I'm probably going to abandon this thread soon but why do you guys worry about the future of hardcore gaming?

1.) It's very likely that "casual" Wii owners will fail to transition from this gen to the next. They're not really gamers, they just like to follow a fad and once the fad is over, they're not going to buy into it again.

2.) Assuming that Sony and Microsoft never copy Nintendo, both will have plenty of hardcore offerings.  Why would they entertain the needs of a very unpredictable market that might leave at anytime.  In short, they like their fanbase more than profit.

3.) Hardcore will never die.  As long as it's affordable and entertains the needs of its audience, it's not like games are going to be 70 or 80 dollars to cover their development costs.  Also it's not like there will be a shortage in Alien shooters with tons of grey and brown and bloom, the hardcore love that crap.

You are assuming hardcore are afraid of the future. For me, everyone can have their wii music/sports in the future and as long as I get to play games like FF and MGS I wont have a problem with it.

I'm not concerned for the core in general; but as a core Nintendo fan I am worried that the major Nintendo franchises will be 'casual-ified'. This has already happened with Super Paper Mario and Metroid Prime 3, and if it continues then I will have fewer games I can enjoy.

This is just pure obnoxious flamebait. I am sorry, but it is. One of the most condescending threads I've seen in a long time. Nice job.

Locked.

A large portion of hardcore gaming died with the Dreamcast. Rising development costs are squeezing out risky innovations in hardcore gaming and the fact that most PC games are watered down to work on consoles is hammering hardcore gaming. The industry has grown so much yet it offers fewer compelling games for me than it did during the last console generation. Can you understand why this has me worried about the future of my favorite hobby?

As publicly traded companies, I can assure you they prefer profit to fans. It might not appear like that, but they could be doing it in expectation of greater future profit or indirectly by supporting other products (sale of Blu-ray and HDTVs for Sony and sales of Windows and Windows Live products for Microsoft.)

You should always reword any argument about gaming in this era so it can fit with the last major market disruption. To wit:

Why are Amiga and Commodore 64 games worried about the future of the industry?

1. It's very likely that "casual" NES owners will fail to transition from this gen to the next. They're not really gamers, they just like to follow a fad and onc ethe fad is over, they're not going to buy into it again.

2. Assuming that Commodore and Amiga never copy Nintendo, both will have plenty of hardcore offerings. Why would they entertain the needs of a very unpredictable market that might leave at any time? In short, they like their fanbase more than profit.

3. Hardcore will never die. As long as it's affordable and entertains the needs of its audience, it's not like games are going to be 40 or 50 dollars to cover their development costs. Also, it's not like there will be a shortage of ludicrously complex games with unintuitive text prompts and illogical gameplay mechanics, the hardcore love that crap.

Starting to see the problems in your arguments yet?

Because they want something to complain about ...

Over the years I have noticed that there has to be something evil to claim is destroying the industry as we know it. Last generation there were quite a few articles that claimed that Microsoft’s Xbox was pushing console gaming to be more and more PC like which would (eventually) destroy the industry; in this generation, because the consoles that the core-gamers are supporting heavily are more PC like than the Xbox was, they needed something new to blame for the destruction of the industry.

One of the things I have learned is that the consoles that are successful don’t have much influence on what game styles survive and thrive. If the Wii signals the death of core gaming, even if the Wii didn’t exist core gaming would have died.

Okay... I replied earlier that it's just like PC games both Core and Casual games will survive. With that being said. I think a lot of gamers are worried that it will indeed become just like the PC. There is a lot more Casual games released on the PC than Core games on any given Month of the year. Most of the Core games that are released are expansions of older Core games and MMORPG games... I think that is what frightens them... They think if Casual gaming takes off on consoles like the PC then this might cause there to be more Casual games out than Core games. (Basic translation if your a Core gamer that doesn't like Casual games your going to have a lot less to look forward to.)

A casual evolving into a neo-hardcore to beat them in their own game is every hardcore secret nightmare.