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Games Industry And Gamers Getting Older

Posted by Zonk on from the we're-not-all-fifteen-anymore dept.

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?"

1 of 37 comments (clear)

  1. This was MS's problem... by BTWR · · Score: 5, Insightful
    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.