Pro Video Game Leagues — Another Economic Casualty 207
Anonymusing writes "Not long ago, professional video gamer Emmanuel Rodriguez earned a base $30K salary plus prize winnings in the Championship Gaming Series. However, with the economy suffering, sponsors like DirecTV and News Corporation are backing out, leaving Rodriguez with a more typical job for a 23-year-old: store clerk. After the demise of the CPL and the Championship Gaming Series last year, the only major pro gamer league left is Major League Gaming, though it expects to turn a profit this year — some of its players earn more than six figures from the $1 million in prizes given throughout the season, while others are putting off college to work on their gaming careers."
A recent story in the LA Times discusses how the games industry slow-down is hitting game developers hard as well. Conversely, the used game market is seeing significant growth — it'll be interesting to see what publishers learn from this.
What will they learn? (Score:5, Insightful)
"The used game market is canibalizing our sales, they must be stopped!"
My 3 guesses (Score:4, Insightful)
Conversely, the used game market is seeing significant growth -- it'll be interesting to see what publishers learn from this.
1. That future games will be a 2Mb executable that downloads all the game content.
2. They need to charge more for games
3. Piracy is to blame.
Sports Celebrities (Score:4, Insightful)
He's just a sports celebrity. That's all. You don't hear anyone crying because nobody can get sponsors for curling, do you?
If people wanted to watch other people play video games, the economy would have very little effect on his life.
Though, honestly, I've never been sure why people want to watch other people play any other sport, either.
what publishers learn from this (Score:4, Insightful)
[...] Conversely, the used game market is seeing significant growth â" it'll be interesting to see what publishers learn from this.
That DRM is good and they should disallow the selling of used games.
What? they were supposed to learn that their bussiness model can be better? that most new games cost way too much? that is not required to have a great studio spending millions of dollars to make a great game (World of Goo comes to mind, their "studio" was pretty much any coffe shop with free wi-fi)?
I may be wrong...
What they'll learn? (Score:4, Insightful)
Perhaps that in a recession people cut back on luxuries, and that a computer game is less important than a mortgage repayment.
No surprises there (Score:3, Insightful)
The way to keep people interested is to involve them. Simply presenting video gaming in the same manner as a football match isn't really enough.
Re:what will publishers learn (Score:3, Insightful)
No, what they'll learn is to install even more offensive DRM that prevents you from reselling your game, so they can sell more new copies.
oh wait they're already starting to do that aren't they?
Re:What will they learn? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Sports Celebrities (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:The publishers didn't much care. (Score:5, Insightful)
If it didn't pay for itself, you weren't a pro. That's not meant as a slam, just a definition.
Times have changed, but not prices (Score:3, Insightful)
Damn. I used up my mod points already. You make a good point which companies are aware of, they're just too greedy to change. We're paying prices which have been the same for ages, from the days when gaming was a niche hobby and there were fewer copies of games created (which by the magic of supply and demand means they were probably more expensive to make). I remember eagerly shelling out $80 CAD for the first Dark Forces PC game the day it was released. That was unusual - a new release price was about $60, which continues to this day.
Pricing for console games is a little less obvious but I think it's pretty similar to PC game pricing. I remember Atari 2600 games costing about $10-20 (a lot of money for a kid in the 1980s, especially if you save up only to find out your new game is a real shitburger [wikipedia.org]) Nintendo games costing about $50 (an AWFUL lot of money in the late 1980s) and today a new release on any console is $50-70. Factor in inflation and the cost is probably about the same as it's always been.
But even though the cost of making games has increased, the cost of distributing them has dropped drastically. Stamping out DVDs costs pennies and electronic distribution costs even less. I still like getting a physical copy of a game - especially when the publishers put goodies like a special manual or cloth map or figurine in the box - but I would certainly sacrifice that if it meant distribution models like Steam or WiiWare would drive down prices to a more affordable range. I like Steam and WiiWare, but I only buy Steam games on weekend deals (STALKER for $5, w00t) and only use WiiWare for something I really think is worth full price. Electronic distribution needs to be $5-10 cheaper than box copies, IMO.
Could be worse. Could be poker (Score:3, Insightful)
Watching people play cards is now a televised "sport".
Maybe if people played video games for money....
Re:A little help (Score:3, Insightful)
You do know that IN THE BEGINNING we used to stack quarters on the machines and wait our turn. If some bastard was really good he could keep the crowd waiting until people started to give up and pick up the quarters and leave.
Damn, that used to feel good! :)
Oh, wait, you wanted to know if I enjoyed watching other people play.
The answer is Hell, yes! How do you think I ever learned to play the original Street Fighter? You remember, the one with the HUGE red pads you smacked real hard to hit your opponent. And then the damn things started to get brittle and crack and break.
ii) How many of you have dismissed players that dominate you as having spent way too much time playing video games?
Everytime some ass-wipe beats me, unless it's one of my nephews. Then I just threaten to look at his grades for the last semester. If the grades are not up where they belong it keeps the trash talk to a minimum. :)
iii) What's your favorite kind of cheese? I'm partial to those Kraft American Singles. Extra Sharp Cheddar. Goes good on cheese-burgers, pizza, chili-dogs, nachos, and most anything you put in your mouth with the exception of a nice, warm teat.
And to answer the anonymous coward:
iv) When was the last time game you had purchased that had replay value?
Sad to say, Perfect Dark 0, and Kameo. Too bad the crappy XBox360 died on me.
Re:What will they learn? (Score:4, Insightful)
The White House *has* actually considered capping CEO pay in *all* publically held companies. I don't know how seriously this was considered, but the GPP isn't just crazy. I was quite surprised at how seriously the "let's make veterans pay for medical care for their war wounds, that will save money!" idea was taken by the current administration (with even Pelosi roundly criticizing it), so nothing would surprise me.
Re:Times have changed, but not prices (Score:4, Insightful)
Which is actually a pretty good deal considering how other prices have risen in the same time frame, including the cost to develop a game.
Why *should* they change? Demand for games is largely (though not completely) inelastic - dropping the price doesn't result in an equivalent increase in sales.
Re:What will they learn? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:No surprises there (Score:3, Insightful)
No, it only makes your spectators a subset of the millions of CounterStrike players.
Yes, but it means that people are watching CounterStrike precisely at a time & place when they could instead be playing CounterStrike. So it's not like people watching while unable to play. Thus, there exist at least some conditions under which it is more interesting to watch good CS players than playing CS oneself.
Re:What will they learn? (Score:3, Insightful)
Supply and demand is an economic concept, capitalism and communism are different methods to deal with it.