Console Market not contracting, becoming more focused

[Paperboy_J]

twintail said:

Cloudman said:

Oh boy... Gaming was a hobby for a specific group back in the early days before the 6th gen, but nowadays that couldn't be farther from the truth. The Wii was one of those things that really paved the way for expanding that gap. We had people of all ages playing games, including people who never played games. It got people together to just have a good time. That was the point of the Wii, and yeah, that did pretty dang well. Heck, the DS did the same thing with having games like brain age, animal crossing and Nintendogs. It got people from all ages enjoying games. People young and old are still playing Animal Crossing.

Honestly if there is one console that pushed the boundaries of who a console could appeal to it, it would be the PS1. Sure, the Wii expanded upon this but before the PS1 gaming was pretty much exclusive to youth and as a niche hobby. Then the PS1, and all it's marketting was aimed at saying that anyone could play games (mostly teen, young adult culture at the time). And here we are. The PS2 pushed this even further with various software aimed at casual gamers and did gain traction at the time.

 

 

 

You're saying the PS1 brought in new gamers like the Wii did?  People who had never been interested in videogames before?  Sorry but I gotta disagree with that.  The people who bought the PS1 were those same kids who grew up on the NES, SNES and Genesis, only older.  The PS1 didn't expand the market, it merely stole Nintendo's and Sega's fans (not saying that's bad or anything, but that's what happened).

Wii on the other hand brought in grannies, soccer moms, everyone.  DS had women gaming for the first time ever.  Those systems just took things to a whole other level.