i guess there trying to tell us that the consumer wants shorter easier games wtf?
save them time and money and increase there profits more like...tell it as it is u turds instead of trying to put words in our mouthes

Casual gamers probably means those that spend 0-4hrs a week or something along those lines. And shorter/cheaper games still have the same distribution costs as longer ones. So you'll see 50% as much game for 60% the price, no more buying our games' playtime bulk I guess.

And so far those harder and harder games just mean more and more complex to keep people interested longer till they figure it out, so I agree about the lack of innovation. But there seem to be only so many ways to run around shooting at eachother, or building armies, or solving a puzzle. That's why the Wii has done well, it's innovative even if it's not cutting edge.

I don't want easier games. If i do, i can play fucking minesweeper!

I want games like Oblivion that have hundreds of hours in them, or games as complex as Medieval II: Total War.

Hell yea.

And this "enlightened" message coming from EA is as ironic as it gets. If you read carefully hes not calling for innovation, hes calling for more of the same just split up into smaller packages that can be priced individually.

Shorter games for the same money i bet, just another way of bleeding the pockets of gamers dry.

I have to say though, some of these new games are getting far too complicated for their own good. Take X3 for example, I want to blow spaceships out of the sky not concentrate on altitude, pitch, y is anti-missle, but r is target attacker, f is target in view, v is target last, b is target behind.....

Needless to say I kind of understand where he is coming from, it used to be about the gameplay rather than how many controls you have and the joys of adjusting your rudder by 0.2degrees.

I will await your slating

:)

I'm not familiar with X3 but usually when it comes to games there are realistic technical games and less realistic arcade style games. While this isn't a perfect way to look at it, it generally holds true.

An easy example of this would be racing games. Personally I'm not interested in games that allow you to make super detailed custom cars jobs down to the type of leather inside the car. I'm more of a race and smash kind of driver, so thats why I would pick up Burn Out 3 rather then Forza 2. But then when it comes to RPGs I do like having all the detailed and customizable crap and with FPS I like both so I know to pick my games accordingly to what I enjoy.

So it really depends on whether or not you know what you like. If you don't like the super realistic type games don't buy them. There are usually plenty of alternatives.