The End of Hardcore Gaming...

[Reddaye]

Just an excellent article I happened to pick up from the GameFAQs message boards (SHOCKINGLY considering the massive number of children that seem to post).

We made the acquaintance of SportsBlogNation president Tyler Bleszinski--yes, he's also the older brother, by three years, of Gears of War designer Cliff "Cliffyb" Bleszinski--after reading an eminently fair assessment that he'd written on his own blog Gearheads of War about our critique of the dialogue in Gears of War. Since then, we've emailed from time to time on subjects various and sundry. During one such exchange, prompted by our inaugural Monday Morning Quarterback post about the April sales charts, Bleszinski voiced his concern about the impact that the Wii--more specifically, the tidal wave of casual game-oriented newcomers that Nintendo's hit console was ushering into the market--would have on hardcore gamers like himself. Intrigued, we asked Bleszinski to tackle the following question, "Why do you feel threatened by the prospect of a dominant Wii?" Here is his reply.

My brother Cliff and I have been into games long before he ever created Gears of War. He and I played through the original Zelda together and I remember having tournaments with him where we'd play the original Nintendo Ice Hockey game. I liked to stack my team with the fat guys because they had a booming shot that could score from anywhere and were really good at checking. Cliff went the skinny guy route and tried to skate circles around me.

But the times, they are a-changing. If Nintendo has its way, young males will no longer be the dominant segment of the console audience--and this transition appears to be happening faster than I expected. The other day I was in Target looking to pick up some games when I saw an older woman--very likely a grandmother--waiting for the clerk's attention. She wanted him to get her a couple of games from inside the locked glass cabinet. When he asked her which ones, she stated Cooking Mama and Wii Play.

I could barely stifle a groan. Don't get me wrong; I think it's cute that someone who likely had no idea what a video game was would suddenly plunk down her Social Security money so she can cook virtual meals, play a rousing game of table tennis and shark her little grandchildren out of their milk money in billiards. But honestly, I had refused to believe that grandmothers were buying these things as so many news reports have claimed until I saw it with my own eyes. My story may be anecdotal, but the plural of anecdote is data, and there are more than enough news stories on this topic to suggest that this phenomenon is real.

What's more, Nintendo has the sales figures to back up its hype. The NPD sales figures since November have been troubling to me as a hardcore gamer who loves new IPs and in-depth experiences. The Nintendo Wii has built up a ton of momentum in 2007, and despite the fact that it features an internal architecture that maxes out graphically around where the original Xbox did, it has quickly become the darling of the non-gaming press. There have been umpteen stories about the scrappy little Wii wooing non-gamers and bringing in hordes of new converts to worship at the altar of Mario.

I'm not saying that the videogame industry shouldn't strive to bring in as many new people as possible. It most definitely should, because new gamers mean a nice, healthy business. My problem is what this new crowd appears to be drawn to. Games like Wii Sports, Wii Play and Cooking Mama have become some of the biggest sellers, and that is what has me worried. If these are the type of games that become blockbusters, then you can count on other gaming companies who cater to the more hardcore gamer--aka me and the milions of others who've been driving this business--to promptly change direction. If we've learned anything about videogame companies, it's that they all are quick to follow each other if one is successful with something.

I mean, Sony already imitated the Wii a bit with their Sixaxis controller; Microsoft followed Sony with their own EyeToy-like camera, albeit far less successfully; and Sony is now trying to replicate some kind of online service a la Xbox Live. If Nintendo winds up outselling the 360 and the PS3 by a wide margin, how soon will it be before we gamers are using the Sixaxis to chop up onions with in Metal Gear Mama? How long before we're frantically swinging waggle remotes for tennis, bowling and golf in Halo Sports?

Will games like Halo and Gears of War ever go away? Hell no. But publishers aren't stupid. They're going to go where the majority of the money is and if people want to play the WarioWare mini-games more than the meaty experiences that hardcore gamers love, you're inevitably going to see a corresponding shift in development. Publishers are in the business of making money, so if they can spend six months or a year developing a mini-game package for five-year-old technology and make more profits than they would by spending 2-3 years crafting a long and detailed experience, you can bet your Wiimote that that's exactly what they'll do.

If casual games become the industry's primary money-making vehicle, these mini-game collections and more casual games could wind up completely redefining the market. I don't think we're far off from the day when Hannah Montana Wii and Wii Sports 2 dominate the NPD charts. And as soon as that day comes, why would publishers want to continue to the time and effort to develop an in-depth, cinematic experience when they could slap together a bunch of mini-games with waggle and make just as much money, if not more? Remember, gaming is a love for you and me, but it's ultimately a business for these publishers and developers.

