The video game (console) market is a bubble that can burst, it has crashed twice in the past.

No, no, NO. Don't try to twist points. This is NOT about the game market. It's about you assuming casual players will leave the game market, based on a bullshit assumption that they left beanie babies, therefore they will leave casual gaming.

Or, let's give casual gamers leave gaming because there is a market crash. EVERYONE would.

Your basis for your claim is that casual gamers are only into gaming because it's a "trend", and your only "proof" was another market that actually was a trend. Just because one is there is NOT A CONNECTION.

Then you probably should open your eyes. I'd guess a good number of people who got wii's haven't ever played a game before, they've just never paid for one. Thanks to free computer games more and more people play video games and are much more indoctrined into the world.

The Wii is just grabbing a lot of people who would like mroe complicated games but wouldn't like your typical hardcore gamer fest.

That's basically what the article is actually about by the way... not the Wii. It seems like anyone who spent the money to get a wii wouldn't just drop out of it as they'd feel a need to justify their purchase. The Wii doesn't have the same problem the Atari 2600 had. Even with a flood of bad games you have webistes which tell you what the games are like. It's not like back in the Atari days where you just bought a game and hoped. That was the big problem with the Atari 2600... well not even that the games were bad... it was that most of them were actually unplayable... as in programmed poorly.

Another intresting note is that of general gamers only 12% or so have played online vs friends and been to message boards like this one. That's for the regular gamers... not the casuals. So it really does show how "Internet hype" can lead to exagerated expectations.

Worst = least good.

Least good at what? Skill? Interest? Buying the games you think they should be? 

u have to look deeper at why each is popular and what value each provides to customers

beanie babies were popular because Ty 'retired' certain models, so they raised in value, so people collected them for potential profit...it was like playing a cuddly version of the stock market....so when the bubble burst and the prices fell, it no longer held that appeal, so people stopped buying them

wii sports et al are popular because they are fun inherently...people aren't buying wiis for profit unless they are turning around and selling them to someone who wants a wii to keep and willing to pay 350-400+ for it...games have always been fun to the majority of people: solitaire, minesweeper, hearts, pinball, card games, tetris, jigsaw puzzles, crossword puzzles, flash games, etc...and many wii and ds games appeal to the masses for the same reasons as those casual games do: fun quick escape that has low learning curve and isn't complicated...just like guitar hero and wii sports

hardcore games usually involve having to dedicate hours at a time to a play (even zelda:tp u need to play in at least hour-long sessions...if u play less then by the time u figure out where u are and what u need to do, u are about to stop playing)...that's why ds is doing so well: many of the games u can play for 5 or 10 mins here and there and then close screen and play again later

 u can go online daily and do your 10 minute wii fitness test on wii sports and have a few minutes of fun without having to commit to something longer...or do a quick brain age quiz...etc etc

that's why the people in this 'blue ocean' won't be looking at ps360

wii's competitors in that blue ocean are popcap games, crossword puzzles, sudoku, playing cards, monopoly, scrabble, balderdash, etc...

and as long as video games are sold that appeal to that demographic, they will continue to buy video games...but a large % aren't gonna 'graduate' to one of the other systems, as they hold no appeal to them

Where did you get the 66% from? 145 million is less than 50% of the population of the US, and that is the total estimated number of people that played a casual game in 2007. Less than half of those played for more than an hour a week, so really less than 25% could justifiably be classified as gamers.

@ Legend11
The video game crash only occurred in America, and was due entirely to over-investment. It's the exact same thing that happened with the .com bubble in the '90s. It won't happen to casual gaming (although the popularity of games like Wii Sports and Brain Training among the over-50 crowd will likely subside).

Read the freakin' article I linked to. Duh.