Mario Galaxy Hits the Shelves in Japan…

Posted in Casual Games, Console, DS, Mario Galaxy, Nintendo, Wii, XBox360, by mskaggs on November 8th, 2007

And immediately dominates by selling 250k units in the first week.

Apparently it also sold more units than the next 9 top selling titles put together (more in this article from GamesIndustry.biz).

The next bit of interesting data from the same charts is how many of the top 10 titles were on each platform.

The tally:

6 of the top 10 selling games were on the DS

2 of the top 10 selling games were on the Wii

1 of the top 10 selling games was on the 360

1 of the top 10 selling games was on the PS2

Another sign of the strength of hand helds for sure. I love it when companies know their stuff and just execute no matter what the conventional industry thinking is. Go Nintendo!

Casual games, not just for casual players?

Posted in Casual Games, Games, by mskaggs on September 2nd, 2007

Beyond the interest from players, could it be that casual games offer something game developers have been looking for as well?

When I talk about it with other developers, I get a range of reactions…from waxing nostalgic about “bygone days of creating games that are simple fun” to a “disdain for anything that doesn’t push the latest platform to it’s limits”.

More and more though, it seems that both developers and publishers are starting to acknowledge the reality of casual game market, not just as a solution for the never ending quest to increase revenues, but as an unserved market with a rapidly growing interest from both producers and consumers.

Of course some developers just want to create games that are fun to make as well as play…

EA’s current thinking on casual games, courtesy of “GameIndustry.biz”: http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=28124.