How Gen Z and Gen Alpha Are Changing the Way We Game

I think many console players are not understanding and refusing to acknowledge, is that PC is more than just for gaming. It serves many other non-gaming purposes. hobbies, schooling, works and other sorts of entertainment, so it is pretty much impossible for PCs to die out. Casual gamers who just want to do some light gaming can do so on their work/study/hobby laptops without spending an additional $700 for a dedicated consoles. Major corporations like banks will still use desktops or laptops for operations.

We know

It's been that was since the 90s

What's changed for me is that PC no longer has those big exclusives like Half-Life, Thief, System Shock and Quake 3 that, at the time, made the consoles look like utter potatoes. These types of games now come to console day 1.

Not forgetting if you wanted online gaming the only choice was PC.
 
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Gaming will always be worse the more popular and mainstream it becomes.


People prefer the convenience and once the infrastructure exists in a decade, dedicated game consoles will be as distant a memory as CDs. You'll be explaining to kids how you used to require a big bulky box to play games that came on physical discs and had to go out and buy them in person… Oh, and how you needed different boxes to play different games… and they will look at you like a dinosaur.
And then you will show them some of the games you OWN and they will be completely flabbergasted at the fact that you can still play them after all these years, whenever you want, as much as you want, no strings attached, while they can't do that because they missed paying their monthly sub, or their favorite games are not available anymore in whatever service they are paying or don't exist at all because their publishers decide to kill them because they are not profitable.
 
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You old farts in here don't get it. Thank god for Gen Z and Alpha, they'll be the saviors of gaming. I have been wasting money buying new hardware every couple years for almost 35 years and I'm so done with this shit.
Honestly, this old( 47) year old fart is done with it too. I have absolutely zero interest in the idea of PS6, next Xbox, Switch 2, etc etc. Just doesn't excite me buying all these mostly iterative systems nowadays. The only reason I even have a PS5 is because I got a good deal on a slim last summer, but most of its use has been playing Fortnite with my 7 year old nephew ( and I just started playing RE Village on it, $20 for that and 7 Gold off PSN last week).
 
i mean sure young people like games like Fortnite and COD alot more than mature single player story driven games but that doesnt mean there isnt a big enough audience for those , there are plenty of single player games that were a success , some of them werent even AAA
 
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Gaming will always be worse the more popular and mainstream it becomes.



And then you will show them some of the games you OWN and they will be completely flabbergasted at the fact that you can still play them after all these years, whenever you want, as much as you want, no strings attached, while they can't do that because they missed paying their monthly sub, or their favorite games are not available anymore in whatever service they are paying or don't exist at all because their publishers decide to kill them because they are not profitable.
and they really won't care, just as nearly nobody misses DVDs and CDs.
 
and they really won't care, just as nearly nobody misses DVDs and CDs.
It's not about "DVDs" or "CDs". It's about local files being available to you.

I didn't care when i was young either. Games were just as disposable for me, i would forget the old game and only care about the new, i would sell my old stuff to buy new, etc. But when you get older chances are you will care. Nostalgia is a hell of a drug.

Difference is, my generation has a lot of ways to play almost every single game of our childhoods because there's always a way to control local files (disks and whatnot). Even if our old consoles don't work anymore we can still dump our carts and discs, we can crack DRM, etc. But when games stop being distributed this way and the only files that exist are locked in a remote server, people won't be able to scratch that nostalgia itch anymore unless they pay ransom every time they do or maybe they won't be able at all because who knows if certain games will still be available? Once Publishers have control of the files, they will be able to fully control the market and what's available or not.
 
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Game companies built these things: social aspect, digital, cell phone games, free 2 play, cloud
And audiences responded. They didn't ask for it.
They did.
Online gaming and live service gaming were steadily rising and encroaching gaming as a whole for a long time, before it became obvious for normal folks, and more and more of younger generations switched to it as time goes by.
Live service games with the help of piracy literally killed PC marked in early 2000, by the 2007-2009 about 90% of PC market was live service games (wow, dota/lol, cs etc). Rise of smartphones accelerated gaas dominance as people clearly preferred f2p games there, even though mobile games started from classic model (angry birds was a paid game), but market preferences quickly pushed paid games aside. And than gaas started spilling over from mobile to console space and everyone suddenly noticed elephant in the room that was there for quite some already.

And it's incorrect to say that gaming companies created this. They responded to it. Where id demand - there is supply. Many of biggest mobile-oriented companies were not present/were small in SP space (Epic, Mihoyo, Roblox, Minecraft etc). It's because big ones were busy with their business and missed opportunity. And only follow the suit when it became obvious, playing catch-up game.

They literally present this as if these companies responded to what was being asked for and it's just not true.
If gaming was the same now as it was in the earlier 2000's, Gen Z and Gen Alpha would be just like the older of us are.
Subtle shift to live services started long time ago, around from mid-90s, long before it became topic of the day and big enough for mass market company to actively engage into this.

Cloud part is a bullshit though
 
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All of this is so bullshit.

This idea of modern audiences is fictional

Game companies built these things: social aspect, digital, cell phone games, free 2 play, cloud

And audiences responded. They didn't ask for it.

They literally present this as if these companies responded to what was being asked for and it's just not true.

If gaming was the same now as it was in the earlier 2000's, Gen Z and Gen Alpha would be just like the older of us are.

Ultimately they fabricated a "problem" in which audiences are changing, just so they could sell you a solution.

