Microsoft Ponders the Casual Gamer
Top Nintendo Xbox man says that more needs to be done to bring in women and casual gamers in general.
A glance into any store tells you the story - videogames, despite the best efforts of their creators, are still mainly a male pastime, and the upcoming next-generation consoles are only going to make it worse, as it's usually men who adopt new technology early. But companies are thinking ahead.
Men still far outnumber women at all levels of the gameindustry - well, maybe not booth babes...
A big part of the solution to bringing in more women and casual gamers is making games easier to get into, said Robbie Bach, Microsoft's chief Xbox officer. Many people think that getting in to a game takes too much time.
"If you want to be good, you have to practice," Bach said at a recent business breakfast in California. "What we need is more experiences that are casual fun."
It's a sentiment echoed by several top people in the industry, not least of which Nintendo's Satoru Iwata, but so far it hasn't generally been reflected in the games the industry is releasing. Now is the time for action, and the games on show at E3 next month should hint at whether publishers and developers are serious about bringing in more casual gamers.
Alex Wollenschlaeger
Editor, Kikizo Games
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