When you people lose your jobs, or are feeling down about the price of milk, it seems you seek one solace and one solace only: Video Games. While individual companies such as Midway, EA, and even Microsoft have had mass layoffs in the past few months, showing signs of financial strain, the video game industry as a whole has literally never been better.
$22 BILLION worth of video game software and hardware was sold in 2008. That’s the Gross Domestic Product of Costa Rica right there. Of this, over half, $11.7 billion was software, meaning it’s not all from people buying Wiis or taking advantage of price drops for the PS3 and Xbox 360.
December is perhaps the most baffling. In this month that was supposed to show the worst time for retailers, this 13th month of the then officially declared recession, sales weren’t just healthy, they were record breaking. For the first time ever in a single month, video game sales brought in over $5 billion. In fact, according to the ESA’s report on the sales numbers, they brought in more in December 2008 than in the entire year of 1997.
Mature games, which typically get the widest coverage in the “hardcore” market, accounted for only 15% of these sales, while E and E-10 made up 57%.
So, clearly, there are some well-entertained, starving, naked gamers out there. The question is, what is separating Video Games in people’s minds as still being such a strong value compared to comics, movies, or any other form of entertainment? While January has no doubt been a slow month, with games like Street Fighter IV, Resident Evil V, Halo Wars, and more on the horizon in just the next two months, it will be interesting to see if growth can truly be maintained.
[Via]
January 29th, 2009 at 7:38 am
Video games are what? 50-60 games a pop? NO ONE here should feel guilty for spending a mere $2.99-$3.99 on a comic book.
January 29th, 2009 at 12:00 pm
Videogames, like most entertainment media, are usually considered “recession-proof”, the thought being that people will always need diversions to keep them from dwelling on their troubles. The fact that those games are now anywhere from 40 dollars up to a couple hundred for a Rock band setup is relatively minor.
January 29th, 2009 at 2:07 pm
I’d say it’s all thanks to the Wii. A video game that’s fun for the whole family, including the wives. Especially with the Wii Fit and Dance Dance Revolution. Normally my wife would just roll her eyes at me getting some games, but she’s the one who had the Wii game list this year. I’m sure my wife’s not the only one.
Heck, I’ll go further. My 66 year old Mom and her husband both have a Wii and play all the time. They had one before I did. Talk about market penetration for video games.
And just like comic books, no one pays full price for games.
January 29th, 2009 at 10:49 pm
“NO ONE here should feel guilty for spending a mere $2.99-$3.99 on a comic book.”
How many hours to do you get out of $50-60 of comic books? Maybe 4? 3 if you’re a quick reader?
I can’t think of the last video game I only got 3 hours out of.
But then, anymore I’d rather go buy a few $8 novels than $4 comics or $50 games.
Record revenues for the industry, and so T2′s CEO whines about used game sales. Idiot.