Microsoft has announced that titles aimed at hardcore gaming enthusiasts are much easier to sell than those directed at the general consumer. <\/p>\n
The company’s incoming motion control hardware, codenamed Project Natal, is pinned to bridge the divide between these markets by offering a more accessible gaming experience Microsoft spokesperson David Dennis told GamesIndustry.biz recently. <\/p>\n
“The core are going to buy the games, we don’t have to focus on marketing those – well, we do, but those games in a lot of ways will sell themselves because they’re such immersive and intense experiences that the core is going to buy, and buy disproportionally for the Xbox,” said Dennis. <\/p>\n
According to the Dennis this represents the strategy that Microsoft has been following during the lifecycle of the Xbox 360 – first by capturing the attention of the hardcore gaming market and then catering to the more fickle, yet lucrative casual market. <\/p>\n
“It’s a continuation of a strategy we’ve been articulating for a long time, which is that we have a powerful piece of hardware that enables a lot of different experiences, let’s start with the core users to really get their attention and get them invested and committed to us as a platform. Then as we look to broaden to new audiences, we have the hardware capacity and technology innovation to continue to evolve the experience.”<\/p>\n
Microsoft’s recent addition of social networking platforms such as Facebook and Twitter to the console’s Xbox Live service is a good example of how the company plans to capture the casual market. Project Natal is also slated to claim a portion of Nintendo’s market share when it is released in 2010. <\/p>\n
Earlier this year Sony also made the announcement that it would be delivering a motion control system for the PS3 in 2010, suggesting that it too has a adopted a similar sales strategy to Microsoft based on the idea that gaming enthusiasts are easier to sell to.<\/p>\n
Despite its fickle nature the casual gaming market is by far the biggest. To date Nintendo has far outstripped both Sony and Microsoft with regards to console and title sales. <\/p>\n