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Games To Outsell Music, Video In UK

Posted by Soulskill on from the step-aside-grandpa dept.

The BBC reports that for the first time, spending on games and game hardware will outstrip sales in the music and video industries. Quoting: "In the last five years the video games market has more than doubled in value, while music sales have stagnated. The good news for game makers in the report was balanced by grim tidings for high street retailers. 'The music and video market is not just suffering from a slowing of growth but a massive transfer of spend to online,' says Malcolm Pinkerton of Verdict Research. It is online sales of CDs and DVDs that have grown rapidly, rather than digital downloads, which still only account for around 4% of music and video sales."

47 comments

  1. So... by Majik+Sheff · · Score: 2, Funny

    Video killed the video AND radio star?

    --
    Women are like electronics: you don't know how damaged they are until you try to turn them on.
    1. Re:So... by tristian_was_here · · Score: 1

      More like:
      ... Video Games butchered the radio star.

  2. Duh by Eudial · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Not all that hard to understand, considering how much they charge for a video game.

    --
    GAAH! MY PRINTER IS ON FIRE!!! PUT IT OUT! PUT IT OUT!
    1. Re:Duh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      That's irrelevant. People could choose to spend the money they spend on games on music instead.

      The real problem, as the article mentions, is that they are including gaming hardware sales in the figures.

    2. Re:Duh by Darkness404 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Yes, but look at the hour to price ratio. A CD is about an hour long, whereas a game is usually at least 30 hours if not more. A CD costs around $20 and a game around $50. The CD costs a whole lot more per hour than the game does.

      --
      Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
    3. Re:Duh by Eudial · · Score: 1

      Yes, but look at the hour to price ratio. A CD is about an hour long, whereas a game is usually at least 30 hours if not more. A CD costs around $20 and a game around $50. The CD costs a whole lot more per hour than the game does.

      But a CD has more replay value than most games. Many games you play just once or twice, but you can easily listen to a good record more than 30 times during the time you own it.

      --
      GAAH! MY PRINTER IS ON FIRE!!! PUT IT OUT! PUT IT OUT!
    4. Re:Duh by WDot · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Not to mention that there's no guarantee that you'll finish a video game. You might get sick of the gameplay, or hit a wall that you can't surpass, or you'll have other games that you'd rather play instead. The CD would have to be a hell of an unlistenable album for one to not make it through once.

      Also, DRM notwithstanding, you can use a CD in a lot more places than you can use a videogame. You can use it in your car, your computer, or your speaker setup. You can rip it to your hard drive and make derivative works with the songs or mix CDs/cassettes/mp3 players with your favorite tracks. A game can only be used on its given platform for its given purpose--gaming. Sure, some people make derivative works (mods, machinima) from video games, but it's much easier to slap a song on your home videos and webcam sessions than it is to animate and script a game world.

    5. Re:Duh by Brian+Gordon · · Score: 1
      Why are we even using the words "CD"? What is this the 90s?

      It is online sales of CDs and DVDs that have grown rapidly, rather than digital downloads, which still only account for around 4% of music and video sales.

      Huh? I can see audiophiles wanting the original CDs just so they can rip losslessly, but I see no other use for that dead media. I don't think anyone in my entire family owns a CD player and we all have at least one mp3 player. Maybe it's just a matter of amazon structuring their site weirdly but it blows my mind that people would rather wait a week for a disk that you're just going to rip to mp3 and throw away than just download the album right there!

    6. Re:Duh by compro01 · · Score: 1

      You're making the assumption that all games are single-player games. Practically every recent highly popular game has had some form of multiplayer mode, and in a lot of cases, the multiplayer is the main of the game.

