Hardcore to Be Pushed Aside This Console Generation?

Gamasutra asks questions directly of analysts on a semi-regular basis, in a feature they call 'Analyze This'. This week they quiz analysts about the rising influence of casual players, and what this means for the dedicated hardcore gamer. The ubiquitous Michael Pachter: "I think some portion of family growth will come from aging of original Xbox owners, who will have families of their own and will likely play games with their children. I also think that newer features on the Elite, like the 80GB hard drive, will encourage more family activities, like downloading TV shows and movies. In essence, I don't see [Microsoft] trying to cannibalize the Wii audience, so much as to trying to offer an alternative with the Xbox 360 as the home media center. I don't think that there is any real threat to the long-term survival of the Xbox 360."

Comments

Re:A few thoughts

[dlZ]

But that's the way it's always been! 5 years is the standard video game generation, and Microsoft's and Sony's recent attempts to shorten that should only invite contempt. I'll also throw out there that calling XBox 2 the "360" as a way to try to capture the PS3's name and try to convince gamers that it really is part of the same generation is nothing but marketing bullshit, in the same way that Macromedia never release a version 6 of Freehand to try to leap Illustrator's version number.>

Even though it's always been like that, more often than not the parents purchasing the systems weren't playing them (not always the case, I used to have to fight with my mom to get the TV to play any of our game systems, even back to the Atari 2600.) They feel ripped off because they don't see any advantage to the new system for themselves, but they see the hefty price tag.

And of course it's all marketing, everyone wants to be number one in the game. But don't forget that a lot of people fall for that marketing bullshit. I had a client telling me they only want to use Internet Explorer 7 because it's 5 higher than Firefox, and this was just the other day. I was flabbergasted at the logic, but at the same time I understood where he was coming from. He doesn't have a proper understanding of the software, and thinks that the web browser is the Internet (and that email is something completely different, which is always fun to explain why it isn't working when their Internet goes down.) Marketing names like the 360 are meant for people like that. I had to bite my tongue with the client and not tell them to get Opera because it's 2 higher than IE, instead I explained that the version numbers don't necessarily mean it's a better browser because it's higher. I felt like I was in Spinal Tap (but it goes to 11!)