Hardcore gamers are known for cringing whenever the supposed hottest trends are brought up. In particular, social games. Many claim that no one truly enjoys such fodder, let alone engages with them, which would appear to be sour grapes more than anything else.
And nothing pisses them off more than hearing claims that it's the future of gaming, plus are constantly defending its traditional forms, like consoles and PCs, as things that are not going anywhere. Well, as it turns out, the hardcore might be onto something.
A recently article that Gamasutra published has numbers produced by social game analysis firm Playnomics. They state that, during their study period earlier this summer, 85% of all new players quit whatever social game after just one single day of play.
Something that is either hardly surprisingly or very much validating, depending on one's view of social games, and in particular, that space's primary movers and shakers. Those who hate Zynga (makers of FarmVille and its ilk) all of a sudden have new fuel for their fire.
The same study also states that 95% of players that started playing social games at the beginning of the quarter were out forever by the end if out it for keeps.
This, along side a mountain of previously established evidence, including how Zynga's once glowing number of likes were significantly diminished once Facebook began purging fake accounts, much beg the question: was social gaming all that popular to being with?
