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Game Industry Bigger Than Hollywood
Ant writes "This SF Gate story says stacks of new releases for hungry video game enthusiasts mean it's boom time for an industry now even bigger than Hollywood. The $10 billion video game industry, which generates more revenue than Hollywood, has never released so many highly anticipated blockbuster titles in a single season. It started in August with the game title Doom 3, followed by The Sims 2 in September, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas in October, then Halo 2, Metroid Prime 2: Echoes and Half-Life 2 last month. In November, sales of video games rose to $849 million, an 11 percent increase from the same month last year and up 77 percent from October, according to the industry research firm NPD Funworld. The industry set a milestone last month when Microsoft's Halo 2 -- a sequel to a futuristic game with an elaborate plot that pits humans against invading aliens -- surpassed Hollywood's opening-weekend movie box office record in just one day of sales."
I know I contributed about $150 to this.. how much did other /.ers contribute?
People don't buy movie tickets months in advance for an opening weekend, so that's really not a fair comparison. This also doesn't take into account Hollywood's DVD sales which are quite impressive.
Buy Steampunk Clothing Online!
Is it that suprising? A video game can offer so much more than an hour and a half movie. Not only that but the "sequal factor" really starts piling up. Look ever single game up there has been a sequal.
This is one of those witty signatures that you'll remember.
What about UT2004. I'm sorry, that was a blockbuster game too, if anything is.
This will reach a peek and then drop like a rock.
Dashboard Widgets
That's what I thought...
We have secretly replaced these Slashdot mods' sense of humor with a rusty nail. Let's see if they notice!!
There was also Everquest 2 and World of Warcraft.
The rich, detailed, immersive settings for what used to be entirely passive entertainment can now, with the current technology, be used for interactive entertainment.
All those wonderful spy-drama, fantasy, and sci-fi worlds that used to be the exclusive domain of movies? Now their realism is being delivered to you in a way that you can actually be in - if you're open to the experience.
The coolest voice ever.
Now if only the industry could receive the recognition it deserves, the recognition the movie, TV and music industries receive.
There ought to be video game awards much better than those Spike recently gave out.
Somewhere, EA_Spouse is crying.
MMORPG games such as World of Warcraft get a hit of cash up front and then involve monthly revenue. Hollywood has nothing like that.
Most games cost between $30 and $50, no-matter what platform you're buying for. How much is a movie ticket? $8 to $10 for tickets or $20 to $30 for DVDs. How much do games cost to make vs. the revenue they bring in?
they want their headline back!
BTM
That was the turning point of my life--I went from negative zero to positive zero.
...but the difference in engagement factor between interactive versus passive entertainment is very real. From the article:
The latest Entertainment Software Association survey shows that the average gamer is 29 and spends more time playing games than engaging in traditional forms of entertainment such as watching TV or going to the movies.
"If I had some time in the afternoon, and it was a choice between watching a movie or playing a game, I'd rather play a game," said Marlon Castro, 35, of Foster City.
The coolest voice ever.
STOP TALKING!!! Don't give them anymore ideas! I have to pay close to 10 bucks to see s movie as it is!
I am full of goo... black evil goo
I am pretty sure I overheard that Halo thing already. This article just seems to summarize what has probably been known by many slashdotters for a long time.
I have given a couple of hundred bucks to the industry this year, and still have not finished any of them (save Halo 2)...Prince of Persia, NHL 2005, Splinter Cell...the list goes on and on...
just a web application developer and instructor in Toronto, ON Canada
the MPAA and RIAA decide to sue game companies, citinglost revenue.
Doesn't it seem odd that an industry that would take more losses from piracy (i.e. a much higher percentage of users that already have the means and ability to pirate the products, and where the individual products are priced higher, providing further incentive for piracy) is making more money than the film industry, which should have a much larger customer base?
Or is it that the barrier-to-piracy on movies is a lot lower?
Think about it ... with movies, there's a certain amount of hype going on. Ever go and see a movie it seems is great, and it was terrible? Ever do the same for a videogame?
... not that I've actually done anything useful like a review, but going to the store and monkey'ing with it, it's nothing special. It's biggest asset is packing exsisting technology into a small package.
I've known people salivating over the Nintendo DS for a while
When you have alot of noise and little signal... it tends to draw money... you can hype anything. The current trend is just migrating to video games.
(Not that I'm knocking it... I still play UT2004 like a madman!)
FLR
Sheesh! Those games aren't nearly as good as Shave Kerry's Head is going to be...
Mastiff Hounds bigger than Rats!
Common Cold bigger than Cancer!
Oranges bigger than Macintosh computers!
