The "hardcore" future

[dop]

Shit be sensationalist. The concept of a console won't totally expire in a few years, at any rate.

If the DS or PSP do get killed by smartphones and their ilk, then it will be rightly earned. The only reason those handhelds could ever be completely crushed is if all buyers were completely convinced that the available tablets, etc. were superior as game devices. It would take a lot to convince people to start buying microwaves instead of ovens. This is not a perfect analogy, but you get the point. The new platform that games would find themselves on, be it an iPhone or whatever, would still be perfectly viable to house "hardcore" experiences.

On that note I fail to grasp how purported hardware and features of next generation systems have anything to do with how much they will cater the "gamer and hardcore"- this has, and always will be, decided by the games released for the system rather than what kind of controllers they have. The Wii fell victim to saturation of trashy, so-called "casual" games but that was also in part to the low system specs making ports of many blockbusters require too much special work to be worthwhile, not just because misguided obsession with focusing too much on how to use the obtuse controller. The system in question is always neutral to how much it services any hardcore crowd.

In any case, I do dislike to see peoples' opinion of the big game industry coming to a prospective crash interpreted in as all-encompassing of a term as "gaming dying". If some fantastic event ever occurred and consoles disappeared, all of the biggest names that compose that big game industry- Nintendo, EA, whatever- will continue to exist, simply defecting to other platforms, and there would always be those who persist to trust their names and buy their products. So how then, could a future where hardcore games cease to exist come about- and what exactly does it entail?

More importantly than the immortality of the big names, gaming (both hardcore and not) will never die because of gaming enthusiasts and their own independently created projects, the likes of which- from the groundbreaking and innovative ones to the classically fashioned retro-styled endeavors- are becoming more widespread, better-made and popular with each passing year. With crowd-funding (admittedly a fad which may be short lived!), more people than ever before are allowed an easy avenue to take a swing at quitting their job and going full-time indie. If no game ever made money again and it was nothing but a fruitless labor of love, gaming would still persevere because of the passion people have for it.

For many people, games are just as important as other kinds of entertainment media- for personal enjoyment, interpersonal bonding and their distinctive class of artistic value- and through every person who gives it that reverence, gaming will never come to an end.

e: fixed a little grammar mistake.