Saturday, December 20th 2008
Will Economic Recession Impact the Video Game Industry?
Unless you have been living in a cave for the past 6 months, you are aware that the global economy is in recession. Journalists for The Economist magazine have written an interesting article on how the video game industry has proven, so far, to be recession proof. Games sales in America were up 35% this year in October over last year and hardware sales were up as well. However large software developers, like EA and Activision Blizzard, are reporting losses. For a more detailed explanation check out the article.
Source:
Economist.com
34 Comments on Will Economic Recession Impact the Video Game Industry?
But i think next year will be a tough one for any industry especially with more job losses after the new year.
for all of those who dont know, Mr. Big Wig is living the life, while his 40,000 workers that made him his damned money are out a job.
Just my $.02
I don't get the same feeling as I used to as a little kid when new games come out. :(
the recession will affect EVERY industry in many countries
What recession ? :twitch:
Since a recession is a good excuse for people to pirate then yeah it more than likely will suffer to a degree.
EA deserves to get a nutkick, but they arent hurting eather, again no matter what they say, how they get in the red is buying up to many smaller dev houses/ferms so they can rape their content till its un-profitable, then cut and run on the employees of said firms.
IF game companys want to turn the whole situation around,drop the useless DRM and drop per unit prices, will cut profit per sale BUT will get them FAR more sales, look at games like serious sam, it came out at 19.99, sold millions of copy's, and was honestly a fun game(effectively a doom clone with far better gfx and such) it sold VERY WELL because 1. the demo wasnt crippled crap and 2. the price was right, the company did make money on it so much so that they put out an expansion AND 2nd game(that didnt sell quite as well due to higher initial price but was quite impressive in its one right)
look at Sins of a Solar Empire, sold millions with little to no publicity ( I only heard about it online from friends for example ) it has NO DRM AT ALL, yet it sold/sells like mad, If more company's follow stardocks example they WOULD see increased sales, EA is being bitch slapped for using draconian DRM, and rightly so, when you treat your paying customers like criminals/theives what can you expect but to loose many of them?
the game industry go's in cycles, i wont cry if the likes of EA and VUG die, because it will just signal the end of this large corporate buildup and a move back to smaller independent dev houses that tend to give you a more interesting game experience instead of clones of what you have already played with different gfx.
this has happened b4, it will happen again, given time, just as the ecoimy will recover as it has b4, just hope we get the recovery faster then its happened in the past.
:toast:
Joern Berniger points out the logic that the impact of the crisis will have large effects in a short time on those markets where people are rapidly willing to spend less money for products: gastronomy and entertainment electronics.
BTW:
The crisis is often described as "Trust Crisis " and we are told that the only solution is to regain trust.
Well, if that ain´t some pretty nice global elite marketing strategy... ;)
Think at least twice after being fed by corporate mass media. :pimp:
video.google.de/videoplay?docid=-3969792790081230711&ei=OYZNSbagNZHG2gKTkfH2Cg&q=corporation
Let's face it, some of these major publishers and developers like EA would be in trouble right about now even if it wasn't for the now obvious economic troubles. I mean really, for example Need For Speed series was all downhill after NFS High Stakes aka NFS4 circa 1999. Everything that came after NFS4 was based on the "The Fast and the Furious" type of setting, with the whole underground "sh-treet racin!" [sic] theme which was directed straight at your average pasty 13 year old Vin Diesel wannabes.
And even though it might seem weird, most of the relevant statistics from Entertainment Software Association show that 13 year olds are not your biggest money makers as far as video game market is concerned. Here is a quick quote:
"The average game buyer is 37 years old. In 2005, 95 percent of computer game buyers and 84 percent of console game buyers were over the age of 18"
The latest statistics show more or less the same numbers. Trust me, when I go looking for a racing/driving simulator, last thing I'm looking is for some shiny pimp-my-ride "sh-treet racin!" [sic] title. That crap don't sell as far as any real money is concerned and when EA finally goes under, I hope other publishers and developers of similar titles will take notice.
Stimulus packages have never worked. The only way I could see it working is if it forced people to spend it on building new homes (recession/depression are often determined by home construction figures) or paying off loans (free up some money in banks that grant loans to build houses). If they do a "here's $600 USD we bought from China, spend it how you like" thing again, I'd argue that what Congress is doing is criminal (bribery to reelect them with our own money).
I'm not certain why people are buying lots of games in 2008. But yeah, if it gets to the point where you have to decide between putting food in your mouth, fuel in your car, paying your rent, or buying a video game to pretend those other issues don't exist, obviously the video game sales would go way down.
Addsub do you play Live For Speed ?
On the long run, I think this will actually be a benefit for the industry as a whole!