BBC Ponders Another Games Industry Crash

weirdguy writes with a link to a BBC article that poses the same question asked by journalists every couple of years: is the games industry headed for another crash? "Yes, gamers are snapping up the new generation of games consoles — Microsoft's Xbox 360, Nintendo's Wii, and Sony's Playstation 3 [PS3], but at huge cost to the industry. Hardware makers are losing hundreds of dollars on every console sold, and games publishers face an "increasingly difficult environment, as rising development costs and small user bases [mean] that return on investment in next generation games development is unlikely to be achieved before 2008," according to media analysts Screen Digest. More importantly, though, the video games publishers are facing a revolution of their business model."

Nintendo

[cyphercell]

This would be where Nintendo laughs on it's way to the bank.

Its beginning to feel that way to me

[mcnut]

I was an avid gamer about 6 months ago, and I have been excited about a few games to come out recently, but I just don't see a reason to buy them anymore. The games I was excited to see come out this quarter I could live with or without now. Am I.. growing up?!? nooOO!

Re:eh...

[lpangelrob]

Right now I think you're caught between the denile stage and rage stage on your way towards acceptance.

Interesting... I've also heard that denile could be a river in Egypt...

It's the pirates, I bet

[Opportunist]

Outdated business models? Costs that aren't offset by the revenue? Prices that don't match the value?

Usually, when those stars are aligned this way, the culprit is someone copying the content.

Re:eh...

[MeanderingMind]

You mean like Mario Andretti Racing [wikipedia.org]?

Piracy is good for you shock

[Bearhouse]

This gem tucked away at the end of the article: 'As it turns out, software piracy can be good for you. "We have extremely strong brands [in Asia] thanks to the pirates; they have created millions of consumers - not customers,"...' That's why copy protection / prevention has been so weak in Microsoft products for years, and will probably remain so as long as 'free' alternatives exist. Quoting St. Francis Xavier: ''Give me the children until they are seven and anyone may have them afterward'. (Sometimes mis-attributed to Joseph Goebbels, albeit in a deformed way). In other words, get 'em young and they'll be asking for Vista & Outlook instead of Ubuntu & T'bird...

Re:Nintendo isn't losing money

[HAKdragon]

I would hope that Microsoft doesn't take a loss when somebody buys a Wii, or the console market is more cut throat than I thought. ;)

Re:eh...

[kid_oliva]

I think he wants the game to give him a girlfriend...

Re:Mainstream penetration

[PresidentEnder]

So... if nerdy games can penetrate the sorority girl market, when can nerds start penetrating the sorority girls?

Absured

[HotDogWater]

I find it hard to believe that many game industries like Playstation would produce something like the PS3 knowing that they would loose money on it. What did they hire the team of monkeys from career builder. Maybe blueray dvd in the PS3 was not a great idea after all. At least Capcom is making shit tons of money from their awesome games like dead rising and lost planet.