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Picko said:
theRepublic said:

I bring this up now specifically because of the economic climate. In 2001, there was an assumption that videogames were recession-proof. After the last six months of heartbreaking stories about studio closures, we know that's not true.

This is just wrong.  The video game idustry had record revenues in 2008.  If it was the recession that was the problem, revenue would be down.

Inflation suggests that revenues will always trend upwards - and this is worth taking into account. While this recession has largely affected the industry through the financial side, borrowing costs are up for example and naturally they are not accounted for by revenues.

The idea that videogames are recession-proof is quite frankly absurd.

 

 

Video game revenues have been rising far faster than the pace of inflation. They've been running between 10% and 20% in recent years, including 13% last year in the US according to NPD, despite the looming recession.

"Recession-proof" might be a misleadingly strong term, but the sales data we've seen this year so far doesn't suggest that the games market is slowing, except perhaps in Japan. Some publishers are in trouble, and the you're right that the credit crunch is affecting how they deal with necessary restructuring, but the recession hasn't itself been the root cause of their problems.



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