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I'm Hardcore-Part four
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To conclude, I’d like to mention that Wii Play has sold 11 million copies since February 2007 (and still stays on the charts to this day). Wii Fit, another casual experiment for Nintendo, has sold more than three million copies since May. Carnival Games, a rather adequate collection of mini-games for the Wii, has sold over a million copies. It seems like casual market is booming for consoles gamers (but it’s even bigger on the handheld market). Does this mean the hardcore games are going the way of the dinosaur?
No. Gears of War 2, Dead Space, Animal Crossing: City Speak, Street Fighter IV, and Resident Evil 5 are small sample of the hardcore games that are coming out. The hardcore market will always be catered to…it just won’t be the only market. “As with any form of business true growth comes from expanding the appeal of the product to new and broader audiences,” said John Davison, president of What They Like,Inc.,” That doesn't mean that the core can't continue to be catered to but broadening to more casual players enables companies to continue to grow the audience while still staying true to those who got them there.”
Besides, there are many games out right now that take some hardcore skill (very complicated button pressing in a short amount of time) that have wide mainstream appeal. Anybody heard of a game called Guitar Hero? There was one time when my sister, niece, nephew, and mom were playing Soul Calibur II. That’s right, a fighting game, a great one at that, was being played four different generations of people. And make no mistake, for any fighting game to be a great game, it has to have some killer controls, controls that would go more than a simple button pressing and controller movement. So, it was bittersweet to see my mom pull off a Guard Impact and beat me using Astaroth.
The thing about fighting games: they’re about as hardcore as it gets. And now the genre has evolved into something everyone can enjoy, thanks to hardcore gamers. “as with any form of entertainment the hardcore typically drives its growth and maturation,” said Davison. And it isn’t just fighting games. First-person shooter, usually excelling in realm of computers only, has been big business for Xbox 360. Role-playing games, typically dominated and defined by Final Fantasy, has growing in popularity due to overwhelming success of World of Warcraft. “As such, the popularity of the medium has
resulted in a gradual broadening of the scope of video games to a point where there's now something for pretty much everyone; whether it's hardcore-focused online shooters, nurturing games, language
games, adventures, racing games, and anything else you can think of,” said Davison.
Even though we’ll be seeing more hardcore games in the future, don’t just expect to see them all the time. “Creating games that sustain sales over the long term is going to be essential to the growth of the industry,” said Shigeru Miyamoto in a 2008 article in Electronic Gaming Monthly. So, while games like Metal Gear Solid, Madden, and Gears of War 2, will have huge midnight launches and record-breaking sales in its first week of release; don’t be surprised if something like Wii Music is still near the top of the charts in February 2009. And one more important note about hardcore games isn’t the money factor, it’s the time: many of these big games have had long, lengthy development times. Twilight Princess? It took over two years and major delay. Halo 3? It was being worked on before Halo 2 was even released in 2004. Grand Theft Auto IV? It took nearly four years to develop.
So, while the industry is enjoying the record sales and the developers should be applauded for the great efforts, hardcore gamers should accept and enjoy that many publishers are trying to go a new route and create new experiences for other people. So while you’re enjoying Mario on the Wii, your parents could be enjoying Brain Training on the DS. When more people are playing games, then more people are buying games. And everyone benefits from that.
Bonus Feature: The state of the hardcore game (console style!):
Going from console to console, let’s look at how the healthy being a hardcore gamer is.
Wii: Probably the basis of this entire series, the Wii has been becoming a juggernaut in a short amount of time, selling nearly 30 million units worldwide and having a diverse library. While it has had the usual list of Nintendo franchises (Zelda, Metroid, Mario…but no Star Fox?!?), Nintendo has also brought Wii Play, Wii Fit, and Big Brain Academy to the system. But, if you ever visit a game store, the Wii shelf has been filled with a bunch of shovelware. But, with games such as No More Heroes (yes, I will still mention this game), Boom Blox, Blast Works: Build, Trade, and Destory, Medal of Honor Heroes 2 (the Wii’s only online multiplayer FPS) and the very excellent Virtual Console lineup(even if online play really blows), hardcore gamers can find a lot to play on the Wii…if they look hard enough. Health status: Good
Xbox 360: The current king of the hardcore, Microsoft’s game box offers some of the best in first-person shooters (Call of Duty 4, Halo 3, Bioshock), third-person action (Gears of War, Grand Theft Auto IV, Assasin’s Creed), and fighting games (Virtua Fighter 4, Soulcalibur IV) and sports (Madden, NBA 2K). With the best online offering of all three consoles, the online multiplayer and achievements have added a pseudo-arcade like gathering where gamers can come together to compete to be the best gamer. My only problem: why is nearly every game tailored to someone who came out of action movie marathon? Nearly every best-seller is based around shooting something. Health status: really good.
Playstation 3: You can take some of the best sellers on the Xbox 360 and find them on Sony’s black monolith. Grand Theft Auto IV, Call of Duty 4, and Madden series can be found on the 360 as well. But, the PS3’s got an edge when it comes to exclusives: Metal Gear Solid 4, Ratchet & Clank: Tools of Destruction, Uncharted, and Gran Turismo 5: Prologue have sold great for the system even if the system can’t sell well yet. Health status: pretty good.
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