The Midas Touch
How about some afternoon data?
Heavy gamers respond to advertising... blah blah... half of gamers women... blah blah. Wait, what's this? Top four reasons for purchasing last console or PC game:
- Played it before and liked it
- It's a sequel to a game that I like
- I heard good things about it
- A friend recommended it
Hmm, now this is interesting. The top two reasons for buying a game is familiarity. Could it be that the main driver towards less innovation in the industry are the gamers themselves?
Granted, people are always risk adverse in terms of spending their money. In other words, buying Halo 3 is preferable to some random new game called AlienGunnerXtreme. However, I always assumed that gamers were a unique breed, made up of more first adopters than the general populace. Perhaps it's that there are so many gamers now that we ARE the general populace. Or perhaps there's just so much out there (of the same thing), that familiarity is the best way to choose between look-alike games. Regardless, it appears that we gamers need to take some responsibility in the matter.
Maybe this data isn't conclusive to anything but it does make you wonder. What's that phrase... becareful what you wish for?
via Comscore, via MarketingVox
1 comment:
"Played it before and liked it"
That's demos, betas, and bumming of a friend isn't it? I think the best example of it not being anti-innovation is things like DDR and Guitar Hero. How did they catch on? Arcades, store demos, and friend's houses.
As for innovations in gaming, I think it could be compared to other forms of entertainment. Movies... same basic stories over and over. Music... there are only so many notes. Not that they are not hugely entertaining, but the vast majority (or soon to be) of the games out there are similiar to another. Being similiar, in our heads we group them all together in one group and see it as boring.
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