I doubt casual games are hurting core games

[Anayo]

I've seen a lot of headlines on Kotaku lately where game developers are panicking over $.99 'ap' games for smartphones and ipods. They say it's siphoning sales away from their traditional $60-$40 games.

I'm wondering if the two aren't mutual exclusives. The sort of person who would buy a $.99 downloadable game, are they someone who'd be inclined to buy a 'core' game anyway? I can imagine my mom discovering peggle or angry birds and getting into that, but I can't imagine her playing Resident Evil 4. Likewise I can't imagine a core gamer who'd dig Resident Evil buying 50 downloadable ap games instead of Resident Evil.

Does this make sense? Am I on to something here?

[swiftzx]

I buy both.

[Anayo]

I was just wondering who would buy casual games at the expense of core games, assuming he or she played core games to begin with.

[BoringSupreez]

I consider myself a "core" gamer. I have not diverted a single cent away from buying core games so that I could buy casual games.

[AznKhmerBoi]

i only buy retro games.... so where do i fall ?

[BoringSupreez]

i only buy retro games.... so where do i fall ?

According to your sig, you have a DS, Wii, 3DS, and PS3. I doubt that you never buy anything for those systems.

[AznKhmerBoi]

actually to tell u the truth i own 3 ps3 games, zero 3ds games, and my wii is modded, and i have r4 for my dslite lol . Only games i actuallyl buy for is my Snes, Genesis,n64,nes, and occasionally my dreamcast.

i only buy retro games.... so where do i fall ?

According to your sig, you have a DS, Wii, 3DS, and PS3. I doubt that you never buy anything for those systems.

[RyaNtheSlayA]

I don't think it takes money away from the $40 to $60 dollar games because nobody makes a $60 impulse buy. You probably know before hand if you're going to buy a "core" game on release.

Most casual games (especially on the App Store) survive on an impulse buy model. They know that if they have an attractive ad and an attractive price that people will probably buy it because after all, it's only 99 cents...

[J T]

The markets for casual games and hardcore games might be different, in which case casual games are not pulling away from sales for hardcores and in fact might even convert some casual players into hardcore ones.

Still, it's hard to look at the sales data and not get worried if you think the traditional games model is the most profitable way to go:

[Hatta]

Companies that only care about making the most money with the least effort will gravitate to casual games. Good riddance. There's always going to be a market for quality games, and someone will fill that market.

Consider any other type of medium. There are cheap pulp books at every drug store, popcorn action movies sell more than any serious attempt at story telling, and the radio is dominated by drum machines and autotune. But people still write real literature, they still make art films, and you can still catch real musicians playing real musical instruments most nights of the week in any medium sized city.