by ZeroAerey25 . on Jan 22, 2008
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.