ALL THIS WEEK at the Tri-County fairgrounds!
SEE the Peacock which is bigger than a Molecule!
WITNESS the Sunflower dominating a Cockroach in sheer size!
ALL THIS WEEK at the Tri-County fairgrounds!
Average (optimistic) movie length : 2 hours. ....
Average (conservative) game length : 10 hours.
A movie is $10/unit. A video game is $50/unit. Let's divide your numbers by five and then talk.
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
they would be at 90 times the size of hollywood if there =was no piracy.
they lose 68 billion dollars a day due to piracy and that is only going to increase by 20 times every year until the government makes software piracy a death penalty crime!
why wont you think of the poor video game publishersd!!!!
Mainly, Hollywood can release a movie, get box office, sell the DVD, license the movie to networks, and sell other rights (for a TV show based on it, sequels), while a game sells and if it doesn't sell well, it's dead in the water
Well, it's obviously due to piracy of our intellectual property. Everyone knows that games aren't pirated. What?
so does this mean we can stop paying $50 per game?
I appreciate the sentiment and all, but $50 is just a tad outrageous.....
-- If you try to fail and succeed, which have you done? - Uli's moose
I can watch a movies without needing a flashlight...
"See, this is what happens as time progresses, all the ideas will eventually run out."
But what does that mean for the pirate industry? Will not their "revolutionary distribution model" save us from a fate worse than death? What about the "kill all copyright" advocates? They'll surely save us. Hmmm...weren't artists suppose to be "stealing" from the "commons"? Now that we've put an end to that, surely games should be flowing like manna from heaven. After all, anyone can come up with them, and they cost nothing to produce. Right?
Right. Only one game that runs on a PS2. THREE pc-only games. Yeah, these are the titles raking in the big money. PS2 -- One Hundred MEEllion units sold. Publishers make their money on the ps2. period.
And if you notice, both MP2 and Halo2 are first-party titles... how many more units would they move if they released those on ps2? Just imagine.
It's hard to find real sales numbers, so here's the latest I could find... from the UK, december 11. The only title that isn't PS2 is Halo 2. at #10.
1 Need for Speed: Underground 2 EA All 4
2 Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas Rockstar PS2 7
3 Call of Duty: Finest Hour Activision PS2/Xb/GC 2
4 The Incredibles THQ All 6
5 FIFA Football 2005 EA All 10
6 Prince of Persia: Warrior Within Ubisoft PS2/Xb/GC 2
7 GoldenEye: Rogue Agent EA PS2/Xb/GC 3
8 The Getaway: Black Monday SCEE PS2 5
9 Pro Evolution Soccer 4 Konami PS2/Xb/PC 9
10 Halo 2 Microsoft Xb 5
here
If you're a publisher, if you're talking $$$, it's a Sony world.
I think credit should be due to Bungie, the "true" creators of Halo 2. Microsoft just gave them a platform to work off of, and financial backing.
They sold out to MS, so they're part of the whole and don't get to claim credit anymore.
The Book Industry garnered $23.4 billion in 2003 - and that was a flat recession year. When video games pass books in dollar volume, then we will know the end of civilisation is at hand.
Da Blog
"I downloaded a couple of those games, and bought them after I played them and wholly enjoyed them. "
Well I'm glad to see that the whole demo concept worked for you. Now for the rest of your friends...
I read this last year, that games were more popular than movies ($ wise) and couldn't believe it. Does anyone besides me remeber when the death knell of video games was sounded? I think it was 91-92 or something? Honestly, I rem them saying they would just fade away, and I hoped they wouldn't.
Of course when LAN games spread to internet games...
PCB#
free ipod and free gmail!
Lots of people go to see movies they like multiple times. But how many people buy multiple copies of a game they like?
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
"the MPAA and RIAA decide to sue game companies, citinglost revenue."
And we'll still be telling that joke in 2010.
Anyway the game and movie industry are working closely together. How many games do you know, that are tied in directly to movies? Remember Little Nemo? What about the latest Jim Carrey movie? That shark movie that dreamworks did?
The video game industry (and probably the computer industry as well) may make more money than the American movie industry, but copyright law is influenced by corporate American movie studios far more than those who make computers or video games. To the extent it is appropriate to separate these "industries" (Disney presents a particularly complex case, owning television networks, movie distribution labels, record distribution labels, and more), it's ironic that the relatively smaller American movie industry has so much say about how computer hardware and software are allowed to work or how long copyrighted works of all kinds will stay under copyright.
