Just because a single game is hack&slash, it doesn't mean the whole world is now accepting only hack&slash, Alrik. Sacred did not sell that well (in fact, I saw it only once in stores and only a few copies: nobody I know knows what the game is about) and it was last year. As for Blizzard, Diablo 2 was made five years ago...
[H&S]games don't need as much work as full RPGs need.
- (Therefore) We willsee much more H/S in the future, mainly bought by a younger generation.
You are wrong.
Hack and Slash games (at least the better ones), require a lot of work. Such games have a lot more different monsters, items and spells than non-H&S RPGs. Since those games are also made for multiplayer, balance also comes in. The developes have to work their backside off to make sure character A is as strong as character B and that's a hell of a work.
There have been H&S games, there are H&S games and there will always be H&S games. With Diablo released, many companies went and ripped this game off. Some games were inspired by D2, such as Divine Divinity. The combat in DD is no different form Diablo 2, as you might know. H&S is not "growing" not "will dominate the market soon". There have always been such games yet there are still story-driven RPGs. It would be a misconsiderment to say that those games attract younger players. No, those games attract people who play games for
F U N. They are not looking for an involving story; those players want to play, nothing more. To say H&S games are for kids is the same as saying amusement parks are for people under 12: each time I go to an amusement park, I notice the great percentage of the crows are adults.
