Microsoft pushing casual games as the future of Xbox 360
Anyone who was in any doubt as to the influence the Nintendo Wii has had on this generation needs look no further than what is currently happening to the Xbox 360. The Microsoft console has always been regarded as the domain of the hardcore but I’m afraid it’s now being pushed as a console for the more casual gamers amongst us.
I’ve stated before how I believe the Wii has had a real and lasting effect on the games industry this generation. While Sony and Microsoft were concentrating their attention making state of the art, graphically powerful consoles, Nintendo stepped in and filled the gaping hole for casual gamers, a group that have been neglected for a while.
The resulting console has achieved massive sales worldwide and heralded in a new era of gamers who play when and as often as they want, and don’t care about the size of the processor inside their machine. Where there’s money, there’s an urge to follow suit, and that is exactly what Sony and Microsoft are now doing.
I actually put a case for the Xbox 360 ending up as the only real console left for hardcore gamers with the PS3 being cited as the next console for casuals. But I now see real evidence that Microsoft are also going after the lucrative market that Sony (for the last to generations), and Nintendo (for this one) have cornered so well.
The press release (courtesy of GameSpy) for the Xbox 360’s showing at GC 2008 in Leipzig focusses on Lips, Rock Band, Guitar Hero World Tour, Scene It? Box Office Smash and You’re in the Movies. All of which have one thing in common: they are being developed to appeal to the casual gamer.
While Fable II and Too Human, as well as Xbox Live, are also mentioned, these are all detailed as an “excellent line up for veterans”. If this isn’t drawing a line between the traditional Xbox 360 owner and the new breed that Microsoft is now looking to attract, then I don’t know what is.
At the same time as this is all going on in Leipzig, the new Lips game is being demoed at a London hotel, where Estelle showed off her song, No Substitute Love, which will feature in the game.
Alex Weller, brand experience manager for Xbox 360, told the Irish Times:
I think for a lot of people holding a games controller is a barrier in its self – holding a microphone anyone can do. Singing a song anyone can do, and women love to sing songs, girls love to get up and sing songs.
Xbox 360 has a really strong gaming heritage, it always has done, and we continue to make fantastic games for the gamer. What we’re doing now is using our knowledge of making games to create games for a much broader audience.
While some of what Weller says could be regarded as patronising and even a little bit sexist, the rest seems to confirm this move towards catering for casual gamers. Whether this new strategy for the Xbox 360 is a good thing depends on your point of view, though it will probably end up being great for Microsoft’s bank balance.
The Wii may be described by a lot of very derogatory words by many people, but there’s no doubting that the PS3 and Xbox 360 are trailing in its wake. And now, both consoles seem to be trying to get a foothold in the same marketplace as well.
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30 Responses to “Microsoft pushing casual games as the future of Xbox 360”
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August 22nd, 2008
So men don’t sing karaoke now??
August 22nd, 2008
Too Human is awful worst than any game ever made. Microsoft hardly has any games this year. Microsoft is just trying to mimic Nintendo’s Wii timed success. PS3 is a design for hardcore gamers casual games and the rest of the gamers not just one type of gamers. It has the massive game library to prove it. Microsoft might not make to 2009. Even the price cut isn’t helping what a flop. I’m selling my Xbox 360 to buy PS3 exclusives this fall.
August 22nd, 2008
Ivan you’re an idiot. I’m going to send you a pic of my balls on Xbox live.
August 22nd, 2008
The Truth is: Microsoft has lost over 7 billion dollars with the xbox-adventure until now. Now they try to imitate Nintendo but don’t realise the real reason why nintendo is so successful.
The Wii has both hardcore games and casual games and an easy and revolutionary control-system. The xbox is only a flatten out pc.
August 22nd, 2008
you`ll only get one exclusive,lol. as most will prolly get delayed again. and you will definately cry even harder when gears 2 gets here, oh and it will be here this year. last i checked the ps3 is nothing more than a blu ray player that plays a few games. most games for ps3 are junk, besides you can get almost all on 360 anyway! who cares about “home” i want to play games not walk around and talk and show off my digital apartment and trophies, talk about computer nerds, jeesh. how can sony hype killzone 2 this much when the first one was prolly one of the worst shooters around? thats like microsoft tryin to hype a new version of flatout and taking 3 to 4 years to make it!! haha as for microsoft going after casual gamers, why not? sony pretty much copied everything microsoft did (hdd,in-game xmb,trophies,center “ps” button on controller,movie downloads..ect…) so why all this scrutany on microsoft? nintendo wii is not my piece of cake, but almost everyone else on the planet is eating, I had a 60g ps3 and traded for an xbox 360 (due to no games) and i have not ever regreted it. maybe when more games begin to come out and more variety instead of just sequels i might consider looking at the ps3 again, but definately not untill the price is $299.00. not interested in blu ray.
