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Record Video Games Sales in 2001
night_flyer noted an article running @ ZD talking about how
2001 was a record year for video games with
doing 9.4B and PCs getting almost to 6B. Mentions Grand Theft Auto
3's huge sales, as well as The Sims. Also the X-Box, and Game Boy
Advanced contributing to the big numbers.
I wonder how much of the RIAA's decrease ended up increasing the game industry? People have limited funds, and if they're spending more money on one form of entertainment, they're going to be spending less on another.
In my dorm, there's a suite with a PS2, and a suite with an xbox, both of which are used somewhat regularly....
There's also a suite with an n64, a sega genesis, and an old 8bit Nintendo console. Oddly enough, the old nintendo gets played more than the new ps2 and xbox.... and they regularly buy games for that for less than $5.
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Nintendo continued to dominate the portable game console market. Its Game Boy Advance saw unit sales increase 22 percent from 2000.
This is because, for the most part, the GBA is the only portable game system available now. When was the last time Nintendo had a true competitor in the portable game market?
I'm surprised that Sony hasn't pushed their PSone more as a portable of late, especially since you can attach a screen to it.
I'm not afraid of falling, it's the sudden stop at the end that frightens me.
Gamecube and XBox still dont have all the "killer apps" to REALLY get their systems going yet. Some arent even released in other countries yet, either. Once Mario, Zelda, Sonic, and Metroid hit for Gamecube you'll see Nintendo sales go through the fookin' ROOF. Im not sure what Microsoft has lined up. Maybe Close Combat 4 or something. Who knows.
Why is it so interesting? How many people do you think use Linux on the desktop? I'll be EXTREMELY generous, and give it 5%.
Out of $6 billion, that leaves a $300 million POTENTIAL market (which, keep in mind, is a very generous figure). That's *not* that much, considering some companies make more than that on one game alone.
Plus, that is the POTENTIAL market. Keep in mind that a lot of people don't want to wait for Linux ports of the games or just don't want to play games period... or (gasp) actually prefer to use Windows for their gaming needs.
Linux gaming is NOT a viable market at this point in time.
-- Dr. Eldarion --
Sold more worldwide maybe... this article is about domestic sales. I think that FFX is in at a little over 1 mil in the U.S.
Dissolve... Resolve... Evolve...
Here's some random video game trivia I picked up for the incredible book The Ultimate History of Video Games to celebrate this good news!
...
... MAME on a fast PC with an X-Arcade = the best video game console out there!
- The PacMan character shape was derived from the game designer looking at a pizza he ordered after eating one slice of it.
- Pac Man was originally called "Puck Man" in Japan, but worried that american adolescents would deface the cabinets, replacing the 'P' with an 'F' to spell "Fuck Man", they changed the name.
- Both Steve Jobs and The Woz used to work at Atari in its early years. Atari founder Nolan Buschnell (also the founder of Chuck E Cheese) was hesitant about hiring Steve Jobs because he literally smelled bad and looked like a "20 year old ho chi minh". It turned out that almost everything Jobs took credit for at Atari was stuff that Woz actually did, which leads me to
- Atari gave Jobs the task of changing the design of one of their games (I forget which) to use less chips. Jobs then handed this task over to Woz. Jobs was promised a substantial bonus for every chip removed from the design, and he promised Woz half of this bonus. Woz's design was brilliant and removed something like 75 chips, which led to a bonus of something like 50 grand. Jobs gave Woz 500 bucks and told him that was half the total bonus. By fucking over his best friend, Jobs now had some capital to go and start Apple.
-The name "Donkey Kong" came from the Japanese designer (Miyamoto? I forget) trying to translate "Stubborn Gorrilla". He looked up "Stubborn" and saw "Donkey" as part of the translation and went with it.
-Magnavox designed the first video game console, the "Odyssey".
-"Atari" means "check" in the context of the japanese game Go.
-The company Namco got its big start by the illegal bootlegging of Atari arcade machines for the Japanese market.
-Space Invaders was such a hit in Japan that it caused a national coin shortage.
-The company name "COLECO" stands for "Colorado Leather Company". They also invented Cabbage Patch Kids.
Now, it is possible there's some factual errors above (don't have the book on me right now so I'm working on memory), so feel free to correct me!
(RANT)All that said, people, please go and support your local arcades. The arcade industry is DYING and it seems that nothing is being done because home video games are being so damn successful. I truly miss the days when arcade developers had significant R&D budgets and were capable of releasing arcade games that looked and played far better than anything you could play at home. I miss the days when I'd think how great it would be to be able to play those games at home. It just saddens me that 2d arcade style games are dying as a genre, and people keep unfairly comparing them to their 3d counterparts. and I don't care what you say, games like Metal Slug, Street Fighter 3, and Last Blade 2 have _FAR_ better graphics than any 3d first person shooter!!!!(/RANT)
And one more thing
Is because it appeals to women. Not to say men don't like it, but it appeals to women in a BIG WAY. It's like a virtual dollhouse, except much more advanced and you don't lose any of the pieces.
;)
Really, I've seen them do all sorts of imaginative/mentally-unhealthy things with the game. From spending hours creating their virtual dreamhouse to throwing the perfect party to hooking up their virtual persona with a virtual Justin Timberlake.
I mean, can you really think of any better, more efficient way to foster unrealistic expectations of life than The Sims? God bless innovation!
[PowerPoint] is a tool for capitalist presentation
Add to that hardware. I bought a PS2 just for FFX, that and I needed a new DVD player. Which creates an interesting question. Are PS2's and XBoxen driving DVD sales?
When someone yells "Stop" or goes limp, or taps out, the fight is over.