Pachter: 'We Now See Just How Wrong We Were'

[NJ5]

Edouble24 said:

This happens all the time in the game industry. It's not based on the generation but each Q. Some companies have good results and others don't, it's always been like that. Most companies this gen are profitable. The industry is a lot more stable than these reports lead one to believe. 2009 is a slow year and the profit declines are based on the lack of releases rather than the health of the industry. 2009 is going to be the second or third biggest year ever for gaming, the industry isn't in trouble.

Jarrod, I wasn't saying 2009 was terrible sales wise, as I said it's the second best year ever. It's just being directly compared to 2008 which is unfair considering 2008 was a monster of a year. I personally thought the year sucked for games but that's a different story. 2010 will change things and people will see the industry is just fine. A slight down time is nothing to panic about.

The situation right now is anything but normal.

Of the biggest publishers, most are losing money:

EA - consistently losing money

Ubisoft - losing money

Take 2 - consistently losing money (even after making one of the biggest games of the generation)

THQ - consistently losing money

Activision - making a little bit of money (after merging with Blizzard)

The saddest thing is, you're right that companies are selling lots of games and getting a lot of revenue. They just can't translate it into profits due to spending way too much money on game development. Imagine if they weren't getting those awesome sales...