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Game Industry Bigger Than Hollywood

Posted by michael on from the been-true-for-a-while dept.

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."

4 of 503 comments (clear)

  1. Gaming Industry Rise by Fruvous · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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.
  2. Re:Contrinutions by iocat · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Not enough... The game industry is bigger than Hollywood, if you only count US boxoffice receipts. But these "game industry is bigger than Hollywood" claims always leave out the rental and DVD sales market.

    --

    Dude, I think I can see my house from here.

  3. Piracy comparisons? by Tzarius · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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?

  4. poor programmers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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. :|