• Akira Toriyama passed away

    Let's all commemorate together his legendary work and his impact here

What is a core vs. casual franchise?

P

Phenom08

Member
Student
Something I'm beginnging to notice brought up by the Pokemon talk in the Japan thread is that people are still just throwing these terms around. Obviously alot of this talk peeked during the Wii generation, when it was being pitched as a seperate market to a more core/traditional market dominated by Xbox 360 and PS3. I think we need a discussion about what these terms really mean and how you are using them falsely or really using them just to push a notion that may or may not be true but you need it as evidence in your discussion.

So what is a core/traditional/hardcore ip?
The consistent money makers in the industry are the core franchises, they are the proven games in the industry. That's why they are the "core" or the "traditional" ip, they consistently keep the industry afloat. They keep the audience coming back. An ip can be popular and core, it just means its a consistent behemoth. That popular core title is consistently reaching a wide audience, that audience continues to return. Just to be clear, this does not mean consumers aren't recycled ie the same people every single release. People die and are born or just lose interest all the time. These franchises are consistent at grabbing a piece of the traditional gaming industry. Being popular doesn't mean it has alot of casuals because casuals eventually leave. A casual audience isn't the consumer that keeps coming back. For example, Pokemon is not a casual ip. That is ludicrous, its a massively popular ip but not a casual franchise. Neither is Call of Duty or Grand Theft Auto. Core, traditional, or even hardcore are what these ip fall under, just because they reach a wide reaching demographic doesn't make them casual. They are consistent in reaching that wide demographic. Nintendo's late president really spoke about these things in his press conferences and the Iwata Ask, I learned quite a bit from him. He learned this stuff from the lessons of Wii and DS era. Those are perfect examples of how despite being the most casual consoles of all time, ip like Pokemon and Zelda did not benefit. That's because they have a core audience, Mario on the other greatly benefitted. Which is why Nintendo started to refer to the Mario ip as "bridge titles", they bridge the gap between core and casual. Mario is one of the oldest and recongizable ip on the planet, that's why he can take advantage of that. While Pokemon was consistent in its sales and got handily beat by those market expanding games on DS and Wii. Kids are also core audiences, like how in the world can you refer to one of the biggest consumers of video games as a casual audience? I really read that.

What is a casual/blue ocean/non-traditional ip?
The term casual doesn't refer to the content in the game (ie its about guns/violence, cute animals, babes, etc or since its popular then it must be for the "casuals") but instead the term is for people that are not "regular consumers" in the gaming market. The term casuals was created to help us identify franchises that might be flukes, ie that audience will not be around for long. This is important to identify because what business wants to rely on an inconsistent market? But at the same time, doesn't a business seek growth? That's why these companies continue to pursue this casual audience, it's far larger than the traditional audience but it's like playing the lottery. Casual ip/franchises are the Wii Sports/Nintendo Switch Sports, Wii Fit/Ring Fit Adventure, Nintendogs, and Brain Training along with the different fitness games, some party games, etc. These games have audiences that we are not sure about. Will the next game repeat this success? Will the audience it has even remain and continue to spend? These games tend to have more non-traditional audiences, espically the ones that break out. These games can become core if they are consistent at building an audience and keeping it. This brings competition turning the "ocean red". Alot of times these games start off popular and then the audience leaves and the most dedicated remain (the core audience).

Alright so tell me what you think? Should these terms be more open? Are these definitions too strict?
 
The Casual/Core/Hardcore dichotomy follows more in terms of spending of the individual buyer. The Casual buyer spends maybe $100 across the year with a spike every few years for the console purchase. The Core buyer is what makes up the reliable audience most games go for. These buyers spend closer to $500 a year. The Hardcore buyers spend much more than that. This is not considering whales which will much more on single titles. IPs aren't literally casual, core or hardcore. They target an audience that will be composed of those buyers. IPs we call casual target wide audiences while core target generally understood consistent audiences. Hardcore target very specific niche audiences that will generally buy whatever is in the genre.
Pokemon is considered a casual property because the main game sales hit extremely well with children, who typically are not core gamers. Pokemon buyers just buy Pokemon every generation or so and maybe some other big property like Animal Crossing, Mario Kart or Monster Hunter. Very few also buy stuff like Fire Emblem or Metroid Prime. There is capitalization in the core (and hardcore) Pokemon audience but, for the games, that is a subset of the 15+ million. Like for instance, the Pokemon Music Project is targeted at casual fans, who like famous singers/bands while the Pokemon DLC which focused on competitive features and returning Pokemon for its promotions is targeted at the core.
 
