The following is an opinion piece and is entirely written by myself and only myself.
If you guys want my credentials I'm currently an advertising student in college.
Why should a game company even bother making games for the hardcore audience, any company for that fact, why should Nintendo, Sony Computer Entertainment, Capcom, Ubisoft, Microsoft Game Studios, Activision / Blizzard, Electronic Arts and everyone in between even bother with making games for the so called 'hardcore' gamer? Now before you nail me to the cross and call me a witch, know that I am a 'core' gamer, I love my difficult, complicated, story driven, brutal games that take upwards of 50 hours to complete and another 50 hours to reach 100% completion. these are my games and I love every second of it.
But the point I am bringing is why do the hardcore DEMAND that the various game developing giants make and ONLY make hardcore games? The second a Nintendo announces Wii Music or a Ubisoft releases the next entry in the Pets series these so called core gamers are up in arms about how 'they abandoned their loyal fans' or 'they have gone kiddy and are now making games only for babies'. Well last I checked Nintendo still makes 'core' games and so does Ubisoft so these two crybaby arguments go out the window right away.
The principal reason any game company is still around in this business is simple, you have to make the masses happy. Nintendo (one of many possible examples) understands this. Their titles like Wii Sports, Wii Play, Wii Fit, New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Mario Kart Wii to name but a few are designed to be enjoyed by the MAJORITY of gamers, (a brief glance at their sales is a clear indication) and that's the point I want to bring.
Core gamers are not the majority, they never have been and never will be. Core gamers (like myself and most of this sites population) are a niche. And a golden rule of branding is that a company who caters to the niche will never reach the top levels of it's particular business. Look around you examples of this are everywhere, a well established restaurant serving only vegetarian food will never be as successful as an equally well established restaurant that serves all kinds of food. And that's the problem core gamers can't get in their heads, that they are not the majority, that they SHOULD not demand anything from these companies, their lucky they get anything at all.
The core gamer is not the heart of the gaming business, it is the masses. It's a simple business rule, if your market is 100 people large, and only 20 of those people are 'core' gamers, then it is logical to spend more resources selling products to the other 80 people.
So why would all these game companies make games for a small niche? Well some would make the argument that even if the core gamer is a small niche market, it's still a market and should be serviced. And yes I agree, if their is a market their will be somebody to make a product that that market will buy. But for the core gamers to DEMAND that their favorite company make games just for them is simply arrogant, they dont have to, they dont need to.
Look at the movie industry, what sells is not the edgy, thought heavy and deep movie but the Hollywood fluff that caters to the mass. Same for music, same for books, same for all forms of entertainment, including video games.
In conclusion, the core gamer is a market across all platforms, Wii, DS, PSP, PS3, X360, PC, IPod whatever, but on ALL those platforms the core gamer is NOT THE MAJORITY, the masses are the ones who one all these platforms in large numbers which leads me to wonder why game companies even bother to make so many games to cater to the core niche.
So what do you think?
