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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.
They all sold more games than any other manufacturer.
When everyone sells more than everyone else, how can you not have a banner year?
I wonder i this takes into account used game sales. I know I racked up a bit of debt buying used Dreamcast games while they're a) cheap and b) easy-to-find.
It's interesting that in a $9 Billion industry, there's so little money going to Linux gaming. I was disappointed with the bad news this year for Linux game companies. I hope that 2002 will bring good news.
Tux racer, by the way, is awesome! I can't believe how easy ti was to install and run on my Slack box.
Moderation: Put your hand inside the puppet head!
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.
Let's not forget other great franchise games like Final Fantasy X that led to the PS2 sales so people could buy other games. At least that's why I have one and now I've got two or three other games just cuz.
Instead of the Killer App, it's the Killer Game that drives the market and there are more serial games now than ever.
--- Don't be a player hater: I meta-mod ALL negative mods as Unfair.
Besides that, I'm glad that this will fuel the creation of more cool video games. More video games!
Or as one of my Sims likes to Say,
"This graa es fredushay!"
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.
This year may also have been penultimate proof that the gaming industry is in a really stagnant rut when it comes to the culture of development. My buddies working in games bitched more, got paid less, were laid off more often or had to leave due to disputes with moronic producers and overfunded designers than ever before, and every word I heard pushed one simple fact (with the exception of coders who always seem to be allright). Creating games has become a true massmarket medium - unfortunately it is also almost entirely about money now and for most in the industry has nothing to do with vision or fun.
I expect with this news for that trend to continue further - more middle management and inflated budgets or ship dates that are unrealistic. Because gaming is becoming all about the Benjamins...
And speaking of $6.9 billion dollars of PC gaming software sales - considering that the best games hardly sold at all, that means a shitload of Deer Hunter and Sims games were sold last year.
** http://www.nkhumanrights.or.kr/ ** Human rights in North Korea. 1 million estimated dead from starvation.
I believe Final Fantasy X has shipped more than all of those titles. Maybe?
http://ps2.ign.com/news/41328.html
Tell me, who's gettin' screwd in this picture ?
yush
Speaking of Grand Theft Auto 3, does anyone know when the PC version will be coming out?
Moon Macrosystems. Sun's biggest competitor.
oh boy i can't wait, GTA3 movie, GTA3 tv series, GTA3 lunchboxes, GTA3 cereal..
it's good to see that interactive entertainment is finally becoming mainstream in the eyes of the suits though.
then again, maybe we're just headed for a video game boom/bust just like atari had back in the 80s. arcades are dying slowly, consoles are going to have shorter and shorter lifespans with higher pricetags.
your jesus is another mans xebu. chew on that hypocrites.
Any year that has the release of a new portable (Game Boy Advance), followed by the near simultaneous releases of 2 home consoles, (Game Cube and X Box) is bound to spark a large number of software sales.
The Game Boy has been basically the only portable on the market for years and I'm sure that there were plenty of people who ready to upgrade to a newer technology.
And I would think that Microsoft's gigantic marketing campaign, following September where we are all looking to stay home more caused a few consoles to be sold.
people dont have as much disposable income, and tend to purchase entertainment that can be "reused". Books & Boards Games are always big sellers in bad economies, video games just follow the logical progression.
what falters in bad economies are "night on the town" style entertainment like movies and fine dining (with the notable exception of bars)
Thanks to file sharing, I purchase more CDs
Thanks to the RIAA, I buy them used...
Think about it, the growing power of the pc and its cheapness is allowing more and more people to run the best games on it, at $50 a piece. Along with that you have the ps2 which has sold some insane number like 18 million units (including one to me last week). I bought it for final fantasy X but decided I wanted to play it with my little brothers so went out and bought 3 more games. This is probably the first year that we've had 3 consoles that are all roughly equal in the minds of users so maybe the more of a choice has lead some people to check out details alittle more which I know once I got into hardware specs I couldn't help but buy one. Just wish the ps2 and xbox were alittle cheaper, but theres always the gamecube and computer games to cover that market. I suppose thats the biggest thing, its no longer you buy a system at $200 (the original consoles, nes, genesis, sega cd, saturn, ps1, 3do, super nes, etc) and thats it. Now you've got your super systems (xbox, ps2), your less pricey but still nice systems (gamecube, gameboy advance, psone combo) and with everyone owning a computer, your very low cost games (darkvault of camalot, soldier of fortune, wolfenstein, sims, etc). Definitly looks like a good time to be in the gaming industry with so many options.
can't sleep slashdot will eat me
I have noticed an increasing trend towards people having and using multiple platfors for gaming. In the past it seemed that most people had either a nintendo or a sega for example. Now it's common to use several. Am I the only freak running at least 5? (Atari 2600,N64,PS2,GBA,PC).
http://www.kubuntu.org/
that everyone was losing money because of piracy? How the hell can they be making money when everyone is copying the software?
