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Games Industry Downturn is a Myth

Posted by Zonk on from the things-are-looking-up dept.

Gamers with Jobs has a piece on the supposed industry downturn, stating plainly that any problems are figments in the minds of analysts. From the article: "I concede, things are not bright sunshine and frolicking puppies for the gaming industry at the moment. There's a less-than-stellar Xbox 360 launch, a lot of very proficient people pocketing pale pink slips, a disappointing sales sheet from the most recent holiday season, and a lot of industry insiders wailing and gnashing their teeth. Now is the winter of our discombobulation. In short, gaming seems to be at its own throat lately, and from the cheap seats, watching happily, cackle the pundits, cheering the bloodletting ... It's baloney. What isn't being talked about is the fact that consumers are buying more games than they ever have. They are just spreading the money out a bit more, putting dollars into the used market, into handheld devices, into services like Live Arcade, and into direct downloads. The handheld market alone, which just cracked into the billion dollar range in 2004, soared 62% to 1.6 billion for 2005 on the backs of the ever sturdy GBA, the largely successful launch of the PSP, and the coming of age of the DS."

2 of 68 comments (clear)

  1. My Prediction by Perseid · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I do see another video game market crash, but this isn't it. Either this next generation of consoles, or the one after, will make video games so expensive to make that most companies will drop off or consolidate. We've been seeing this happen already. This will leave only a few very large video game companies that will not need or want to take any risks. We'll see a slew of bad sequels and movie tie-ins worse than that which we see now. This will cause gamers to lose interest in video games, thus a market crash.

    This is only my prediction, of course, but I don't think I'm the only one that sees it. Nintendo, for example, seems desperate to innovate or die.

  2. The problem with today's gaming by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    I'd speculate that the MMO scene is partially ruining game sales. Sure, some MMOs are truly amazing (World of Warcraft), but many gamers are paying $15/month for this. Then there are the gamers who have multiple accounts in one MMO, or multiple accounts across many MMOs. This adds up, and becomes a sizable portion of the gaming budget. More money to MMOs means less money to new games.

    Not only do MMOs suck up more money, but they also suck up more time. How long does it take to do a high-level raid in WoW? And the time it takes to build a character capable of helping on a high-level raid?

    Cost and time are the two reasons why I no longer play WoW. I'd rather spend my time and money trying to find new, good games to play, instead of continuously returning to the classics. We need more great games like Halo 2, Freelancer, Beyond Good and Evil, Jade Empire, the N64 Zelda games, and Chrono Trigger. Not cheap knock-offs or sequels, but well-made, original, engaging, high-quality games. When the big companies start making good games, more people will buy games. I highly doubt EA is going to put out anything original, though. Ubisoft may be one of the gamer's last big-name hopes, though it seems all they're doing recently are Tom Clancy games and Prince of Persia sequels.

    At least I can rely on Nintendo for good games. However, 2/3 of my DS collection happen to be remakes or the next installment in major Nintendo franchises (Mario 64 DS, MarioKart). They're very well-done, though.

    Here's to hoping the Revolution lives up to its name!