      --
      upon the advice of my lawyer, i have no sig at this time
    7. Re:Duh by Brian+Gordon · · Score: 1
      All right that's enough. Games and music are nothing alike and it's ridiuclous to spit out specific examples of why one medium is superior to the other. Seriously, you laugh you lose. Nightmare mode: read your post to yourself out loud. Good luck brave warrior.

      you can use a CD in a lot more places than you can use a videogame

      serenity now

    8. Re:Duh by Brian+Gordon · · Score: 1
      By the way I'm not opposed to an intelligent conversation about the artistic similarities and differences between music and games. But I think you'll agree

      "You might get sick of the gameplay, or hit a wall that you can't surpass, or you'll have other games that you'd rather play instead." therefore music wins

      is.. underevolved

    9. Re:Duh by Brian+Gordon · · Score: 1

      Yes, but look at the hour to price ratio

      are you kidding me? music and games are completely different media. that theres a common metric of the time it takes to cycle through available content is purely coincidental. You can't compare enjoying music hour-by-hour to enjoying a game hour-by-hour. Music is enjoyed verse by verse, movement by movement; games are enjoyed level by level. You can't possibly construct some intricate morass of comparison points between the media and expect a fair (even meaninful) framework for a discussion of value.

    10. Re:Duh by aussie_a · · Score: 1

      But a CD is normally played while doing some OTHER form of entertainment. So you have to factor in those costs.

    11. Re:Duh by El_Muerte_TDS · · Score: 1

      I beg to differ. Music stays the same every time you play it, playing a game might be different every time you play it.
      Playing the same music track over and over again, is simply grinding.

    12. Re:Duh by iamapizza · · Score: 1

      About the non-guarantee of finishing a video game: I've started noticing that a lot of 'anticipated' game come out at the same time, within days of each other, so you end up with someone buying all of them, and then playing each game for just a day each before moving on to the next one and not finishing any, just to keep up with the latest. (Currently, it's Red Alert 3 and Fallout 3 and Farcry or something or the other, (not want soljary gamz))

      --
      Always proofread carefully to see if you any words out.
    13. Re:Duh by KDR_11k · · Score: 1

      It's the Christmas double-or-nothing bet, releases go up fivefold, sales double. Everyone hopes that THEIR game will be the lucky one out of five that gets double sales.

      --
      Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
    14. Re:Duh by KDR_11k · · Score: 2, Interesting

      However, many games are so linear that every play-through is essentially the same and most interesting game situations that can arise just from the interaction of the player and game probably happen throughout one playthrough. Sure, you won't listen to the same track or CD non-stop but you'll probably mix it into your playlist and thus have it get played more often.

      --
      Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
    15. Re:Duh by ciderVisor · · Score: 1

      Most people still like to have a tangible 'product' in their hand. I still like having a 'CD Collection' in a rack on the wall. You get nice liner notes and artwork, too.

      Now get off my lawn !!!

      --
      Squirrel!
    16. Re:Duh by WDot · · Score: 1

      I wasn't arguing that music > video games. I was simply stating that it's not as simple as saying "well, a video game is 50 hours and a CD is 40 minutes, so a video game is the better deal when you calculate the dollars per minute."

    17. Re:Duh by petermgreen · · Score: 1

      Remember this is a UK story

      Does amazon even offer downloadable music sales in the UK? If they do i've never been able to find the option.

      We have itunes but unless all your players are ipods or you use drm cracks you have to be very careful to only buy itunes plus tracks (and there is little to no advertising of itunes plus) and you still may have to do a format convertion.

      Delivery is not too bad here in the UK. even the free delivery options tend to get it to you in well under a week and amazon will do you next day delivery for a small extra charge if you are feeling desperate.

      --
      note: i'm known as plugwash most places but i screwd up registering that here somehow in the past and now can't register
    18. Re:Duh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This is NOT the first time that this has happened. It happened back in the Atari days. Please get your facts straight!

    19. Re:Duh by Ariake+Shikima · · Score: 0

      Not all that hard to understand, considering how much they charge for a video game.

      Nah, more like not all that hard considering they're all on Bittorent right now downloading the latest Garbage.

  3. Score 0: Flamebait by sleeponthemic · · Score: 2, Funny

    I blame piracy!

