Nintendo has lost the core market this generation

[Stefan.De.Machtige]

theprof00 said:

The Ghost of RubangB said:
If hardcore gaming isn't a sustainable business model during a global economic meltdown, hardcore gaming will die. I won't miss it. Nintendo won't miss it. The future of gaming won't miss it.

It will either become sustainable or die. To become sustainable it either needs to sell more (by getting dumbed down for the masses), or cost less to make (by not having millions spent on HD visuals). If that scares you, then you need to buy millions of copies of every hardcore game that gets made to keep these companies in business.

Once graphical development hits the wall, then it will happen. We are close to it. Graphics are close to their peak. I give it one more generation. Then you can watch as the costs drop and profits soar and you can then realize that the hardcore took gaming to the precipice of visuals in the shortest amount of time and everything was awesome.

Without the hardcore, we'd be playing SMG on an N64.

I don't know about that cheapening in the future, or in a minimum the scale you expect.

Its a simple sum: more detail > more time/people > more money.

New efficient techniques and schared databases can help bring down costs but not by that much. The amount of people for any game is still rising, and that is the biggest cost.

 

Your point about the hardcore driving the industry is rather off. They want a small gaming industry depending on a small group which is very risky.

Don't forget the 'so called hardcore' are obsessed with having an other opinion or liking then the mainstream. If their liking or wishes become mainstream they will adopt just another way to differ from the mainstream. If not graphics, then perhaps gameplay or whatever. They wish to be unique, not the mainstream. So to say they mean the best with the industry is rather odd.

Any industry can only grow or sustain itself in the long run when it appeals a mainstream audience. That's what the nes did, and the wii also.