How the Games Industry is Ignoring What Customers Really Want

According to Wagner James Au, the games industry is currently losing the "attention war," but it has no-one to blame but itself:

It’s a business comprised almost entirely of young gamer dudes, serving an audience of young gamer dudes, covered by a gaming press of young gamer dudes, all of whom are only interested in creating, playing, and covering games that interest young gamer dudes—which they believe to be the pinnacle of entertainment.

This narrow view, says Au, prevents the industry from creating the games and virtual worlds that customers really want, keeping gaming in a very tiny niche from which it has little chance of escaping. It's an interesting point of view, and it contains the phrase "duel between midgets," which is an amusing mental picture, if nothing else.

Game Business and Its Crisis of Attention [GigaOM]