Marketing Company Says Casual Gaming To Make Consoles Extinct
An online marketing company has put forth their arguments as to why consoles are facing extinction through Mr. Kevin Carney. The whole article reads as someone who has a vested interest in the success of casual gaming. It’s impossible to argue against the basis of his argument, that casual gaming has raced like wildfire across the world. Unfortunately he’s misinterpreted a shift in the ratio of ‘hardcore’ gamers to casual gamers as a drop in gaming. There are many people playing games these days that you’d never have expected to, but there are still just as many children, college students and adults playing complex games with deep, strategic gameplay.
Many of his points just don’t make sense. He cites the current generation of consoles as a step back, decrying their lack of innovation and asks “Don’t you see the innovation, the rich graphics, the evolution that Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 (PS3), and the Wii are facilitating? I can’t either”. Has anyone shown Mr. Carney screenshots from even some more basic titles? I remember being awed beyond words when I saw how many zombies the Xbox 360 could animate without a frame drop in Dead Rising or the complexity of the landscapes in Oblivion.
More after the break.
He cites the Wii as being some of the only innovation due to its ‘inclusion of player action’. With the exception of Wii Sports I haven’t played anything that made me feel a sense of true motion control.
His next point is titled: big budget, small matter, where he cites the failure of cutscenes, Hollywood voice overs and the like to make games enjoyable. He says that on many occasions they can make things worse. The only time bad cutscenes truly ruin a game is when there’s no option to skip them. Oftentimes poorly done additions turn a poor title into a cult favorite that gets mocked to ultimate fame.
Then he goes on to claim that consumers are abandoning consoles in favor of online games, social networks and having ‘digital experiences’ that ‘connect them with others and don’t cost a thing’. Well except of course the costs of a computer, internet connection, electricity, etc. etc. There are definitely a lot of people who’ve abandoned the console in favor of online experiences: most of them are playing WoW and other MMOs that do in fact connect them with others. The people who were spending money on games ten years ago haven’t abandoned GTA for Facebook.
The evolution of online gaming is his next arguing point. He says that as console gaming gets ‘too sophisticated’ people are moving to online games that are getting more and more sophisticated themselves. Has anyone discovered a console game that is too sophisticated yet? Companies have avoided the problem of too many buttons on a controller by creating context-sensitive controls. No matter how detailed and ornate a flash game is, that’s not what people are turning on when they get home. I myself have a computer fully capable of playing every flash game under the sun, an Xbox 360 and a PS3. The computer gets turned on occasionally to check the weather or find out local movie listings. The consoles get used for gaming.
His ‘brevity’ section is an absolute joke. “A player can quickly and easily go from an Excel spreadsheet to any game experience imaginable online. Additionally, the player can play short-form games or jump in and out of a long-form game without penalty or concern,” he says. Last I checked the vast majority of games come with some sort of save system that allows you to stop without starting over. If you’re trying to squeeze in a couple rounds of Bejeweled to blow of steam between meetings I understand the importance of the drop-in drop-out idea, but when you’re relaxing after work with a few friends, games and a pizza you’re probably not worried about your time frame.
Lastly he covers advertising, probably because it’s a ridiculous issue. He claims that console gaming companies can learn from the advertising techniques that online gaming companies have been using for years: “online games point to years of experience and case studies for serving ads pre-game, during commercial breaks, and around the game.” He’s neglecting one important fact, that many people hate advertising. People wait til a television show is available on DVD to view it without commercial breaks. Loading screens break up the immersiveness of a gaming experince enough without ten second ads for Doritos or The Gap sucking up processing power and wasting my time.
Online gaming will always be popular amongst fans of simple puzzlers like Bejeweled, Tetris and Snood, those who are wasting time at computer-equipped jobs and students procrastinating on their homework. Blizzard is still raking in money hand over fist with World of Warcraft, far from a ‘casual’ game. Every time I walk by my local game store I see the next generation of gamers buying up racing titles, strategy games or first person shooters.
With all the consoles selling quite well across the globe it seems like Mr. Carney is quite off the mark. Sure, the idea of consoles has its end somewhere, but until your television or the most basic model of computer can deliver realistic graphics and real-world physics along with tower defense and puzzle games it’s not going to disappear.