for Mac and PlayStation 2 and it was going to be publish by Rockstar Games. http://ps2.gamespy.com/playstation-2/halo/ Xbox is just for big kids and American who love rip offs and FPS and cheaters lies and wannabes be exclusives.
July 31st, 2008
halo 3 killed itself from being absolutely retarded, short, and having a bad story line COMPARED to the first one…..but 360 players dont realise it bc they are bigs fans of halo…..my friend is soo hooked to halo, he should go to HA (Halo Anonymous)….i wish they had one of those
July 31st, 2008
matt - i don’t think you understood the story. it was a fitting conclusion to the story. i really don’t know how it could have been better.
July 31st, 2008
I don’t mine Halo 3, it’s no COD4 and isn’t as significant an improvement on the series than the previous two Halo’s but it’s still pretty good. But Kev seriously the story is rubbish and quite simple, many don’t understand how simple it actually is because it’s presented so poorly
August 1st, 2008
SPARKLE- what was “simple” about the story?