That wasn't what I was talking about. Rad the last third of it again.

It's about the "cheaper, more accessible" paradigm. DS smashed the PSP because of it, and set th standard for the Wii.

Khuutie... Noooooooooooo (wails off like im moving away at high speed when actually im standing still with my mouth open)

That was quite a wall of text, but I accuse you of getting Noname2200 to write it for you, so there!

...Noname said no one would be able to tell!

Never trust a man without a name, only a number.

I would say the DS smashed the PSP due to the legacy of the gameboy, the strong software library of the DS. and sonys lack of foresight with regards to not including a second analog stick and not porting enough of the PS1 games to it quickly enough.  dont get me wrong i love my PPS and sing the graces of loco roco. but every time i pick it up i know what it could have been with just a little more revision in the planning and implementation stages.

Nintendo has excelled in  making back catalogs accessible in the handheld market, and now on the console . (though the DSi for some reason killed this I feel is a mjor failing).  This feeds nostalgia especially for gamers who grew up in the 80s now wanting to share with their children.  Sony will not benefit form this quite the same way due to its games being  more adult appeal during its run.

The cheaper is better might seem like a new move, but has been going one in cyclical cycle for ages, development cost and aging studios cost to much and bust a new generation of cheap developers and game makers emerge and replace them, only to balloon costs over the years and repeat.

You could argue that xbla and their ilk are new to consoles but even then your ignoring the development help given out free by sony, Nintendo, and sega in the 90s to start ups and fledgling groups to get first IPs out. There may be less capital investment involved now by the fledgling studio, but there is also less investment by publishers.

Id also say that  “Developers who don't adhere to it are dying.” Is bit extreme as I indicated above this is more due to a glut of studios then the type of game they make. There will always be major money games, they might reduce in number, but that will only be until the next big thing everyone will want to develop towards and will spiral costs.

As for more accessibility/casual that’s a dangerous line for companies to follow if you look up the arcade/console crash of the early 80s an attempt to market greater accessibility combined with flooding the market with cheaper games and a major lack of quality control lead to the first major gaming crash. Accessibility/causal consumers are the first ones to leave when the fad or other priorities require them to relinquish a luxury.

Further I would venture to say more core customers (not core gamers mind you) are not in the accessibility casual crowd. These are the customers that are the most valuable, they are the ones that will sustain your company through market crashes and dark times (look at apple mid 90s for perfect example of a core that kept it afloat). You must keep them happy, and then work to grow beyond, while keeping them. To abandon the big budget game and new tech would lose them.

*Note have not had time to proof read, leaving the office after I finished typing it ill look it up when I get home.

Goddog, it can't just be about nostalgia, because a lot of consumers just don't give a damn about back libraries.

Accessibility and quality are not mutually exclusive.

The idea that "core" customers buy more games is not necessarily rooted in reality. Cite sources.

If you think I'm going to make longer responses for a while, you are mistaken.

@Goddog and Khuutra

The DS is amazing, and it's library is indeed superior to the PSP. But, imo, what really killed the PSP was piracy. Just look at the sales of the PSP compared to the amount of software that's being bought for it. The difference is astronomical! Before the PSP pirating days were in full gear, the PSP, while having a smaller user base than the DS, moved quite a bite of software. According to VGC it has 5mil sellers I believe. Not bad for a first attempt at a handheld.

I say piracy was the main cause because software is what sells a system. And with all the piracy going on the PSP, devs aren't going to put risky IPs or new IP on the PSP. I find it amazing high profile games like KHBBS and FF Agito are still set to release on the PSP. Sony must be covering their costs to some extent.

Also, the DS does have the nostalgia and gameboy legacy behind it, so that is automatically an advantage for the handheld. PSP had no history whatsoever backing it up. Now, second gen PSP's, or PSP2 will have a slightly decent reputation behind, but it will still pale in comparison to Ninty's next-gen handheld unless they pull off something drastic.

I believe, that if piracy didn't hit the PSP as hard as it did, the handheld market would have been more competitive and balanced, but still in Nintendo's favor. Maybe 40% vs 60% market share.

What did Ps2 do?

Oh... not much... just penetrated the market to mass appeal so that there could be room for three viable consoles and made an oppertunity for companies like Activision to actually spend 150 million on a game and actually be profitable.

Thats not defining at all... even though without Ps2 gaming as we know it wouldnt exist.

you misunderstand what i mean by core.  by the definition I am using core customers are just that the ones who spend the most on gaming consistently. circular logic you may argue, but in this case core specifically refers to those who buy the most games. now you could argue that the cores taste in games has shifted, but i do not see that, as i see an up tick in non-core customers. failing a better term i mislabled them casual/accesability in my prior post. a better lable in retrospect is non-core. these are the customers who are there not becuase they belive in (brand/hobby/idea/product/or goal) but because this product right now suits the needs of their disposable income.

i granty you accessability and quality are not mutually exclusive,

 back libraries are where money is made and are, very, very important. they build empires. they lay foundations and pull customers in for life. some customers dont give a dman but either way this one ill give you as a difrence of opinion

shame you wont make longer posts i enjoy a good back and forth even if i get ripped a new one. how else do we advance ideas?

oh and edit, sorry took so long to reply its a bit of a drive home

edit 2 forgot to reply to the whole growth thing, i dont pin it all to nostalga, i pin it to good marketing, well designed products (industrial design is up quite a bit over last gen),  a good idea of the target audiance,  growth of shared media experiance.(should have included this in first post slipped my mind as i was working on getting out the door)

Core gamers are apparently buying the Hell out of Resort, MArio Kart Wii, Wii Fit, and New Super mario Bros, then

"Back libraries" in that case refers specifically to backwards compatibility: people who buy the DSi apparently don't care about the lack of GBA capabilities.

And we will advance ideas concisely