casual/crossover games growing

Source: GigaOm

Want to see how drastically the game industry’s market is changing in the U.S.? Take a look at the top 10 best-selling video games in 2007, recently released by retail sales tracker NPD Group, then compare that list to previous years. While several established franchises were represented (Halo, Call of Duty, etc.), there’s also strong showing by games with proven popularity beyond the action/sports-oriented “hardcore gamer” segment of males aged 18-to-35. In fact, most of the top ten sellers were arguably non-hardcore:

Halo 3 (360) — 4.82 million (HARDCORE)
Wii Play w/ remote (Wii) — 4.12 million
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (360) — 3.04 million (HARDCORE)
Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (PS2) — 2.72 million
Super Mario Galaxy (Wii) — 2.52 million
Pokemon Diamond (DS) — 2.48 million
Madden NFL 08 (PS2) — 1.90 million (HARDCORE)
Guitar Hero 2 (PS2) — 1.89 million
Assassin’s Creed (360) — 1.87 million (HARDCORE)
Mario Party 8 (Wii) — 1.82 million
Granted, many hardcore gamers like Mario, Pokemon and Guitar Hero — but then, notably, so do families, kids, women, and/or older, casual social gamers. Six of 2007’s top ten games found this broader audience. Now compare how much smaller that crossover was in recent years. Here’s NPD’s 2006 list:

Madden NFL 07, PS2, EA — 2.8 million (HARDCORE)
New Super Mario Bros., DS, Nintendo — 2 million
Gears of War, Xbox 360, Microsoft — 1.8 million (HARDCORE)
Kingdom Hearts II, PS2, Square Enix — 1.7 million
Guitar Hero II, PS2, Activision — 1.3 million
Final Fantasy XII, PS2, Square Enix — 1.3 million (HARDCORE)
Brain Age: Train Your Brain, DS, Nintendo — 1.1 million
Madden NFL 07, Xbox 360, EA — 1.1 million (HARDCORE)
Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter, Xbox 360, Ubisoft — 1 million (HARDCORE)
NCAA Football 07, PS2, EA — 1 million (HARDCORE)
Just four of the top 10 games in 2006 were non-hardcore. Go back to NPD’s 2005 list, and that number looks even smaller: two or three of the 10, depending on how you classify Star Wars franchise games. Look at 2004’s NPD top 10, and you find just one or two crossover titles, depending on where you place Spider-Man.

So why is the trend of casual/crossover games growing?

Continue reading the article

Comments

[Selling Video Games]

I don't understand why some of those games are HARDCORE. If HARDCORE means you have to dedicate a large portion of your life to be successful at it, then this list is kind of... really bad.