Digital Citizen
I just played GTA: SA last night for the first time. I'd say it's a significant evolution from Vice City. This game features a more linear story line and way more dialogue. It's more like playing a movie than GTA: Vice City. Additionally, it's got a lot more character development that makes it like the Sims (i.e. you have to eat or you get weak, and you have to exercise at the gym). Granted, it's not as big a difference as Doom 3 is from Doom 2, but it's also not just a revision like all the Madden NFL games and the 'cash machines' you cite.
I just wanted to post this message agreeing with all your observations.
$5 / month hosted VPS on linux = awesome!
I hate all this horse crap about the games industry being bigger than Hollywood. I'm sure you can find reports where the total games industry revenues exceed movie box office revenues. But last time I checked box office revenues account for about 30% of the movie industry's total revenues.
Coming Soon, "Game Industry Bigger Than Jesus". Then the backlash.
Wow.
I remember the time when the size of the gaming industry hovered around $5-$6 billion, as recently as year 2000. Anyone have a monthly or yearly chart that would show when the jumps occured?
If they want to boost their income, why don't they release a DVD of the movie as soon as it hits theaters. Release it to High Definition PPV too. Blockbuster could buy these up and rent them out at $10 a pop.
They'd make a killing off of the people who can't or don't like going to the movie theater because of whatever reasons.
This industry is ours. It's profits and technology will become one with our own. It's programmers will be hired and worked into mindless drones. Resistance is Futile. Surrender you IP and prepare to be bought out. Resistance is futile. People will buy our crappy games as long as we continue to pay retailers to promote them. Lower your morals and prepare to watch us take all of the billions that could have been yours. The comglomerate will prevail. Challenge Everything(TM), except our margins.
May the Maths Be with you!
I guess this means that we can look forward to Bullshit games put out by Michael Moore.
LK
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
I honestly don't mind spending the money on a game that i can play for sometimes nearly 100 hours or more... (i'm an RPG fanatic) It sure beats paying 10 bucks for a movie that chances are sucks... most hollywood movies these days are putting so much money into FX and advertising, that they are forgetting the fundementals... (story, acting... etc...), something that the video game industry is deffinately kicking hollywood's butt at.... so i don't mind giving them the cash for a far superior form of entertainment
"There's nothing to stop EA from licensing games into TV shows."
Ummm...let's cut to the chase here. How many successful games-based TV shows do you know of?
Remember game first, then TV show.
That, and the fact that an ever increasing number of people reach a certain level of wealth (or join the 'first world' if you will - see development of Asian countries, China, India), giving them more free time, and 'disposable income' to throw around.
In other words, the same reason that building cruise ships (or tourism in general) is booming business. People just have more free time, and part of that is spent on gaming.
Sometimes you want to play a game, sometimes you want to be told a story.
They are different and complementary. One form does not have to defeat the other.
...game companies don't sue their customers.
I would much rather give a game for Christmas than a CD or DVD, knowing that my money is not helping to finance corporate lawsuits against thirteen year-old girls living with her single mom in HUD housing.
"I might have made a tactical error in not going to a physician for 20 years." -- Warren Zevon
How would Final Fantasy game series factor into this, since it's basically a CG movie franchise with token bits of interactivity?
...and causes movie tickets to cost $50 each
-- 'The' Lord and Master Bitman On High, Master Of All
They have been going nuts over Dragon Quest VIII (in addition to the recent launches of the DS and PSP). In terms of money made on Dragon Quest VIII, IGN said late last month that "One media research group predicts that sales of the game will top 4.12 million, resulting in revenues of 36.2 billion yen" (~351 Million USD) "for Square Enix. The same media research group predicts that total economic fallout from DQVIII, including sales of the game, related goods, commuter fares for people going to pick up the game and snacks people consume as they play the game will top 51 billion yen." (~495 Million USD)
Whether or not this is "bigger than Hollywood" in terms of time/money/manhours/other resources vs. profit, is up for debate. Big numbers either way...
""Did I, er, uh, hear the sound of a, uh, briefcase opening?" -Mayor Quimby"
Hollywood still laughably bases the success of any given movie by its first weekend takings at the box office. But the fact is, due to increased workloads or general apathy, most people wait until a movie has been out for a while before bothering to see it. In many cities even with the theatres running at 100% duty, there just aren't enough hours in the weekend to fit in everybody who wants to watch the latest blockbuster.
:)
I know my movie-going timetable is not based around movie release schedules, but when I feel like going to the movies (the subtle difference between, "I feel like a trip to the movies, what's on this weekend?" and "Hey Movie X is out, let's put down what we're doing and go see it tonight!"). Star Wars movies are the exception to this rule
To say nothing of those who prefer to bypass the cinema entirely and wait for the DVD. And don't get me started on cinema prices these days, hell I could *own* a movie on DVD for the cost of going to see it twice and putting up with out of focus projectors, rustling chip packets and jaffas rolling down the aisles...
"Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
Houston, we have a problem.
I'm reminded of Linux vs Mac market share arguments.
Linux has 1% of the desktop market, so nah!
Mac has 1.1% of the market, so nah!
Meanwhile Microsoft sits there with 98.9% of the market saying "yes, and?" Even if you include games, movies and books, it doesn't even add up to 1% of the GDP of the US.
How we know is more important than what we know.
Once all the Indian computer programmers get their act together, computer games will also be bigger than Bollywood!
Bollywood? =)
gnaa already did it
... I wish my business was getting killed by piracy.
Anyone want to p2p some pickles?
The movie companies are already jumping on the success of the big game franchises by making the film of the game (however loosely based). Resident Evil, Doom, Lara Croft etc. etc. Won't be long before we have the game of the film of the game (of the film etc.)
The one reason why the Game industry is bigger and will stay bigger then Movie industry is that the game industry can make sequels that don't suck.
just because your a schizophrenic doesn't mean people arn't really out to get you
Remember Little Nemo?
Thank God somebody associates "Nemo" with the character from Winsor McCay's comic strip (and Capcom's mediocre NES game based thereon) rather than with that idiotic clownfish owned by Disney.
They want their joke back.
Worth noting revenue for "Movie Companies" was 64 billion in 2003.
to have sex with my wife, something that you nerds and geeks wouldn't be able to do.
Strange that World of Warcraft wasn't included in the article summary.
How do you define successful?
Sure, Apple won't give away its crown jewels, but QuickTime for Windows-x86 includes an implementation of most of the Carbon API. An early version of Cocoa got a Windows-x86 release as well. Likewise, Microsoft develops Microsoft Office for Mac OS X.
Then HW gets its revenge by making lame video game movies such as the upcoming DOOM movie that has almost nothing to do with game except the title.
"I don't which is worse, that everyone has a price, or that the price is always so low"--Hobbes
Let's not forget, a movie ticket costs a FIFTH of what a video game costs.
A movie ticket is for one viewer. Multiply by a family of five, and you're back up to $50. A video game is for multiple players.
The "Three Worlds" of Earth society:
Old World: Europe, Asia, Africa
New World: N& S Americas
Third World: everything else, including parts of the Old & New World not colonized by Europeans, who coined the terms (in France, probably).
The associations of primacy derive from the legacy of colonialism. Hence Japan is "Third World", even though it's now rich. China and India are really "Old World", though people who say they're "Third World" think England is "First World". The actual "Three Worlds" are fairly clearly defined, while the "First World" style system is very fuzzy, and not as useful in communicating without first defining the consensual context.
--
make install -not war
Might as well say that Titanic sold better in the first week than any new car, therefore the movie industry dwarfs the vehicle industry.
Here's some food for thought:
Shacknews:
Avault:
Again, maybe it is larger than the movie industry, but until I see some numbers that actually prove this rather than vagually focusing on specific instances of a game outperforming movies in a very specific set of circumstances, this is going to ring my bullshit detector every time.
Computer Science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes. --E. W. Dijkstra
Is it too much to hope for Duke Nukem Forever before the end of this financial year, at least? :)
:)
Maybe. But that'd make for one hell of an Xmas present.
~/ssh slashdot.org ssh: connect to host slashdot.org port 22: too many beers
Michael Moore would have approved this game.
Are they talking profits or revenue? The interesting (and amazing) thing about Hollywood is the way a movie can cost $200 Million to make and earn $500 million yet not break even...apparently. There seems to be a huge amount of creative accounting that takes place after a film release that absorbs profits. I'd like to compare Movie *profits* with Game *profits* too.
I'd be interested to see how Half-Life 2's opening weekend of sales compared to Halo2's as well.
Does "Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever " count.
Movie Script ---> Movie Shooting ---> Game Released ---> Movie Editing ---> Movie Released ---> New Game Released.
Me: But your honor, it was just my friend's offsite backup.
Judge: Well your friend should be paying YOU not the other way around.
Plenty of good titles that cost between $5 to $20 are located in the good ole' bargain bin. They may be leftovers from last year or the year before, but they're still fun and they don't require a top of the line computer.
I know I personally will not be needing to buy any more games for about a year, now that I have San Adreas.
The better the games get, the less the appeal for the newer games. Movies wear out much faster.
Someone had to do it.
Another article that incorrectly uses revenue to prove the success of an industry, by the same author no less. Again, revenue is a measure of earnings before deductions. You do not use revenue do tell if an industry is making profit. Do you not understand that if have net revenue of x dollars and spendings of y dollars and y > x then I am infact at a loss no matter how big x is?
