noname2200 said:
I agree with most of this, but I think the root of the matter is that the snobcore are smart enough to realize what's happening: daddy's got a new kid, so the they're no longer gaming's only little princess. That sound harsher than I intended, but I think it holds true nonetheless. They've said it outright themselves several times: they have a problem with casual gaming because they fear more and more developers will start making games that appeal to people beyond their narrow niche. The fact that the current arms race is unsustainable, and that it's driving the same developers they count on out of business doesn't mean squat to them. Your last paragraph in particular nailed that. So no, I actually think that the snobcore understand what's going on perfectly fine. And that's why they're afraid. |
I get you. The hardcore were always outnumbered, but it's only nw becoming aparent.
The last generation provides a good example - there were roughly at least ~70m PS2 owners who never felt the need to purchase an Xbox or GC. That number isn't precise, but it's undoubtedly a good deal higher than the combined number those systems sold, less than 50m.
Now, does a one-console gamer fit your mental picture of a "hardcore gamer?" Not mine, for sure. I don't see myself as a hardcore gamer, but I own two of the current-generation consoles, and we started less than three years ago. I owned all three last gen.
It would help if we had better information (i.e., we know that roughly 165 million consoles were sold, but how much overlap is there?), but any way you crunch the numbers single-console owners were the plurality, and probably the majority. The maximum number of three-console owners last gen is defined the ~22m the GC sold. The max number of two-console owners is ~25m, the Xbox's number. They're dwarfed by the minimum number of single-console owners. There were 3 to 3.5x as many minimum single-console gamers as there were maximum two or three-console gamers.
Even if you don't accept the definitions as precise (and they're not - there were almost certainly single-console hardcore gamers), they do have illustrative value. The hardcore utopia that is fondly remembered was a fantasy. But because the hardcore, mainstream, and casual all favored the same console in previous generations, the illusion of hardcore supremacy was maintained.
The "shift " in the industry is a shift of perception, not of reality. For that reason, all the fear and recriminations are pointless. The number of games aimed at the hardcore isn't going to shrink, because the number of hardcore gamers hasn't shrunk. Any rise in casual or mainstream gamers won't change a damned thing, because along with an expanded audience comes expanded revenue. As we've seen, there's no reason you need to shift resources away from one sector to concentrate on another, as long you're growing.
