EA and Ubisoft Cater to Hardcore and Casual Gamers, Succeed in Hybrid Appeal

From Mass Effect 3 to Madden NFL 12, EA proved that it is the leading video game company focusing on both hardcore and casual gamers, something that it has operated as since its first sports game. Mass Effect 3's first gameplay footage was extremely awesome, especially with much less focus on cover-based combat. There's melee weapons, better squad commands, and better guns, bringing the feel of combat of the original game combined with the better tactics of the 2nd. There were minor glimpses into the story of ME3, revealing a situation where Shepard has to save the life of female Krogan not infected by the genophage and an actual fight with a Reaper on foot.

With Ubisoft, they began their presser with Rayman: Origins, a game that kind of has an Earthworm Jim feel. It's a side-scrolling game that would have been standard fare in the mid 90s, but with better gameplay, and the first footage even had a reference to Tetris. Although the game was covered a bit too much, Ubisoft went own to show off their track record with games like Farcry 3, Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, Raving Rabbids: Alive and Kicking, Just Dance 3 and Assassin's Creed: Revelations. Ubisoft's presser was made of fail and weird last year (but not F quality) and this year they've bounced back by catering to all video game players.

EA Grade: C+
Ubisoft Grade: B-

EA had a great lineup of games, but no surprises! Everything was expected and they did have a solid conference with no mistakes, but they didn't take any risks. To be fair, this is typical for EA, but even so, EA shows again that they'd rather lay all their cards on the table and show you why those cards are so good.

Ubisoft's lineup was solid as well, even the casual games shown. There was a surprise announcement in Farcry 3, something EA didn't have the balls to do (unless you count The Sims Social as an epic surprise). Ubisoft (to the chagrin of lots of hardcore gamers) announced that Just Dance 3 is a real thing AND IT'S GOING TO BE ON EVERY CONSOLE. Just a few years ago, Activision dominated the market with Guitar Hero, which is thankfully defunct now, and now Ubisoft looks to dominate the music/rhythm genre with Just Dance 3 since they basically have no competition now.