Don't look at me. The report concluded that. In reality, the casual gamer market has grown faster due to the success of Wii and iPhone. There are open opportunities there.
The "growth" of the "casual" market has more to do with people affixing the term "casual" to a growing list of hardware and software that has existed for decades without being classified under that misnomer.
The success of the Wii in and of itself is no proof of the growth of the casual market, no more than the lackluster sales of the GC or N64 are proof of the casual market in decline. Look at the top 10-15 selling games on the Wii and its not that different the top 10-15 list of any Nintendo consoles. There is going to be a Mario game, a kart game, a Legend of Zelda and the only thing missing from the Wii list is a Pokemon game.
Even Wii Sports and Wii Play don't stand as excellent evidence that the casual market is growing at a faster rate than the core market since they bundled to hardware. Using that same logic, one can surmise in 1980s that Duck Hunt with its ~23 million in sales made light gun shooting one of the fastest growing genre of NES generation. Even Nintendo brags that the average Wii gamer is a core gamer not a casual gamer.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/140575/average_wii_player_is_age_29_nintendo_says.html
The 360 is considered a core gamer machine but it sells more games through its Live service than game software sold through the iphone. I highly doubt that Live sales are being perpetuated by a bunch of casual gamers. To me, DLC games are spearheading a revival movement and simply reintroducing classic and newer games to gamers, which are attracted to the titles due to nostalgia and not simplicity.
I did not say it will be easy. But I think some of that difficulty is in the mindset. Third party titles can still sell even though they may not be Nintendo mega-hits. Like I said, assuming the numbers loom larger, more and more people, including new developers, will aim for it like all ventures. The potential windfall is there. Some will have half-empty attitude, others will think the glass is half-full.
While the Wii's success is bound to attract developers, the weight of that attraction is also determine by success and if traditional third party titles still maintain the level of success of a GTA4, COD4, MGS4, AC and ~30+ platinum sellers than the Wii's attraction will be counterbalance by the PS360 market which is still bigger in terms of console numbers and much bigger in terms of software sales. Most of the top 20 list of the PS360 is populated by third party titles, this not true for Nintendo. Whats the highest selling third party game for the Wii? GH with about ~2 million in sales? How many third party titles from the 360 and PS3 top that number? Most third party devs will continue to target the PS360 with its resource abundant project because the PS360 represent a market they have dealt with for years. Most will throw resource limited project at the Wii and hope some sort of quirky feature piques the interest of the Wii faithful.
I don't think EA's CEO's simplifying EA's problem, but I think you're simplifying his statement. There are a lot to gain by focusing more on Wii than it is right now.
I not simplifying his statement. His statement was made to indicate that EA's current predicament was due to misjudging the market and not focusing on the Wii. I highly doubt that focus would have alleviated the problems EA is facing now. If EA is having trouble transitioning to the PS360 whos enviroment is not that different from the market EA has traditionaly targeted for years, how would focusing on the Wii been better which present a different market where traditional titles aren't having the easiest time of finding success outside of GH and a few other titles.
Too early to tell. There has been failures, but have you seen any attempt to produce Nintendo-quality games on Wii yet ?
No, but how many third party pubs can pump out quality titles like Nintendo can? Most pub that rival Nintendo in size and # of titles produced depend highly on a few key IPs with a mountain of cheap titles with a portion driven by movie IPs. How many IPs or titles from Nintendo are be looked at as cheap garbage? A far smaller percentage than most other typical devs. Nintendo's mentality has been driven by need to almost exclusively support Nintendo consoles on its lonesome. You're not going to suddenly operate as insanely efficient as Nintendo just because you see the Wii as a hit. Nintendo software has been developed with the mindset to sell a console as well as itself. Most third party software isn't developed with such intention and won't be.
