(This is only a hypothetical situation I cooked up. I doubt that any of this could actually happen.)

How could HD gaming fall in the eyes of consumers worldwide? What could possibly happen that would put a hamper on the progress of such a strong gaming preference? It wouldn’t be one single event, but a combination of several…events.

One thing that could happen that would bring about some turmoil is excessive pride from the gaming companies. Anybody remember the Seal of Quality Nintendo enforced upon devs back in the day? Well, imagine if that came back. Right now, the HD systems are trying to portray a casual attitude towards consumers in order to appeal to more people, and sell more units. However, the Wii is doing the same exact thing. Since the HD companies are aware of that, they are also aware of the constant complaints that the Wii gets for its shovelware games. So in order to be a true jack of all trades, the HD consoles will have a form of quality control on their consoles, so that the casual games are only of high quality, and the mediocre ones are not released. The HD systems are enjoying a nice influx of 85%+ rating average games right now, so in order to procure more, they could become stricter towards the development of their upcoming games. This persistence in quality control could anger 3^rd parties away, to either the handhelds or Wii.

Another thing that could kill a part of HD gaming is the rising cost. We are already aware that HD consoles may cost a pretty penny to make a game for, but the costs could get worse. Like I said before, with all the quality around, somebody has to pay for it. Devs will have to pay for it even more. The need to push graphics above all else and pay for unnecessary bells and whistles which could reap less benefits than they are worth. Eventually, the genres in which these graphical showcases are taking place could become saturated. All it would take is one flop for a small dev, and they could be history, or close to it. If it is the latter option (close to it), you can believe that those devs will never want to try an HD endeavor like that again. Development that is supposed to meet these standards could prove too difficult to manage and could cause cancellations. Canceled games are never good to hear about, no matter if you if you liked their concepts or not. When a game is canceled, it is a small foreshadowing of the support to come. Games that are canceled before they are announced aren’t as much of a problem, because they are just ideas, that don’t come to fruition. When a game has already been announced, but is then canceled, some inability was met during the development process.

The lack of profitability is probably the biggest issue for HD gaming. If only 10% (just an example) of games are profitable, devs will either develop for another system, or create a “safe” game that has been proven to be successful, but on a smaller scale. The main reason the HD consoles have several holes in their “proverbial armor” is because there is a lack of variety in what they offer. They must appeal to everyone in order to have the potential to be purchased by everyone.

Perhaps the most surprising thing to potentially harm HD gaming rather than help it is the actual gaming community itself. This persistent and insisting mentality of the gaming populace to categorize and chastise every single thing about every game could send us backwards as a medium in gaming. Reviewers overrate one game that fills their needs, but chastises the needs of a more lenient other. For the past several months, I have personally read reviews from all sides of the gaming spectrum and there have been many occasions where reviewers couldn’t have been any more misinformed, and they are supposed to be more knowledgeable about games than somebody like me is supposed to be. The people outside of gaming looking in could be turned off by the fact that the type of person they are becoming (gamer) is so pessimistic and overall, unappealing. Right now, gaming is in a state where the pastime is becoming cool to do, with the advent of Guitar Hero and the celebrity endorsed DS, along with random shout-outs by celebrities and movie cameos. Gaming must be portrayed as a cool hobby instead of a Mountain Dew Game Juice-infused anger release program. The entire “snobcore/hardcore/apple core” mentality needs to lighten up, or the gaming scene will be sent back to the basement of your mother’s house.

So that is my hypothetical thesis on how HD gaming could fall. I had to celebrate hitting 2,000 posts somehow. I’ll edit this later if more ideas come from my part (they probably won’t). As for HD gaming “falling” or “dying”, I hope it does not, because I enjoy playing on my 360, as well as my Wii. Those two consoles complement each other very well.

I might do a feature on the Fall of Casual gaming in the future as well.

Thanks for reading.

congratulations on 2,000 posts. Epic thread. I guess you had to
make your 2000th thread special.

Great thread. You put a lot of work into this.

Mostly impressive, can't wait for another.

HD gaming will probably never fall , the market could possibly experience negative growth but there will most likely be demand for HD gaming for the forseeable future.
If anything does kill HD gaming it most certainly won't be casual games.

Yea but casual games are very popular.

this is good, Hardcore gamers will benefit from it. Hardcore will get the better games. A LOT BETTER.  

HD gaming isn't going to fall. Its just the path that TV technology is taking. By the time the next gen systems come out, boob tube 480i will be unheard of. Even Nintendo will have an HD console out!

HD gaming will only get stronger come next gen. The big three will have easy to develop for machines and especially Nintendo. Well Nintendo did talk about how difficult things will get for the companies focusing on HD grafix. Canceled games can be seen often on the PS3 as well…

In my opinion, the greatest risk to the future of HD gaming on the PS3 and XBox 360 is the credit crisis ...

For over a decade many companies (including videogame developers) have been able to take on more and larger projects then they could afford based on their cash flow because of the easy access to credit. When it works well, a no-name company can rapidly become one of the biggest and most important companies in their industry; when it works poorly, a company rapdily becomes bankrupt because they have more debt then they can ever pay back.

I could be wrong but I suspect that a large portion (possibly the majority) of HD videogames are financed through credit and, in an environment where credit isn't easy to access, many of these projects may not have as much money to be completed the way they were initially envisioned; and many new projects may not have access to as much money as they require to complete as initially planned (or may not have access to money at all).