| Kasz216 said: I disagree that the core market stays loyal. Where was the Core market when the Gamecube was in last place? Core gamers are nothing but Casual gamers who take things more seriously, feel more entitled and often complain more. When people talk about targeting "core gamers" it's a code word for "niche gamers" that makes niche gamers feel exclusive rather then having weird out of the mainstream tastes. All consoles target Casuals and only fall back to a "core" position when they aren't winning. |
*facepalm*
There's a difference between being loyal and staying loyal. The core changes over time, as people fluctuate in and out... but while they're "in", they're loyal. Plus, when the GameCube was in last place, who do you think it was that was buying all the games for it? How is it that Resident Evil 4 on the GC sold almost as well as the PS2 version, despite only about one fifth the install base?
As I said, "targetting core gamers" doesn't make sense - you target them by making quality games; if you start putting too many poor-quality titles out, the core will notice, and will disappear. This is why Nintendo's core has always remained so strong - no matter what other developers do on Nintendo systems, Nintendo makes sure there's always quality titles on the system.
Where the GameCube failed was that it didn't have enough to attract other people to the system. All it had was its core.
EDIT: Also note that I talked of loyalty in terms of company, and not console. Sega's core are still buying Sega games - they're just doing it on another system. Remember, the Dreamcast sold over 8 million units.
