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There is a blog post at Gamestooge.com asking that very question. The author is asking if Casual games are hurting the industry. There are more and more publishers turning to casual gamers, but that is because more and more people are playing casual games.
The author goes on to describe how he comes home at night and feels like playing casual
games instead of hard core games, such as Gears of War or Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter (GRAW) 2 even though he considers himself a hard core gamer.
I totally agree with this. I am do not consider myself a hard core gamer per se, but I do like games such as GRAW, Splinter Cell, or Project Gothem Racing 3 (PGR). Most days I would rather sit down and play a few rounds of Urban Rivals or puzzle game than turn on the Xbox 360 and get into a longer game. Today’s time restraints definitely play a role in people choosing to play casual games. Even though I do not consider myself a hard core gamer, I do get addicted to video games. I find myself getting more addicted to casual games than hard core games.
Ultimately, the author of the blog post gives his opinion on casual games hurting the gaming industry. I don’t think they are hurting the industry, but I do think they are changing it. As people get busier and busier balancing work and family time, they want games that they can sit down and pick up quickly. After a long day many people would prefer to sit down with a casual game than a hard core game.
Thanks GameStooge
I’m a “hardcore” gamer as termed by the industry. I buy more than 4 games a month for various platforms and I own a majority of the consoles released in the last two decades.
Within the last year or so I’ve drifted from playing FPS and “hardcore” retail titles to more casual games.
Why? Well, firstly my wife and kids like to play games too. And the majority of retail titles aren’t to their liking or appropriate for them to play.
With the advent of XBLA and the Wii virtual console I’m able to play casual games with my family and have an enjoyable experience. I’ll even play these games by myself during some downtime instead of firing up GoW or whatever the flavor of the month is.
Casual games are helping the industry grow in my opinion as my wife and children are now more active gamers due to the “invasion” on consoles.
I just hope that the casual games to consoles keep coming at the nice pace that they have been in recent months.