Seriously. This is as lame as bitching about Napster, while CD sales exploded.
Natural value rules work, even in the midst of artificial IP rules. ha!
Yet another nail in the IP coffin. if you give people something that they WANT to pay for.. they will.
Until fantasy StarTrek transporters/replicators are developed, then the rules will not change.
People will pay for tangible things and supportive service and that which provides them convenience or entertainment. Period. They will not pay for anything else and to force people to do so is artificial.
guns kill people like spoons make Rosie O'Donnell fat.
It's a combination of several factors, imo.
1st, you have the launch of several different consoles. This in turn makes people want games to play on them, so they buy titles that maybe they wouldn't normally, if a large group of titles were out there.
2nd, the economy is in the sh!tter, so people tend to stay at home more, and it's easier to justify a $50 video game you can play for a long time as opposed to a dinner out at some fancy place.
3rd, PCs are cheap as hell, fast, and getting cheaper/faster by the day. That gaming market exploded as well I expect.
lastly, There are a lot of really cool games out there. Online games, pc games, console games, it's all good.
that should just about sum up everything in one post.
Sent from your iPad.
Man, I thought zapping aliens was what we're doing in Guantanamo!
(I'm getting modded into the basement for that one)
She sat at the window watching the evening invade the avenue.
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
Are there any statistics about corresponding increases in car wrecks? I bought a PS2 just for Grand Theft Auto 3 (and also bought a bunch of other games); so I definitely spent way more on games in 2001 than I have in years.
But now when I'm driving around (I'm in a somewhat rural area), when I see a good pile of dirt by the side of the road, I feel a little tempted to floor it and see if I can complete a Unique Jump, preferably without landing upside down, so my car doesn't burst into flames and explode. Thank god there aren't any rocket launchers lying around on the side of the road.
$9.4 Billion isn't a shocking number, especially when you consider the major things that have happened this year. You, of course, have Xbox, PS2, and Gamecube driving huge sales dollars.
On the PC side, you have crazy things happening, like Wolfenstein Shipping over 1 Million Copies. Then you think about the gross dollars being generated on SINGLE games, it's staggering. Consider now a published like Activision has dozens in its portfolio.
Look also at the franchise opportunites these games present. The Sims and its add-ons held spots 1, 2, 8, and 9 on the Top Selling U.S. PC Games for the week of January 5th.
In Korea, there's a $300 Million market for cybercafes. What are we spending our money on? Games, apparently.
And consider this: now that Xbox is in the livingroom, there's an entertainment platform ready for expansion in many MANY households now. The industry is only going to grow.
--
I'm not sure if international sales count in this, but the only game I've bought this year was Uplink that was featured on Slashdot. Other than that, nothing else has really caught my attention in the gaming market. Maybe if they came out with something new and interesting I might buy it.
What the game companies need to do is figure out innovative ways to break out of standard genres like FPS or RTS, which is probably why I liked Uplink and probably why The Sims did so well, because they aren't standard genres that have been rehashed over and over again and are just getting old now.
Things you think are in the Constitution, but are not.
This is strange...People a few weeks back were talking about how much money is in the console market, but judging from the numbers(correct me if I'm misinterpeting them), the PC industry made up almost 2/3 of the games market total!
Methinks MS just wants a bigger slice of the pie with the X-BOX, considering they control the PC market, but aren't guaranteed a piece of the profits games companies are making.
It's been a long time.
The article mentions that the number for the console market ($9.4B) includes hardware, which in the console industry is sold at a loss.
The PC number ($6B) did not include hardware. I have no idea how much hardware was sold, but there are some pieces of hardware that were sold solely for the purpose of gaming (I know you didn't purchase that GeForce 3 Ti 500 to browse the Net). Is it possible that the PC market is actually bigger than the console market? Of course, it would be very difficult to ever nail down PC hardware figures.
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?
Texas Instruments graphing calculators pose serious competition to Nintendo products. They have the advantage that a large portion of Nintendo's target audience (students aged 12-18) can bring calculators to school, but most school systems have non-negotiable regulations banning all products produced by Nintendo of America Inc. from the premises.
