johnsobas said: gaming_addict24 said: johnsobas said: gaming_addict24 said: johnsobas said: gaming_addict24 said: RVDondaPC said: gaming_addict24 said: RVDondaPC said: gaming_addict24 said: stof said: Then you should have read it RVDondaPC, because that's not what he was showing with the graph. He was using the graph to show that despite declines this year, Game sales are still at near all time high levels. He's not saying sales are declining. He's saying that despite huge sales, developers are in trouble. And he's right. If games are selling so phenomenally well, why is it that so many companies have closed down and so many people have been laid off? Try reading it. It's a good read. its the ECONOMY!!!!!!! not this guys logic. that is why companies are going bankrupt the ECONOMY!!!!!!!! It's not the economy, it's poor management. He is using the closure of developers as a sign of hurt in the industry. But that is wrong. The industry is changing and that reveals which companies are well managed and can adapt and which companies are poorly managed and will fail. The only thing that effects the health of an industry is the demand from the consumer and it is at an all time high. Great companies will take advantage of this shift and bad companies will fail. Leaving an industry of well managed companies which will make the industry prosper greatly.  The dynamics of the demand from customers is growing. The demand for super high budget blockbusters are growing and the demand for cheap downloadable games are also growing. If a company makes a poor decision in it's ability to develop a high budget game without being able to make a game that will sell then that company will go under. But the investment capital in the industry will not disappear it will just be moved around from one company to the next. This industry is growing and prospering like never before. The failure of a company in a growing industry only fertilizes the industry for a better company to take it's place.  wow i dont know what planet you live on but on planet earth the economy is really bad and its made 100s of companies go bankrupt. Yes. It has. But has it made a well managed company go bankrupt? No it has not. It made the poorly managed companies go bankrupt. What happened to the well managed companies? They have been acquiring assets at rock bottom prices for the past year which will lead to tremendous growth and prosperity for those well managed companies and the industries as a whole.  sony lost billions of dollars because of this damn economy. thats why they had to fire so many peope (1000s) because of the ECONOMY!! and sony is like the biggest electronics company in the world you obviously have no idea what you're talking about.  Sony lost billions because they sold the PS3 for a $250+ loss and they can't get enough money back from 1st party games because they cost more than last gen and often don't sell as much.  PS2 and PSP sales have been dying off for quite a while now.  The only part about the economy that effected Sony was the exchange rate but if they would have sold the PS3 for a profit in the first place they wouldn't be losing billions. its called MSRP my friend  lol please don't post when you don't know anything about the topic. MSRP to your previouse comment. its aka buissness ethics you are the most clueless poster i've ever seen on vgchartz.  Perhaps this a joke, i dunno but i'm not talking to you anymore.

aww why soo soon. well this was fun.

you should have taken government.

to bad

maybe you should take his advise.

you know talk like thet really hurts peoples feelings

Hah, that's a hilarious description of the situation.

Actually, it sounded so ridiculous I had to read it twice before I realized it wasn't a joke.

I'd add that I'd be fine with the current losers dropping out, I'm not worried about the supply of good games coming to me by profitable companies. For many people on this forum, it'll suck as they don't share my tastes...

Hopefully some of these companies can get their costs more in control.

The industry practically crashed last year if you look at the number of layoffs and closed studios. So many projects were cancelled too and not just the ones you knew about.

Less projects = less games.
Less games = less revenue.
Less revenue = More layoffs.
More layoffs = Less projects.

[repeat]

And it's not over yet. While game sales might make a rebound, that still doesn't take care of soaring development costs.

I love the fact they use NPD data showing the dip in 2009, despite the fact they don't take DD into consideration.

Hey, ever think that the ~$10 billion dollar industry that NPD doesn't track is worth looking into?

NPD said DD accounted for 10% of the market for consoles, 18% for PC. I don't think they can account for all of the DD services for PC but it should be pretty accurate for consoles.

This isn't literally about the games industry as a whole dying, it's about the stagnation or consolidation of the "traditional" games industry as social and mobile gaming explode around it.

