Why is only FF and Dragon Quest JPRG:s selling well?

[Bodhesatva]

It's the sign of a hardcore genre. Read the following article for an insightful and articulate explanation of how game genres rise and retract in to a "core" user base. Key quotation:

 

Genre maturity leads to market consolidation
In past articles I’ve discussed two key concepts. The first is genre addiction and the second is the genre life cycle. These both have major market implications for both individual game developers, but also for the market as a whole.

To briefly recap, genre addiction is the process by which:

• Players become addicted to a specific set of game mechanics.
• This group of players has a strong homogenous preference for this genre of games, creating a well defined, easily serviceable market segment.
• Game developers who release games within a genre with a standardized set of play mechanics are most likely to capture the largest percentage of the pre-existing market.
• Over time, the game mechanics defining the genre becomes rigidly defined, the tastes of the genre addicts become highly sophisticated and innovation within the genre is generally punished by the market place.