So while the business of the Wii has great for Nintendo--surprise, surprise--and a handful of risk-takers like Ubisoft, it's thus far been ugly when it comes to the experiences beloved by core gamers like myself. The Wii has been chock full of mini-games, PlayStation 2 knockoffs and PSP ports. Yes, there has been The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, but not much else in terms of lengthy, in-depth experiences. As for new intellectual properties, they've been pretty much few and far between, unless you consider Wii Sports and Wii Play new IPs; to me, they're more tech demos than anything else. At least the PS3 has Resistance and MotorStorm, with Lair right around the corner. The 360 has Gears of War, Viva Pinata and Crackdown. But for the Wii, most third parties would rather take the easy way out and continue to port older games with the waggle tacked on than devote the time and resources to creating great new experiences. The fact that the PS2 is still going incredibly strong isn't going to help the situation either, because it and the PSP will provide the Wii with an endless supply of ports for the Wii instead of forcing publishers and developers to think of new and in-depth experiences.

I'll repeat this again: I am not saying that the more hardcore games are going to die out. Smart developers and publishers will realize that they can make a mint off the hardcore, especially if more developers move towards the quick, jump in-jump out type of experience that many Wii and DS games offer. But they will be in the minority. Valve, Epic and others won't turn to making mini-game compilations, but I can definitely see companies like EA and Ubisoft realizing that they don't need huge development teams and hundreds of people working on a game to make a ton of cash in the land of mini-game moneymakers. It's like suddenly discovering that business plan behind McDonald's is applicable to video games.

Some will likely argue that these more casual games are a gateway drug for new users. They'll claim that we should be happy because it will bring a whole new group of people into gaming. I find it hard to believe that something like Wii Play could lead to someone like the little old lady I saw in the store playing Metroid Prime 3. I just don't see it happening. These same people didn't jump into hardcore games before the Wii, but they're suddenly going to do it now because they had some fun playing virtual bowling? I seriously doubt that. She's not going to go from creating a meal in Cooking Mama to saving Zelda. She's never going to defend Sera, guide Reggie Bush into the end zone, or venture into Liberty City. And should the product portfolios of major publishers become a zero-sum game, her tastes will represent a direct threat to my longtime hobby.

I sincerely believe that bringing new people to video games is a good thing. I like seeing the business continue to grow and be even more successful, because I'm old enough to remember the videogame industry crash between the Atari 5200 and the Nintendo Entertainment System. But ultimately, going more mainstream can have unintended consequences--ones that could negatively impact the breadth and depth of the kinds of games that I love, as do millions of others. I think Mike Myers' Wayne Campbell said it best in "Wayne's World" when he was talking about that tool Benjamin Kane, played so memorably by Rob Lowe. "It's like he wants us to be liked by everyone. I mean Led Zeppelin didn't write tunes everybody liked. They left that to the Bee Gees." That statement could very well apply to the Wii and its software lineup.

[TCO]

Very interesting read.

It highlights the main problem of the Wii there, for me anyway. The Wii-mote is not made for serious games, besides maybe FPS', so developers will take the easy way out and make Party Games, rather than go the hard way and try to adapt fiddly controls for the Wii. So with the mega sales of the Wii, people will be buying these like hot cakes

But that being said, I can't see games like that coming out on the 360 or PS3, I se them as the Big Boy Consoles. So even though he does have a point, the Wii will go like that, due to lack of power and limited controls, I highly doubt Sony and MS will follow suit.

[Farmer Reil]

Couldn't be arsed to read it, too busy at the moment, but is he basically saying that "hardcore gaming" is going to die because the Wii is letting causal gamers play too?

If so, that's the biggest pile of bullshit I've ever read (or not, as the case may be).

[Maxx]

I think that article underestimates how big the "hardcore gaming' crowd is. I believe 360 is still out selling Wii, which means that lots of people still want a straight gaming system. It could happen, but once Halo and Grand Theft Auto sell a bazillion copies this fall, I think this kind of talk will die down a bit.

[-A-]

Yeah, this is basically the same kind of thing that happened when The Sims first destroyed all sales records. As Bleszinski the elder says, the people that buy Wii Sports and The Sims (or particularly, the 'casual' gamers that buy them) don't go on to but other kinds of games. You can continually churn out new content in Sims fashion; you can build an entire piece of hardware around attracting that new audience, but they're still only a fraction of the games market and they're inherently fickle. More than likely, a few publishers will take the audience by the scruff of its neck, and others will enjoy some easy money on cheaper-to-produce games, but GTAs and Halos will still sell.

