Online Games Industry Seeks New AudiencesThe online games industry is targeting a new crowd: not the already biased 20 something male gamer but those who might be still playing solitaire with plastic cards. This is one of the conclusions made at the E3 Media & Business Summit, one of the major conventions of the video games industry.
Most of the presenters at the E3 Media & Business Summit, held last week in Los Angeles, discussed ways of broadening the target audience of online games and attracting not the stereotypical gamer but their girlfriends, grandparents and kid sisters. Online games developers are taking a pause from satiating the video game freak and invest their resources in creating games with a user-friendlier look, less passive wider common denominator.
Online games are sold well. Blockbusters such as Halo and GTA are snatched of the stores right after the release, and not to a word about the herds who sacrifice sleepless nights for the privilege of being the first to put their hands on the desired game. But the online games industry is still not satisfied with the game consoles sales, which stays practically the same.
How does the online games industry plans to break through virgin grounds of those who think that Halo is a cervical spine stabilizer? Games for Everyone suggested a new competitive dance game; Ubisoft North America switched the complicated game controller with a voice commander, Nintendo Co. stretched the Wii concept and brought Wii Fit Balance Board, and Microsoft added costumed avatars to the its Xbox 360.
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