In the gaming world, we hear about "casual gaming" every day. A lot of the time it's connected to the Wii and DS because they are mostly seen as casual gaming platforms. The PC is notorious for being a casual gaming haven with games like The Sims and Peggle.
Nintendo Europe's Senior Marketing Director Laurent Fischer believes that "casual gaming" doesn't exist.
He said, "For me, you are a gamer or non-gamer. I think most of you know that you can spend ten or twenty hours on an internet flash game and have not realised. The guy who plays these games regularly - he's a core gamer."
We couldn't disagree more.
Being a hardcore, or "core" gamer, isn't just about the amount of time you play a game. This is where Fischer is wrong. If someone plays Peggle for 20 hours a week they aren't automatically a hardcore gamer. Though, I have definitely played Peggle for 20 hours in a week.
Being a hardcore gamer is about following games through their development and waiting in line for the release. Being a hardcore gamer is about getting online and playing against thousands of other people (and making a nice cup of Earl Grey on their face after a sweet frag).
Nintendo probably wants to get away from their label as a casual game company because they appear to be losing a lot of their hardcore fanbase, but they should embrace their casual audience. It's obviously selling consoles for them and expanding gaming's audience as a whole.
What do you think?
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