[Cactus Drags]

I'm not sure about killing off hardcore gaming, but he's dead-on about the Wii. WiiSports and Play, once the novelty wears off, are nothing more than tech demos. All the games I've played thus far have gotten boring quickly. And the games that do work, such as Mario Strikers, don't really make use of the motion sensing stuff.

[KevinStorm]

360 is out-selling the Wii, but the 360 has been out longer, too.

This article says a lot of what I've been telling people for a while: the Wii is targetting little kids and people who don't usually play video games. I even had a lady come into my store telling me about how she works in an old folks home and they bought a Wii for the old people there, and the old people love it.

But the 360 is still around for the hardcore gamers, and the PS3 is around for those with more money than sense ( )

[Cactus Drags]

360 is out-selling the Wii, but the 360 has been out longer, too.

This article says a lot of what I've been telling people for a while: the Wii is targetting little kids and people who don't usually play video games. I even had a lady come into my store telling me about how she works in an old folks home and they bought a Wii for the old people there, and the old people love it.

But the 360 is still around for the hardcore gamers, and the PS3 is around for those with more money than sense ( )

[Reddaye]

I just realized I never really bothered to put my own opinions into this. How stupid of me.

Personally I'm in the same category as TCO and Dragsy with Elder B's comments on the Wii but not so much about his comments with hardcore gaming in general. The Wii for me is a huge let down (just like the N64 to a lesser extent, and more comparably the Gamecube). I finally got one probably a month or more ago and haven't even played it for longer than an hour tops.

As far as hardcore gaming "dying" goes, I can honestly see it shifting a little to help compensate for this new style of gaming. Nintendo themselves are shifting much of their time towards more casual gameplay, but honestly Nintendo's act was getting stale (to me anyways) a while ago. EA are putting a lot of focus on "non-games" but really EA shoot for the mass market anyways so it's no surprise.

Couldn't be arsed to read it, too busy at the moment, but is he basically saying that "hardcore gaming" is going to die because the Wii is letting causal gamers play too?

[KevinStorm]

360 is out-selling the Wii, but the 360 has been out longer, too.

This article says a lot of what I've been telling people for a while: the Wii is targetting little kids and people who don't usually play video games. I even had a lady come into my store telling me about how she works in an old folks home and they bought a Wii for the old people there, and the old people love it.

But the 360 is still around for the hardcore gamers, and the PS3 is around for those with more money than sense ( )

Yeah, like it's a big secret. Nintendo's own promotional clips tell you that.

[Cactus Drags]

Are you kididng me? There's been stacks. If it's not the endless demo videos playing in game shops or shopping centres(playable demo machines are never going t happen are they? Too easy to steal the remotes) with the hot teen girls playing Wario Ware, there's the Brain Trianing ads with the family dissing their dad (admittedly, that's DS, but still). Nintnedo's been shooting at non-conventional gamers for a while now.

[Spee]

This might go off on a tangent but at the same time it's also (paradoxically) relevant to the thread:

Most of the marketing for the Wii that I've seen has been in the 25-49 bracket, much like the DS. Even games like Mario Party 8 have had adverts with older teenagers and families playing it. I don't see the problem with that, and it makes a lot of sense commercially speaking for Nintendo. I think some people seem to forget that Nintendo is, to all intents and purposes, a business in only one sector of the market. It cannot be propped up unlike Sony and Microsoft's gaming division (both of which to the best of my recollection are making heavy losses in their respective divisions); it has to make a profit. This is the principle reason why the Wii is 'underpowered' -- some of the components are a few years old as it's obviously cheaper for them to be made and to program games for.

As it is, Nintendo tried their best to aim for the so-called 'hardcore' market with the N64 and the Gamecube; the N64 had obvious limitations (cartridge over CD-ROMs, which precipitated a lack of 3rd party support). I don't seem to recall many people weeping into their buckets when Sony took advantage of the situation (through savvy marketing, 3rd party support and errors on the part of their competitors) and made gaming cool; people bought the console in numbers not seen since the days of the all-conquering NES. I'm willing to wager that a lot of the buyers had never bought a console before but were lured by the vast library of relatively cheap games and by gaming's new-found status. There were quite a lot of casual games on the PS1, Dance Dance Revolution and other bemani games being the principle ones that I can think of at this time. Basically, the PS1 had something for everyone, and no-one complained.

