Death of hardcore gaming?????

[The Wolf 07]

The Death of Hardcore Gaming
The passing of an era, for better and for worse.
By David Clayman and Michael Thomsen
June 13, 2008 - The past few weeks have contained some momentous events for gaming. Toronobu Itagaki left his long time home at Tecmo over a payment dispute bringing an end to his work on classic franchises like Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive. Meanwhile Hideo Kojima sent Snake off into the sunset with Metal Gear Solid 4, his swan song and what is believed to be the last true game in the series. Both of these Japanese developers have been mainstays in the industry almost since its inception, always ready to deliver the next installment to their loyal, and sometimes crazed fan base. Their creations haven't declined in popularity, but they have failed to make a connection with non-gamers. The truth is black and white, the new mass market approach to gaming has no place for the hard core developer or their patrons.

This is the opening to a article published on IGN that i saw while i was surfing their site. ( couldn’t show you the rest because I don’t subscribe to the site )

So what the heck, i get what there saying but is this the end of hardcore games???? The author has a point, because if there ever was a Ninja Gaiden 3 I am almost positive I would not play it because Toronobu Itagaki wouldn’t be making it.

Thing is these guys could make these hardcore games because of the fact that they had a huge cult fan base following. Can any new comers step up to the plate and take the risk of making a hardcore game anymore?

[OG_Monkey]

What IS a hardcore game first of all? Fucking hard ass difficulty or just a good ass game? Because there are still many games out and coming that are indeed both.

[frosty]

The whole concept is flawed. Even the opening statements in that quoted paragraph are. While Kojima is saying this is the end of Metal Gear SOLID... he never once even hinted that this is the last metal gear game. Just the end of Snake's legacy. So, how in the hell does that spell the death of hardcore gaming?

And the whole "the new mass market approach to gaming leaves no place for hardcore gaming"... just stupid. ONE COMPANY takes a blue ocean approach to gaming (Wii), and suddenly it's the death of hardcore gaming? Let us not forget that ALL of the third party developers are pouring MILLIONS AND MILLIONS of dollars exclusively into... hardcore gaming. Look at Wii's third party lineup... pathetic. Look at what those devs are pouring their resources into... PS3 and 360 "hardcore" games. Not cutesy little party games, not brain age or nintendogs.... HAZE, MGS4, FF13, God of War 3, Halo 3, Mass Effect, Call of Duty 4... if I even attempted to list all of the recently released or soon to be released "hardcore" games, it would takes pages and pages.

These people are taking the success off wii forging a new PART of the industry as a sign of the death of a genre of gaming, when that coudn't possibly be farther from the truth. Simply put, whoever wrote this is simply ignorant. While devs have been bitching about rising development costs, they continue to pony up the cash for these epics. Why? because we buy the shit out of them! that's why! They STILL make money on them. And I still kick back and catch a good laugh when I see these complaints, as still to this day the most expensive video game ever made hasn't even come out to be anywhere near half of the cost of the most expensive film ever made... not even close. Yet the videogame industry has been pulling in more cash than hollywood for some time now. So, to that article I say... bullshit.

As long as there are people like us to play them, devs will continue to make these games. And you don't see hollywood opting for low budget films as a means of improving profit margins... why would you see the same in the gaming industry? Fact is, there will always be people who like an epic interactive experience that goes beyond a simple "game".

[TheGreenElf]

I felt like hardcore gaming was dying off with only a Wii. So I bought a 360 and problem solved. Although the definition of hardcore is arguable. There will always be the great Halo ranked matches and online play, there will be Starcraft 2 and 3 eventually, Diablo III, more Metal Gear, more Zelda, more Call of Dutys and Rainbow Sixes, and many games not even conceived yet. There is nothing to worry about.

[speed stick]

The games are only getting better and better and more hardcore every year.

[Viper]

I'll reuse a quote of mine.

Hardcore gaming isn't dying, softcore (casual) simply found a market.

And another quote.

Market expansion, not market cannibalization

[HolyPaladin]

Video games are just becoming another major form of entertainment right along next to television, music, and movies, and just as there are all sorts of audiences for television, music, and movies there are all sorts of audiences emerging in interactive entertainment (video games). The video game industry really can provide software for all potential markets without abandoning any single one of them, including the "hardcore" gamer market.

Further, people need to get off Wii's back. Yes, it's tapping those markets that have largely been ignored by other companies, but it's also provided "hardcore" gamers like myself several games that have been among my very favorites of the generation. Granted, those have been few and far between, lost in a sea of casual shovelware, but they're still there. Regardless, what Wii does isn't going to dramatically change everything Sony and Microsoft do, and isn't going to influence all our favorite developers to start making mountains of shovelware geared toward casual gamers. They know we're still here and they're going to continue providing us the software we want.

[WolfmanNCSU]

Viper nailed it on the head with his quotes.

Hardcore gaming is going to be just fine, and still growing, while causual gaming has been on a huge rise in the last few years (hence why I am discussing with a causal game developing company now).