Now you're playing with power.

Who holds the most power in the gaming-industry?

The consumer is the easy choice. They number in the millions, and without their money, the others could not continue to do business. The consumer, however, would not spend that money, if not for the developers.

The developers create the games that the consumer wants to play. If they don't create a game that the consumer wants to play, the consumer won't buy it. So in this scenario, the consumer seems to have more power, but developers can create demand for their games even if the consumer has never played a game like it before.

New genres and IPs are created all the time. The creators have enormous power in influencing consumers. All developers do not simply cater to the desires of consumers. Some create new experiences that are so compelling that many consumers want to experience those creations.

Think about Nintendo Wii. It had the biggest install-base of its generation, but most developers did not develop for it, because they did not want to. Developers wanted to create more beautiful-looking games with more technically-ambitious game-design.

Nintendo-optimists always say that developers will come when the install-base for NS gets big enough, but that is not necessarily true. They didn't come for Wii. Their creative desires were stronger than the allure of making money on a weaker system.

If porting to NS is too troublesome, then developers won't port to it, even if NS sells 100 million units by the end of its life.

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