This week, Nintendo announced the 2010 release of the DSi XL (LL in Japan). As if by clockwork, the hardcore gaming blogosphere replied with a “Two Snaps Up” and “Hated it”. Apparently, any news that is not about a gaming system getting smaller and with better graphics and processors is a great catastrophe unto our gaming world.
Correct me if I am wrong, but I forgot that gaming companies and manufacturers are only allowed to make products for the core audience. Don’t misjudge my intentions, because like that core gaming audience I won’t be buying the XL. I also do prefer a smaller portable game system. But then again I — and the majority of that core group of gamers — am not the target audience for the XL. My mother will like the bigger screen to read the recipes better on cooking software, my grandfather might use it to play Advance Wars DS, and my neighbor likes the various fitness programs but finds the screen on the current DS impossibly small to read.
So why the hullabaloo? This is yet another gaming product that a manufacturer wants to use to expand the market with. In a market where the PS3 “Only Does Everything” and Project Natal’s promotional videos all show families playing trivia and soccer, there seems to be a backlash against the industry’s growing focus on gaming markets outside of us. Personally, I could care less if they released a DS XL, PSPgo, 360 Lite, or whatever other product the companies envision as I’m completely content with the products I currently own. We have to remember: the games business isn’t about ethics and being happy just to release a product. It IS and always WAS about making a profitable product — just like any other industry on the planet. Heroics aside, there are reasons that certain well-reviewed games don’t sell well yet mass appeal or licensed games do.
There can be a lot of factors we can attribute to the “Big Divide” during this generation. The biggest may be fanboyism towards one product or another and the exponential growth of the industry. We always said that we wanted Dad to play video games with us, but now that he is (and not the games we like to play) it is suddenly an attack on “our territory”. What is wrong with someone playing WiiSports bowling in an elderly home? Or any myriad of Naruto games by 5 yr olds? Answer: Nothing. At all. Really. Nothing.
Are we happy with our Modern Warfares and Gods of War and Legend of Zeldas? Yeah, we are. Then why care if grandma likes the BUZZ! games or grandpa likes some calculator app for the DSi? Have we really become that hypocritical that (for example) we no longer want companies to release anything outside of the (extremely-aging) FPS genre? Or, is it just our preference towards our once small community of gamers that we somehow feel as though the market expanded beyond just focusing on us?
Nintendo will, almost assuredly, sell millions of the DSi XL (Spring 2010 US & EU, Q1 Japan) and possibly most of those to folks who may not have a DSi yet.
It’s an interesting conversation point. Core vs Casual. And why do we, the Core, care if Casuals are buying games and consoles designed for them (not us)?
Just a thought.
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