Where Have All The Gamers Gone? September 7, 2010

In the old days of gaming – and by old I mean 8 and 16 bit, multi-platform meant only one thing. It’s on the Oddyssey and the Atari, Master System and NES, SNES and Genesis.  Unfortunately back then, third parties had weird agreements whereby they couldn’t cross platforms, so sadly, if your sorry ass could not afford to have both systems, and trust me — most of us couldn’t, then your game library would be limited to what was available in the system you married (chose).  As a survivor of the first generation of console gaming, I can assure you, cross platform was a huge deal.

You are now able to game on your phone, consoles, on your computer, iPad, iPod Touch, PSP and/or DS.  In this reality – which is much, much different than the reality I grew up in – when you launch a game, you damn well better make it multi-platform or you will lose “subscribers” for no reason.  I use the term “subscribers” instead of the word “gamers” because the era of the gamer is over.

You’re probably asking, “What do you mean the era of the gamer is over?”

If you game on your mobile device – you are a subscriber.  Perhaps it happened unwittingly, because social pressure has convinced you that you have no choice but to own a cellphone – and well, since you must have a cellphone, why not have the most feature-laden phone around?  Naturally, you get a smartphone.  But owning a smartphone makes no sense unless you load it up with entertaining things, thereby increasing its marginal utility.  Come to think of it, if every available kilobit of your phone isn’t used up, you are in fact letting it go to waste.

Thing is — everybody has a cell phone, not the case with consoles.  And here’s thing #2 – you, my dear subscriber, have no problem shelling out the extra $99 or whatever it is to upgrade your phone – whereas you would balk at wasting $250-$600 on a gaming console upgrade.  And because of the ever increasing popularity of gaming Apps, (like the hundreds of people that I know are addicted to Tap Tap Revenge, Bejeweled Blitz and Farmville) the cellphone industry has actually created a whole new breed of “gamers”.  But they’re not gamers are they? – That’s because they’re sub-scri-bers.

At this point you might ask, “What does this have to do with consoles?”

Look…when you sell a console – you are in fact establishing a relationship with your clientele.  They are able to access games only through you, and if you don’t carry the game that the other console carries, then you are making your subscribers unhappy.  Some of you might say, but dude – you don’t even own an XBOX 360, Wii or PS3, you don’t even have an up to spec machine that can run WOW or SC2!

Yes I know…fuck you very much for pointing that out.

I might not own the current gen consoles, but there’s a reason for that.  At some point, I had the option of buying a $400 console or a plane ticket, I chose to travel.  Then it was between a $350 console and a camera, I chose the camera.  Then it was a $99 phone, plus $79 protection plan or a console, I chose the phone.

It took me a while, but I eventually realized that gaming had finally lost its appeal for me, I didn’t want to be Sony, Microsoft or Nintendo’s fanboy–or simply put, their subscriber.

Back in the Console Wars of the 80s and 90s:

• I was like a muhfuckin’ field general, I knew release dates, highest possible scores, cheat codes, and the all important game ratings.
• I was an Atari child – I sampled the Oddyssey, but I didn’t like the platform, or its library.
• I was a Nintendo grunt – the Master System looked like duplo to me, and their library was much smaller than Nintendo’s.
• I was Sergeant SNES – though I owned a Sega+Sega CD at the tail end of that system’s life cycle.  I liked SNES because it had brighter colors, better music, Zelda, Metroid and Mario.
• I was a PS/N64 Special Agent – I personally cast the Voodoo curse that caused the Dreamcast and Saturn to die their horribly slow deaths.
• I was a PS2 Jedi – Nintendo could not convince me with their silly proprietary media format GameCube, and the satan company of Microsoft was getting none of my money.

And that was it – I had it.  Nobody was gonna charge me almost $500 to upgrade to the new system.  I couldn’t be convinced.  As much as I wanted to play Final Fantasy 13, Metal Gear Solid, the newer Metriods, Marios and Zeldas.  I just ceased to care.  Life got in the way, and I retired from active gaming.

So when you say multi-platform, Speaking as a highly decorated Veteran and Deserter from the Great Console Wars, I say, “Release on all platforms or suffer subscriber loss!”

Because the gamers baby, they’re either dead, dying or indifferent…or maybe they’re retired – just like me