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"Nobody's making games for the retired people" – The growing yet underserved market for grey gamers
(www.gamesindustry.biz)
this post was submitted on 05 Jun 2026
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Perhaps unusually, I plan to take up gaming when I'm older, having never seriously tried it. I'm 48. I work in IT and I'm a nerd for retro computing, but beyond 16-bit platform shooters and Lemmings, I have barely dipped my toe into gaming culture. At work, I feel like an Irishman who's never tried Guinness.
I've avoided it for two reasons. One is a mental block: a strange and unjustified prejudice against gaming culture. In 90s rural Scotland, where I was raised, you had to fight hard for your place in the social pecking order. I enjoyed football, but my friends were nerds, and I preferred their company to that of the jocks, so I chose my tribe early.
When puberty hit hard, I was already at a disadvantage by not being into sports. I loved my Atari ST, but I was socially aware enough to know that that definitely wasn't going to attract girls. Fortunately, I also loved music. Nirvana was getting big, and I was hooked. Drinking, smoking, and playing in bands were my thing, and they held strong social currency for a self-conscious kid.
As a result, an almost pathological fear of being judged kept me from getting involved. I missed the whole GTA thing and, except for a bit of Portal, never bothered with it.
I also know that I'm quite prone to addiction, so if I were into gaming, it would eat my life.
So, when I do finally retire and find I'm unable to do much, that's when I'll jump on. I'll be the oldest noob in town and I'm kind of looking forward to it.