Lone_Canis_Lupus said:
Oh, and just because a casual game sold a lot doesn't mean only casual gamers bought the games. I for one watched Scooby Doo all the time when I was a little kid...and I don't really consider myself a casual gamer...but I still bought the Scooby Doo game and found it fun. |
The part I deleted I agree with. No doubt there are a lot of games, but casual and hardcore. There's no use fighting over it because deciding who is hardcare or what is hardcore is pointless. My definition is that a player is hardcore... not a game. You can play Scooby Doo in a hardcore sense. Playing it 10 hours a day, play it through 5 times, collect all the stuff in it. That makes YOU hardcore, and not the game. But let's not talk about that, because it's a never ending pointless discussion.
What I have a problem with is the first part after what I deleted. There are a lot of hardcore gamers... there's just not as many as you think. If you consider a lot, maybe, 30 million (on the PS2 only). Then there's a lot. But in the scheme of things? 30 out of 120 million isn't the majority, and 55 million out of 160 (all consoles combined) is still only 1/3 the total gaming population. I've done some rough estimates, and I firmly believe that the most hardcore users, the ones that buy 10 games a year, and practically devote their lives to games, only make up 20-25 million of the PS2 users. Then there's another 30-35 million that buy 5 games a year, play most days a few hours. Then there's another 100-110 million that only buy one or two games a year, one of which is Madden or a sports game of some sort, play a few times a week.
The fist group (the hardcore of hardcore) will mostly go to the PS3/360, but will eventually pick up the other systems (either a PS3 or 360, depending on the first console, and Wii) simply because they play EVERY GAME imaginable. The second group (hardcore) will be split between Wii/PS3/360. The games will decide. Like shooters? 360. Like JRPGs? PS3. Don't like those? Wii. They may also pick up a second console, but almost all with have a combination of a HD console and a Wii. And the last group will almost exclusively be the Wii's territory. Yes, some will get a 360, PS3, but not many. And most of those will get one for GTA4. Since only 15 million bought GTA:SA, there's only (at most) 15 million to get, split it between PS3 and 360, and the effect on those consoles won't be much.
And then there's the new comings, the non-casual. We won't get into those because there's just not enough data to know how big the market is.
So, in recap, the market size that the Wii caters to is the 90 million or so casuals, maybe 10 million (about 1/3rd) of the semi-hardcore, and then maybe 5 million of the hardcore (not including those who buy it as a second console), for a total market of 105 million users (not to mention noncasuals). Whereas the PS3/360 have a total market of 20 million hardcore, 25 million semi-hardcore, and maybe 20 million casual, for a total market size of 65 million. And they have to fight over it.
And yeah.. you can't really use your friends or any video game forum (or any forum for that matter) because it will show an extreme bias towards hardcore type games.
