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An Older Demographic May Soon Dominate Gaming

Posted by Zonk on from the say-goodbye-to-the-hardcore- dept.

Reservoir Hill writes "An article from last week runs down the new mass audience for gaming among families, women and older people. The importance of the mass audience in gaming's spectacular growth is seen most clearly in the success of Nintendo's Wii, which is far outselling its more technically advanced hardware competitors, the Xbox 360 from Microsoft and PlayStation 3 from Sony. Wii Play was the No. 2-selling game of last year even though it received an abysmal score of 58 out of 100 at Metacritic, which aggregates reviews. The Times says that as video games become more popular hard-core gamers are becoming an ever smaller part of the audience. 'Paradoxically, at a moment when technology allows designers to create ever more complex and realistic single-player fantasies, the growth in the now $18 billion gaming market is in simple, user-friendly experiences that families and friends can enjoy together.'"

4 of 234 comments (clear)

  1. The reason is simple by brunes69 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If you've ever played Wario Ware or Mario Party with a bunch of friends while half drunk, you know how fun it can be.

    Games don't have to have top of the line graphics to be fun. Nintendo got it right with the Wii.

    1. Re:The reason is simple by iainl · · Score: 5, Insightful

      So's SingStar, so is Trivial Pursuit and so is Fluxx. So are a hell of a lot of other games, assuming they're any good whatsoever.

      Actually, getting drunk with friends is fun even without access to a games console of any kind. It's not the game that is great, but the friends.

      --
      "I Know You Are But What Am I?"
  2. Wii play might suck by Altus · · Score: 5, Insightful


    But its only 10 bucks. Face it, you were going to get the second controller anyway, why not spend 10 bucks and get a handful of mini games out of it too.

    --

    "In America, first you get the sugar, then you get the power, then you get the women..." -H. Simpson

  3. The reason Wii Play sold so well... by mattgoldey · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Wii Play sold so well because it costs about the same as a Wii Remote and it comes with a Wii Remote, so you basically got the game for free. Many people bought Wii Play the same day they bought their Wii console.