Commentary

Wii, Kinect, and the Casual Gaming Industry

Video games are a hobby that I have thoroughly enjoyed, starting in my early years of playing Zelda on my then-newly purchased Nintendo 64. My interest in games stems from the interactive experience set within unique and ambiguous worlds, and how we as an audience are able to interact with these synthetic worlds. Games offer a unique experience to those who play them. They also offer a unique blend of entertainment, something between the realms of cinema and interactive storytelling. Games are also available at an affordable price, and because of this the gaming industry has been able to flourish.

Games during the first part of the decade were targeted to a specific consumer audience. People often would associate “gamers” with young males, ranging between 15 to 25 years of age. People over this age group would be considered to old to understand the core mechanics of the newly released games.

However, this stereotype was shattered on November 19, 2006, during the release of Nintendo’s next generation system, the Nintendo Wii. The Wii offered a completely groundbreaking alternative to how consumers played games. The console brought well developed, and functioning motion control gaming to the general public. The Wii was not the first system to attempt motion control, but there was no doubt from a financial and marketing standpoint, that Nintendo had perfected it. Since its release the Wii has been immensely successful, and last month Nintendo hit the 30 million mark in units sold. Due to their success Nintendo’s leading competitors, Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Sony’s PS3, have shifted their focus on implementing motion based controls into their flagship consoles.

One of the newest developments is Microsoft's highly anticipated console add-on, Kinect. Microsoft boasts that Kinect will be able to achieve fluid and natural motion controls without the use of a controller. The Kinect games interaction will be based solely on the motion of the gamer's body with the use of the Kinect’s sensor device. Whether Kinect will be as successful as it's aging Wii counterpart remains to be seen, but the idea of full body motion controls is an ambitious and exiting concept.

These ground breaking advancements in motion controls have had a profound effect on the direction that the gaming industry is heading. Motion controls, while revolutionary, are not to the point where complicated games can be played without the assistance of a controller. Because of this, games over the last several years have been simplified, and in turn, more user friendly than ever before. By making games more accessible, audiences that would have never been considered a “core audience” are now the biggest targets in the next generation of gamers. Recent releases in online flash games such as Facebook’s Farmville, and developments in the mobile gaming market on handheld devices such as Apple’s iPhone and iPod touch, have helped move the casual gaming movement into the forefront of the industry's development.

An article recently published on CNNMoney.com highlights several of the challenges that the traditional gaming market faces. The traditional gaming market is suffering due to the casual markets rapid growth and its attractive accessibility due to casual games ease of use and functionality. In many ways this can be a good thing for the future of interactive video games. The traditional gaming market has more or less catered to the same core audience for the last 20 years. Casual games will usher in a new generation of gamers of all ages, genders and demographics.

However, as a veteran gamer I am concerned about what these new developments could mean for the future of the more traditional gaming venue. While growth and accessibility are goals that software developers should strive for, I find that casual games have a habit of producing a lot of what is known in the gaming world as shovelware. What worries me is that this new trend will affect the quality and value of traditional games. Early games combined exceptional graphics, plot, and gameplay mechanics, and when all these elements were in perfect harmony, true classics were created. In my opinion, this is what made gaming great, being able to immerse yourself in a truly unique and visually stunning world, and it made up for the complexities of having to learn the games basics.

In the emerging world of motion based controls, accessibility, mobile devices, and society's demand for interaction without the need of a learning curve, the need for expensive software production, and the markets reliance on big game titles could be coming to close. In an incredibly volatile gaming market, where 3rd party developers disappear as fast as the sprout up, it could be a welcome change for the future. The longevity of numerous developers can benefit from a simplified industry model with focus centered on accessibility for a widely growing consumer audience. While the model of the business may change, games are still there to provide entertainment, and bringing entertainment to the masses can never be a bad thing.

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