Given that slashdot professes to be a 'nerd' site, I would hope that it's posters would have the above average intelligence to distinguish the difference between profit and revenue, and NOT go about misleading readers by making it look that the two are indistinct.
So now that this is the 10th time that it's been pointed out that the games industry is bigger than X industry and is making X billions of dollars, can we finally be rid of pandering bullshit such as the Spike TV Video Game Awards? Please.
Take a look at the public server statistics .
It looks like the majority are playing counterstrike, which is pretty old. Even my old favorite, Quake 2, is still hanging in there, kind of.
"Also, it's been established fairly well that piracy isn't hurting the movie industry."
Circumstantial evidence.
- World Console Software + PC Software, worldwide, 2003: US$18.5 bn
-
Film industry revenues, worldwide, 2003: $180bn.
-
Music (audio & video) recordings, worldwide, 2003:
US$32 bn
Hollywood films alone account for about $63 billion.By comparison, IBM has revenues of about $80 billion per year.
What exactly is this "Hollywood" that Matthew Yi claims is smaller than the $10B "Game Industry" in TFA? Maybe it doesn't include the $14B US ($32B global) record industry: a business run out of LA, mostly, and NYC, even if it's 80% owned in Tokyo/Sony, Berlin/BMG and Paris/Vivendi-Universal. Is it just movies (not TV, either)? The actual scale of "filmed entertainment" revenue (not including music videos, part of the "recorded music" industry) was $75.3B globally, before the predicted 7.5% growth rate for 2004 (ie. $81B). Porn movies and website subscriptions alone have a global revenue of $8-10B. Maybe video games are bigger than Hollywood the same way that John Lennon was bigger than Jesus.
--
make install -not war
Arg.
Ignore this post.
Moderating. Using pageup/pagedown to move. Didn't realize that this was also changing the settings from something positive (insightful/interesting/funny) to negative (overrated/etc.)
So, a post. This will, as I understand it, undo those moderations I have made. Oh, well. Better none than a false down. Hope this works.
Pick One: http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/~stremler/sigs/sigs.html (Note - disable Javascript first!)
They forgot to count Foreign Policy and Homeland Security under Games.
Video games have been eclipsing movies in dollars for some time now. The Halo 2 eclipsing movies thing is only interesting to people who haven't been paying attention.
I remember the same news years ago.
It is astonishing to me how much mileage MS has gotten from Halo 2. It's due to people like this article's poster who perpetuate the press releases MS puts out without any filtering.
But who cares? The Hype machine, including rabid fanboy posting on slashdot makes Doom 3 and Halo 2 sell, sell, sell while a new title without the amazing marketing clout of Doom 3 or Halo 2 almost disappears.
This is so totally out of step with the Slashdot Zeitgeist that i shouldn't bother, but...
Do any of you work with people who live and breath video games? Play them afterwork and talk about their "roles" when ever possible? Have the limited, "good" vs "evil" scenarios found in so many games displaced our collective capacity for complex, passionate and meaningful storytelling?
Movies haven't killed off the novel as a vehicle for storytelling -- at least not yet. There have been countless great movies. I love movies! But I haven't seen a movie yet that can express the quantity or quality of ideas and meanings that are to be found in great books. So what do "interactive" games do? Maybe they just help chip away at the potential for powerful, shared stories, so that "users" can put themselves in the story to experience things their own way. Most interactive games pander completely to one of our key cultural imperatives: instant gratification. They reinforce our "do it your way", "cause you're worth it" world. Maybe when you always do it your own way, you never have to listen to other points of view. Whatever.
I don't believe that a world of teenagers who grew up on TA, Unreal Tournement and the like will necessarily want to kill or go to war, but when Uncle Sam calls, maybe those years of traing will come in handy. Or some will just be a little confused:
This is my joystick/rifle,
This is my gun
Which one's for killing?
Which one's for fun?
I suspect that most drill instructors are pretty good at curing confusion, though!
Is this sig nificant?
After twenty years of swearing never to play computer games because of the wasted time and frustration (when you lose, of course), I broke down and bought Hitman on sale for $10 at CompUSA.
And proceeded to waste hours and days of time, just like I knew I would.
And I never could figure out how to both kill the drug lord in Colombia AND blow up the drug lab.
So I trashed the game and went back to my old ways.
Meanwhile, I've seen Blade:Trinity twice and probably would see it a third time - except I'm broke for the next couple weeks.
Fuck computer games.
Richard Steven Hack - This sig is TOO GODDAMN SHORT TO DO ANYTHING USEFUL WITH! MORONS!
