Games Industry And Gamers Getting Older

The Guardian Gamesblog has an interesting piece wondering outloud about the greying of the gaming population. Both the people who make the games and the people who play the games are increasingly older, far from the targetted 15-year-old male in typical gaming marketing. From the article: "Not only does this [marketing] policy cost the industry over 50% of its potential market on gender terms alone, but in a few years time, it's also going to cut out a huge audience on the age side of things too. I wonder, are forward-thinking publishers already having brain-storming sessions in order to address the challenge of the grey gamer? Wired.com ran an article this week on how the ageing population in Japan is bringing about some major cultural changes. Have Namco, Nintendo, Capcom and Konami et al caught the zeitgeist?"

Comments

Just make good games...

[Winterblink]

Call me strange, but I don't care what age group a game is targeted for, as long as it's a good game then it will be worth buying. I've got games that run the entire spectrum of ratings and subject matters in my colletion.

This was MS's problem...

[BTWR]

I think MS going after the male teenage demo is a model destined to fail. You see, like the WB network going after teens, it works initially (Dawson's Creek, etc) become very popular. But, like teenagers always do, they are very disloyal to a trend. One day, it's super popular, and the next, it's totally loser-like (I was 18 when Dawson's Creek came out, and EVERYONE in my dorm watched. 3 years later, you got snickers if you mentioned it). Same with XBox. The 15 year-old demo loved it, and bought millions of consoles and games. But, in 5 years, these 22 year-olds won't want to be seen playing the same thing as 15 year-olds. There won't be any "nostalgia" for Dead or Alive volleyball

On the other hand, 25 year olds today DO want to relive Zelda, Mario and Metroid from their youths. Nintendo survives on players desire to buy the newest incarnation of their favorite games (take one look at a Nintendo Board. Before the new zelda is even out, everyone is salivating for it for 2 years now). True, we may not touch Pokemon games, but that's Nintendo's brilliant strategy. They're already seeding tomorrow's nostalgia game. In 15 years, today's 8 year-olds will have disposable income, and will want to relive (albeit, a more mature version) of the series they loved as a child.

I simply don't see this happening with XBox titles.

Of course...

[Sierpinski]

Of course the gaming community is getting older. How many of those "targetted 15 year-olds" could afford to pay $300-$400+ for a new console system, or $1k+ for a new PC system to play games? Back while I was playing Sword of Fargoal on my Commodore-64, yeah I was probably in that demographic, however I have taken my desire to play games through my years and now I'm twice that age with the same desire. You know what the ladies always say... Boys will be boys, they just get more and more expensive toys as they grow up.

My parents bought me my first NES for maybe $40 if I remember correctly. Super Mario Brothers (this pre-dated the free Duck-Hunt addition) then soon afterward, Excitebike and Double Dribble. I got older, the systems got more advanced and more expensive. Give the next generation (like my children) some time to grow up and I bet you'll see an explosion of the gaming community. Kid sees Dad play WoW, Kid gets older, Kid plays WoW, Kid PKs Dad, Kid gets grounded, Dad ravages Kid's account for spare gold for epic mount, Kid disowns Dad, Dad sells Kid's account on eBay for $200 (used to by WoW gold for afore-mentioned epic mount). Kid runs away at age 16.

Maybe I should stop letting my kid watch me play WoW. I don't want them to run away!

Re:Yeah, but

[Anonymous Coward]

You seem to be from the "A.D.D. type" gamer generation that grew up with the PSX, despite your age suggesting otherwise. This article isn't about you. You act too young to be "older". Me, I grew up with the NES and SNES, and I act accordingly. That puts me on the young side of "older". The truly "older" ones grew up with the Atari, Colecovision, etc, and aren't ashamed of it.

Until the SNES and Genesis era, mainstream games never focused on being "mature". And the technology was restrictive enough that they couldn't be very realistic, either. Even during that 16-bit era, only a few games dared to push the "mature" envelope. It was simply understood that games were games, and to label one as "mature" and another as "kiddy" was absolutely pointless and stupid.

Until the PSX era, it was understood that a video game system was just an appliance at best, and more like a toy or media player (VCR, DVD player, etc.). As such, the price of a system should be low, while the games should cost comparitively more. Think toaster vs. bread. A toaster could be $20, while bread can be as much as $5 if you get the "good" kind. But in the PSX era, the system itself became a status symbol. Two kids could be talking about games, one of them says, "I have a Playstation," (cool) and the other one says, "I have a Nintendo 64." (uncool) They'd argue for a few minutes about technical specs and FMV and media format and such, then one of them would throw out the Godwin-nazi-argument of system comparisons: "I paid more for mine than you did for yours. Mine *has* to be better." Thus the birth of the age of games as a status symbol was born.

Your comments about Zelda betray your "mature" vs. "kiddy" view of games (based soley on their graphics!), and your comments about the PSP being more "adult-centric" because it costs more belie your games-as-status-symbol fetish. You may be in your "early 30's", but you have the immature mindset of a teenager that purchases things based on how "cool" they make you look.

Personally, I'm 26, a former "enthusiast" gamer (now I'm classified as a "casual" gamer from what I can tell), and I found Zelda:TWW to be more of a variation of artistic expression than being "made for kids". I've also found the DS to be a *very* cool little device. It has new, interesting, fun games, and a lot of potential for more. The PSP has none of that, but has a very nice display. For my money, guess which one I picked... This is what happens when you look beyond the opinionated hype of uninformed teenagers that want to look cool - you get products that are well-designed and fun.

The problem is that the money is where the hype is. Hype allows you to both sell more of your product and keep the prices high. It artificially inflates demand based on opinion, conjecture, and unfounded facts spread by word-of-mouth. The best way to tap into this gossip machine is to sell it to an easily-influenced, well-connected (socially) teen. Bam! Instant demand, higher profit. I can't say that I blame the developers. They want money, and they're probably so bored and burnt-out by games that they never want to play one ever again.