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EA's Casual Entertainment label VPRussell Arons has said that the first game developed in conjunctionwith Hollywood's very own Stephen Spielberg is ignoring the gamer press.
Arons highlighted the problems with EA's previous casual game strategy in an interview with casualgaming.biz.
She admitted that previously the company had seen casual games asneeding to appeal to everyone, but now specific audiences could betargeted with lower-budget titles.
She makes a lot of sense,until she says: "Previously when EA has done early launches into casualgames we've said 'oh, these games are for everyone.' But for somethinglike Boom Blox we're clear that the primary target market is eight to12 years old, and we're not even really approaching the gamer press."
We'd just like to make two points here. Firstly, we've seen Boom Bloxin action and we think it looks wicked fun, so we think she's not doingherself any favours by ignoring the specialist media.
Secondly,what sort of person makes the first Stephen Spielberg game somethingthat video game players will not want to play? That's like giving HideoKojima the keys to Hollywood, but ensuring his debut feature movie is alow-budget romantic comedy starring Paris Hilton.
Thank godRandy Smith (of Thief fame) is working on Spielberg's second game.We're all for casual games, but putting some of the most creative mindson the videogame equivalent of Fisher Price Toys just seems a bit of awaste.