I seem to remember reading way back in the day that Space Invaders - Pac Man era arcade games outgrossed Hollywood, and by a significant margin. Is this really news?
You see? You see? Your stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid!
The industry set a milestone last month when Microsoft's Halo 2 -- a sequel to a futuristic game with an elaborate plot that pits humans against invading aliens
Thanks for the explanation, always a good idea to explain obscure references like "Halo".
How much is the cost of producing the average movie versus the average video game? In a movie production, they pay the cast & crew millions of dollars... How much does the crew (video game developers/artists, etc...) get paid for making a video game? I would expect dramatically less.
Game Industry Bigger Than Hollywood
Ant writes "This SF Gate story says stacks of new releases for hungry video game enthusiasts mean it's boom time for an industry now even bigger than Hollywood. The $10 billion video game industry, which generates more revenue than Hollywood...
Yes, but how big is the video game industry as compared to Hollywood?
:P
if i'm a grammar nazi, you're an illiteracy nazi.
We rule. I hope this just goes to show that some dumb politicians cant stop us from gaming!
--- kthxbai
So why is this wealthy industry not lobbying world governments? You may shudder at the thought of yet more special interest groups lobbying governments, but I'm sure there are cases for it (eg. adult gamers in Australia wanting an R/18+ classification for games, which are currently limited to MA/15+ only).
With so much money changing hands in the game industry, why is it that the programmers who actually MAKE the games have to accept far-below-industry-standard pay and have to work in excess of 50 hours a week standard (more in crunch time, of course, which is most of the time)?
:|
Not that this is much different from the music industry, where most of the artists that actually produce the music wind up hopelessly in debt and without ownership of their own work.
Or the book authorship industry, where it is just understood that nobody can earn a living as an author, even if their books sell well nationwide.
Or the farming industry...where the concept of a "family farm" is a quaint oddity...and the majority of farmers are little more than slave labor...
I could go on...
There is a very, very disturbing trend that has been at work since the 1940's or so...with the demise of the small business, those who actually produce anything of value get paid just enough to live on (or less), while someone who contributes nothing to the process rakes it in.
This is NOT a free market.
I for one am glad the gaming industry is going so well. Most of todays movies suck. If you see it in the theater you have to pay at least $6.50 per ticket and if your under 18 you can't see a rated R movie but they still want you to pay the adult price. Then you have to sit through 15min of ads, another 15min of previews just to see some crappy movie. Ive seen a few DVDs with ads on that you can not skip as well. Id rather spend $50 on a great game, play it for hours, then play it on line as much as I went, in most games for free! I can even sell the game after I'm done. Contrary to popular belief stories for games are getting better and better, there more then just a bang bang shot 'em up game. If you don't believe me play Call of Duty.
With the huge profits they are raking in on Halo 2, does this offset the big losses they have taken on the hardware?
1 movie lasts 2 hours,
1 video game lasts more than 12, so at any one time more people are viewing/playing new release video games than watching new release movies.
thank God the internet isn't a human right.
For the comparison to be equitable, day-of videogame sales must exclude preorders. That, or the sales and rental markets should be included for both media.
The rental market for PC games is difficult to gauge. Almost nowhere are computer games rented. Instead, cybercafes rent access to machines on which the games are all full-installed with site licenses (to avoid piracy). To accurately measure the secondary market value of PC games, one must include the cost of using a cybercafe with deductions for the operating cost of the facility. Good luck finding concrete data on this.
ID make doom 3, doom 3 just shows off their game engine that they will then license to other companies for a bit more than $50.
I expect that they will also do some expansion packs, followed up by bundelinng doom 3 with doom 4, and a ID this mega-box set 5 years from now.
thank God the internet isn't a human right.
What the fuck?
Movies gross more than Games... always have, maybe always will. The stupid comparison made here is one that the game industry loves to make when trying to get mindshare... Compare movie box office versus game software/hardware sales.
If you include DVD/media sales of movies, movies win. If you don't include console hardware sales, movies win.
The movie industry (worldwide) grosses $180B. US movie industry grosses 63B. Box office only accounts for 26% of revenue.
reference: http://www.factbook.net/wbglobal_rev.htm
This was a bug back around Mozilla 1.8a3 / Firefox 0.9(?). Try upgrading your browser.
1. Move to Japan ...
2. Learn Japanese
3. Get job with Japanese game developer
4. Develop innovative creative game
5.
6. Profit (in the Japanese market, Americans don't buy creative innovative games).
My other first post is car post.
...the game industry starts making some crap based on Gigli movie.
