No doubt the launch of Halo 3 is a huge success. Off the hype alone, I’m pretty sure they could have sold millions of copies, but there’s no denying that the new buzz about how great Bungie delivered will start to attract more customers for Xbox 360 sales.
In fact, the Deutsche Bank expects the demand for Halo 3 to bring in $430 million, close to 80 percent more than previous estimates.
Regardless of the sales, and great success, Microsoft is still concerned about hitting a new demographic: The "casual" gamer. The casual gamer is classified as those individuals who play less than hardcore gamers and have limited time to play them.
Where’s this new breed of gamer coming from? The Nintendo Wii. They have almost exclusive control over this demographic, and Microsoft is hungry to steal some of this lucrative market share away.
Microsoft plans on using the Xbox Live Arcade, and more "party games", games that can be played in large groups, as their main selling point.
It’ll be hard to steal a casual gamer, as they probably don’t want to go out and buy another system just for gaming. That’s why they’re casual. And in competing head-to-head with the Wii, Microsoft better be ready to outgun them with some sort of innovative experience.
Via Reuters
