There's a big difference between core games and core gamers as several posts have already mentioned. Core gamers are gamers who not only game frequently on consoles / PC rather than mobile devices, but also follow the industry very closely. It's similar to core vs casual sports fans... the core fans know the roster of their favorite team, its history, and are generally knowledgeable about the sport / league that their fav team belongs to, while the casual sports fan will watch a big playoff game and know a handful of marquee players, but don't generally follow teams / sports beyond that.
Now as for "core" games, that's up for debate... alot of people seem to equate "core" to "niche" or "unpopular", and limit its definition to specific genres like fighting games or JRPGs... i.e. GTA and COD are uber popular games and franchises, therefore they are not core games because there's some overlap in their audience between mainstream / casual and core gamers. This isn't the case though as most casual / mainstream gamers would be lost in both of these games, as they are still both challenging and require a decent amount of gaming knowledge and coordination to complete.
Mario and Zelda games too for example were once and still can be considered "core" games because of their easy to learn - difficult to master design. Are they not core games simply because they are uber popular as well?
On 2/24/13, MB1025 said:
You know I was always wondering why no one ever used the dollar sign for $ony, but then I realized they have no money so it would be pointless.
