Games We Love but Wish We Could Love Playing
14 hours 3 mins ago
In a recent report from the analyst group Cowen and Company, it seems that there has been a shift in casual interest toward portable gaming. Though casual interest in games for platforms like cellphones and smartphones has gone up, Nintendo and Sony have definitely taken a negative hit. With the economy the way it is and games being cheaper on these rookie platforms, can the 3DS and Vita keep up? Only time will tell.
After the success of the Nintendo Wii, as well as the growing popularity of games on portable devices like the iPhone, a decline in casual gaming is the last thing you’d expect. However, from a recent survey taken by analyst group Cowen and Company, it appears that the above statement is coming to pass. The analyst group polled an undisclosed amount of respondents and found that casual game interest is down 29% since about 5 years ago. According to the survey, 37% play on a dedicated gaming device, while 52% play on their phones. Though this result kind of makes sense when you look at the state of the industry, one has to wonder what the future holds for companies like Nintendo and Sony.
Comments
honestly, im just waiting until they invent the games that i can stick onto my head, and have it override my optic and auditory nerves, closing me out from everything in the room and making it really feel like i am inside the game. to move the character, you just think about moving your arm or legs or whatever and it happens. TRUE immersion.
This has really surprised me actually...
But I am pretty sure Nintendo and Sony will come fighting back!
Thing is, the casual games market tends to work differently than the core games market, at least on the surface (I think the "hardcore" market works basically the same, just on a different set of values, but for the sake of my post, I'll just focus on casual players).
Interest tends to shift to whatever craze is popular at the moment, and we haven't really seen a "craze" game release since Just Dance and Kinect a couple of years ago, even less on the handheld scene. Naturally interest shifts to where the popularity is, which is at the moment squarely on Angry Birds. When the next company comes up with the next "thing everyone must have", then the herd will move onto whatever that is. Is that a handheld, who knows? Nintendo's done it plenty of times in the past, and Sony's had their fare share of phenomena as well.
Only time will tell, but I do know one thing. I never trust analysts or pollsters that have some stake in the market, which is pretty much everyone, to predict anything of value.
I can see why it's more popular(it's less expensive).
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