Nintendo made a number of mistakes with the Gamecube. Retrospectively, Hiroshi Yamauchi still being in charge of the company was one of them; he was by all accounts long in the tooth and bereft of ideas. He claimed sometime during that generation that gaming as a pastime was going to become less popular. He had no vision of the future or how to steer Nintendo in the right direction at that point; they used another proprietary format, not to save on costs but because they were overly cautious of piracy; couple that with a terrible and paltry set of launch games, lacklustre iterations of their 2 main console franchises (Super Mario Sunshine and more notably The Legend Of Zelda: Wind Waker, which divided opinion and underperformed). There was also a continued lack of 3rd party support; the Gamecube either missed out completely on the big series or got spin-offs and remakes, Resident Evil 4 being an exception, but even that was later ported with extras to the PS2.

What I'm trying to say is whilst they might still have made a profit on both of those generations, they were out-thought and out-fought, firstly by Sony and then by both Sony and Microsoft. Nintendo had too much pride to give up on the home console business and they needed a new approach -- a "blue ocean strategy" as the new president Satoru Iwata might have put it. To him this meant differentiating from its competitors and trying to recover one-time fans and bring in ones nobody had ever really tried to target before. The DS was at first meant to be the 3rd pillar -- more of an experiment than anything else. After a slow start, it started to gain a following and is trouncing the PSP for a variety of obvious reasons. To that effect, Nintendo surmized that the strategy could also work with the Wii. Many were predicting it would be doom and gloom for them but it simply hasn't been the case.

To my mind, Nintendo will have had all of its major franchises in some form or another on the Wii in the first 18 months of release (Super Mario Galaxy, Mario Kart Wii, The Legend Of Zelda: Twilight Princess & Metroid Prime 3: Corruption), whilst simultaneously encouraging the returning 3rd parties, both lured by the lack of expense to program for and the growing install base to license their games for the Virtual Console (a veritable cash cow) and bring original 'IPs'* to the Wii. The latter has seen mixed results so far but should improve as time goes on.

There is little for people to complain about to be quite honest. People have call launch titles 'tech demos' on pretty much all of the consoles released in the last 2 generations to one degree or another. People call the Wii gimmicky, but if it was a gimmick, sales would've dropped long ago. People call the Wii Remote gimmicky or games that support the Wii Remote have tacked on controls, but I wonder if people have actually played any games on the Wii sometimes.

Every man and his dog knows Wii Fit will sell like hot cakes, but it would be wrong to assume that their focus has shifted entirely to making casual games, At the moment there is a good mix of both, as it should be. That Sony and moreover Microsoft are attempting to follow in Nintendo's footsteps is no bad thing in my view. If people can still enjoy games with decent storylines and many hours of deep gameplay, then they should sneer when others buy consoles and don't have time to play such games. After all, that's where the money lies and in theory the more people buy games and consoles then the more support the industry will have, internally and externally.

Whilst Tyler Bleszinski makes valid points, one can't help but feel that he's a bit behind the times. As good as Gears Of War was, it didn't really introduce new players, did it? Part of me feels if it was up to him, we'd be playing on the Playstation 4 and the 3rd Xbox console with exactly the same titles and genres, with the only advance being the visuals, not innovation, gameplay or fousing on making the games more fun. I'm not biased particularly towards Nintendo (I have a PS2, a 360 and a Wii), but in the same breath I feel that the industry needs a Nintendo if it is to truly stand alongside TV, films, books and other entertainment media without snobbery from said industries. As I said before, no-one should delude themselves into thinking Nintendo has abandoned the hardcore, but at the end of the day they need to be profitable: that is their main concern, not kowtowing to the demands of all and sundry. The games are coming and will continue to do so.

*I actually hate the use of the term 'intellectual property' in this way; hypocritically on any gaming forum or blogsite you go on, people clamor for original titles but at the same time either don't support them on release or come to expect too much of them.

Edited July 16, 2007 by Spee

[KevinStorm]

Are you kididng me? There's been stacks. If it's not the endless demo videos playing in game shops or shopping centres(playable demo machines are never going t happen are they? Too easy to steal the remotes) with the hot teen girls playing Wario Ware, there's the Brain Trianing ads with the family dissing their dad (admittedly, that's DS, but still). Nintnedo's been shooting at non-conventional gamers for a while now.

