Video Games have a Little Mermaid Issue

THQ Nordic is taking losses on Alone in the Dark and Outcast.

Two games meant to be AA budget, sustainable projects.

Influencers didn't show up. Reviewers took shots at the two games.

All while screaming about Xbox closing Tango Gameworks.

The general gaming community has swelled in size over the past decade. There is a glaring problem, though. A large part of the growing gamer demographic is there because that's where their people are.

The industry, has in an odd way, become the new sports ball. A lot of people show up for the shouting, the revelry, and a group of instant friends. The problem is that none of those people are really interested in what is happening in front of them. You couldn't even call them fair-weather, because they aren't fans. They are Little Mermaids. They want to be where the people are.

Little Mermaids create a very odd phenomenon in business. They give the illusion that something has a lot of potential. When you look at Futball, it seems like a sport you could take anywhere and be successful. Yet in seemingly shoe-in markets like Venezuela, or big money markets like the USA, Futball takes a backseat to Baseball and Basketball. 

The Little Mermaid problem is a cultural problem. Kids do what their parents do, and what their friends do, because they have to. It isn't because they genuinely enjoy the activity. 

This creates volatile swings in the market as producers and "content creators" try to hop on the trend train. Concord is just the most recent example of the Little Mermaid problem in action. The genre trend is dead. Friends didn't play, parents didn't play, so even the people that enjoyed it didn't play. It was under the sea before it even launched.

Little Mermaids are unsustainable. They eventually leave entire markets. Extreme Sports had their Little Mermaids in the early 2000s. The music industry had them in the 1980s. Kids grow up and grow-out. Soon there will be generation of kids that want to be something other than streamers and video games will lose their Little Mermaids to the next thing that walks on two legs.