Working graveyard shifts in mental health (10 pm to 6 am), I have a lot of time to peruse newspapers online for articles. I mainly use the realclearpolitics site and browse at realclearworld, realclearmarkets, and realclearsports.

Lately, the news has not been so good. The USA with Obama in office is going down the policy line Japan did in the 1990s where there is stagnant economic growth punctuated by governmental economic stimulus. In Japan this economic stimulus did not work out very well, but the Japanese being the perservering and industrious people they are, got through it and are now tackling the problem of the future for all 1st world nations, changing demographics where a 1/5 or more of a country's population is aged 65 and over.

I just finished reading this: http://www.dailyfinance.com/story/careers/what-is-the-real-unemployment-rate/19556146/

Basically, the real unemployment rate (those working part time, those who have stopped filing unemployment claims, but still live in a household with a working family member, and the unemployed filing unemployment claims) is above 20% in the United States as I write this.

The question becomes, what effect will a 20% unemployment rate in the United States have on the entire video game industry?

I have a few opinions:

1. Quality releases will be farther and few between because small studios who in a better economy could have got the publishers to go along with their game will find publishers hesistant to invest in any games that sells less than 1.5 to 2 million copies.

2. Indie games will become more apparent. Small game developer studios having to compete with monies for sequels to blockbusters or a more successful game developer studio's new "it" project will be pushed to the fringes in an economy where publishers want a guaranteed return on investment.

3. Casual games will explode in number due to the success of Nintendo's Blue Ocean Business Strategy and everyone else in the industry following the coattails of the industry leader.

4. Niche genre games (FPS, RPGs, sandbox and on) will become more nichey as publishers are unwilling to invest in them after a cost/benefit analysis comparison between the next greatest RPG of all time that will sell only 2 million at the most in 2 years versus the next good casual game that will be forgotten after 3 years, but will sell 2 million+ in the next year or two.

5. More pay-to-play. More unemployed gamers = less games sold. Henceforth, in order to finance sequels and new projects, publishers will try to find ways to milk video gamers for their online play. Whether this is more MMORPGs, an MMOFPS, or higher online fees is unknown.

Howdo you think a 20% real unemployment in the United States will shape the video game industry?

More safe-bet sequels, less new blockbuster like IP's... it's already happening now..

Some reports claiming that U.S. businesses added jobs but still unemployment rate did not decrease. The economy is on its way to recovery but still has an inadequate rate to improve the society especially those jobless individual. Source of article: get more details for the site!

That is one hell of a necro.

Gaming boomed in this economy. Why? It's not because we lack jobs here in good ol' MURIKA... It's because IN THIS COUNTRY we have to freedom to be unemployed, get paid for it, and PLAY VIDEO GAMES all day instead of being productive... YEAH!!!

The necro part has me cracking up though...

It's pretty clever, usually we just get bots spamming us with half page posts about boots or some shit.

I am unemployed now that my summer job has ended, and it's definitly affected my gaming purchases. I used to buy games at or close to full price on a semi-regular basis. Now I only buy games that I absolutely know I'll enjoy and even then I generally wait until they are $20 or below, either at retail or steam sales. The only games I buy even close to full price are those big time AAA games like the new Gears/Borderlands/Skyrim type game or a big Nintendo franchise.

I think a more accurate number is the labor participation rate, i.e. the percentage of able bodied people who have a job. I believe the percentage today is something like 66%, but historically has been above 70%.

However, the US economy today is certainly stronger than it has been dating back to September of 2008.

That being said, the videogame industry, and the economy in general will have greater earnings this year than any year in the last 6 years. Hell, just look at the consumer reception to Destiny....

The sales of that new IP alone confirm the US economy is on solid ground and should only strengthen in the years to come.

It seems as if the poster of the link just created an account to Necro an old post... Really Strange...

If anything has changed my opinion on the industry it has been the hype vs quality of games. I have bought several limited editions and season passes and after being disappointed, I'm much more frugal. I don't pre-order games anymore, and I have not bought a season pass in about a year and a half. Put out quality games and I will buy more.  I feel gaming is a drug for a lot of people and they just get addicted which only fuels all these bad business practices. The hype of everything has been destroying my interest in this industry. There's so much false advertising that you have to read deep just to get past the bullshit, and then you lose all the magic and secrets because at the same time they reveal too much. Much like how movies now reveal plot twists in trailers. I guess it doesn't bother the majority so they continue these bad business practices.