    --
    I record my sleeptalking
  4. Really? by Darkness404 · · Score: 1

    Really? I wasn't aware that things that are a pain to pirate (yes, you can use hacks and modchips to play your burnt disks and download them off of TPB just like you could a computer game), and actually work (just about) 100% of the time and are original is going to sell more then the movie you saw in the theaters 3 months ago with a terribly generic plot that you could have pirated 5 months ago before it was even released. Honestly, piracy is to blame, but mostly because its a pain to pirate video games and a pain to buy and use bought videos and music.

    --
    Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
    1. Re:Really? by Brian+Gordon · · Score: 1

      A pain to pirate video games? Pirated video games have no DRM, no disk needed in the slot (honestly do they even do that anymore?), and come to your house at a few mbps while you watch TV or sleep. Oohhh you meant console "gaming". Walk by quickly and don't stare kids- he made the choice to live that way, don't feel sorry for him.

  5. [Music, Video] = non-interactive Games? by CoffeeDregs · · Score: 1

    Actually, I guess music is a bit different since it has significant replay value, but... The best possible movies are ones in which I feel interested and involved. I feel interested/involved in many games I play, so perhaps games can be viewed as non-interactive games (WTF is that). Should we be surprised the "interactive movies" [games] outsell "non-interactive movies" [movies]?

    1. Re:[Music, Video] = non-interactive Games? by Brian+Gordon · · Score: 1

      Yeah but aside from the gamers who think 12 caffeine -fueled hours of TF2 is relaxing (I was there beleive me) people want to be able to just kick back and enjoy a movie for a few hours on a sunday afternoon. Making it interactive is fun but not relaxing at all.

  6. Poor Comparison by kramer2718 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    They are including games and games hardware. To be fair, they should include dvd players big screen TVs and stereo systems.

    --
    http://yetanotherpoliticalrant.blogspot.com
    1. Re:Poor Comparison by Notabadguy · · Score: 2, Interesting

      You've hit the nail on the head. I'm *really* tired of seeing unprofessionally done surveys and studies and irrelevant comparisons make the news. In other news, consumers are spending FAR more money at McDonalds than at Burger King. I sampled two groups. The first group told me how much money they spend on average at Burger King per month. The second group told me how much they spend on average at McDonalds per month. They also included how much their gas bill was, the cost of their car, and a dollar value for the opportunity cost in time that they spent going to McDonalds. Can you believe it? McDonalds is more popular! *sigh* I feel that my own completely made up survey has about as much credibility as the last few surveys that have made their way onto the Slashdot boards.

    2. Re:Poor Comparison by aadvancedGIR · · Score: 1

      Well, my DVD player is cheaper than a DVD and I use my TV and stereo system mostly for gaming so I have difficulties to get your point.

    3. Re:Poor Comparison by petermgreen · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Yes and no, your TV and DVD player will work for any movie released over the last decade and probably the next decade.

      In contrast if you want to continue following a game series you will have to buy a new console every 5-10 years (and then sometimes to piss you off even further they go and make one of the games exclusive to a portable console with maybe a re-release on a normal console a year or so later if you are lucky).

      In any case you need the TV for gaming as well and DVD players are dirt cheap now so I doubt it significant impacts the comparison.

      --
      note: i'm known as plugwash most places but i screwd up registering that here somehow in the past and now can't register
  7. elitecabal by ianblink · · Score: 0, Offtopic

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    1. Re:elitecabal by Quantos · · Score: 1

      I'd like to play 'kick yer ass', take your damn advertising elsewhere.

      --
      Some people are only alive because it's against the law for me to hunt them down and kill them.
  8. LAN mentality of PC game publishers by tepples · · Score: 1

    You're making the assumption that all games are single-player games. Practically every recent highly popular game has had some form of multiplayer mode, and in a lot of cases, the multiplayer is the main of the game.