And that's why I think that when the current morass of same-ol-same-ol games dies down... the old Roger Wilco/Sam'n'Max/etc games will experience a rebirth. Probably they'll look rather different, but the theme will be there.
The lines between the media themselves are blurring. Games become like books with complex interweaving stories, and like movies in terms of realistic graphics or cinematics. Movies became more like games with the popularity of 3d... much of the techniques for 3d rendering can be applies between both - and in the future graphic cards may be able to render realtime that which is currently rendered by farms. MMORPG's can add on content like your weekly episodes or even - blah - sometimes like an online soap opera.
Seriously, I predict that smart companies in the future will merge the mediums (and hopefully produce some decent product). Think games with believeable characters, cinematic cutscenes/play, studio recorded music and more.
Inevitably ending in a wave of shit of course, but there are bound to be some real gems that shine through it all.
come on, TV and movies have always been about money, so has the games industry. I seem to remember the Lumiere Brothers were in (film) for the money: they sold their rights to Pathe after all... Can you tell me about the early days of TV when programs were made not for profit? hmmm.... maybe I am wrong but I'd welcome some examples. Also I'd be interested to know about the games companies structured as not-for-profit legal entities, those that give their profits to AIDS charities/ clean water for Africa/ etc...
Even if the headline is wrong (as many claim), with the influence gaming have on society today why aren't there more people in academia researching this?
Why aren't there more university courses teaching it?
One reason why games isn't accepted by the mainstream as culture or art is of course the immaturity of the industry. And I don't mean it hasn't existed long, I am talking about the age of the developers and the attitude of the industry. Again and again polls show that the averge gamer is in fact somewhere between 25 and 30 years old, and there are are a lot more female gamers than people think. However, average age of the people working in the gaming industry is actually much lower (I know several), and the games created and the ways they are sold seem to mostly cater to the segment "early teenage American male".
And in this segment, violence sells, nude women sells. One of the few things I dislike about Planescape:Torment for instance is the rampant "big tit-itis" in the artwork.
So anyway, I would like to see more mature games, and not mature as "full of sex". The number one thing for me when buying a game is a well thought out plot with interesting characters. Then it doesn't matter if it is a shooter (Half-Life, Thief3, Deus Ex) or a role-playing game (anything from Bioware/Black Isle basically). These games are no nobel prize winners in literature of course, but still good enough for me.
I want more good writers in the gaming industry, and less graphics engine geeks. More Warren Specter, Greg Zeschuk, Ray Muzyka, less John Carmack.
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Yup. So when do we expect to start seeing rampant product placements in video games? The Sims would be an obvious place to start, but is the Marine in Doom 4 also going to be wearing Nike (TM) Combat Boots?
What about World of Warcraft?
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It's called "Bungee's Helo 2", not MicroSoft ...
If you don't even know the creative Studio's Name behind such nice titles, read up on those.
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Movies even have PRECURRING revenue...
Isn't that what Star Wars IV, V, VI and then I, II and III is?
paintball
...then why did Argonaut go bust?
The MPAA announced today that because fewer and fewer people actually watch their shitty movies, they've decided to sue people for doing anything else.
Back when they made King's Quest V in the mid-90s, they had a preview/making-of movie that came with it. They showed all the production that went into it that exceeded several million dollars. It only seemed to make sense at that point that games where really going to take off and eventually have several 100 million dollar budgets.
How can they manage that? Games have been pirated for as long as I can remember - Apple IIe/TI-99 4A days. They're much smaller and easier than movies to pirate. A little off topic, but have any of the Americans out there considered that there is only 1 American company in the RIAA, yet our government is letting them snoop and prosecute us? Is the same thing going on the the other members' countries? I don't think so, and if it has, I'm not hearing much about it.
If theaters/projectors/seats would be counted as movie hardware the movie industry figure would be even bigger.
The problem with the movie industry is that they dont let us Mod movies like games let us :)
Parent hit it on the head... the state of the industry from an outsider's point of view is significantly different to those working (or attempting to work) in the industry. The picture is painted that everything is rosy, and record sales are being made, but where on earth is all the money going? Everything seems to be sliding downhill at the moment, as it has been over the past three or four years, with development studios going under all the time. Even Microsoft have been laying off teams.
Everyone knows the gaming industry is loosing millions of dollars a year due to piracy. Nobody buys games any more. Oh, wait....
And all of those titles are rehashed sequels...
They should count how many individual PEOPLE bought games vs saw movies... You can't really compare a product with a $50 price tag to a $10 (or less) movie ticket. Come on.
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That's not exactly the case.
Looking at a (possibly dated) "model", the prices of the two are actually about the same.
