Your Game, not Gaming, is the Hobby
I remember the thrill of opening a new issue of Game Informer magazine and reading reviews of all the upcoming games. The photos in gaming magazines was once the only place you could get a glimpse of what a new game would look like. And I wanted to play them all. At one point, I had over 900 console games in a massive library organized by publisher and franchise on specialty built shelves. In the mid 2000s, hardcore gamers had all the consoles, played PC games, mobile games, and handheld games. Multiplayer was a niche mode and you could finish most games in 10–15 hours. For many, gaming was a “breadth” hobby grounded in exploring the magical new media.
I don’t know whether it was just a lifestyle change for me as I got older or something more widespread, but nowadays it seems like gamers go deeper into single game titles instead of sampling everything. For example, at one point I made a rule that I would never play Bethesda games because they were too deep, I just didn’t have time to put 100 hours into Skyrim. (Bethesda games are great, this is not a hit on Bethesda, its actually a compliment that they are so immersive). I used to play everything on the hardest level (beat CoD 2 on veteran — twice!), but then it was taking too long so I eased up to normal. Now I choose 3–4 titles a year and I barely get through those (shhh, don’t tell anyone that I’m playing Assassin’s Creed Odyssey on Easy so I have a chance of finishing it).
Console platform holders used to track annual games purchased per console and targets were way above 10 games per year. Now, “digital” and “post-sale monetization (PSM)” is the focus and I suspect the average game attach to consoles is much lower than ten years ago even though the average revenue per user is likely up.
I know that is a generalization, and there are plenty of gamers who still want to play and explore lots of games. But with the explosion in the sheer number of games, infinite multiplayer modes, esports, watching games and the increased depth of single player and open world games, being a breadth gamer is like committing to watching every TV show. It just can’t happen. As a gamer, you have to narrow your focus to a genre, or a franchise, or even just a single game.
Instead of saying “gaming is like golf” you would now say that “League of Legends is like golf.” You may play many rounds of golf in a month, the same way you will play multiple League matches in a month. But the hobby is now about a specific game, not gaming itself.
If this is a real trend, then game developers should think of their games as an ongoing hobby and focus on repeat engagement. Users are not one-time purchasers, rather, purchasers are potential continuing hobbyists that need attention over time, you know, like a service. ;)
How do you get your users to play another round?
