American Game Companies Miss The Boat Focusing on Mass Market

by on 9 April, 2006 - 09:40

by: Karl Long

As game companies continue to focus on the mass market demographic of “boys 18-35″, yes boys, they like to blow stuff up, they like guns, they like tits and ass. So all the game companies are spending small fortunes on the next “FPS” (first person shooter), or driving game, or mixing driving and shooting. Anyway, as someone who thoroughly enjoys shooting, driving, and fantasy girls in video games I’m not saying they should stop, but they need to pull their head out of their 18-35 demographic, if you get my drift.

There is a very illuminating article on The Escapist Magazine about how nintendo building games for different markets and are reaping massive rewards, and they haven’t even begun to start in the US market, but they will be here soon.

Can a game company reap pharmaceutical grade profits?

Nintendo has got a pretty hot selling game in Japan right now, it’s called “Nou wo Kitaeru Otona no DS Training”, and the version coming here will be called “brain age”. This game has already sold 3 million copies, and that’s the kind of number that would make any xbox game maker swoon. Guess what, no shooting involved, it is designed by an alzheimer expert and it tests your “brain age”. Let me tell you, there are going to be a lot of baby boomers heading out and buying a Nintendo DS just to play Brain Age, not to mention all the kids buying them for christmas presents for their 50+ parents.

I’m being somewhat facetious talking about Pharma profits. The main point is that there is a market for games that solve problems other than distracting 18-35 yo boys from their lives, and right now the console makers are too caught up in a big budget/hollywood mentality.

Original Post: http://customersonfire.com/archive/american-game-companies-miss-the-boat-focusing-on-mass-market/

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