Nintendo and the Decline of Hardcore Gaming

[wraggster]

Chris Jager from GoodGearGuide argues that the rise of casual gaming means near-certain death for hardcore gaming. The sales of casual 'party-friendly' games are massively outstripping the sales of classic hardcore games, and the makers of other consoles are taking note of Nintendo's success in attracting non-traditional gamers to the Wii and DS. There is evidence that Sony and Microsoft are both trying to tap into the casual market, and it's only a matter of time before hardcore gaming goes the way of the Nintendo PowerGlove."
Of course, the trend toward casual doesn't just involve Nintendo — World of Warcraft's success (and the huge effect it's had on the MMO genre) is often credited to its focus on casual gamers. While it's not unreasonable for game studios to want all players to see all of the game's content, perhaps there's a better way of catering to the more hardcore players than tacking on difficulty modes and "do it the hard way" achievements.

http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl.../04/24/0524216

[The Alpha Gamer]

Hardcore gaming died the day the Wii came out.

[LDAsh]

Could be that "hardcore gamers" just don't have enough variety these days. It's up to developers to be brave enough to fully commit to one type of game, instead of always spreading themselves too thin. If people walk into a store and see nothing but minigame-compilations on the shelf, then of course that's what will sell. It's a vicious cycle but it only takes a couple of great titles to break it.

[policrat]

Hardcore gaming died the day the Wii came out.

No it had a short lift (potential etc.), and then died shortly after.

[The Alpha Gamer]

The problem is the games themselves. i can't remember the last time i had a game that took me longer than 3 days to complete

[Darksaviour69]

casual gamers may out number hardcore, but hardcore gamers buy far more games (one reason why 3rd party games don't do as well on the Wii as they do on the xbox and ps3)