Most mainstream games are better produced than shitty niche games with questionable values.
COD, everyone favorite target and scapegoat for the lack of their game genres nowadays, have better story than a lot of rehashes of high school JRPG tales overly done and "emotional" games that can barely be counted as games.

Anyone interested in world conflict, could see some interesting war themes told on COD games and they also excel in the gameplay area. If COD really sucked, gameplay wise (which is the most important aspect of a game), the masses wouldn't have bought them in droves.

Mario is not an annual franchise. Despite haters' criticism, there's a new 'Smash' and 'Kart" about once every 6 years, and they're actually better than the previous iteration. grouping nintendo in with COD is a joke.

mainstream gamers have been driving the industry for years now. but, yes i completely agree that they are ruining it. mainstream gamers are the most willing to buy the latest DLC and accept all the bullshit tactics publishers like to pull these days, which are all things that are destroying the gaming industry. i say let it crash. it needs some rebuilding.

They are so big, it's the exact same thing that happened with mainstream 'Hollywood' movies.

People don't expected 'San Andreas' to be a great creative film. They expect explosions, great special effects and a scene where The Rock gets to act tough - bonus if we get a tender scene.

Many 'big games' are suffering the same 'too big to take much of a risk' issues. Look at how Mass Effect 3 was clobbered? They took a risk - customers - at least the loudest ones - hated it. It hurt the game, and games that follow.

Fans are part of the problem with this happening.

Thats becuase there where alot more people actually buying the game.

Madden and COD do change every iteration, though. Maybe you don't play either enough to know, but they both make pretty dramatic changes every release.

The industry has always had popular mainstream games and smaller low budget titles. And the smaller titles have typically been the ones pushing new things, because the bigger titles are riskier to tinker with.

The only real change lately has been the growth of the market kind of imo creating a new category or layer of games on each end of the spectrum. You now have easily available mass quantity indie games on the cheap side and massively expensive juggernauts like your Call of Duty on the other. I don't think the expensive and "safe" massive titles hold the smaller ones back. If anything it makes those smaller titles possible. By extention you could say the big titles are responsible for innovation.

Sony said not long ago that they lose money on a lot of their games. What do you think offsets those losses? Your Uncharteds and GT games etc etc. It's like when an actor says they take the big budget flick with less acting depth required type of job so they can make the money to fund or make up for smaller more artistic roles.

Madden, really? football is football.

Then "they" are just elitist idiots.

I wonder what's supposed to be the real division between "Mainstream gamers" and "Core gamers" (whatever those terms mean), the terms seem to be based on big generalizations.

Misconception: everyone who pirate games wont buy the game anyway

Truth: though a majority of piraters really wont buy the game if it can't be pirated, a portion of these people will indeed fork out the cash if they wanted a game and can't pirate it.

proof: purely anecdotal I know, but I am one such example. I am 1 of those who will pirate games the first chance he gets. I priated games all through out the ps1, dreamcast, ps2, xbox, ds and psp generations. Then came the PS3, Wii and Xbox360..I'd be a hypocrit and a liar if I said I didinnt try to priate on these consoles too...infact, I pirated xbox360 and wii games all throught the time that I had one.. The PS3 on the otherhand couldnt be hacked back then and I ended up buying  a lot of games I would normally pirate if given the option. For reference, during the time that I had a PS3, I bought

1. Folklore

2. GTA

3. MGS

4. GT4

5. Valkaria Chronicles

6. White Knight Chronicles

7. Street Fighter IV

8. Resident Evil V

9. Final Fantasy XIII

10. Resonance of Fate

11. Atalier Rorona

12. Uncharted

13. Uncharted 2

14. God of War Collectoin

15. Tomb Raider Collection

16. Heavy Rain

17. Saints Row II

And a few more games that I cant really remember. But for someone as cheap as I am and someone who pirated stuff instead of buying legit games, this 17 games is a shyet load of cash compared to the amount i spent during the ps2 and psone generation. For example, I had over 400 psone games spent roughly 1.50 $us on each..thats like 600$US for 400 games.. thats like geting 400 games for the price of 12 or so legit games... during the PS2 era, I had over 200 games and spent $2 per game. thats $400 total or like getting 200 games for the price of 10... yes, I am one rat bastard.

Lets not even go over the psp and ds library I had... which cost me next to nothing.. other than getting a large memory card and my monthly internet which was fixed...

I have bought a shyet load of games for my Vita from PSN I have

1. gravity rush

2. senran kagura shinovi vs

3. ragnarok odyssey

4. ragnarok odyssey ace

5. soul sacrifice

6. soul sacrifice delta

7. perona 4 golden

8. freedom wars

9. street fighter x tekken

10. dead or alive vita

11. akiba's trip

12. hyperdimension neptuna rebirth 1

13. dragon's crown

14. earth defense force 2017

16. disgaea 3

17. little big planet

18. tales form space: mutant blob attacks

19. sunflower

20. men's room mayhem

21. nun attack

22. dynasty warriors next

23. hot shots golf

24. plants vs zombies

25. escape plan

26. jet set radio

27. machinarium

28. puddle

29. parasite eve 1 (psp)

30. parasite eve 2 (psp)

31. persona 3 portable (psp)

32. god eater burst (psp)

33. gta vice city stories (psp)

34. striker 1945 (psp)

35. patapon (psp)

36. uncharted golden abyss

and a bunch of other psp games that i cant remember...but without trying to remember those other games, thats 36 games in total that i spent some good money on... if the ps vita was hacked, would i prite? you bet your ass I would! in a heart beat! 

But as it stands, there is no way to pirate vita games, hence, i had to buy legit games...

what does all this mean really? nothing much... just pointing out that the many piraters really wont buy any games if they cant get it for free or for really cheaps, but there is still a portion of these piraters who will indeed buy games..such as myself.. and that portion is still significant and saying that piraters really arent hurting the industry is only half true.