I must admit I'm curious as to the origin of this on console based video games. I'm well aware of cab settings and heck even pinball settings. But for some reason (I have no CLUE as to why) I recall reading a article about Resident Evil 2 just about or just past it's release date about "Easy Mode" being singled out as option to Japanese players who merely wanted to to finish the game quickly as time was at a premium. Just curious if there's an earlier reference to that mode then the PS1 era, I wouldn't really throw into "cheats/debug" and that might be my mistake but with "cheats" I think God mode, unlimited ammo, etc... but with easy mode I expect a "lighter" challenge that I may want to dedicate to said game to get through it but I can still "die" so to speak.
Console games have had different difficulty modes since the start - the Atari 2600 has switches on the front that can control difficulty. Scrolling shooters and fighters have always tended to have easy->hard difficulties. Is this what you meant?
Yeah but the point of it is to be able to finish the game quickly, not so much because you sucked at it, but because you didn't want to spend an hour whittling some boss down when it could take you a minute. It's all about just finishing the game, not dominating it. If that makes any sense With arcades it's a balance of that and getting the next coin but on home consoles. You right about the 2600, but I haven't heard it used in the same context, it was just to make the game harder and with the exception of a few games there really wasn't a "win/beat the game" to them.
most games today are on easy mode actually, they just waste about 20 hours of your time if they're any good.
It is a simple CYA by developers. If a person can't beat a game because of difficulty they may be less inclined to buy their next game.
