That's me, you, and everyone else reading this website.
In this Gamasutra opinion piece, Raph Koster argues that the future is grim for core gamers and that we'll be seeing a slow shift to far more casual titles.
As I have spent the last couple of years yelling loudly that the game industry (despite record years) is actually in dire trouble in a business sense (not just creatively), I have repeatedly run into one comment from core gamers. You see, I keep saying that the rising landscape has a lot more lower-budget, asynchronous, low time investment, web-based games. And the response is usually:
But the landscape you are describing doesnt sound like games I would like.
And that is absolutely right. I dont know what happens to the core gamer in that scenario. Maybe sometimes, they are made very happy by a title like Rock Band, which frankly isnt designed for them, but which epitomizes many of the characteristics I have been talking about (including the microtransaction business model 2.5 million songs sold!).
Continue reading the piece at Gamasutra and then tell us what you think.