Cloud may be the future but it's not because audiences are demanding and expecting it. It's because companies are pushing it for their own financial gain
I agree on the viewer and social aspect percentage increasing. I see that at home, pretty much a linear scale on age differences, anecdotal like nothing else of course but as the gray one I'm the odd one now who just want to play myself and don't want to watch playthroughs and get spoiled by some YouTuber. Youngest one is probably 80/20 viewing over playing, and couch multiplayer split screen games are extremely common.
 
Gaming will always be worse the more popular and mainstream it becomes.



And then you will show them some of the games you OWN and they will be completely flabbergasted at the fact that you can still play them after all these years, whenever you want, as much as you want, no strings attached, while they can't do that because they missed paying their monthly sub, or their favorite games are not available anymore in whatever service they are paying or don't exist at all because their publishers decide to kill them because they are not profitable.
That's an issue most consumers don't face, especially in a world with constant bombardment of new content. Most listen to a podcast once, watch a series once, and play a video game once. Yes, you care about it, but you are in an increasingly small minority.

Moreover, in a digital world, almost everything can be found even long after they are offered by conventional services. Also, if there is enough of a market to play that older title, it will be offered by some service as the price to keep them available will decrease.
 
Basically its people who dont really like video games polluting the market. Most younger people only see it as a tool to socialize with friends or waste thier time due to boredom.
 
We know

It's been that was since the 90s

What's changed for me is that PC no longer has those big exclusives like Half-Life, Thief, System Shock and Quake 3 that, at the time, made the consoles look like utter potatoes. These types of games now come to console day 1.

Not forgetting if you wanted online gaming the only choice was PC.

I would say PC benefit more with practically every console games releasing on PC nowadays with enhanced fidelity, many of which day one too, Resident Evil or Metal Gear. Much so when first party games are coming too, of course with enhanced fidelity.

While numerous PC titles are still not available on consoles for various reasons including censorship, backward compatibility, scopes and input methods.

Either way, it really doesn't matter because the point is that PC and mobile's long term future for gaming, is pretty secured due to their versatility beyond gaming. Can't say for consoles who cant do shits like spreadsheet, making online payment or homework.
 
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Yeah I mean, its pretty obvious.
Switch 2 sales
PS Portal incredibly popular
Steam Deck incredibly popular

PS5 insanely popular but you speak to any casual or person who enjoys the odd game and ask them how much time they have to sit down and play it, wont be very high, handheld and mobile gaming unlocks that.

People sat behind huge set ups and hogging the TV is a thing of the past, at least for me in the most part, 25 y/o and below might be able to dedicate weekends to being sat in front of a TV playing games or in their setup all weekend, but when you have a busy house, family, friends or even another half, sitting behind your set up is increasingly rare. Now sat on the sofa, brain rot on the TV me on the handheld chill vibes. I can see why dedicated gaming like the classic version is dying out in the youth.

Makes my 5090 set up look a little awkward. Dont need a top end set up to stream 1080p to a handheld.
 
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Summary by Grok AI

The article discusses how Gen Z and Gen Alpha are transforming the gaming industry. Here are the key points:

- *Shift to mobile gaming*: Gen Z and Gen Alpha prefer mobile gaming over console or PC gaming, driving growth in mobile esports and cloud gaming.

- *Increased focus on social interaction*: These younger generations value social aspects of gaming, such as streaming, online communities, and collaborative play.

- *Rise of cloud gaming*: Cloud gaming platforms are becoming increasingly popular, allowing for more accessible and affordable gaming experiences.

- *Changing business models*: Gen Z and Gen Alpha expect free or low-cost games with optional in-game purchases, influencing the shift towards free-to-play and subscription-based models.

- *Diverse gaming interests*: These generations are interested in a wide range of games, including casual, educational, and creative titles.

- *Growing importance of community and creator-driven content*: Gen Z and Gen Alpha gamers value content created by influencers and streamers, driving the growth of gaming communities and creator-driven platforms.



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Overall, Gen Z and Gen Alpha are driving changes in the gaming industry, prioritizing accessibility, social interaction, and community-driven experiences.


Vomit Puke GIF by The Late Late Show with James Corden
Using AI (LLM) to do your thinking for you in the ultimate modern day moron test
 
Either way, it really doesn't matter because the point is that PC and mobile's long term future for gaming, is pretty secured due to their versatility beyond gaming. Can't say for consoles who cant do shits like spreadsheet, making online payment or homework.

If you went back 20 years PC was essential for web browsing and home computing.

These days it's all about smartphones and iPads.
 
Except, that's not how markets work. If there was a huge and growing market, this would not be the case.

The current generations do not want physical: Spotify, Netflix, HBO… nobody is buying CDs or DVDs anymore, if they were, Blockbuster would have not gone under.

This is coming. People prefer the convenience and once the infrastructure exists in a decade, dedicated game consoles will be as distant a memory as CDs. You'll be explaining to kids how you used to require a big bulky box to play games that came on physical discs and had to go out and buy them in person… Oh, and how you needed different boxes to play different games… and they will look at you like a dinosaur.
You use the death of physical media as an example… but that only happened because companies created platforms for digital media. Blockbuster only died because Netflix was created.

No consumer said "I refuse to buy this CD or DVD unless I can have it digitally". We as consumers couldn't even conceptualize that. We consumed what was there.

They created created these digital platforms and we responded. We didn't ask for them.

Gen Z and Gen Alpha have grown up with this. So of course it's an expectation.

Maybe you're not understanding what I'm saying?
 
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