@Phrancheyez: Ehh... Most of the so called "hardcore" first person shooters have as much depht as Wii Sports. Giving them a 5 page review just about equals walkthrough guide.
The problem here is, that most of the reviews focus on something irrelevant. I could do a hundred page review about Wii Play and still wouldn't tell anything about the game, especially is it good or bad.

Now that you apparently know what you're talking about, could you tell me specifically how a game is a "casual game" and how a gamer is a "hardcore gamer"?

The “real world” journalists, no great prizes as a rule either, have at least noticed that the BIG news in gaming the last few years are:

1.       A revolutionary new game control method

2.       A gaming system using that method that is bringing in, and back into gaming large populations of non-gamers and lapsed gamers.

3.       The new system has sales that indicate that innovation and fun are more important than pixel counting.

4.       A gaming system that is actually tackling real world problems like lack of exercise and fitness with innovative new ideas.

5.       A gaming system that has brought actual fun back to gaming and is so compelling that it is being used in hospitals, and retirement homes to encourage people to be more active (even if Sony has no interest in them, apparently by policy).

6.       True life stories like:

The head of the Rheumatology department at the major teaching hospital where I am employed personally thanked me for acquainting him with the Wii which he has used with great success in his practice. This includes a young patient with severely disabling arthritis, which activity would benefit but movement was so painful that the patient could not be induced to get out of his wheelchair voluntarily after several years of attempted therapy. Like most people he found Wii Sports irresistible and it not only got him out of his chair but he now plays regularly and has achieved a significant improvement in mobility and reduction in pain.

These are things I consider IMPORTANT gaming news but magazines like Game Informer lack room to cover because of the really important announcements like”

1.       Madden 2009 is about … Football, Again.

2.       Halo has this fascinating character called Master Chief … oh you’ve heard that one before?

3.       Hey Hi Def TV has, ah, higher definition; bet you didn’t know that?

4.       Hey guess what, Grand Theft Auto is about driving around committing pretty much gratuitous violence. It’s very popular overseas … yeah like we need to give more people a highly negative image of our country as a place of uncontrolled violence,

5.       Important philosophical debates like is Metal Gear Solid; is it a video game with feature length cut scenes or is it actually a feature length film with interruptions for actual game play.

Well as long as they have their priorities straight.

I would like to see a 40+ gamer reviews.  They reviewers are mostly 20-30 years old and like a ceratin type of game

All print media should dissapear. Trees are far more important than tv guides, cosmopolitin or FHM. Save the trees people!

Lol me too.

I don't know what magazines some of you guys read but if you don't like them, change! I read n Revolution and it's certainly not snobbish, running a smear campaign, or any of the other accusations you're throwing at the gaming press in general. I respect their views far more than almost anything on the internet because the accusations you're throwing at the print media seem to apply far more to the people running most gaming sites.

Furthermore what is Gamestops target market? Do they devote more shelf space to Xbox360/PS3 goodies relatively than they should in detriment to the Wii?

I wonder whether Xbox360/PS3 owners trade their games more and are therefore each more profitable to Gamestop than Wii owners; so that might explain the discrepency in targeting in the Game Informer magazine.

In a perfect society, game reviews would relfect attach ratios for that game.

But what is the standard, what is the usual for a 10, this is all a shifting standard, I've done reviews myself but I only negatively reviewed the worst of the worst, where there is a technical problem with the game that renders it unplayable.

In that breath I've only negatively reviewed one game, Alien Syndrome - 4/10 (Wii) - I was happy to see that the attach ratio reflect that score and even forum goers refference that game as a what not to buy.

For me it was just another Sega game though. ^_^ I almost had to chain myself to a wall not to rate Assassins Creed and boy do I dislike Ubisoft and their soulless contraptions.

If Xbox 360 and PS3 = Hardcore gamers and Hardcore Gamers are savvy, then I don't think they would frequent a place that will pay you $18 for a used copy of GTAIV and charge you $49. That is a markup that is just short of extortion.

A correlation to advertising budgets might be more informative.

I learned something else at the Gamestop site. We hear a lot about attach rates but not much about retention rates. Obviously an important figure also since the more used games circulated = less sales.  I thought it interesting that a used copy of super megahit GTAIV for the Xbox 360 is only worth $18, Boomblox will get you $25, same as MGS4 for the PS3. Lego Indiana Jones for the Wii is worth $22, for the PS3, it'll only get you $20.