Quote Originally Posted by Wolf Kanno View Post
The one point I feel you missed though is that Sony and Microsoft don't even bother marketing their systems for the ultra casual crowd. Sony's ads at first tried to convince you that the system is a revolution and now they are a bit more humble. Microsoft has promoted their system as the "everyman" system but I feel we all know they mean the normal gamers and not really for people who don't play the genre.
First it was they don't have the software, then it was they don't have the non-downloadable software, next it was that they don't have enough, now you're arguing they don't spend enough marketing for it?

If you mean to grandparents, I'd absolutely agree with you. But now both MS and Sony are spending alot of money marketing Rock Band 2 - each with their own commercial - a game which undoubtedly attracts those who wouldn't otherwise play video games. We could also talk about the Burger King line of 360 games a while back,
or any of the other games I listed in a previous post.

Does the PS2 have the longevity or even enough current exposure for ultra casual gamer to even realize that Sony still supports it?
What routes are you claiming "ultra casual" gamers accumulate industry information from? If you think television, the amount of multi-platform games that are coming out on the PS2 is proof enough. Someone recently said "It's not over until EA Sports says its over."

I think one of the main places families go to get info on what's on the market is the game retail locations themselves. As I already brought up, not only is the PS2 still on the shelves, a new bundle was released recently. Families see "oh, I not only get little johnny a cute lego game with it, but a justice league DVD!" etc... As far as longevity goes, releasing 130 games this year, i'd say hell yeah, the PS2's got longevity!

What I've been saying all along is that the "casual revolution" is not going to alter competitors plans for the next generation - it's already underway on current platforms, and Sony even predates Nintendo on it in some aspects, as Iceglow pointed out.