Following up on yesterday’s debate, I wanted to highlite to a few more relevant datapoints:
"The video game industry enjoyed record sales in 2004, despite a
shortage of game consoles over the holiday season, according to figures
released yesterday.The data from NPD Funworld, a market research firm, showed that
United States sales of video game consoles, portable devices and the
games made for those platforms were $9.9 billion in 2004. That figure
is slightly below the overall sales figure of $10 billion in 2003.
However, the 2004 figure does not yet include sales of games for
personal computers. When those sales are included in a report due in
the next few days, overall sales for the year will be a record, NPD
said.The 2004 sales include a surge in sales of games for hand-held
devices, which hit $1 billion in 2004, up from $903 million in 2003.Over all, sales of games for consoles and portable devices was $6.2
billion. Sales of games for personal computers were $700 million from
January through November, with full-year figures expected soon."
This is another example of a new media taking money and time from consumers to the detriment of older media (newspapers and magazines, television and terrestrial radio, CDs, movie theatres, VHS tapes).
>
Source:
Video Game Industry Sales Reach Record Pace in 2004
By MATT RICHTEL
NYT, January 19, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/19/technology/19games.html
Good post. I think that this is normal because video games become more and more interesting and people just love them. I do not think that this is something bad but we should not go too far!
It’s hard to belive considering all the games available online now…