August 22nd, 2008
I could say the same thing about gears as you said about killzone, altho i am sure the sales figures will disagree with me
. Alot of suckers out there it seems 
.
Its funny because I have the same amount of ‘good’ games for my PS3 as I do for my 360.
Everything else is overhyped crap (halo, gears) or x-platform anywhoos. Wish I had Eternal Sonata on ps3 tho
August 22nd, 2008
I agree on the “halo” comment! not sure about eternal sonata
August 22nd, 2008
Awww c’mon!
It was (very) simple fun! Had a good musical score too 
I think the PS3 version gets like changable clothes and gear tho
Wahhh
Anywhoos, ROLL ON FALLOUT 3!!! Soon
August 22nd, 2008
Does Microsoft REALLY think that Lips and You’re In The Movies are going to sell anywhere NEAR the amount of games like Halo or Gears? What are they thinking?
-Arvis
August 22nd, 2008
“Does Microsoft REALLY think that Lips and You’re In The Movies are going to sell anywhere NEAR the amount of games like Halo or Gears? What are they thinking?”
Why not, if it was on the wii, it would sell out? go figure.
@sw
I meant that i have yet to play eternal sonata, so i can`t really comment? hope fallout 3 is great!
August 22nd, 2008
I could care less about Lips but Your in the movies is cool. Live game shows only on 360 with real prizes. That is amazing and a first.
August 22nd, 2008
For the LIPS lovers The cool factor comes from the fact you can hook up your Zune or Ipod and use that music. That’s cool.
August 22nd, 2008
the problem now with the 360 is that its totally in limbo, not only is it fighting the ps3 which a lot will argue it was losing, but its now being squarely aimed at the Wii which, lets face it, is sure fire suicide right? I mean no matter how many price cuts the 360 gets it wont match the image of the Wii with its cutesy, anyone can play with me attitude, compared to the hardcore view of the 360. So now Microsoft have got to do both hardcore and casual games to please both sets of fans. they have a very mixed marketing strategy.
August 22nd, 2008
Lips is a %100 idea stole from Sony’s SingStar Microsoft only copies while others lead what a shame. Lips will never be a success on Xbox another attempt that will fail like they all had already. Viva Pinata fail to get little kids to join the Xbox 360 family. And the Nintendo’s Mii inspire new Xbox 360 dartboard coming soon is another fail attempt even even Xbox 360 owners will hate it just go to the official Xbox website and see the massive complaints. Microsoft needs is own ideas and is own games.
August 22nd, 2008
Ivan
Your an Idiot. Everyone know that Sony has taken everything Microsoft has done and copied it. Did MS Copy Singstar or did Singstar copy the Karoke Machine. What an original (copy) Idea by Sony. Get a life and stop talking shit.
August 22nd, 2008
Winner
Send a copy to Ivan too and a Pic of your asshole since he loves to talk shit.
August 22nd, 2008
@ CAD (piece) and johnson
99% agree with Ivan,
i suppose you can say if PS3 copied everything Xbox did, than what did xbox copy hmmmm.
Fanboys say ‘nothing’ but realists say ‘a lot of things’. You say Singstar copied karoke machines, blah blah blah; it doesnt make any sense when you all say HDD, movie downloads etc were first on three sixty. most of you are so backwards you have a penis on you head and eyes on ur asses. The ‘home button which you say was taxed(stolen, im aussie) from the 360 is ridiculous because it was on the psp – but i suppose you’ll say the psp stole it from such and such, and the XMB is also from the psp. 360 try hard games like in the movies which was 100% stolen from the ps2 (EYETOY) but then again you’ll say sony stole it from Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre. Scene it! which is a sloppy non- selling version of BUZZ! is also a rip off and lets not forget that the playstation came out long before an xbox and would anyone really say ‘oh im sooo excited to play lips’, no EPIC FAIL. THE ps3 is not perfect and ivan is a biased pompus dumbass(no offence). Sony invented casual gaming except maybe for arcades.
