Microsoft: "Hardcore Gamers Are An Easier Market"

Microsoft believes that hardcore games are easier to sell than are casual games due to their respective markets, and that the casual gamers are more elusive.

The company are sure however that Project Natal, to be released next year, will appeal to both audience types but that the trends will remain similar when it comes to the purchase of games integrated with Project Natal. Microsoft's David Dennis commented:

"The core are going to buy the games, we don't have to focus on marketing those - well, we do, but those games in a lot of ways will sell themselves because they're such immersive and intense experiences that the core is going to buy, and buy disproportionally for the Xbox."

Microsoft sees Project Natal as broadening the horizons of and generally expanding upon the increasingly versed Xbox 360 platform. Dennis continues with further inane talk about the gamers market, and basically, if you are a casual gamer, there should be more of interest to you when Project Natal rolls out next year.

Microsoft is also confident that releases for Project Natal will be holding their own in the top ten, even against titles like Modern Warfare 2, Assassin's Creed, FIFA 2010 etc.

"I think if you look at experiences in other platforms that are doing well, they're not all necessarily core experiences. Wii Fit was number seven [in November]. So there are certainly a lot of upsides for experiences if they're done right that go beyond the core but still capture the imagination of the core. "

So if anything is to be taken from the not so articulate insight to Microsoft’s highly anticipated release it is that the project will be capitalising much more successfully on the casual gaming market. Which could mean that Xbox 360 becomes the casual gaming platform of choice as well as a solid hardcore gaming platform.

Source: GI