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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."
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.
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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.
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!!
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.
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.
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?
Very true, and I was thinking the same thing when I read the blurb. Further, they don't include sales of DVD players themselves either, whereas the games industry most certainly includes the hardware sales dollars from dedicated consoles. Then you can also talk about international distribution and other market's native films, etc., etc.. Hollywood (and television in general) still makes many, many times what the videogame industry does.
they want their headline back!
BTM
That was the turning point of my life--I went from negative zero to positive zero.
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?
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
A family of five goes to see Spider-Man 2. A family of five buys Spider-Man 2 for the [insert favorite platform here] Where is that division again?
I'm curious. In NHL 2005 do you just sit there and watch an empty ice surface?
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
Lots of people go to see movies they like multiple times. But how many people buy multiple copies of a game they like?
;-)
While we're on the subject, how many people buy ONE copy of a game they like?
I've got more mod points and GMail invi
"Imagine how much the porn industry is worth...."
About $300+ per hour, it just depends on what you want them to do
it is only after a long journey that you know the strength of the horse.
- World Console Software + PC Software, worldwide, 2003: US$18.5 bn
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Film industry revenues, worldwide, 2003: $180bn.
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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.
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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!)
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.
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
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.