Why would anyone want to actively focus on the "hardcore" again? If there is one thing I've learned over my entire lifetime of gaming it's this: the hardcore are not loyal, grateful, or charitable. Why would you want to be tied down to an audience like that, especially when there's little room for them to grow? The NES, SNES, Game Boy, GBA, PS1, PS2, 360, PS3, DS, Wii, and 3DS did not succeed because of "core" gamers, we are not that numerous enough to do that. No, it's always been the broader audience that has brought in the money and if they truly have all moved on to mobile games, that's not good for console or handheld gaming, which includes EVERYBODY.
And I thought people would realize that by now; after decades you'd think they would have understood that gaming is going to outgrow the gamer culture if that makes any sense and that means new people are going to go in. Heck, Pong was first distributed to bars, not exactly the go-to spot when thinking of stereotypical gaming culture. You'd think gamers would be HAPPY about people understanding their love for the medium and getting into it. I am shocked by how many people are still SEETHING over Nintendo attempting to give the gaming population a much-needed booster shot, unaware that they STILL MADE EVERYTHING THEY MADE BEFORE. We still got Zelda, Mario, Fire Emblem, Metroid, Smash Bros., Donkey Kong, Pokemon, and Kirby it's just that they made a lot of other stuff that we had to share space with. I don't see how that's a bad thing.