Veteran games designer Pascal Luban, most noted for his work in Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, believes that the gaming population is aging and that publishers will have to adopt their products accordingly.
"As slow as this evolution is, it is unavoidable," says Luban. "It will create a new category of players, or at least new needs. We do not approach gaming in the same way if we are 20, 35 or 50 years old."
One difference that publishers will have to consider is that "it will become increasingly difficult to establish suspension of disbelief for such players. Mature gamers will have a harder time becoming immersed in less believable plots or universes."
Mature gamers, according to Luban, are more inclined towards political and economic simulators than the current generation of gamers is. "It's an extraordinarily rich domain: such games could conceivably feature a direct link with current events, thus giving them an extended lifespan."