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Molyneux: Casual games ‘frowned on’
Sep 19th 2008 at 09:45 by Tim Ingham
Lionhead Studios boss Peter Molyneux has spoken of his concerns over the restrictive nature of ‘core’ and ‘casual’ games – adding that development of the latter is "frowned on a bit".
Speaking to Shack News, the Fable II creator said that specifically targeted games were a major reason why the global games audience hadn’t grown as quickly as he would have liked.
He said:
“20 years ago we honestly thought that [large] percentages of the world's population would be playing computer games. And it's not, it's fractions of the world's population. And I think partly it's because we keep making games for these two separate audiences.
“We make them for the core gamers here, the casual gamers here, and there's a big great wall between them. If you develop games for casual gamers you're just frowned on a bit.
Molyneux said that Lionhead had tried to bridge both genres with Fable II, and appeal to both sets of fans.
“And maybe part of Fable is about this look, can't we create a game that both of these people can play and enjoy? Okay, you've got to give the core gamers all the carrots they love, and casual gamers the accessibility that they want. And that's what we tried to do with Fable.”
Fable II is released on Xbox 360 on October 21st in the US, and October 24th in Europe.
dan
Sep 19th 2008 | 14:22
Well you have breaking news then... Fable is not coming out for the PC on October 21st. I wish it was... but thanks for tearing me down one more time.
beemoh
Sep 19th 2008 | 16:19
"If you develop games for casual gamers you're just frowned on a bit."
This is because 'Casual' is continually being used as an excuse to farm out cheap, rubbish shovelware.
It's very possible to do good games that aren't 'hardcore'- PopCap manage it, Nintendo manage it, even EA can do it from time to time.
Do that, and you've got your problem solved right there.
mrphil
Sep 19th 2008 | 18:30
Interesting view point. Of course the vast majority of 'casual gamers' would not describe themselves as gamers at all - never mind the type of people that would buy a console or a traditional title. It's more about accessibility, and in this case that means the ability to play on impulse.
Quite frankly, casual titles have brought games to the masses in a way that a 'hybrid' console/PC title never would.
Adrian
Sep 22nd 2008 | 17:14
Markets segregate to cater for demand. It's not dictated by the content, it's dictated by the market itself. Quite how new channels could limit overall sales I'll never understand.
It's like saying that heavy metal is ruining the classical music market.
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