[The Mask of Norro]

The thing is though, that the Wii still can operate with the Gamecube controllers. If Nintendo is willing to open up to developers unwilling to work with designing a game to handle the Wiimote, and instead allow them to focus on the Gamecube controller's style-- hell, even have a Wii-styled controller based off of it-- it'll help make porting games to the Wii much easier.

Either way, Nintendo isn't even worried about Sony and Microsoft anymore: right now, they're focused on making money and pleasing their fans/making new ones. They're doing a hell of a job with that: after all, last gen, who would have thought that the two consoles leading the industry would be by Microsoft and Nintendo, and that Sony would be doing so terribly due to poor business decisions?

The industry needs a console like the Wii right now-- we've fallen into a trend with video games ever since the Playstation came out, and while the consoles that followed it really did innovate things, everything stayed the same for the most part. There's never truly been a 'new' feel to things, and now there is.

It's an experiment, and thus far, it's been an experiment that's worked wonders.

[DMN in the House]

I wouldn't worry too much. Madden, NCAA, Metal Gear, Final Fantasy, GTA, games like that, they won't go anywhere.

[Vilge Duin]

What a pretentious jackass. The gist of that entire 'blog' from "Cliffyb"s older brother is "Oh no, the Wii is bringing in different game players than me, and its making money! Other companies might follow this trend and all my oodles and oodles of 'hardcore' games may suffer! Make that granny buying Cooking Mama go away because it makes it uncool to play games anymore!"

The Wii is a tremendous idea for games. I'm glad it's around, and it's selling for a reason. As Norris alluded to a bit, games have somewhat got into a same-old same-old rut. Honestly, look at E3 this year. Do we seriously fucking need that many first person shooters? Just casually watching G4's coverage of it I spotted a plethora of them (Halo 3, Killzone 2, Crysis, Haze, Call of Duty 4, Unreal Tournament, Medal of Honour: Airborne, Half-Life 2: The Orange Box, Area 51 and to lesser extents Metroid Prime 3 and Bioshock - being the 2 of them are more adventure). And the same goes for other genres. Industry heads and developers have even come forth saying the very same thing. There isn't much of a push forth for actual innovation or improvement any more. Why bother? Upgrade the game a bit, make better graphics and possibly add a new feature or two. Bang, new game.

And that is effectively what the "hardcore" game player latches on to. Do these games appeal to everyone? No, but of course they do appeal to people. But will plenty of people who have played games and those who haven't pick up Rayman Raving Rabbids and have fun? Absolutely. And that is all Nintendo and other companies are doing. Broadening their game portfolio to include non-traditional games. The traditional typical games are still there and always will be.

I also get mildly irritated at the constant referrals to Wii Play and Wii Sports. Did you pay a premium price for them? No. Wii Sports is a pack in with the system and thus free. Wii Play is sold with a remote and thus effectively $10-$15 in cost itself, which is a fair value. These games are not what Nintendo is mounting their business on. They literally are tech demos pretty much, and are not meant to compare with the Gears of War and Assassins Creeds of the world. That is precisely why they come with something, be it a remote or the system itself. Talking about Wii Sports is the equivalent of going on about the Hexic game every Xbox has on its harddrive. You don't compare Hexic as an idea of what the Xbox 360 is about against Twilight Princess or Super Paper Mario do you?

I also find it inherently presumptuous to say that just because a game is not "jaw droppingly stunning" and "awesome looking" it is not 'deep'. Case in point, using his brother's so called love child... Is Gears of War, looking beyond graphics, that much better or 'deeper' than Katamari Damacy? Ah screw that... Tetris beats most shooters to this very day just because it's Tetris.

Not every game has to be dreadfully serious, with explosions and/or a mucho premium on blood and guts. Which is sadly all that the "hardcore gamer" seemingly want.

Is the Wii's library full of ports and rush jobs? You bet your ass it is. As is most game library's the first 9 or so months. What did the 360 have over the Wii in the same time period last year? Not much. Games originally developed for other systems (in the case of Kameo... 3 other systems), a handful of sequels (Elder Scrolls, Tom Clancy shit) and a multitude of multi-platform games and ports. It has thus come into its own with plenty of great games to play. People need to give the Wii a chance first.

Besides... what exactly does the PS3 have right now? Motorstorm? A game that needed to have its time attack mode released over the Internet months after release. Resistance? Yes ANOTHER first person shooter. Then you have shovel-ware, ports and multi-platform titles. Yes, a lot of people are looking ahead to see some likely great games. Lair, Ratchet & Clank, Drake's Fortune, etc. from Sony, along with the exact same third party software Microsoft will have. And meanwhile people may look forward to that, others are awaiting Mario Galaxy, Smash Brothers, Metroid Prime 3, Battalion Wars II, Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles, NiGHTS, etc. And sure, many people will likely play Wii Fit. Will I? Probably not. Does it cause me any harm or bother me that other people will? Nope, what's the point?