That is the future of gaming: social and mobile gaming. Browser games, the iPhone, facebook games (farmville has nearly 50 million users!), and of course, the DS and Wii. That's where the growth is. Zynga, the market leader in these sectors on the PC, has a market capitalization of 1 billion dollars, and has only been in existance for 10 years: this is an extremely rapid area of growth.

So it isn't just that "Traditional" games are consolidating, it's that other styles of games are exploding in popularity around them. Want another example? Consider this: let's talk about the growth in "Traditional" vs. "non traditional" platform sales. By "traditional," I mean the systems which have been set up to sell the big blockbusters like Final Fantasy, Halo, and Metal Gear Solid.

Compare generations, now, last generation to this one:

Traditional: PS2, GC, Xbox (~200M units sold)
Nontraditional: GBA (~80M units sold)

Traditional: 360, PS3 (~70M units sold)
Nontraditional: iPhone, DS, Wii, (~250M units sold)

Now, I'm sure some will quibble that the Wii is a "traditional" system -- and I'd point out that third parties, the focus of this article, clearly don't agree. They sure haven't treated it like one, at least. And I'm being nice here by not discussing the PC: the PC, 10 years ago, was ruled by companies like Epic, Bioware, and Valve. Valve is still quite healthy, but most of those other "AAA blockbuster" companies are far more focused on the 360 now, with browser/facebook games making up a far larger portion of the PC market than it was before. In other words, the PC is casual-izing, too.

But as a general approximation, I think it shows how things have shifted. Here, I'll give it a more precise definition: last generation, home consoles with a traditional controller and advanced graphics made up nearly 75% of the games market, as we know it. This generation, those systems are going to make up ~25%.

"Traditional" games aren't dying, but they're consolidating -- while "casual" games of all types explode around them.

Please note my avatar symbol. That is the symbol of Atari, and the top dog of the crash of the past. If the videogame industry survived the crash of the 1980s, even when limping along on the market of computer gaming, I see it not likely that the industry would die. We may face contraction, consolidation, and a people not belong in it to leave. The industry has draw far too many individuals who have no business being in it, because they think there is a buck being made. The sooner the Michael Pachters of the world leave, the better we will be off. Maybe we can accumulate a bit more humility in things.

The only thing we have as death here is if suddenly everyone feels that videogames are not for them, and they want to go do other things. As I see it now, that isn't likely to happen. As for contrast to what we had with the crash of the 1980s, we have the following:
* Videogame rentals, that make sure we get less garbage. This has replaced the arcades as the source of trying first.
* A semblance of quality control imposed by console makers. There is a business model to prevent total dregs from appearing. Yes, I can say a game like Bionic Command (Grin version) sucked, but I can't call it a total abomination. It did work, just was annoying beyond belief.
* Internet play has made games like Halo cultural phenomenon. No way that just vanishes. It will still be around. We just debate whether or not the next FPS will be all that. And, anyone see the likes of the World of Warcraft going away soon? I don't.

* Web games, iPhone apps, and the DS have all also established themselves as viable and sustainable.

Expect more consolidation going on, and some surprising drop offs. We may look at the Wii approach to new consoles also, and companies looking for Blue Oceans and the diversity of play growing. This will be healthy. I say contraction is possible. But, unless you see something like what happened when Atari suddenly declared record profits, causing an entire shakedown and crash of the industry, it isn't going to happen. Even despite all that, Atari STILL sold a million units a year of the Atari 2600 annually.

By the way, if anyone is concerned that they don't know what they would do if videogames died off, consider boardgames (and cardgames). Check this site out:
http://www.boardgamegeek.com

There is a world of play out there that is not electronic, which you can get greater value for your money with, and greater long-term replay value also. And you want user created content? You can hack whatever rules you like and change how the game is played.

Seriously, check out boardgames (and cardgames). So long as you don't feel the need to have every single game having a grand storyline, you are set.

A game like Go, for example, could keep you quite busy a lifetime.