I don’t understand how “gamer style” is a thing.

Like, in general? Lots of non-functional molded plastic angular stuff with unnecessary holes, crevices, lights, and styling slapped on stuff. Let me do a quick search for "gamer mouse".

searches

Yeah. That's a nice example.

The ROG Phone itself isn't a particularly over-the-top example of that, but I don't really want the styling.

It isn't a deal-breaker, just that I'd rather not have it; for me it was a negative.

If you’re old enough to remember Winamp skins from the early 2000s

I am, and I agree that many of those did have similar over-the-top styling...and I don't want to buy physical hardware that looks like it.

I generally just want understated hardware without a lot of styling on it on all my computer hardware. I'm sure that there are people who do want something that looks more like the above, and that's fine, but it's not an aesthetic that I personally much like.

What about the price? I had ROG phone 2 before I changed to red magic due to the massive price difference (1500 ROG 8 vs 800 Red magic 9).

It can have all the 'coolest features ever' but its not worth almost twice as much as the competitor when the processor is the same

If I had to guess, part of the problem is probably "bigger" hardware moving into their space.

Like, phones have a lot of limitations for playing "heavyweight", PC-style games:

• Small battery.

• Small screen.

• Limited ability to dissipate heat.

• Really limited space and the hardware tradeoffs that come with that.

• Touchscreen controls, even with accelerometer, aren't ideal for a lot of games, especially PC or console ports.

For a lot of those, if you can manage to lug a laptop with you, you're probably better off.

Then you have stuff like the Steam Deck and a bunch of similar larger-than-phone game-oriented platforms show up, and that eats even further into your market. Yeah, okay, a ROG Phone is smaller and lighter than a Steam Deck, but if you're trying to deal with touchscreen controls by lugging along external control stuff, then you're sacrificing some of that mobility:

https://www.androidcentral.com/phones/asus-rog-phone-9-pro-is-the-best-gaming-phone-and-its-here-in-the-us

I mean, I'm sure that there's still a niche for heavyweight-game phone gaming, but it's gonna have other parties eating away at the edges, narrowing it. You gotta want to play heavyweight games, not be willing to use larger-than-phone hardware, but spend a substantial amount of money on your phone (especially given the short EOL on the ROG phone) to have that ability. My guess is that some people who won't use other hardware for gaming is because they have a phone and are price-sensitive enough to not want to get additional hardware platforms to just play games, so "users willing to spend a high premium on phone hardware to be able to game" may be a poor match to that market.

Is this a joke?

"I like weird interesting phones with cool features."

"Have you thought about buying the most basic smartphone?"

I'm assuming the ROG Phone did poorly as less people wanted to buy an expensive, gamery phone when a) new phones have come out with equally performance (see the newest Snapdragon and Mediatek chips), battery life (see SiC batteries), cooling (see vapour chambers), etc. while b) offering much better value and/or cameras and c) looking more like a normal phone in terms of aesthetics and feel. Also, poor software support by Asus and competition from other gaming oriented phone brands (e.g. Redmagic, Vivo iQOO, Oppo's "Turbo" series)