Can we panic now? — Core gaming has a problem

The risks of core gaming are rising, while the successes of mobile, social and online games are on the rise.

[gamernova]

People are buying pads and smartphones because they already have computers and consoles. When new consoles comes out, the numbers will favor consoles. These devices are coming out every year and consoles are like every 6-8 years.

[CommonSenseGamer]

Mobile and tablet devices also appeal to a much wider audience than consoles or gaming pcs.

[SilentNegotiator]

But aren't a threat. This generation outsold the last in hardware already.

[Chitown71291]

If anything tablets are a SLIGHT threat to the Labtop market. I think Tablet aren't taking over any market to be honest. They have they're own place....

[caseh]

Tired of seeing these articles.

It's simply because everyone has a phone or tablet these days which means a bigger audience to sell to. There's f*ck all thats 'core' about it, their product (games, apps whatever) is simply visible to a larger demographic.

People buy consoles to PLAY GAMES, its the hardwares primary purpose. Yeah I can watch movies on it etc but its not going to stop me from using my phone to watch random videos on Youtube blah blah blaaaaaah!

[arbitor365]

- IOS gaming
- tablet gaming
- kinect gaming
- shovelware
- facebook/social gaming

all of these things produce virtually zero hardcore content. and yet, combined, they probably add up to over half the gaming industry today. none of us should be happy about this.

[yabhero]

I agree mostly, hiw ever there are a few iOS gens like Modern Combat 3 and the Infinity Blade series. Also N.O.V.A an Shadowgum. All ther on the iPad of course. Other than that I agree.

[humbleopinion]

This doesn't matter as long as the core industry is still getting bigger. The share of the core in the pie is smaller just because the pie itself got much bigger over time. Core consoles games still represent over 50% of the market spending.

Not to mention that Venturebeat couldn't come up with worse examples: They are actually attributing the failures of casual crap like UDraw Studio and merchandized movie tie-in like Thor: God of Thunder to core gaming!? Somebody needs a reality check...

[BitbyDeath]

Has about the same amount of threat as taking away people from watching shows on TV.

Some people will watch TV on mobile devices but most will still go to the devices that it is made for to get a proper fix.

[TotalEklypz]

Just like home consoles killed the arcade scene. I remember pumping quarters in Mortal Kombat, Killer Instinct, Street Fighter playing against random people face to face. Now it's all online. It just came down to home consoles getting powerful enough. Soon handhelds will be as powerful as Nintendo Wii.

[BertlSenix]

The only problem Core Gaming has are those stupid noobs that still buy 20 Million Units of Call of Duty and tons of 360s.

Let Sony handle the stuff and we are back to awesome days.

But in the end stop complaining.
Everyone who supported Call of Duty and Xbox360 is the reason why gaming is heading this way.
There is no market anymore besides this crap - All those people want 2489 Call of Duty Games per year and ignore everything else.
Uncharted?HEavy Rain?LOL GAAAY
Bald Space Marine Adventures 23897623?AWESOME USA USA USA!

This is sadly how this looks these days.
As long as this isn't changing we will walk this way and can't do anything about it.

[asmith2306]

^This^ If anything is a threat to core gaming its the industries obessions with pumping out updated core franchises year in, year out. Innovation generally gets shafted in the gaming industry. Add that to the industry mentality that the 'best' games are synonymous with the 'best' graphics and you have games that need multi-million dollar budgets. Thats why I am sick of PC devs such as Crytek rambling on about consoles lack of graphical capability compared to PC (which is stating the obvious anyway!!). It isn't all about graphics boys and girls! I want fresh experiences with the next gen of consoles. For me graphics are at a great level already. I don't know if you played Hydrophobia but the water physics in that game were mind blowing. I want more effort in things like that.

[Kahvipannu]

Hmmm, Your comment doesn't make much sense, except the fact CoD is ripping of the consumers who are stupid enough to support it's annual releases.

Rest has nothing content, How exactly is Sony going to save the day? And what USA or Xbox having nothing to do with this? And what do you have against Space Marines? WH40K is pretty damn awesome universe.

[Kahvipannu]

Nah, core gaming is doing well. Some "casual" platforms and games will not change that.

[ladydias]

No, the reason why the gaming industry is dying is the same reason why the movie industry is dying, GREED. Each of the big three have their flaws and their perks but to make a blanket statement that somehow gaming has been destroyed just because the 360 exists is silly. You do realize that Sony has stolen quite a number of features from the 360, right? Also, the Xbox was the first console to truly compete with the Playstation and that is what forced Sony to step up their game, otherwise they would have just coasted on being the "RPG system" for all of eternity and would have stagnated (and yes,there are long-running RPG series that are every bit as trite as Call of Duty).

If you really want to know what gave Microsoft a huge advantage this time around on consoles, though, it's how they treat their partners. Sony could get away with being high-handed when they were the only ones catering to their specific audience and the original Xbox was nothing more than a novelty but they underestimated Microsoft because they thought the 360 couldn't possibly compete with them. Hence, while Microsoft put together nice little dev kits that were translated into the individual languages of the companies they wanted to have make games for them and with a programming language that was relatively easy to learn, Sony did the opposite. Sony basically threw dev kits at their developers that were all in Japanese, no effort was made to make it easier on them to figure out how to make games for the PS3, and let's not forget that they now had to learn how to program for Sony's brand new proprietary cell system. So the companies had to spend money on translators and learning a radically new system of game programming. And before you start holding up all of Sony's exclusives as proof of how awesome they are, do remember that Sony bought a lot of those.

Anyways, it'll be interesting to see what happens with the next round of consoles. I hope they all do well but only time will tell.