Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Over three billion people worldwide now play video games, study reports

nintendosmash.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

181–190 of 378 posts

Re: Over three billion people worldwide now play video games, study reports

#181

Post by catsarebetter »

alchemism wrote: post #169
catsarebetter wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see we have similar taste, might I recommend assasin's creed? Amazing graphics and the story mode is pretty phenomenal, kind of a greek mythology nerd so that's why I'm so drawn to it.

In normal times I would travel to Greece multiple times a year. I acquired a 4k projector so I could fill a wall with the game. It’s been a nice substitute.

Ah man Greece sounds so nice right now... big images are the way to go with that game, so much granular detail that you can't catch without them

Re: Over three billion people worldwide now play video games, study reports

#182

Post by Deestan »

jpxw wrote: post #2

If you count Candy Crush then sure

I'd like to defend this sentiment.

I get the negative reactions to this, I really do. All communities - fan clubs, beer aficionados, gamers, book enthusiasts - have groups of gatekeepers that try to separate the dirty filthy unworthy casual people from the real X.

But don't assume that is always the case. Sentiments like this often comes from a different place: wanting meaningful discussion.

There are two parts to this. "X game" vs "Y game" categorization, and "plays games" vs "played a game". The first one is usually contentious so I'll elaborate:

I play Candy Crush and games like it regularly, and enjoy them. However, I call them "casual games" rather than "video games" in the same way people like to separate "board game" from "party game", "jogging" from "running", "visual novel" from "comic book", and "web design" from "programming" (or "sanwdich" from "hotdog"). The borders frequently get blurry, and people love discussing pedantic philosophy about what is a sandwich, but the grouping still exists and is meaningful. While people who don't have a lot of interest in the field find the distinction weird and pointless, the people who are close to the field find the difference to be night and day. I play and enjoy Terraforming Mars which I classify a board game, Dying Light which I classify a video game, and Super Hexagon which I classify a casual game. Conflating the category of any two of them feels equally wrong. They are different activities, played for different reasons, at different times, with different levels of investment.

Any study and discussion that manages to recognize at least these broad distinctions, will be immensely more interesting and fruitful than one who tries to count hotdogs as sandwiches.

Re: Over three billion people worldwide now play video games, study reports

#183

Post by cgrealy »

That 3 billion people play some sort of games (particularly on mobile) is not at all surprising to me.

I would guess that number correlates to “90% of people under a certain age (50??) who have access to a device”.

That 1.5 billion play games on PC is shocking to me.

Re: Over three billion people worldwide now play video games, study reports

#184

Post by yomly »

abraxas wrote: post #137
bjo590 wrote: post #5

> Analysts point out that almost half of the accounted three billion are those who play only on smartphones or mobile devices. This segment is also ahead of all others in terms of growth. This segment is incredibly lucrative for the winners. Niantic has an estimated revenue of 800 million dollars. Supercell's highest reported revenue was just over 2 billion euros. King sold to Activision Blizzard for 5.9 billion doll…

It is so very depressing. Nearly every game released by those companies is an ad riddled garbage fire. It's an affront to what makes gaming fun. They are "games" in the same sense that slot machines are "games". They aren't games in the sense that non-mobile gamers talk about.

Fair enough you say maybe but I love Clash Royale (by Supercell) and have definitely played my share of video games over the years.

Re: Over three billion people worldwide now play video games, study reports

#185

Post by AngryData »

stevenwoo wrote: post #152
wuunderbar wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you need to play Witcher 1 & 2?

I watched the TV series first, and Witcher 3 has a much better and coherent story than the TV show even though the game picks up after the events of Witcher 1/2. I finished the game mostly for the stories.

Even having read all the material and played all the games, the show was pretty convoluted and confused me until near the end. The time jumps give little to no notice.

Re: Over three billion people worldwide now play video games, study reports

#186

Post by xboxnolifes »

watwut wrote: post #176
abraxas wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is so very depressing. Nearly every game released by those companies is an ad riddled garbage fire. It's an affront to what makes gaming fun. They are "games" in the same sense that slot machines are "games". They aren't games in the sense that non-mobile gamers talk about.

At least those games don't take over your complete life the way big online games. And don't lead to those playing often overnight, am addicted, am sleep deprived raging gamer situations.

Idk, that sounds exactly like something mobile gacha game garbage would do, while also draining the wallets of those more prone to gambling addiction.

Re: Over three billion people worldwide now play video games, study reports

#187

Post by mpfundstein »

WrtCdEvrydy wrote: post #162
ArtWomb wrote: post #80

Ghosts of Tsushima may be the best Playstation game I have played EVER. It's a testament to how late in the console release cycle, developers are just now mastering internals. It's the ideal video game: open world, 13-century feudal Japan, Age of the Samurai. High contrast "Kurosawa" mode, 4K HDR is cinematically photoreal. I really hope it remains a Major IP for many years to come ;) https://blog.selfshadow.com/publ…

Detroit: Become Human.... another visually stunning game came from a tech demo called Project Kara on the PS3.

+1 detroit is awesome

Re: Over three billion people worldwide now play video games, study reports

#188

Post by mpfundstein »

martco wrote: post #123
ArtWomb wrote: post #80

Ghosts of Tsushima may be the best Playstation game I have played EVER. It's a testament to how late in the console release cycle, developers are just now mastering internals. It's the ideal video game: open world, 13-century feudal Japan, Age of the Samurai. High contrast "Kurosawa" mode, 4K HDR is cinematically photoreal. I really hope it remains a Major IP for many years to come ;) https://blog.selfshadow.com/publ…

I played it after Last of Us 2 and it just doesn't compare, especially in terms of mechanics and visuals. If there's one last game to play on PS4 it's Last of Us 2.

lets not into TLOU2 lol

technically perfect

storywise and characterwise a shitfest though

Re: Over three billion people worldwide now play video games, study reports

#189

Post by gingerlime »

As someone who doesn't play any games at all and looking for a new hobby, would you recommend picking this up as one? if so, which platform/games would you recommend? (something light/fun)

some background:

I'm 45, I don't think I can handle anything too intense (even watching TV gets my heart pounding, I get too immersed and don't exactly enjoy too much adrenaline); I used to enjoy the Atari console in the 80s and then later played games on my Apple IIc and then PC, up to around year 2000 or so. Now I own an iPhone SE and Macbook air 2015, so nothing too powerful. I don't have a TV (but a decent computer screen).

EDIT: so many great suggestions for things I didn't know existed. Thank you so much!

Re: Over three billion people worldwide now play video games, study reports

#190

Post by hrktb »

abraxas wrote: post #137
bjo590 wrote: post #5

> Analysts point out that almost half of the accounted three billion are those who play only on smartphones or mobile devices. This segment is also ahead of all others in terms of growth. This segment is incredibly lucrative for the winners. Niantic has an estimated revenue of 800 million dollars. Supercell's highest reported revenue was just over 2 billion euros. King sold to Activision Blizzard for 5.9 billion doll…

It is so very depressing. Nearly every game released by those companies is an ad riddled garbage fire. It's an affront to what makes gaming fun. They are "games" in the same sense that slot machines are "games". They aren't games in the sense that non-mobile gamers talk about.

> slot machines

To note, pachinko are a widely installed business in their country.

Same as medal games in game centers, there has always been a need for super simple, mindless “games”, with or without money exchanging hand at some point.

Post reply on HN