I've seen many people post on this forum disagree with that ...

Beyond that, if there were only a handful of FPS games released in a year and Duke Nukem was the best of them I'm certain it would sell well and people would be happy with their purchase because they had nothing to compare the quality against.

I'm tired of seeing hardcore gamers abused. Those 12 year olds who play nothing other than COD online whilst racially abusing people are just as important as anybody else.

Hardcore... gamer... lol
Hardcore gamer sounds like an oxymoron to me.

I have games like Grand Theft Auto 4 & Monopoly. A gamer is a gamer no matter what game it is. And a hardcore gamer is a person who play games on a daily basis so let the hate go.

"hardcore" gamer to me is a stupid term. It's like calling someone a hardcore music listener or movie watcher.

You sound a lot like one.

Self identification is a dangerous thing. Putting labels on people is even worse.
I will say there are casual and core trends in the industry.
If there was less casual focus, there would be more core focus.
casual evolves into core.

take from this what you will.

Microsoft's Kinect Software from a first party perspective is not looking level or even close to their core offerings. It's all Kinect with a bit of Forza, the last Gears title and yet another Halo. If you don't like enough core IP's compliment your yearly multiplat offerings then ok, most of the 360 owners I've spoken to actually like multiplats more than the core 360 titles (as of late) or even PS3 exclusives for that matter. To you this might not look like much, but to me it looks like desperation. My reasoning for this being that the hardcore gamers are the most invested in said companies. Casuals may be the majority but their sales will never, ever be stable (exclude Nintendo from this because their situation is a bit different). Casuals might get one, two maybe even three games a year. Core for sure 5-10 on average (if they can afford it). We all have witnessed the dreaded Wii shovelware library that has graced a Gamestop near anyone. Within it you find a few pleasant gems, mostly in the core realm and yes even in the casual realm. Nintendo stands out because it matches nostalgia and set character personalities which stand the test of time and could be considered casual, yet have are still the most beloved characters. Sony and Microsoft cannot find a title to rival a Zelda or a Mario. Little Big Planet was supposed to be that game, but it is great in its own way. The hardcore may be the most ignorant, argument infused wretches, but guess what my friend.....we are the heart of the gaming industry. We keep it running. Casuals keep it expanding.

P.S.

It takes a casual to become a core gamer. I think this metamorphosis will take place most with children as games will capture their imagination, creativity and even take place of other forms of entertainment (like movies, cartoons) because videogames today are doing it all as opposed to yesteryear. It sucks for kids though, because games for their age group aren't what they used to be and the quality has dropped horribly as well.

that is the arrogance I was talking about.
You and me are not the heart of the industry. We are just 2 freaking nerds.

When there is no core gamer left, the industry will live on. Maybe transfer (maybe for good), but not die.

You don't know how wrong you are. Casuals only support select games. Cores mostly have a list of games they will buy a year or more in advance and use the most expendable income out of the two towards the gaming industry. For instance, look at the sigs of half the core gamers on this site. Point #1. I never denied that casuals make up the mass of the gaming market, your first mistake was overlooking that. I know of their contributions and I know of ours. We aren't just "some nerds", we are the support beam.