Core vs casual battle is same as cinema vs TV, says EA

Speaking at this week's Paris Game Developers Conference, Battlefield Heroes executive producer Ben Cousins said that gulf between core and casual games was akin to that of cinema and TV. And, like TV, casual is set to take a chunk out of the core market.

Battlefield Heroes is a new Play4Free EA game inspired by the booming free to play PC game market in Korea. Targeting a mass audience with lower system specs, the game boasts a cartoon style - a departure from Battlefield's traditionally gritty visuals - and is designed for web-driven community and customisation.

Games and sites made specifically for the online user, like Runescape, Miniclip, Pogo.com and Habbo Hotel, were clear signs that the "PC market isn't dying - it is changing" - and is changing in favour of casual experiences, said Cousins.

Specifically the more convenient, long-term financial and shallower aspects of causal games will help these games take charge, he said.

"[Like games retail] cinema is all about your week one box office," said Cousins. "But, like casual gaming, TV is all about growing your audience over time.

"Cinema and TV now coexist," he added. "TV didn't kill cinema, but it took a big chunk out of it."

Ultimatley, online and web games will "become very mainstream", predicted Cousins, saying that games will experience the exact same things which film and music have experienced - that is, the move away from hardware-driven delivery of goods to software-driven delivery.

Similar to the way MP3s have revloutionised music, casual games will achieve dominance in spite of and because of their "convenient and cheap distribution, lower screen resolution and less immersive features".

"We are at the cusp of this big change," Cousins added, saying that in time casual games will, like TV shows have, grow to provide "more involving experiences with significantly broad appeal."