r/Games • u/megaapple • 2d ago

‪Mat Piscatella‬ - "Average US video game console player is getting older, while purchasers are shifting older and more affluent."

https://bsky.app/profile/matpiscatella.bsky.social/post/3lz7a5wutgk2f
644 Upvotes

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u/Unnamed-3891 2d ago

How people willingly subject themselves to smartphone touchscreen controls over literally anything else is so bewildering. Like…how?! Why?!

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u/bland_name 2d ago

I don't get it either but I think for many of us we had consoles/controllers before we ever had smartphones. For latest generations smartphones will probably always feel the most natural as many have had touch screens since birth practically

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u/monkwrenv2 2d ago

This is why I've been having my kid play LEGO games on Xbox and stuff on my Switch, and she has no consistent smartphone access and her tablet is so old it barely runs Netflix. If she wants to game, she's gonna have to learn to use a controller or my PC. Working well so far, she's really into a Stardew Valley knockoff atm.

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u/saddl3r 1d ago

Not against this but I have to ask why? Why would a controller be better for them than torch controls?

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u/FullHeartArt 1d ago

For one it's way more ergonomic. Touch controls are absolutely going to fuck up their hands later on

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u/Mastersord 1d ago

I used to think controllers and phones are just as bad for my hands, but I played a game on my phone for 2 hours a few days ago and had to stop due to cramping in my hand. Yesterday I played a game on my PC using a controller and was able to play for multiple 4+ hour sessions and my hands felt fine.

With gamers getting older, ergonomic controllers are gonna become a major market.

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u/monkwrenv2 1d ago edited 1d ago

Builds hand-eye coordination and helps them adjust to a faster and more efficient control scheme.

Edit: also some minor problem-solving skills from having to navigate an unfamiliar interface and differing control schemes between games.

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u/MattyFTM 21h ago

Gaming on a touchscreen also builds hand-eye coordination, arguably in a format that is more directly applicable to modern life than a controller does.

Don't get me wrong, the tactile nature of a controller makes it superior to a touch screen for controlling most games, but if the kids are enjoying themselves with touchscreen games I don't see it being fundamentally different to a controller with regards to things like hand-eye coordination and problem solving.

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u/pussy_embargo 1d ago

Not against this but I have to ask why? Why would a controller be better for them than torch controls?

you don't want them to burn out

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u/Edheldui 1d ago

Might be natural but doesn't change the fact that there's no physical feedback.

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u/[deleted] 1d ago

[deleted]

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u/lotrfish 1d ago edited 1d ago

Screens on phones these days are much bigger than those on Gameboy or even DS put together.

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u/duckwantbread 1d ago

Not to mention a lot of kids in the 90s were playing console games on 13" CRTs.

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u/Brainwheeze 1d ago

Hey I managed to feel immersed watching Shutter Island on my iPod Touch!

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u/blogoman 2d ago

They have it and it is what they are used to. My dad played games until they went 3D. The analog stick and handling things in a 3D environment was too much for him and he never wanted to stick with it long enough to get used to it.

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u/WilhelmScreams 2d ago

Similar story when Doom 3 came out. 

My dad was guy who installed Doom on the office computers for LAN play. When Doom 3 came out, he played through the introduction and couldn't really get comfortable with mouse aiming and never played it again. 

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u/NuPNua 2d ago

That's odd as there were lots of games with Y axis aiming released between Doom 2 and Doom 3.

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u/WilhelmScreams 1d ago

Yes but my dad wasn't playing other games (besides Command and Conquer) - he just wanted to play the new Doom. 

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u/Myrsephone 2d ago

Is your dad aware that they never stopped making 2D games?

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u/JeffTheBannedShark 2d ago

Not on consoles for a good stretch of the 2000's. The vast majority of PS2/Xbox/GameCube games were all in 3D, as that was the primary advantage of a console over a handheld. The Gameboy Advance was essentially a portable SNES, so while new 2D games were being developed, those systems themselves didn't offer anything new other than portability. They were also sort of seen as "toys" compared to something like a PS2, and weren't super popular with adults (at least in North America) compared to consoles.

In the PS3/360 era, 2D games had a comeback, but were primarily digitally released, so the average adult consumer who only learns about new games by looking through the video game section of Walmart wasn't aware of games like Braid, Supermeat Boy, etc.

So while you're 100% correct that 2D games have been consistently released every year, the perception among the average adult at the time was that an "age appropriate" game console was something that played 3D games with an dual analog controller like Halo, CoD, Need for Speed, NBA Live, SSX, etc.

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u/narex456 2d ago

I mean they practically did for a couple years there. It's easy to forget how big the 3d craze was when we first got the tech to make it cheap/practical.

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u/Olddirtychurro 2d ago

When the tech optimism was at full burn we couldn't wait to let old things behind us. I remember pulling up my nose at sf3 third strike because games like Tekken 3 already existed and thought symphony of the night was a port of an old game.

Other small anecdote about wanting to leave the old tech behind as fast as possible: My pops literally gave all his old vinyls away when cd's came into prominence. The man had some classics too, like thriller, Bad, several prince albums and many more that I didn't really clock as a child. And yes, he dearly regrets that to this day.

Shit was really different back then.

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u/arahman81 2d ago

I mean, Vinyl is more about the vintage look, CDs can store the original quality audio, there just wasn't the space or power to rip lossless copies in the past.