And besides... At the end of the day, and this is a simple concept, don't play the Wii or any of its games if you don't want. Also, don't look down on and condemn people because they may enjoy those games. You should be happy, regardless of how it occurs, an industry you enjoy is getting support. Which when all is said and done, is simply what matters.

There is room for every style of game and game player. Look at the music industry. You don't like rap? Listen to country. Don't like that? Listen to progressive rock. Or anything else you want. And the same goes for the movie industry. Don't like big summer blockbuster action films? Go watch a little romantic comedy. Maybe Disney/Pixar's latest animated fare doesn't appease you right, then head over and check out Hostel.

Different strokes for different folks. Apples and oranges. Pick your poison.

Edited July 16, 2007 by Vilge Duin

[Robsturgh]

I'm not entirely sure where this idea that "hardcore" gaming will end is coming from. So the Wii is selling a lot, right? And customers who are NEW to the gaming industry are moving into it? This means that the current "hardcore" fanbase won't shrink due to it, in fact it could grow by a bit if people enjoy the more in depth Wii games. The Wii is doing nothing but good for the gaming industry and definatly won't cause the end of Halo/GoW/Final Fantasy style games to be made. Maybe more child-like games will be made? This will only be to compensate for the new influx of gamers, not because all the current crop of gamers are deciding that Cooking Mama is a good replacement for Mass Effect.

All in all? Its a bunch of paranoid crap.

[Herr Matzat]

First of all, hardcore gaming has been long dead. People that call themselves hardcore are merely graphic whores that mark out for names that got great public attention ore are just licensed right away. People would play with dog shit if the marketing dos it right.

Look at RPGs these days, it barley takes over 20 hour’s to beat most – 40 is an extreme, (people that keep playing them forever to get that one extra weapon are NOT the majority), where are the 60… 70… heck sometimes even 100 Hour story’s? They died because people don’t have the times and prefer “kick ass” 3d GFX above easily don beautifully 24 Bit GFX. That’s why Blue Ray PS3 Games are shorter than Super NES games.

Look at it, besides MMORPGS what’s there? Games like unlimited Saga or Grandia Extreme were you really need to be hardcore to even get what is great about it, what to people do? Bitch about them.

Besides all of this that I laugh at his fear that he might not be able to sit in front of his TV all day long in the future because all that is around are cooking games and Ping Pong. First of all that’s not going to happen and second of all he NEEDs to get a life badly.

[The Kraig]

I believe my thoughts can be summed up in one word: lawl.

[zero]

I truly hate the concept of "hardcore gaming." People who label themselves as "true gamers" and shit like that are actually nerds who don't want anyone else to be able to share the fun. Play any ranked game on Xbox Live and tell me that's not true, it's all just a bunch of dorks saying shit like "STUPID NEWBS! LOLZZZZZZZZZ!" Shut the fuck up and get a job that doesn't require the least amount of work possible so you can keep paying for your Gold Subscription and a lifetime supply of Doritos you basement-dwelling chode.

He's mainly worried about these party type games becoming big time sellers which leads to a large portion of the game development community to make games similar and leave deeper games on the backburner.

Which isn't very logical. If anything, these games bringing in a wider audience just means that the industry will grow. If publishers are raking in huge profits, they're going to need to expand their development teams to make more games to appeal to all demographics. The casual video game player still plays the games that the so-called "hardcore gamers" do, that's why games like GTA, Final Fantasy, Madden, Halo, Zelda and Metal Gear top the sales charts, because many people play them. But now there's also a growing market for games like Wii Sports, Guitar Hero, Cooking Mama, etc. If companies get big profits from those as well, then they have expendable cash to gamble on an untested original IP.

When game sales are in a slump, you're not going to see games like Ico, Okami, Viva Pinata or Psyhonauts - you're going to get rehash after rehash after rehash - because that's what is safe and guaranteed to turn a profit. But when games are doing very well, like they are now, you're going to see many releases that cover a broad spectrum of players and I don't see how that can be looked at as bad at all.

"Hardcores" need to loosen the fuck up and get over their insecurities and allow other people to play. Newsflash: video games are not a secret society that requires a 20,000+ Gamerscore to get into.

Edited July 16, 2007 by Zero