How the Videogame Industry Shot Itself In the Joystick--and Why the Wii Has Stopped the Bleeding

[Avinash_Tyagi]

DMeisterJ said:
This thread is very weird and almost makes no sense. The videogame industry is out of decline because Nintendo decided NOT to give us better graphics but a different control scheme? So since they have given us the Nunchuk and Wiimote, they have single-handedly saved the gaming industry (Which was a billion dollar industry pre-Wii, and still is a billion dollar industry). So Sony didn't revitalize the game industry when they decided to go the CD route while Ninty was set on given us cartridges for the rest of our lives. Had Sony not gone the CD route, we would never have gotten to experience games like FFVII or Chrono Cross on the PS1, and maybe today we'd still be playing off cartridges. I fail to see how keeping us behind on technology is helping the game industry. We all know that the Wii has sold millions and millions of units, but I fail to see how a joystick (or lack thereof) saved a billion dollar industry. I think it was small games like maybe the halo series, final fantasy, etc. that saved this industry. Last I checked, Halo 3 had the biggest one day opening in entertainment history (300 million +). The Wii didn't do that in one day.

 You're looking at revenue and mistaking it for profit, revenue is growing but so are costs, and as a result profits are falling, Nintendo is the only one that has a consitently profitable gaming division, grotwth in the industry is being powered by the Wii and the DS not the graphically powered systems, not only are people who never played games coming on board, but those who were or were beginning to become bored with games are coming back.

 

Those games you mention were big selleres, but the costs of making those games were rising faster than the growth in those games sales, and some of those games were even losing sales, the fact is if not for the Wii and DS gaming was headed for a cliff thanks to high production costs and gamer drift.