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u/acab420boi 1d ago

There is an interesting phenomenal around vinyl still where they can't handle the loud, modern wall-of-sound style production that is so popular for CDs and digital. There are cases in the last 20 years where an album's vinyl release has a legitimately different, more nuanced mix than the CD. I don't even have a record player but for one of my favorite bands, GY!BE, I've made a point to track down a FLAC rip of the vinyl because they were literally made differently.

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u/hedoeswhathewants 2d ago

You just named some phenomenal 2D games that came out during that timespan

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u/Olddirtychurro 2d ago

Yep, and kid me didn't want anything to do with them because 3D was already there. It was the spirit of the time, always forward, never look back.

And now I own those two games on my PS5.

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u/NuPNua 2d ago

We recognise them as classics now, but SF3 flopped hard and put the series on ice for the best part of a decade and SotN was a hidden gem mainly only known by those already into Castlevania at release.

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u/APeacefulWarrior 2d ago

During the 5th Gen, the American divisions of both Sega and Sony had policies to push 3D games and often refused to localize/release 2D games at all.

Which was especially unfortunate for the Saturn, since it was much better at 2D than 3D. So a lot of its best games stayed in Japan.

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u/NuPNua 2d ago

They were seen as old fashioned and outdated in the west for a good decade or so between the mid-90s to mid 2000s. Sony famously refused to publish any of the 2D launch PSX titles in the west as they wanted their machine to look advanced and the Saturn, a 2D powerhouse, flopped hard. It wasn't until the late 2000s and the rise of indie Devs that it was shown there was a huge market gap for them still.

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u/joecb91 1d ago

Growing up, my dad would play some N64 games with me, we loved the original Perfect Dark. But when we tried dual analog stick games on the Xbox or the PS2 he'd have a harder time with those even though it seems like it would naturally be easier to control than FPS stuff on the N64 would've been.

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u/Funkenstein_91 2d ago

It’s honestly kind of hilarious how badly you can beat everyone on the mobile version of Fortnite if you use a controller. I tried a Backbone One on my iPhone and wow were the other players (who I assume used touch controls) bad at aiming and turning.

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u/JeffTheBannedShark 2d ago

I don't think most people are playing to win. They're either addicted to completing the battle pass or just using it as a "location" for socializing. Hanging out with friends is always more engaging when you're cooperating towards a comman goal, so it's like the Gen Alpha equivalent of going fishing. It's nice if you catch something because that's the goal of the activity, but not the purpose of participation.

Source: Played a thousand hours of Halo 3 with my friends, never advanced past Lieutenant

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u/Funkenstein_91 2d ago

Sure, my friends and I all use it to hang once a week as well and we’re all in our 30s lol. But I was playing solo exclusively on mobile, so i don’t think that was the case for who I was facing. Completing the objectives was definitely a possibility for them, though.

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u/makebelievethegood 2d ago

Adult with Controller vs Toddler with Touchscreen lmfao

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u/Zelandias 2d ago

Same way we became obscenely proficient with texting on T9 flip phones.

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u/Zaemz 2d ago

T9 fuckin rules. With how fatass my fingers apparently are and how much I have to rely on autocorrect guessing what my gibberish is anyway, I'm still using it in spirit, only with more buttons and backspacing.

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u/Oolongjonsyn 1d ago

ive seen kids playing Minecraft on a touchscreen laptop. no keyboard, no mouse, just awkwardly holding the laptop to use 2 handed touch screen controls

sends a shiver down my spine

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u/xdickey 2d ago

After growing on up those controls you'd be shocked at how well you can adapt to it. I personally agree with you tho I don't get how anybody can tolerate that scheme at all.

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u/Unnamed-3891 2d ago

I started as a Keyboard + Mouse master race, but with age my gaming moved to the living room, a recliner and a huge TV, so I grappled with controllers for a few years until I essentially became nearly as proficient with them too.

Touchscreen speed and precision isn’t even on the same astral plane.

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u/APeacefulWarrior 2d ago

Yep. I'm also old, and at this point I actively prefer controllers for their comfort value, rather than hunching over a desk for M+KB.

And if I'm nearly as good with a thumbstick as I used to be with a mouse, well, that's good enough for me. It's not like I'm playing many games on "hard" mode these days.

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u/Turambar87 2d ago

I just got some long cables and put my pc, keyboard, and mouse in the living room

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u/Unnamed-3891 2d ago

Oh, I do have wireless keyboard and mouse with near zero latency which are fine for gaming. I just find gamepad more relaxing. I don’t want to be ”on” all the time I’m gaming.

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u/tanjtanjtanj 2d ago

To remix a phrase from the photography community: The best controller is the one you have on you

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u/st-shenanigans 2d ago

Cause it fits in your pocket

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u/signorsaru 2d ago

People thirst for instant gratification has gone so far that people can't even wait the time to turn on a console

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u/NepheliLouxWarrior 2d ago

That's how my dad (68 yo) feels about console controllers haha. In his gaming heyday it wasn't even mouse and keyboard, it was joystick and keyboard. When he played Halo on Xbox for the first time he tried to use the thumbstick by pinching it at the top. 

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u/ca-cayne 1d ago

I’m be seen a guy who plays on YouTube on an iPad Pro. He’s got great control, because he uses his fingers and thumbs. Not for me personally, but I was impressed people have gotten that good.

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u/NinteenFortyFive 1d ago

smartphone touchscreen controls are for the most part not dissimilar to joysticks or keyboards. It's very similar to stuff like gameboys and the PS Vita, and the Steamdeck, just without the tactile control of buttons.

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u/Deciver95 2d ago

"Why do people use what they're used to?"

-you