But how in the world would you determine how much an individual spends on games a year? How many people do you think fall in a specific spending ranges? Nah I think these standards are too strict, honestly Im not sure if im a core gamer lol. I dont think I spend $500 a year on gaming. Maybe during years I buy a console but not every year. I literally visit a gaming forum daily, you really think im not someone that should be considered a core gamer? I do agree on that part about casual/core/hardcore audiences instead of the ips. That said the ips definitely get their consistency from their core and hardcore audience. There are certainly people that are hardcore into Poke, such as the competitive scene along with the casual audience buying because its the current hot game but the vast majority buying those games are the core audience that buy these games on a consistent basis. Also again, children are core gamers. I'm not sure why that continues to be pushed, kids playing Fortnite/CoD/Poke/GTA for hours should not be considered casual. You also can't just speak for all Poke fans like that, Poke fans only buy Pokemon games or other large ip is completely made up. Buying Fire Emblem or Metroid does not make you hardcore, it means you like boring, bad games. You can't just gatekeep terms just because you like unpopular ip. Them selling like crap does not make people that don't buy those games casual. This honestly just reads like you want to separate the most hardcore from the core, which I do agree to a certain extent. Why would I consider someone that buys every Pokemon game along with other games a casual consumer? All because they don't buy Metroid? Again not buying smaller ips does not mean im not mean im not core. Casual is definitely referring to someone like my mother buying Ring Fit Adventure or Nintendo Switch Sports because her son has a Switch. Core gamers are what carries the industry, not small ip like Metroid and Fire Emblem.
 
The more someone's consumption habits diverge too much from the average, the more hardcore you are. When that comes to games, that could be that the kind of games, the amount of time spent thinking about games, or the money spent on games.
 
There isn't any gatekeeping because these are neutral terms. We are also focusing on spending because that is the general focus of the forum. Time investment would be even harder to track whereas the dollar value is relatively consistent. Keep in mind that casual by most definitions would generally be the majority of the population excluding nongamers. I would need a higher level analysis but in broad strokes ignoring subscriptions and constituting ingame purchases as equivalent in dollar value to a game purchase, casuals but 1-3 games a year, the core would be 5-15 games and semiregular hardware purchases and hardcore would be higher than that.
I chose Fire Emblem and Metroid because they are what I'd consider hardcore and not complete nonsequitors to Pokemon. I'm saying Pokemon buying do buy those franchises but, not in signifcant enough numbers. I'd also say players that buy the annual Pokemon games are probably in core category though not if that is the only game. Similar to Pokemon, COD is also casual because those players are not buying other games. Also, keep in mind stuff like Fruit Ninja, Angry Birds and Candy Crush are considered hypercasual because these games are generally not reliant on the player spend but, the ad revenue and absurdly high numbers of players. I'd say the top publishers rely on the core audience overall but, the majority of games rely on the hardcore audience.
 
theprodigy said:
wtf is this lmao
Click to expand...
Lol, just having alittle fun. Felt like the poster was trying to portray the consumers of Fire Emblem or Metroid as hardcore but if you buy CoD or Poke you are a casual. Just pointing out just because Poke has a massive audience and Metroid doesn't, doesn't mean that makes Metroid hardcore. Pokemon's audience has no obligation to buy those games, so why even mention them in the context of Pokemon's audience buying Monster Hunter or Animal Crossing because they are popular but not Fire Emblem or Metroid?
 
IMO there is no such a thing as core or casual franchise. More like core gamers are those who play a whole variety of games and have a certain amount of knowledge about games in general, no bias regarding franchises, manufactures or genres.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom