Cost of Gaming

This article over at The Escapist is an interesting look at why the game industry is struggling to have a more mainstream appeal. However, although a lot of what is contained in the piece is well thought through, it doesn't take into account the much more variable nature of people's tastes when it comes to interactive media.

Also, if you have a family of four sitting and watching the TV or a DVD, even if one of them doesn't fancy watching what's on the likelihood is that they will still do so because of its passive nature. If the DVD player also played games, the chances of all four people wanting to play a game at the same time are pretty small and even smaller if their gaming tastes are very different from each other. So, unless a new breed of games are created that will appeal to father, mother, son and daughter and offer four-player gameplay, how realistic is mainstream gaming going to be.