February 1, 2002

8:17 PM

BusinessWeek's Game EditionWith all the hype that games, consoles, and MMORGs are getting in mainstream media, will this be another case of media overkill or will we see the industry blossom as a real alternative equal to the movie and record industry.
posted by AsiaInsider (7 comments total)

I was under the impression that computer games grossed more than movies for at least the last few years. Of course, I can't seem to find any facts to back this up...
posted by Doug at 8:54 PM on February 1, 2002

The first article on that site gives some of the facts you're after. Hardware and software sales topped box office receipts, with software accounting for about 75% of that. Does that include VCR / DVD hardware and rentals? In any case, the game industry is much bigger than the share of attention it gets in mass media.

Take a look at the game engine posted about a day ago here. That will be the alterna/punk/indie future of a massive industry. Consoles are being hacked, Sony has released Linux for the PS2 and many PC games come with the content creation tools that the game developers used to create the original.

The overkill might come in the form of another investor/IPO/ stock bubble and pop similar to what we saw with internet enabled e-everything over the past few years.
posted by mutagen at 9:32 PM on February 1, 2002

"The overkill might come in the form of another investor/IPO/ stock bubble and pop similar to what we saw with internet enabled e-everything over the past few years."

/me polishes his saddle.
posted by jcterminal at 10:10 PM on February 1, 2002

or will we see the industry blossom as a real alternative equal to the movie and record industry.


Um, the video game industry is already larger then the movie and music industry in the US combined
posted by delmoi at 9:03 AM on February 2, 2002

As the second poster noted, the videogame market is larger by spending but not in terms of mindshare or marketshare. I should have rephrased the question to be "when will videogames be accepted as a legitimate mainstream entertainment platform." Here in Asia, everyone plays videogames and there is little stigma seeing parents playing games with their kids or girls at consoles. Sure the hardcore is here as well but gaming is just another entrtainment venue you do with friends lke karaoke, movies and raving.

The US market I suspect is the hardcore and little kids.

thanks for the comments. I didn't realize the article originally came out last December.
posted by AsiaInsider at 7:44 PM on February 2, 2002

Actually, I think since Playstation came out - it made gaming a little more "legit" for an older crowd of people. Playstation 2 and X-Box have certainly marketed themselves this way as well, with Nintendo seemingly stuck on getting the kids.
posted by owillis at 8:27 PM on February 2, 2002

and the gaming crowd has gotten older as well. Those 70's arcade and 2600 freaks are now in their 30's and 40's.

eek
posted by AsiaInsider at 8:44 PM on February 3, 2002