noname2200 said:
Thank you, I made it myself (alternative candidates: snobbore, snobchore). As to whether not wanting to associate with snobs makes me a de facto snob myself, I'll have to admit that I never had much patience for philosophy, and leave the matter without further comment. I do believe that the snobcore (permit me this one favor) base is getting smaller with time. Japan provides the logical case sample. There, "hardcore" games aren't generally doing as well as they used to, which is why Nintendo changed its business strategy, and why it's seeing record-breaking success in doing so while the HD consoles remain in a quagmire. Had it been holding steady, we would be seeing higher sales of the "hardcore" consoles (which usually excludes the Wii), much higher sales of their software (which for most titles is anemic at best), and Nintendo being less relevant. None of that is the case. Now, you may argue that Japan is its own unique case, and that the same thing isn't happening out here in the West. To which I have two responses. First, demographics argue that the same decline is inevitable here: "hardcore" gamers are almost exclusively young males, and thanks to a low birthrate the West is seeing fewer and fewer of those as times go on. Unless you magically expect females and older men to suddenly become "hardcore" gamers (something which the traditional cycle has not led to despite having thirty years to do so) then it becomes obvious that that base will simply not be as large as it currently is. Second (and this I feel is more important and immediate), even if the base was to remain stable, their contributions are not enough to keep the industry afloat at its current pace. Even as we see record revenues, we see an increase in the number of studios either being forced to merge, or which are going under. The reason for this is simple: revenue may be up, but it's outsripped by the skyrocketing costs of catering to the "hardcore" demographic. When even a titan like EA is hurting (it posted a loss last year, despite achieving almost 25% higher revenue than it forecasted) you know that something is seriously wrong with the picture. Even the few companies that are both profitable and (somewhat) focused on the "hardcore" don't seem to be reaping their money from that source: a third of Ubisoft's revenue comes from the DS, far more than from the PS3 and roughly equal to that of the 360, and we know that Ubisoft's DS games cost as little as 1/30th of an HD game (not counting the cost of porting). Activision posted a profit, but much of it also came from the DS and Wii, and even more came from Guitar Hero (is that now "hardcore"? It's an honest question, since that club seems to expand whenever it's convenient for the snobcore to have it do so. GTA, anyone?). So it seems to me that that group is increasingly shrinking, and that the process will only accelerate with time. |
Over half of the Wii's million sellers are hardcore games, this on a supposedly casual system.
