Microsoft & The Casual Market

Microsoft is a mega giant corporation. They dabble in a little bit of everything. Back when they first announced that they were going into the console market, I laughed. I never thought of the original Xbox as a "cool" system to own. Something about Bill Gates trying to sell me something of that nature didn't feel right.

But I think they have succeeded. Financially? Probably not. And even though it's questionable about the reliability of the 360 and the choices they made with it, the Xbox 360 is the current "gamers" machine. When someone buys Microsoft's console, they are doing so to buy games. But there is something that has confused me. It is Microsoft's Casual Market Strategy.

Each of the last few years, Microsoft has shown some great titles and then had a couple titles that were painfully geared towards the mainstream. The most recent of the two were LIPS and You're in the Movies. Other than the cheesiness of Movies, I have no problem with these two games. I understand who they're geared towards and what they represent. I love LIPS developer iNis, and had I the money to spend or a free copy to play, I definitely would have gave it a try.

My confusion spawns mainly from the success of these games. First, do they? I see the occasional sale here and there. Gaming magazine reviews really can't give a good impression because they're not the ones marketed towards. Sales of LIPS were .35m and You're in the Movies was surprisingly higher at .39m in the States. I can't tell if those are good in terms of projects like these. You're In the Movies was probably not a very costly venture, but I could see LIPS costing a pretty penny with licensing frees and such.

For sure these titles need to exist. There is the audience out there and they shouldn't be ignored. The Wii has capitalized on this to become the best selling console and one of the things keeping the PS3 somewhat healthy is because of it's Blu-Ray player capabilities. Sony also has SingStar. So what kept or is keeping LIPS from becoming that. Is there really a difference? I'm asking because I feel these titles are in jeopardy to being exchanged out for another shot in the dark casual title next year. I'd rather not see half-baked titles from Microsoft every year when they have perfectly ideas to built on. LIPS had wireless microphones and being able to play a song off your Zune was an interesting idea that probably only Microsoft could pull off. Why not actually make it work? Or is support for these games non-existant because they sell poorly and then are put on the shelf. And if that's the case, What are they doing wrong? Is the system too injected with the blood of core "gamers" to support the casual market. We've talked about the Casual Market killing the Wii for the Core, but what about the other direction for the Xbox 360?

Or is that even possible?
David