Palm OS and WinCE devices also pose a threat because they pretty much own the market for cheap games for traveling businesspeople.
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.
PSone can't be made handheld because a 12cm disc is just too clunky for a handheld unless you either make a two-piece system (controller and screen connected to a Discman-looking device) or expose the CD (done in the PlayStation Portable) which might incur action from the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
Will I retire or break 10K?
Just off the top of my head, Max Payne and Black & White.
Both blew my mind, and were a lot better than one more half-life expansion.
I do not think you know what it means:
Penultimate Pe*nul"ti*mate, a.
Last but one; as, the penultimate syllable, the last syllable but one of a word; second to last.
--
Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
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
that for the last 10 years the industry has been telling us it is fixing to fall off the face of the planet due to massive pirating, thus mandating the use of annoying, but (not) highly effective copy-protection measures like SafeDisk (TM).
DO NOT DISTURB THE SE
Governments kill the first few people that have one because they're not clued in to the "it's already out there" concept.
People who build replicators start replicating weapons to defend themselves when their government comes knocking
Government doesn't figure out the "it's already out there" concept until after a few bloody shootouts with prowd owners of replicated arsenals become highly publicized.
Governments try to openly ban replicator technology to prevent a loss of power
Black market opens up for replicator technology. Terrorist types create weapons. People start to realize that society has to change because of replicator technology
Global revolution breaks out between citizens and the established government. Nearly everything is obliterated
Grim outlook, huh? Many, many people would have to die for capitalism to end. The existance of a device that threatens the viability of capitalism will cause a very bloody war.
Sigh.
Communism had both good and bad features, (and most of the bad ones can be directly blamed on Stalin.) And believe it or not, the U.S. has adopted nearly all of the bad Communist features despite it's bullshit, "Capitalist America Is Great" rhetoric.
Let's take an example which is common on Slashdot. . .
Patents and Copyrights.
A patent (awarded by the central government) which allows, say, Disney, to be the sole manufacturer of Mickey Mouse products, flies in the face of so-called Capitalism. A truly capitalist system would allow pure economic evolutionary forces to bestow success upon whichever company is able to produce the best Mickey Mouse products with the greatest efficiency.
Awarding arbitrary monopolies because they make sense or seem fair is one of the cornerstones of Socialism!
As such, patents and copyrights are anything BUT capitalist! --Which I don't necessarily mind, so long as they are used responsibly and fairly, (which they are most certainly not.) Basically, what we have is corporate American crying, "Rah Rah Capitalism!" from one side of their mouth, while from the other, they beg the state to protect their 'right' to maintain artificial, state-ordained monopolies.
In other words, you need to do more learning on this subject, (as do many). I suggest you take in as much unbiased history about Russia as you have done American nationalistic propaganda.
Fairness is the whole point of Socialism. The only reason most people don't want a fair system is that they hope to be a beneficiary of unfair practices.
-Fantastic Lad
Okay, lets intelligently look at why they're claiming that the gaming industry is doing so well (in terms of dollars):
Three new consoles came out within the last 6 quarters. They obviously make up a good percentage of the money made (gross, not net, if we're to assume the units were sold at a loss). And with new consoles come new games, ergo another percentage.
Also, you have to take into account that consoles, games, perhipherals, etc cost WAY more than they used to. That in itself is why its a 'good year' for gaming, because companies made a lot of money. But how about the numbers of units sold, not the total sales figure? It could be that there really isn't as large an interest in gaming this year than normal (whatever that is), but since the stuff costs so much, the gaming companies made more this year than ever.
If I was a marketing exec for one of these gaming companies, I'd be paying more attention to the number of units sold than anything else. Profits are not an accurate gauge of how well you are doing in pushing your product, believe it or not. Thats how you ensure your survival, by increasing unit sales, not unit price. Blah.
I sure wouldn't invest in a company that is bragging about this year's profits, but rather would go with a company that is able to show where its at, and where it expects to be, and how so. $9B in sales is no good if you're only $2B clear and you haven't paid anyone yet.
What could possibly hurt the security of the American people more than giving our own government the ability to hide its
That very line, a variation of which I once used often myself, is fast becoming dangerous rhetoric.
Art may mirror society, but it's a two-way mirror! They each affect the other equally!
Take the whole 9-11 thing for example. . .
Crashing airplanes into sky scrapers was the ultimate in media expression. Emotional response was the sole purpose behind the act. That's why they call it 'Terrorism'.
Now, would you say that this act has lightened or darkened your world?
