The "Hardcore Gamer" Hurdle of the Industry

For most lunches at work, I go with three of the other THQ interns. Listening to their passion for video games, I was reminded of the "Hardcore Gamer" hurdle that video game HR departments throw up to potential hires. The "Hardcore Gamer" hurdle is one of the first questions that they look to your cover letter or resume to answer (or at a minimum for you to address in your interview). They want people passionate about video games. Hardcore games have no problem overcoming this hurdle as they seem to eat, sleep and dream video games (I slipped through on a discussion of how I love all types of games). Other people, who would still do a good job and offer a new perspective, often get overlooked by the hurdle.

But sitting at lunch and listening to these other interns talk the hurdle became apparent. All of these guys love video games. This is great, we should all be passionate about what we do everyday, but poses some risks for an industry that is changing like the video game industry. By imposing the "Hardcore Gamer" hurdle, video game companies are ensuring that they do not get the perspective of the customer segment that is growing the fastest in this industry: the casual gamer. The hardcore gamer and the casual gamer are getting two drastically different payoffs from their video game experience; and this is one case where I do not think a party can empathize with the other (see my next post).

The prevalence of hardcore gamers in video game companies delivers a big strategic blinder to these companies. Even if company leadership identifies new casual games as a target, if the majority of the company is filled with hardcore gamers where do you think they will focus the bulk of their energy. I think the evidence supports that they go after the hardcore gaming segment.

I think the video game industry is slowly seeing the removing the "hardcore gamer" hurdle. The question becomes will it come quick enough?