August 22nd, 2008
there is intelligent live in the universe and the post above is right on.
August 22nd, 2008
CAD:
LMFAO you a bitter loser wow. Face it Microsoft is a follower not a leader.Xbox is built by copying others nice and pathetic.
You an idiot everything you just posted makes absolutely no sense what so over.
August 22nd, 2008
“Lips is a %100 idea stole from Sony’s SingStar Microsoft only copies while others lead what a shame.”
Ivan, I would LOVE to know where Sony hasn’t followed Nintendo. Heck, they followed Nintendo into gaming, followed the controls Nintendo made, and even tried to use Nintendo’s characters.
At any rate, casual games are the future of gaming. I don’t see why that has to be bad, though. After all, does anyone that likes one kind of movie hate that other kinds of movies are made? Casual games could actually bring more funding to hardcore games, so long as the gamers are still there to bite at the big budget hardcore games.
August 22nd, 2008
No Harry, I am not sending you a pic of my balls! haha. And I don’t want to send Ivan a pic of my arsehole, he’ll probably butter his corn with it.
Ivan, Enos88 (aka ura-dick), can you please try to stop destroying the English language?
August 23rd, 2008
@ Matt
What characters did Sony try to steal from Nintendo.
August 23rd, 2008
I love PlayStation & Xbox PlayStation more.
I’m a gaming encyclopedia lol read this please.
winner:
Keep amusing me oh thanks for letting me know about the picture now i won’t have to see it close one lol.
Matt:
Do you actually believe Sony tried to copy that horrible geek so call controller?
The only reason Nintendo has Sony as a competitor is because in 1991 they betray Sony.
The first conceptions of the PlayStation date back to 1986. Nintendo had been attempting to work with disc technology since the Famicom, but the medium had problems. Its rewritable magnetic nature could be easily erased (thus leading to a lack of durability), and the discs were a copyright infringement danger. Consequently, when details of CDROM/XA (an extension of the CD-ROM format that combines compressed audio, visual and computer data, allowing all to be accessed simultaneously) came out, Nintendo was interested. CD-ROM/XA was being simultaneously developed by Sony and Phillips. Nintendo approached Sony to develop a CD-ROM add-on, tentatively titled the “SNES-CD”. A contract was signed, and work began. Nintendo’s choice of Sony was due to a prior dealing: Ken Kutaragi, the person who would later be dubbed “The Father of PlayStation”, was the individual who had sold Nintendo on using the Sony SPC-700 processor for use as the eight-channel ADPCM sound synthesis set in the Super Famicom/SNES console through an impressive demonstration of the processor’s capabilities.
Sony also planned to develop another, Nintendo compatible, Sony-branded console, but one which would be more of a home entertainment system playing both Super Nintendo cartridges and a new CD format which Sony would design. This was also to be the format used in SNES-CD discs, giving a large degree of control to Sony despite Nintendo’s leading position in the video gaming market.
The SNES-CD was to be announced at the June 1991 Consumer Electronics Show (CES). However, when Hiroshi Yamauchi read the original 1988 contract between Sony and Nintendo, he realized that the earlier agreement essentially handed Sony complete control over any and all titles written on the SNES CD-ROM format. Yamauchi decided that the contract was totally unacceptable and he secretly canceled all plans for the joint Nintendo-Sony SNES CD attachment. Instead of announcing a partnership between Sony and Nintendo, at 9 a.m. the day of the CES, Nintendo chairman Howard Lincoln stepped onto the stage and revealed that Nintendo was now allied with Philips, and Nintendo was planning on abandoning all the previous work Nintendo and Sony had accomplished. Lincoln and Minoru Arakawa had, unbeknown to Sony, flown to Philips headquarters in Europe and formed an alliance of a decidedly different nature—one that would give Nintendo total control over its licenses on Philips machines.
After the collapse of the joint project, Sony considered halting their research, but ultimately the company decided to use what they had developed so far and make it into a complete, stand alone console. As a result, Nintendo filed a lawsuit claiming breach of contract and attempted, in U.S. federal court, to obtain an injunction against the release of the PlayStation, on the grounds that Nintendo owned the name. The federal judge presiding over the case denied the injunction and, in October 1991, the first incarnation of the new Sony PlayStation was revealed. However, it is theorized that only 200 or so of these machines were ever produced.
