EEDAR: Blame low industry sales on casual gamers

Well, truth be known, console gamers are the real core gamers. Why? Because most of us can't or don't pirate games, so we contribute to sales. Piracy is so bad on the PC that developers are lucky to make their dev costs back. Every game MUST be a big hit, so that kills all the risk-taking that keeps gaming fresh.

Steam is a great example of how to do it right, but some people still enjoy having a hard copy of something they paid money for so they can sell or trade it later. Not coincidentally, I see more fresh titles on Steam than at retail.

Wii owners...well...they don't really contribute much more than profits for Nintendo. Third parties can easily spam a hastily-made game and cash in on sheer numbers alone however. Even if your title only sells to 1% of Wii gamers, assuming there are 50 million Wii's in the wild, you get a tidy 50 million dollars, not adjusting for publishing, distribution, etc. This is why companies like EA and Activision are willing to take chances, because even though it's a gamble (madworld's sales numbers say hi), it's a lucrative gamble if it's a hit. BUT, and this is the catch, Wii owners have one of the lowest attach rates in the industry once you subtract first-party titles.

So, everyone listed contributes to gaming in some form or another, but consoles sell the most games, are the most secure for publishers (minus the Xbox but MS is cracking down...somewhat), and are all standard platforms that are easier to develop for than a PC with umpteen million variables that could break the game.

Awesome post.
Surprisingly though, my game library is really quite varied this generation.

You said it. How many other games lose shelf space to those peripheral games? I wonder if publishers even realize for every guitar hero on the shelf, there's at least a dozen other games that consumers won't see.

And they try to inundate casual gamers as they do core gamers; If one game sells good, like CoD for us or wii fit for them, they try to shove 5 more versions down their throat. The difference is core gamers will buy CoD over and over, but casual gamers inherently will not. Maybe if they made better games to hook casuals into becoming core?

I think perhaps that gamers, 'core and casual gamers alike, are maturing as gamers. For me personally, I've always been a sucker to get over-excited by games, but over time (it's taken approx 25 years), i've learnt that alot of games don't live up to their hype and my expectations. I've learnt that I don't need to spend good money on a game that is only slightly better than other iterations. I've learnt that if I wait, the game will significantly drop in price within a few months of release. I've learnt that nowadays I hardly have the time to spend on my existing games, let alone the new ones. I've learnt that just because reviewers like games doesn't mean that I will. I've learnt that Mario does not equal guaranteed fun. From this, I think alot of us are becoming more discerning as gamers and are able to better identify games that we will connect with better, and thereby don't buy as much fluff.

Mario Kart Wii and Super Smash Brother Brawl had plenty of control options, and most non-sports nintendo games only have minor use of the motion controls.

"Oh No! I have to barely shake my controller instead of hitting a button!"

When these people talk increases, they look at he previous year even if that previous month was unusually amazing. Last year the Wii sold a lot, and in the investment world, they always try to match the same sales year after year, no matter how outlandish the sales goal. The huge sales of the Wii inflated the numbers for the last 2 years so the industry shows major growth, there became more investors who thought the Wii could keep being their cash cow. But that the Wii's sales couldn't be sustained for 3 years it makes the whole industry look like it's struggling much more than it really is.

Yet the PS3 and 360, who have a consistent user base are buying more, but not enough to offset the loss the Wii sales declined from last year.

In reality, after a console is saturated into the market enough, then sales will decline. The only way a company can sustain sales after too much saturation is to either lower the price to reach those people holding out (like they did not to long ago) or sell multiple consoles to the die hard Wii lovers, but what incentive does Nintendo give to own multiple Wii's. There is no upgraded Wii with new features.

The PS3 doubles as a Blu-Ray player as well as game console, so it makes more since that a person would have 2 in a family household, one for the main TV and one as a game console. Sony can sell two to each family. Xbox doubles as a DVD player and game console and is such a low price that a family could own several of these and it makes since.

Looks like Nintendo wasn't prepared for this much success and didn't really have a long term plan. Sony and Microsoft are always looking toward the long terms, and because of that, they don't blow their load to quick and have the girl kick them out the bed in search of a bigger better console that would satisfy better.