Analysts have expressed concern that the current casual games craze may be damaging to the games industry. EA disagrees (as apparently does Nintendo), however, seeing it as a way of bringing more gamers into the core market.

U.B.S. (formerly Union Bank of Switzerland) analyst Ben Schachter has expressed concern that, "There may be a 'casual' glut by 2008," in a report to clients recently.

His comments were mirrored by those of Van Baker, vice president and research director for research firm Gartner, who told Reuters, "Nintendo seems to be the one company that's expanding the gaming market, but there's some cause for concern there because who they're attracting is the casual gamer".

"That's something that someone picks up and does for 15 to 20 minutes and then they put it aside. The question is, in three months or six months, is the Wii going to be sitting in the corner forgotten?" he asked.

EA's CEO, John Riccitiello, disagrees however. Speaking to The Financial Times about EA's recently announced 'Family Mode' for its sports titles on the Wii, Riccitiello said, “We can blend more people into that core [gamer] market if we explore accessibility, we can make adjustments to our game design that will bring more people into the game industry faster.” (If that brings to mind worrying images of gamers in meat grinders, you're not alone).

In fact, he thinks that EA has been boring its audience. “The number of people that find our games and others too hard to initiate and have fun with is legion and it’s a barrier that we’ve erected ourselves,” he said. “In a weird sort of way, we’re worshipping the game-review gods as opposed to thinking about the marketplace and people who might want to buy our products.”

Riccitiello's comments mirror those of Nintendo's Satoru Iwata, who has indicated that Nintendo is increasingly distancing itself from the core gamer.

It seems to SPOnG that the games industry faces a very real danger of splitting itself in half, with the core gamer being catered for by a decreasing list of games developers. Is the core gamer under fire? Answers in the Forum, please.