Microsoft is sick of the Xbox's hardcore gaming image. (An image the company helped foster!) Says Albert Penello, director of Xbox global platform marketing:

I don't want to be pigeonholed as a hard-core machine.

Early efforts like Viva Pinata haven't really attracted casual gamers as hoped. Sure, hardcore gamers, but ask Nintendo, and they'll tell you casual gamers can drive astronomical sales. If Microsoft fails to tap this market, the Xbox 360 could turn out to be nothing more than the Xbox 1 Redux. Explains Microsoft's Peter Moore:

If we don't make that move, make it early and expand our demographic, we will wind up in the same place as with Xbox 1, a solid business with 25 million people. What I need is a solid business with 90 million people.

Think everyone needs that, Peter, not just you. Brian Ashcraft

Microsoft Goes After Casual Gamers [Bloomberg]

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