What? You mean Napster didn’t cause the decline in CD sales? The mind boggles!
Video games>music. I enjoy a bit of metallica and some cradle of flith from time to time, but games will always kick more ass. Considering some of them already have awesome music. I’m looking at you chaos theory.
Since games are only getting better and mainstream music has been continually getting worse and more expensive, this article doesn’t really come as much of a shock. Plus, you can buy 3 or 4 CDs for the same price as one new game. I buy a lot more CDs than the average guy, but it’s still pretty far below how much I end up spending on just a few good games.
The price difference makes this statistic pretty meaningless. It’s like that videogames vs movie box office comparison.
I don’t think that makes the statistic meaningless. It may be worthless if you were comparing straight unit numbers but, for example, Justin has a point.
From a percentage point of view, there’s a lot less disposable income designated for the music industry’s coffers than there used to be. One of these reasons is most definitely the amount of money young men spend on games. Another, for example, is the rather widespread purchase of DVDs (by all sexes).
I’d guess that 15 years ago the money spent on games was rather insignificant compared to the amount spent on music albums in either tape or CD form. Today, that isn’t the case. In another 15 years, I’d guess that this particular statistic will be even more lopsided than it is today due to the fact that gaming is becoming more and more mainstream as gamers grow up.
From a macro point of view, I think it’s a pretty cool statistic even without it sticking thorns into the music industy’s best arguments about piracy. Add in the idea that the music industry is seeing its sales decline not primarily because of piracy but because people are just buying something else and it’s even more fun to discuss.
I read a little blurb recently about how games for the next-gen consoles are supposed to go up to $60 from the current $50 for top titles which, if true, makes me want to vomit violently. These better be some really badass games.
just wait a month, the prices will still drop like rocks. Unless they all end up like atlus where you buy it day one or never see the game again.
I think it would be great! More time for other things.
Actually, I don’t really care what they charge for games – at any given price, I’ll just adjust how picky I am.
You gotta love publishers. As they reach economies of scale and AAA titles sell consistently millions of copies, they are making more profits than ever (even accounting for inflation). Now they want to raise the prices on us?
I thought XNA and all that other crap was supposed to make development cheaper? Here’s a hint for them, try less marketing hype and you’ll find that your costs will go down!
Yes, publishers are making money hand-over-fist.
EA profit warnings, VUG’s issues, Eidos near bankruptcy, Interplay. UbiSoft wasn’t too healthy a few years back either. Activision’s been doing well only since it switched strategies and started focusing on big-ticket games.
On this forum, at least some of us like to think before we type.
Er, Jakub, a profit warning doesn’t mean they’re losing money. EA had a $375,100,000 profit for the last Christmas quarter. That’s just three months.
You’re going to believe that bullshit after seeing articles about EA working their employees as if they were in a sweatshop?
Hmm… I hope you’re one of those, but I have a hard time believing that because of your post:
Don’t suppose you’ve read this?
They should do one of these on Music CD’s and Movie DVD’s. They’re close to each other in price.
But wouldn’t you say the price differential is somewhat evened out by the disparity between number of gamers and number of movie goers?
I’ve got no vested interest in publishers, but the price of a top-tier computer game has been fairly steady for 20 years. Prices may have even declined slightly. I remember buying Might & Magic (the original) in the late 80s for $50-$55. Many other forms of entertainment (i.e., movie theater tickets, music concerts) have risen a lot more in the same time period.
If it allows people to keep making high-quality games, I wouldn’t mind a price hike. Since I wait until the price drops to $20 anyway, I’ll just have to wait 15 months after release, rather than the 12 I do now.
I agree, but the trouble is that we aren’t guaranteed that will happen. For all we know they may use the extra $5/copy to invest into more marketing and not actually send the extra revenue in the direction of the developers. So it may just be that we end up paying more for more of the same (and that I wouldn’t like much :)).
Right, one giant colossal publisher.
Now, let’s take a look at the rest of the field. How healthy does THAT look?
Right, one giant colossal publisher.
Now, let’s take a look at the rest of the field. How healthy does THAT look?[/quote]
Hey, did you actually read that NYTimes article? Maybe you should.
[quote=“Igor Murashkin”]
Hmm… I hope you’re one of those, but I have a hard time believing that because of your post:
Don’t suppose you’ve read this?
You’d think you wouldn’t need an economics degree to understand that you can still sell something, and yet lose money at the same time.