I don't know the facts about what the target market is. I am not a part of the EA marketing team. It does feel that the target market is much younger than I am. But I have a problem with the notion that the target market is "tweens" or 12 year olds. From a purely business sense it would be insane to market a product to that age group whose base game is $60 and additional packs are $10, $20 and $30. Further, the online vehicle for delivery of the game is biased towards those who have credit cards. My opinion is that the target market is young 20 somethings. That's certainly what all the sims look like to me.
I don't know the facts about what the target market is. I am not a part of the EA marketing team. It does feel that the target market is much younger than I am. But I have a problem with the notion that the target market is "tweens" or 12 year olds. From a purely business sense it would be insane to market a product to that age group whose base game is $60 and additional packs are $10, $20 and $30. Further, the online vehicle for delivery of the game is biased towards those who have credit cards. My opinion is that the target market is young 20 somethings. That's certainly what all the sims look like to me.
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Yeah, if it is, and if the Sims audience is more diverse than that (and I really believe it is), then what marketing and developing should be looking at is 1) how to retain their current customers and 2) how to broaden their audience. I like that they're reaching out to young, female gamers, but if they alienate the rest of their fan base, it won't matter -- the game won't have the sales.
Edit: And something to keep in mind -- just because an audience is catered to doesn't mean much if the game itself is not appealing. Game designers ran into this in the 1990s when it was discovered that girls loved Mario. Instead of trying to figure out WHY, game developers tried to make games they thought girls would like, but those games were pretty terrible so they didn't sell. That lead game developers to the (wrong) conclusion that girls didn't really like to game. They just didn't like the crap that the devs were trying to shovel out to them with a pink paint coat.
You can have a game that has a target audience of anything, and if it's a good game, other demographics will buy it as well.
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Yeah, if it is, and if the Sims audience is more diverse than that (and I really believe it is), then what marketing and developing should be looking at is 1) how to retain their current customers and 2) how to broaden their audience. I like that they're reaching out to young, female gamers, but if they alienate the rest of their fan base, it won't matter -- the game won't have the sales.
Edit: And something to keep in mind -- just because an audience is catered to doesn't mean much if the game itself is not appealing. Game designers ran into this in the 1990s when it was discovered that girls loved Mario. Instead of trying to figure out WHY, game developers tried to make games they thought girls would like, but those games were pretty terrible so they didn't sell. That lead game developers to the (wrong) conclusion that girls didn't really like to game. They just didn't like the crap that the devs were trying to shovel out to them with a pink paint coat.
You can have a game that has a target audience of anything, and if it's a good game, other demographics will buy it as well.