    A lot of people never see the multiplayer mode. PC video game publishers seem to be under the impression that two people can't fit around a 19-inch monitor. Because of this, they don't design the game to work with two gamepads or with a keyboard and a gamepad; instead, they optimize the game for LAN play, which requires a separate fast enough PC and a separate copy of the game per player. Plenty of families can't afford to buy more than one PC and keep it upgraded to run multiplayer games.

  9. Failure of game music systems design by tepples · · Score: 1

    I beg to differ. Music stays the same every time you play it, playing a game might be different every time you play it.
    Playing the same music track over and over again, is simply grinding.

    And what do most games' music engines do, other than "playing the same music track over and over again" until the player reaches a checkpoint and then changing abruptly to some other song? There aren't enough games that use the technique seen in Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Galaxy of fading between two or three remixes of the song depending on where the player is in the level, or the technique seen in Lumines of tastefully looping short parts of the song while the player is going slowly and even skipping parts (with a clean transition) while the player is moving quickly through an area.

  10. Scare quotes by tepples · · Score: 1

    A pain to pirate video games? Pirated video games have no DRM, no disk needed in the slot (honestly do they even do that anymore?), and come to your house at a few mbps while you watch TV or sleep. Oohhh you meant console "gaming".

    You use scare quotes, apparently to denigrate console gaming. But what other platform lets you have more than one player without buying more than one machine?

    1. Re:Scare quotes by Brian+Gordon · · Score: 1

      lol what who has friends anyway. there are millions of people on the internet who want to play with you also framerates drop unforgivably on split screen

    2. Re:Scare quotes by LingNoi · · Score: 1

      You do realise that PCs can have more then one joystick too right? It's just you're too retarded to set it up.

    3. Re:Scare quotes by tepples · · Score: 1

      who has friends anyway.

      Siblings, cousins, classmates, etc. Think families with children.

      there are millions of people on the internet who want to play with you

      So how would I go about finding trustworthy opponents and making sure they aren't molesters?

      also framerates drop unforgivably on split screen

      It doesn't if the vertex processor is powerful enough to run single-player at 120 fps, or if the game is something like Smash Bros. that doesn't split the screen anyway.

    4. Re:Scare quotes by tepples · · Score: 1

      You do realise that PCs can have more then one joystick too right?

      I have four joysticks that I sometimes connect to my PC through a USB hub. But too many PC games won't let me use them; PC game publishers seem to have a mindset of one machine, one copy of Windows, and one copy of the game for each player. (Console ROMs count as console games, not PC games.)

    5. Re:Scare quotes by Brian+Gordon · · Score: 1

      So how would I go about finding trustworthy opponents and making sure they aren't molesters?

      This has me stymied. Please, why would you possibly care if your opponents are pedophiles? Sure you get to know people very well by playing on the same server for years (another huge advantage over xbox live crap) but it's not like you're bringing your daughter over to their houses, it's over the internet. Live and let live.

    6. Re:Scare quotes by tepples · · Score: 1

      Sure you get to know people very well by playing on the same server for years (another huge advantage over xbox live crap)

      So how do you find such a safe server for your daughter to play on?

      Or what if your latency is unacceptable? Upgrading to the next tier of home Internet access for the next two years could cost as much as buying another computer.

      And with the one-PC-per-player mentality, what do you do if two kids you're watching want to play video games together?

    7. Re:Scare quotes by Brian+Gordon · · Score: 1

      might as well disconnect your internet and tv completely and erect a chain link fence around your house. But what's better for your kids, censoring their view of the real world and locking them inside or letting them actually grow up?

  11. Buying games by MadEwokHerd · · Score: 0

    It figures games are winning across the pond. It's not like people buy music anyway. Bittorent ftw

  12. Me, I blame British music by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I GOT A POCKET GOT A POCKET FULL OF SUNSHINE

    Filter error: Don't use so many caps. It's like YELLING.

    BUT SOMETIMES I FEEL LIKE YELLING.

  13. Video Games Rock! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Video games will always outsell music as music now days can all be taken from the net for free.