Example:
Mom ($9) and Dad ($9) take two children ($18 - they're over 12) to the movies. Once there, they buy popcorn ($10 - two medium tubs), drinks ($10 - at least), and maybe a pretzel or a box of candy ($5). Total movie experience for the night? $61.
And just to cut off the obligatory "You don't have to buy the ass mass increasing junk at the movies", face it -- most people do. So, it's included in the cost, like it or not.
I realize that the cola, popcorn, candy, etc... isn't part of Hollywood's gross (well, you can actually argue this both ways), but that's semantics. It comes out of the consumer's pocket either way -- so it counts -- if to no one else, the consumer.
Even when elminating the extra costs of the movie experience, it still evens out. The quick and obvious challenge to the given argument is when you consider the amount of entertainment time (subjective, I know) vs. cost. In other words, a $10 movie gives me 90 minutes of entertainment, whereas a $50 game gives me 20 hours of entertainment. Which has more value?
All things being equal -- it's a fair comparison.
Go fuzzy logic!
#SickNotWeak
Video games made more money then Hollywood way back in the early 80's. The fact that the video game market crashed shortly thereafter should put this in perspective.
I agree - game sequels are not the same, as it might be a completely new engine.
I haven't played GTA 3 or later (yet) but I loved the first two games - and these had a completely different engine & game system from the later games. Admittedly, I think a lot of the games mentioned in the original post are sequels based on the original engine (I've only played Halo 2 but that's definitely similar), but in many ways a video game sequel can redefine the medium in ways that a film cannot.
Kinda makes me wonder what's going on which is so important that the PTB can't afford for anybody to have any spare energy or awareness to spend looking around scratching their heads. .
Then again, those who don't play the games or watch TV could probably explain it. .
What with the fraudulent election quietly unravels as those who rigged the thing are beginning to murmur in discontent about not having been paid for their efforts. --And the Ohio recount officials complaining of mysterious voting machine employees arriving unannounced and to pull and replace pieces of machines. Esteemed muck-raker reporter Gary Webb, (who played a big part in opening up the Iran Contra scandal), dying of "suicide" two weeks ago by, count 'em, two gun shots to the head, (or was that shotgun damage?).
And meanwhile the Punch & Judy bullshit parade starts again with more idiot political drama about Russia selling nuke technology to Iran.
I wonder what would actually happen if everybody stopped staring at their CRT's for five minutes if they might actually be able to get off the cattle track leading to the slaughter house?
-FL
Riiiight. Far Cry is a hardware pig bar none, and rates as "slightly above average" with respect to graphics and AI. Get a life.
I'm sorry... who was it, again, that was waiting for Metroid Prime 2? The 17 people with a Game Cube?
I have to admit that Metroid might be the only franchise on the Game Cube wirth purchasing one for... but I think my PS2 will do fine.
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As long as there are strange people in groups, there will be strange games. Katamari Damacy has been a hit, and that, at least, should be a comforting thought.
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I also loved Beyond Good and Evil (only played the PS2 version), interesting that you bought both versions...
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Some movies are based on games, so do they count as movie or game revenue and vice versa?
In other words, it doesn't matter who's bigger, they all want more protection for "their" "works".
While the video game industry is clearly thriving, it's not yet time to count Hollywood down for the count. The only way to claim that the movie industry is smaller than the games industry is to ignore big chunks of Hollywood's revenue. Ron Gilbert gives a good explaination over at Grumpy Gamer.
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...the resources required to make an AAA game have become so great, there's fewer developer houses, fewer titles. It works both ways, because developers can be fairly certain noone will "steal" their market, and newcomers fear to take on the 800lb gorillas. Essentially, it almost creates monopolistic "bubbles" of gameplay. You want to play a game of type X => title Y.
I think the problem will solve itself because there's only so many times you can sell the same game with better graphics. So many games are now scriptable or otherwise modifyable to provide replay value. Providing the same with different textures simply isn't enough.
Freeform 3D has been done, and you can't really improve on that. Most games have had 1600x1200 resolution already, that's pretty much maximum. The effects are getting better, but not that much better. Sound and music are so high fidelity 3D as it'll get. Eventually, you have to innovate on gameplay again to sell.
Kjella
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According to this the information in the report seems misrepresentative. The figures for video games included console (stand-alone) machines and for Hollywood didn't include DVD/video rentals.
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> And then 8 computers to run it on?
8 accounts is excessive for this sort of thing, but there are a number who will 4-box or 6-box so they can play an entire group at once. With a decent computer and the proper configurations (all the eye candy off and lowest resolutions), you can easily run three concurrent instances of EQ on one normal PC. That's two or at most, three PCs to run 5 or 6 accounts, if you're good at it.
Virg