John "wardrox"
News Monday, July 6th 2009

2 Comments

Talking to CVG, Tecmo Koei president Kenji Matsubara said a number of things that you would expect the president of Tecmo Koei to say. He also said some interesting things though, such as how Japanese studios are shifting focus to the West to try and counter the slow down in the Japanese core gaming market. The reason for the halt in growth? According to Matsubara it’s basically all Nintendo’s fault.

Thanks to Nintendo’s DS and Wii, game users are expanding – female and senior game users are joining in. But those casual gamers still prefer casual play and don’t go into core games, sports or action games. [...] The Japanese demographic has changed compared to five years ago, but most of the casual gamers still prefer casual games.

He then followed these statements by pointing out how both Microsoft and Sony are going after this new market with their motion controls, above the needs and wants of the less-casual gamer.

I expect that, from the beginning, both these types of controls will be more suited to casual games, and later go into more hardcore oriented experiences. That’s how, in my understanding, most companies’ strategies will apply.

We haven’t experimented with both technologies, so I cannot comment on which might be better. But I believe both companies are focusing on the same area – so casual gamers first, then core gamers.

And he is spot on, kind of. With the Wii’s dominance it’s clear both companies are trying to get a piece of the sexy, profit pie. But his remarks about how the “core gamers” will be dealt with once the technology is adopted has me feeling less confident.

Look at the Wii and its controller. How many “core” gaming experiences have there been that have used that control scheme? How many of those could only have been done with that control scheme? In my opinion both Sony and especially Microsoft are simply targeting the Mum’s of their once loyal clientèle and they don’t really give a crap about us, the real gamers.

Perhaps when both motion sensing options are out, and if they have been successful, third parties might try to tack them into their games. But really, does anybody expect anything more than a token, shallow use of either Natal or the wand-with-the-ball-thing?