Game Industry Bigger Than Hollywood

Ant writes "This SF Gate story says stacks of new releases for hungry video game enthusiasts mean it's boom time for an industry now even bigger than Hollywood. The $10 billion video game industry, which generates more revenue than Hollywood, has never released so many highly anticipated blockbuster titles in a single season. It started in August with the game title Doom 3, followed by The Sims 2 in September, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas in October, then Halo 2, Metroid Prime 2: Echoes and Half-Life 2 last month. In November, sales of video games rose to $849 million, an 11 percent increase from the same month last year and up 77 percent from October, according to the industry research firm NPD Funworld. The industry set a milestone last month when Microsoft's Halo 2 -- a sequel to a futuristic game with an elaborate plot that pits humans against invading aliens -- surpassed Hollywood's opening-weekend movie box office record in just one day of sales."

Gaming Industry Rise

[Fruvous]

Is it that suprising? A video game can offer so much more than an hour and a half movie. Not only that but the "sequal factor" really starts piling up. Look ever single game up there has been a sequal.

Re:Contrinutions

[iocat]

Not enough... The game industry is bigger than Hollywood, if you only count US boxoffice receipts. But these "game industry is bigger than Hollywood" claims always leave out the rental and DVD sales market.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

[joshdick]

Now if only the industry could receive the recognition it deserves, the recognition the movie, TV and music industries receive.

There ought to be video game awards much better than those Spike recently gave out.

Piracy comparisons?

[Tzarius]

Doesn't it seem odd that an industry that would take more losses from piracy (i.e. a much higher percentage of users that already have the means and ability to pirate the products, and where the individual products are priced higher, providing further incentive for piracy) is making more money than the film industry, which should have a much larger customer base?

Or is it that the barrier-to-piracy on movies is a lot lower?

Re:Gaming Industry Rise

[datafr0g]

I'm suprised as not everyone has a game console but anyone can walk into a movie theatre. As for the PC games, very few (reletivly speaking) have a PC capable of playing these games the way they are intended to be played. And for those who do, I would have thought that the prices for games are too high. Still, if they can make this much money at this stage, there must be a huge potential in the years to come. As a side note, I'd be interested to know how much the game industry spent on marketing compared to previous years!!

Another leveling factor

[SuperKendall]

Lots of people go to see movies they like multiple times. But how many people buy multiple copies of a game they like?

Re:Not so fast, geekboys

[St. Arbirix]

First figure out how many people would buy a movie at $50/unit. If that price reduces movie sales by more than 4/5ths then there's no need to talk. I think it would too.

$10 billion

[fafaforza]

Wow.

I remember the time when the size of the gaming industry hovered around $5-$6 billion, as recently as year 2000. Anyone have a monthly or yearly chart that would show when the jumps occured?

Re:Apples and Oranges

[frankthechicken]

And don't forget that people tend to have to find time to sit down and watch a movie, at one of the designated times set by the theatre. Whereas, with a game you just have to buy a copy, and then find time at your leisure to play it.

I know that is why I tend to watch movies on DVD nowadays, I have an appropriate set up to gain a reasonable theatre experience, and thus I can watch the things at my leisure, in comfort, and with the ability to make neccesary drink/food/toilet breaks at any time, and with no kids/packet rustling/general annoyances.

Re:Piracy comparisons?

[lachlan76]

Video games have a much higher cost per unit.

Also, it's been established fairly well that piracy isn't hurting the movie industry.

Re:Not so fast, geekboys

[tepples]

First figure out how many people would buy a movie at $50/unit.

G/PG movie, family of five, $7 per ticket plus monopoly popcorn/candy, do the math.

Re:Apples and Oranges

[bigman2003]

Houses cost about $300,000, and can-openers are about $4. More can-openers are sold than houses.

But the real estate market is still bigger than the can-opener market.

poor programmers

[Anonymous Coward]

With so much money changing hands in the game industry, why is it that the programmers who actually MAKE the games have to accept far-below-industry-standard pay and have to work in excess of 50 hours a week standard (more in crunch time, of course, which is most of the time)?

Not that this is much different from the music industry, where most of the artists that actually produce the music wind up hopelessly in debt and without ownership of their own work.

Or the book authorship industry, where it is just understood that nobody can earn a living as an author, even if their books sell well nationwide.

Or the farming industry...where the concept of a "family farm" is a quaint oddity...and the majority of farmers are little more than slave labor...

I could go on...

There is a very, very disturbing trend that has been at work since the 1940's or so...with the demise of the small business, those who actually produce anything of value get paid just enough to live on (or less), while someone who contributes nothing to the process rakes it in.

This is NOT a free market. :|

Re:Bleh

[danila]

The reason for that are the moronic sheeps that permeate all spheres of human life including (first and foremost) Slashdot. :) Remember the stories about Half-Life 2 and Doom 3. Remember how everyone here wet their pants and secretly masturbated over promo screenshots? Remember how excited every masochistic slashdotter was about having to upgrade his computer to play Doom 3?

People are idiots. 3 "next-gen" FPS games were released in 2004. Half-Life 2 turned out to be the most popular, despite the fact that it has ordinary graphics, horrible story and 10 hours of gameplay. Doom 3 was the second in popularity, with an engine that looked like a dog, horrible gameplay and boring levels. And one truly innovative game with the most stunning graphics and released on schedule and without as much hype, Far Cry by Crytek, was quickly forgotten. I exaggerated a bit, but the point still stands - as long as people are willing to pay for the name, publishers would develop sequels (and licensed titles) to deliver what the public (including the public here) wants.

Very important point!

[Scorchio]

Parent hit it on the head... the state of the industry from an outsider's point of view is significantly different to those working (or attempting to work) in the industry. The picture is painted that everything is rosy, and record sales are being made, but where on earth is all the money going? Everything seems to be sliding downhill at the moment, as it has been over the past three or four years, with development studios going under all the time. Even Microsoft have been laying off teams.