Hellraiser
Arcane
People aren't so cleanly divided into enthusiasts that seek new stuff and people content to do the same shit forever.
This is a clear cut binary situation, there is no middle state between the two, it's either one or the other so the claim they can't be cleanly divided is illogical.
The other thing was I never said people are content to do the same shit forever. I said they would not put in the effort into searching, they would be passive and go with the flow according to the trends that reach them, play to avoid fear of missing out and other "external" (as in coming from other people/media etc. they have contact with) reasons. They take in new things, but only because those things are served to them on a platter and thus take none of their effort to discover in the first place. Passive reception of information rather than active collection by themselves.
You need to be exposed to something better than what you've gotten used to to spark curiosity and start looking for better. It applies to video game just as much as any other entertainment, or food or a bunch of other shit. People don't even know what they don't know. Once they realize they've been missing out people jump ship from Monopoly to something actually suited to their tastes pretty quickly, and those tastes vary wildly.
An extremely optimistic take that assumes it's all nurture rather than nature, it is not. Please try what you preach on your nephew and come back with a report how well it went. Per your own words he's only playing crap because that's what the streamers show him, he merely has to discover something else he likes that gets drowned out by the marketing storm and he'll become enlightened and start looking for new stuff himself, just like that. You know he likes games, why isn't he playing something better in the same genres with such an uncle around?
Also maybe ask him why he is watching those streamers. Is it to get news about games or because all the kids in school think those streamers are cool?
Likewise your friends who played a hockey game only. You ever talked to them about the games you liked or other games, showed them those games? Did they change their habits and seek out more of the stuff they liked? Maybe they didn't like games as such but rather they liked hockey and playing it IRL wasn't always an option (which is also rather expensive to practice), same really as all the annual EA ballsports game buyers that don't play other games.
I'm not saying it can't happen, it obviously has to, you can't be enthusiastic about something if you do not know it exists. What I am saying, in line with what I previously wrote, is that most people won't make the effort after exposure even if they do realize they do like. It is not in their nature and never will be, and such is the case for most of the population.
Arguing CoD is what most people want because it has market share is the same as making that argument for Monopoly and Risk and Sorry 30 years ago instead of recognizing that Hasbro owned 90% of the shelf space and Walmart wasn't going to put anything not made for 6 year olds anywhere someone could actually find it, and commercials were too expensive for a game like Wingspan or Agricola to get discovered.
For one CoD isn't the bulk of the market and neither is even one publisher the bulk of the market. The argument I was making was always about the AAA segment as a whole with multiple dominant companies (but less than in the past). You still have Sony, Nintendo, MS, EA, Take Turd and Ubishit putting their titles out. In the top 20 there's also WB, Square, Capcom, Bandai Namco and Embracer presence. So this comparison to Hasbro's dominance isn't valid, you have a lot more variety.
1. Hogwarts Legacy
2. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III (2023)
3. Madden NFL 24 [EA Sports]
4. Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
5. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (No digital sales)
6. Diablo IV (no Battle.net sales)
7. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2022)
8. Mortal Kombat 1
9. Star Wars: Jedi Survivor
10. EA Sports FC 24
11. Starfield
12. Super Mario Bros. Wonder (No digital sales)
13. Resident Evil 4 (2023)
14. MLB: The Show 23 (No Xbox or Switch digital sales)
15. Dead Island 2
16. Final Fantasy XVI
17. Street Fighter 6
18. Elden Ring
19. Mario Kart 8 (No digital sales)
20. Minecraft
from:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/news...ways-from-the-bestselling-video-games-of-2023
2. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III (2023)
3. Madden NFL 24 [EA Sports]
4. Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
5. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (No digital sales)
6. Diablo IV (no Battle.net sales)
7. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2022)
8. Mortal Kombat 1
9. Star Wars: Jedi Survivor
10. EA Sports FC 24
11. Starfield
12. Super Mario Bros. Wonder (No digital sales)
13. Resident Evil 4 (2023)
14. MLB: The Show 23 (No Xbox or Switch digital sales)
15. Dead Island 2
16. Final Fantasy XVI
17. Street Fighter 6
18. Elden Ring
19. Mario Kart 8 (No digital sales)
20. Minecraft
from:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/news...ways-from-the-bestselling-video-games-of-2023
That's actually quite broad considering the featured genres and style.
By revenue it looks a bit different because the data is not purely what could be called AAA but there's also mobile revenue:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_video_game_companies_by_revenue
I have no clue how come sony is getting that much revenue, maybe money laundering.
While I can't talk about Walmart or a local equivalent (which I guess would be Auchan, I barely go there and honestly never really paid attention to the games section), the dominant retail electronics/appliances store chain (Media Markt, a europe-spanning kraut behemoth) and media store chain (Empik, potato only IIRC) carried more or less the same stuff as the list, at least for consoles. PCs have barely any shelf space, the decline in that area has been long going.
Finally the difference is shelf space available is rather meaningless nowadays. How many physical copies did minecraft sell vs digital ones?
I'm not going to argue about the advertising, it obviously works to the benefit of the big players, otherwise the budgets would have been slashed a long time ago as I mentioned in another post ITT.