There will ALWAYS be a portion of the market that is casual. And it will ALWAYS be the biggest portion of the market in terms of dollars. Yes, we hardcore gamers (I assume anyone hanging out in the vgchartz forums qualifies) buy a lot more games than the casuals do, but there aren't enough of us to outweigh them. Think of your friends who own consoles but aren't immersed in gamer culture -- do they have dozens of quality games, or do they have Madden, Karaoke Revolution, an Atari collection, a Mario game and/or a handful of random greatest hits titles? These aren't people who bought into a fad and then gave up; they're just people who aren't going to spend more on gaming than they do on eating out or playing golf every month. They will buy and play games now and then when something catches their attention.
And I don't think there's a hard line between hardcore and casual games. Yes, I consider myself hardcore -- I like to play games all the way through, I eschew strategy guides and cheat codes (unless I really get stuck), I have a bunch of working consoles from various generations, and I keep close tabs on the market. I just finished Scarface on the Wii and am several hours into Resident Evil 4. But that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy Wario Ware, and I'll be picking up Boogie and MySims. (I will not, however, be picking up Mario Party 8, as it's a BAD casual game from everything I've read online. Clearly a lot of people don't research, or just don't care and are having fun regardless. I'm actually a little bit envious of that at times!)
What is hard to remember is that a good casual game CAN appeal to the hardcore, picky as we are; the reverse is not always true.
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