Art can most definitely affect behavior! The whole point of art is to affect behavior! I smile at a beautiful painting, and I have been changed from what I was only a moment earlier. I wasn't smiling before.
We're talking about a deep and fascinating jungle of perceptions. Humans are beautiful and complicated events. Don't let the prevailing winds of rhetoric and ignorance rob you of this understanding!
-Fantastic Lad
They are not communistic at all. If it was pure communism, there would be no patents or copyright, bacause it would be owned by all the people. Communism,is about all people getting the same thing, regardless what they do for a living, you drive a bus, or your a doctor, you get the same thing.
the federation in old school star trek is an example of a perfect communistic society.
Of course democracy and communism forms of government needs to have people who are moral, an ethical to survive and be truly open. Once people begin taking advantge of other people, more laws need to be created.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Just like PC games and Console games are in a different catagory.
Not anymore, thanks to the Flash Advance Linker which lets you copy binaries from legitimately purchased games into a computer, and VisualBoyAdvance which lets you play them.
I don't think you can really count calculators and palmtop software as direct competitors until you see it on Toys R Us and Funcoland racks
Why would TU need to carry TI-89 calculators? Students probably already have them.
and you start to see crossover software.
On this page alone I see clones of Mario, Zelda, T*tr*s, Asteroids, Beetle Mania (from SMRPG), Breakout, Bomberman, Boulder Dash, Bust-A-Move (Puzzle Bobble), Command & Conquer, Doom, Final Fantasy, Mario Kart, Memory, Minesweeper, Pong, SameGame, Simon, Sokoban, Streets of Rage, Taipei, Worms, Yahtzee, baseball, blackjack, checkers, chess, light cycle, labyrinth, poker, reversi, snake, solitaire, and more. Is this not an extensive library?
(Tony Hawk for TI, yes!)
And yes, there is a skateboard game; it just doesn't have Tony Hawk®'s name on it.
The point is that you can carry these into class with you, which can't be said of a Game Boy.
I don't think the fact that a kid has a badass calculator would keep him from asking his parents for a GBA for christmas.
Likewise, I don't think the fact that a kid has a badass PS2 would keep him from asking his parents for a GameCube for christmas.
Will I retire or break 10K?
Now it's time for you to explain why you would still adhere to an system that has failed.
Sigh. Oh, alright. I'll offer a few hints, since it seems you missed my point:
I don't adhere to fascism. I doubt many of the Russian people did either. The Big Secret is this: Russia was not a Socialist state.
The problem is that the first three of these items are alive and well in America today, while the fourth, competition, is completely out of control, resulting in an excaberation of the first three, and a deterioration of the whole.
As a friend of mine likes to say: "The ideological structure of the U.S.S.R. only failed first. The American system is not far behind. The main problem is that both systems started out trying to treat the problem of government in a fair way, and both were derailed by corruption and greed."
I would add that the main difference between Russia and the U.S. is that the corrupt assholes in the Soviet Union used Fear and Violence to get their way. Whereas in the U.S., the corrupt assholes use highly sophisticated propaganda which aims at the heart rather than the mind.
-Fantastic Lad
I know you mean well, but unfortunately your opinion is effectively as bad as approving of censorship in principle. The guys who cart people off to death camps use the same excuse: "I don't approve of censorship, I'm just killing users of free speech who incite censorship."
This is only true for the enlightened. Clearly, my comments were not directed at people who are powerful enough to understand this. But that's not the point I was making.
For instance, take your comment:
"The danger of such an attack happening has been there for years and the incompetence of the security staff at the majority of airports will ensure that something similar will be possible in the future."
This very thought demonstrates that your thinking was directly affected by the display. Look at how the U.S. has followed up: Civil liberties revoked. Privacy diminished. General war-mongering.
You may not, but I call this a darkening of culture.
And if you consider that there is every possibility that the events of 9-11 were engineered in part by the U.S. secret services, then an enlightened person might begin to see just how media and reality are in fact intertwined to the point where society can be played like a musical instrument.
Now I am not saying that GTA3 is the cause of society's downfall, (though it contributes). And I'm not even saying that it should be pulled from the shelves. (People MUST be allowed to choose.) What I AM saying is that people should know that indulging in darkness WILL affect them, and to be enlightened means one recognizes this and chooses not to diminish oneself by indulging.
How many digital depictions of girls have you set on fire with a flame thrower for the sake of entertainment? If more than 1, then why? What associations do you think your subconscious mind made, particularly in regard to pleasure associations? Please review.
-Fantastic Lad