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Life After the Video Game Crash
codecasting writes "There's an interesting, very satirical story over at David Wong's Pointless Waste of Time where he makes a good case for the upcoming death of the video game industry. His key points include gaming platforms largely reaching a technological plateau, the aging of the 'Original Gamers' audience, and the slew of games that are just copies of the same game from last year, but with a new title and different cars/guns/bikinis/etc. An interesting and humorous read."
Who remembers the big shakeout of the '83?
I don't think he's saying that the video game market will die completely, rather, I think he's making the case that without an innovative, "nust-have" game, it will undergo another reduction in size/units sold, much like it did in the 80's after the 2600 craze ended.
"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."
The game industry has been around a long time. It can adapt and change all it wants.
The real reason the game industry is going to die, though, is going to be me, the original gamer parent. All of us with Ataris and NESs and SNESs are now having kids.
I plan on playing video games with my kids.
How many times is my 8 year-old going to have to get beat down by me in Street Fighter 6 EX Alpha Plus+ before he chucks the controller across the room in disgust for having lost the 537th game in a row? How many UT2k12 frags and gibings before he breaks down and cries? Will I have to score 300 points in Madden 2011 before he finally gives in to my superior hand/eye coordination?
My kids are going to *hate* playing video games because dad is either using the system already, or they're going to get their noob ass handed to them each and every time they play.
Why is Japan 'Where it counts'?
What percentage of the video game market is Japan anyway? 25%?
Of the 3 big markets in the world, Japan/Asia is the smallest.
The following figures will be total sales as of the end of 2003 (Jan 13, 2004, for PS2).
North America
PlayStation 2 - 29.26 million
Xbox - 8.6 million
GameCube - 7.46 million
Game Boy Advance - 23.78 million
Japan / Asia
PlayStation 2 - 16.18 million
Xbox - 1.4 million (~425,000 Japan alone)
GameCube - 3.37 million
Game Boy Advance - 12.66 million
Europe / PAL
PlayStation 2 - 24.56 million
Xbox - 3.7 million
GameCube - 3.11 million (~3 million Europe alone)
Game Boy Advance - 12.98 million
Worldwide
PlayStation 2 - 70 million
Xbox - 13.7 million
GameCube - 13.94 million
Game Boy Advance - 49.42 million
No reason to lie.
Its more then 6 - 8, but yes you are more or less right. Theres a book called 36 Dramatic Sitautions which lists all the plot types, and all of their plot twists. You can read a synopsis here. Required reading for any writer.
Religion is a gateway psychosis. -- Dave Foley