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Majesco's Karyo: WiFi Connection Still Presents Barrier To Casual Players
by Staff, Brandon Sheffield [PC, Console/PC]
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August 10, 2009
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Talking to Gamasutra as part of a larger, just-published interview, Majesco EVP Gui Karyo has been discussing WiFi on consoles like DSi and Wii, suggesting there's a "sharp drop-off" in some digital download demographics due to lack of technical knowledge.
Publisher Majesco was close to burning out after some high-profile financial flops such as Advent Rising, and has now re-invented itself with successful casual games such as Cooking Mama and Jillian Michaels fitness titles for Wii.
Karyo, whose company publishes a multitude of Nintendo DS games, was asked about the suggestions that the DSi's userbase may be -- relative to many 'core' consoles -- less tech-savvy, and therefore less able to connect to the online features of Nintendo's handheld.
Majesco's executive vice president of operations commented of the problem: "I would say that particularly with digital download, you're finding that there's a sharp drop-off in the participation -- particularly on console download that requires some kind of WiFi connection -- by demographic."
He added: "But at the same time, it would seem that the statistics of downloading Netflix videos on Xbox are pretty broad. And there's a reason to believe that maybe it's not the primary consumer in the household that sets up the WiFi, but that there is sort of a watershed sharing of that technology among all the consumers that might participate on it."
Karyo's comments came as part of a wider Gamasutra interview in which he spells out the company's new casual strategy in detail, and talks about how having a sharper focus has allowed the company to increase sales significantly.
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