By the end of 1992, Sony and Nintendo reached a deal whereby the “Sony Play Station” would still have a port for SNES games, but Nintendo would own the rights and receive the bulk of the profits from the games, and the SNES would continue to use the Sony-designed audio chip. However, Sony decided in early 1993 to begin reworking the “Play Station” concept to target a new generation of hardware and software. As part of this process the SNES cartridge port was dropped and the space between the names was removed.
Lasting over 11 years, the PlayStation enjoyed one of the longest production runs in the video game industry. On March 23, 2006, Sony announced the end of production.
In the late 1980s, he was watching his daughter with a Famicom and realized the potential that existed within video games. At that particular time, Sony’s executives had very little interest in video games. Thus, when Nintendo expressed the need for a wave-table sound chip for its upcoming new 16-bit system, Kutaragi immediately accepted. Working in secret, he designed and built the chip, the SPC700. When they found out, Sony’s executives were furious. Only with Sony CEO Norio Ohga’s help was Kutaragi able to push the project to completion and keep his job.
Even while working with Nintendo, within Sony, gaming was still regarded as a fad and something looked down upon. Despite this hostile atmosphere to video games, Kutaragi managed to persuade Sony to fund his research into the Super NES CD (the device that would eventually become the PlayStation). Despite being considered a risky gamble by other Sony executives, Kutaragi once again had the support of Sony CEO Norio Ohga. The success of the Playstation led to him heading up the development of more consoles like the PlayStation 2, the most successful games console in history and the latest console in the series, the PlayStation 3.
The commercial success of the PlayStation franchise makes Sony Computer Entertainment the most profitable business division of Sony. Despite being an upstart in the console market against veterans Nintendo and Sega, the first PlayStation displaced them both to become the most popular console of that era. The PlayStation 2 extended Sony’s lead in the following generation, at one point holding a 65% market share with 100 million units shipped.[2] Ken was recognized by many financial and technological publications for this success, most notably when he was named one of the 100 most influential people of 2004 in TIME magazine[3] and the “Gutenberg of Video Games”.
According to the book Smartbomb, by Heather Chaplin and Aaron Ruby, the remarkable success of the upstart Sony PlayStation worried Microsoft in late 1990s. The growing video game market seemed to threaten the PC market which Microsoft had dominated and relied upon for most of its revenues. Additionally, a venture into the gaming console market would diversify Microsoft’s product line, which up to that time had been heavily concentrated on software.
According to Dean Takahashi’s book, Opening the Xbox, the Xbox was originally to be named “DirectX-box”, to show the extensive use of DirectX within the console’s technology.[4] “Xbox” was the final name decided by marketing, but the console still retains some hints towards DirectX, most notably the “X”-shaped logo, which DirectX is famous for, along with the “X” shape on the top of the system.
August 23rd, 2008
Ivan:
You most definately own a ps3! you have nothing better to do than write long ass posts like these.
August 23rd, 2008
johnson:
LoL actually i proudly own PLAYSTATION 3 and the Xbox 360 go here http://home.earthlink.net/~ivan-playstation/
What you didn’t enjoy all the facts too bad…
Joker
Has anyone visit the new graveyard is called X. If you can’t find it just follow the red vision it will circle you all around and kill you. But don’t try opening any doors it will make a huge sound. And don’t try opening any casket is not gonna work again ever they are not reliable. I highly suggest don’t ever try to have fun on the X graveyard it will bored you with limited timed jokes.
August 24th, 2008
@Johnson
My thoughts on Ivan exactly. If the Ps3 were so awesome he would be playing it, not posting these long, boring distribes. Also, Ivan? Please oh please buy a thesaurus and a dictionary while your at it, your butchery of english is unbearable.
August 24th, 2008
@ Maylon
Its diatribes, moron.
August 24th, 2008
Maylon:
Idiot I’m posting using my PLAYSTATION 3 smart ass. You could it boring because you hate the true. I know perfect English unlike you.You just bitter because you know PLAYSTATION 3 is the greatest kick ass gaming with real exclusives which are all must have..
August 25th, 2008
“Idiot I’m posting using my PLAYSTATION 3 smart ass.”
My point exactly! lol
August 25th, 2008
Maylon:
Idiot I’m posting using my PLAYSTATION 3 smart ass. You could it boring because you hate the true. I know perfect English unlike you.You just bitter because you know PLAYSTATION 3 is the greatest kick ass gaming with real exclusives which are all must have..
If it were true that the Ps3 were the “greatest kick ass gaming with real exclusives”, I and millions of others would have already purchased one.