All of this talk about "dudebros" and such is making me think about how likely it is that the next generation will kill gaming for me. :/ I really hope that devs stop with the "every game must be photo-realistic and gritty" mentality next-gen. Seeing so many games that look exactly the same really hurt my interest in gaming. That's part of why I want Wii U. Nintendo's one of the few companies that doesn't do that. (Granted, Sony does an okay job of stylizing games as well.) Things are a bit better now, but the damage is basically done for me at this point. I want next-gen to be totally different. I want CoD to die and not get replaced by anything. Ant the very least, I hope it isn't replaced by FPS and we're not stuck with every other gaming having clunky dual analog controls.
Let's look at November NPD:
1. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (360, PS3, WII, PC)** Activision Blizzard 8.99 million (Less than 100K on Wii, even less on PC Retail)
2. Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (360, PS3, PC)** Bethesda Softworks - 2.8 million
3. Battlefield 3 (360, PS3, PC)** Electronic Arts
4. Assassin's Creed: Revelations (360, PS3, PC) Ubisoft - ~1.26 million
5. Just Dance 3 (Wii, 360) Ubisoft
6. Madden NFL 12 (360, PS3, Wii, PSP, PS2)** Electronic Arts
7. Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception (PS3)** Sony - 700k
8. Saints Row: The Third (360, PS3, PC)** THQ
9. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (WII) ** Nintendo
10. Batman: Arkham City (360, PS3, PC)** Warner Bros. Interactive
I'd consider the bolded dudebro games, and the italicized "borderline dudebro games", which are still "socially acceptable" games to play. Nintendo doesn't get many of these games, which gives it it's "kiddy" image.
The point is, the dudebro games are selling.
And they sell all damn year. I think, at this point, the dudebro audience is far larger than the casuals/grandmas audience (the Wii/Kinect buying audience, someone correct me if I'm wrong). Especially with iPhones and all that shit eating into that audience.
So I really don't see the dominance of COD and other FPS games going anywhere anytime soon. And if Nintendo likes money (which we KNOW they do), they would go for this audience...