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Businesses Entertainment Games

Game Software Sales Reach $7.3B in 2004 45

Posted by Zonk from the that-is-quite-a-few-copies-of-tetris dept.
A press release from the Entertainment Software Association reveals the growing popularity of the gaming industry, as sales reach into the 7 Billion US Dollars arena. From the article: "In 2004, video games flew off the shelves as eight titles were sold per second per day throughout the year, evidence of the continuing vast popularity of games among consumers of all ages. This industry remains strong and poised for renewed double digit growth over the next five years as we enter a new cycle of video game console launches. The future could not be brighter."
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Game Software Sales Reach $7.3B in 2004 More

Game Software Sales Reach $7.3B in 2004

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  • World Obesity rates climb to new highs !

  • Just as long as... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Tepshen ( 851674 ) on Thursday January 27, 2005 @05:03PM (#11497248)
    .. We dont have another great video game crash due to crappy games flooding the market trying to get a piece of the pie. I enjoy games but I dont think that mainstream profit mongering is good for gamers as a whole.
    • I seriously doubt there will ever be another crash again. The market is too large and well established now. When the crash of '83 or '84(I forget when it was) happened the game industry was still trying to define itself. It was still trying to decide if it was a part of the toy industry or the consumer electronics industry. 2 decades later, video games are as well established as an entertainment medium just as much as movies and games. Unfortunately it has meant the number of mediocre titles has risen, but
      • Comment removed based on user account deletion
      • That's what they said about the IT sector... just before the bubble crashed.
      • In the 1970's the movie industry had a large fall off in business. Interestingly it led to lots of experimentation which created a larger and healthier industry but certainly the video gaming industry isn't more established than Hollywood was 32 years ago (and yes I know that that games outsell movies if you only count certain aspects of the movie industry).

    • Re:Just as long as... (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Ayaress ( 662020 )
      The market has a bit of a safety net against crashes now. Back in the 80's when the first crash hit, not that many people bought games, and due to hardware limitation, gameplay and fun were really the only reason to buy most games. It certainly wasn't for the beautiful graphics. Now, games regularly try (and succeed) to sell themselves purely on graphics, sometimes with nothing else going for them, so even a major dip in quality still yeilds games that sell.

      Most importantly, though, a lot more people buy g
      • That would be bad for
        true gamers, and in the long run it may end up severely hurting the industry...
        There... fixed it for you (empahsis mine).
        • Good point.

        • Elitism? (Score:2, Interesting)

          by Mike Hawk ( 687615 )
          Video game elitism. Who would have thunk it? Can someone who plays games be a false gamer? And who really identifies themselves as a gamer, let alone a true gamer? Not anyone that has much to brag about I would guess. Do you often find yourself in conversation saying, "Dude, you may be a gamer, but you aren't a true gamer."

          And this is coming from someone who plays games all day...

          • Dude, you may be a gamer, but you aren't a true gamer.

            Text Version 1.1.:
            Dude, you may be an occasional gamer, but I'm a hardcore gamer (i.e., I play a lot).
            Satisfied?

  • The future could not be brighter, eh? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 27, 2005 @05:13PM (#11497374)
    Exclusivity contracts, workers being laid off, smaller developers going under or being bought out, Japan's game industry shrinking, prices on games going up next generation, innovation compromised in favor of a constant stream of sequels, and mediocre games all abound...

    Sounds like a bright future...

  • Why are game companies bitching? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by XopherMV ( 575514 ) * on Thursday January 27, 2005 @05:27PM (#11497544) Journal
    In 2004, video games flew off the shelves as eight titles were sold per second per day throughout the year, evidence of the continuing vast popularity of games among consumers of all ages. This industry remains strong and poised for renewed double digit growth over the next five years as we enter a new cycle of video game console launches. The future could not be brighter.

    If that is true, which I am not disputing, then why are game companies always bitching about not making enough money?
    • Game developers are complaining about not making enough money. Publishers are quite satified. Especially if the publisher is named 'EA'
    • Cause it worked for the RIAA?
    • Well I would imagine that they complain because the majority of games that are put onto the shelves do not break even.

      In fact, the article states that the sales of games has reached 7 billion, not the profit made from those games. The cost of making a modern game is in the tens of millions now, and each runaway hit has to support about 10 lackluster releases. Besides the fact that a good portion of the money goes to the publisher who provides the marketing, advertising, and distribution of the game instea

  • and so (Score:4, Funny)

    by Zareste ( 761710 ) on Thursday January 27, 2005 @05:28PM (#11497556) Homepage
    You see what file sharing is doing to the market?! We cannot stand for this!
    • The vast majority of those games sold were CONSOLE games. Console games cannot be as easily backed up or coppied as a PC game. These numbers tell you NOTHING about what file sharring does to PC games, where it hits the hardest.
      • These numbers tell you NOTHING about what file sharring does to PC games, where it hits the hardest.

        "According to the data compiled by the NPD Group, overall U.S. video game console software sales reached $5.2 billion (160.7 million units), computer games sales were $1.1 billion (45 million units), and a record $1.0 billion (42.3 million units) in portable software sales. ... By way of comparison, 2003 figures were: U.S. video game console sales reached $4.9 billion (149 million units), computer games sal
        • I interpret 'video games' to be those you play through your TV, therefore console games. (Unless you play your PC through a TV out, that messes up the system somewhat)
      • where it hits the hardest

        Like BAM! You just got nailed by a feather pillow.
  • $7 billion being spent on games nowadays but adventure games and some other long-forgotten genres are still all but extinct? With all this money being spent on gaming, it seems like a development house about the size Sierra was in its heyday could still carve out a respectable (but not glamorous) living.
    • Show me 7 people who like old-style adventure games....

      And I'll show you 7 people who won't buy any new games, because "the old ones were better."

      So yes, those genres are just about extinct. People won't buy them, so they don't make them.
    • I'm not a gamer but I was around back then (Inforcom text adventures + the original Scott Adams stuff):

      Alice, Resident Evil seriies, Bloodrayne. They are still releasing adventure games.
  • eight titles were sold per second per day throughout the year

    What other unit of measure would there but "per day"?
    • The way they wrote it it makes me think it's increasing. Acceleration is measured in distance/timeunit/timeunit.
      • Ohhh. Great point.

        So that would mean we're looking
        Day 1: 8/sec
        Day 2: 16/sec
        Day 3: 24/sec ...
        Day 365: 2920/sec

        Which means units sold per day would be:
        Day 1: 691,200 ...
        Day 365: 252,288,000 units

        So in one year: 46,168,704,000 games were sold. At $50 a pop that's $2,308,435,200,000.00

        Wow. I had no idea the video game market was a $2 trillion dollar business.

  • Cliche Statement. (Score:2, Insightful)

    by PocketPick ( 798123 )
    This industry remains strong and poised for renewed double digit growth over the next five years as we enter a new cycle of video game console launches. The future could not be brighter.

    Isn't this how every industry sounds when it reaches a new zenith? Home desktop manufacturers, various ISPs, Cellphone service providers, ... the list goes on and on.

    What, based on history, will really happen is this:

    -Mergers to help consolidate costs of producing new games.
    -Complete outsourcing of all testing effo
  • If anything, I worry MORE now that gaming has become big business. I can look at pretty much any given shelf in an EB or GameStop and immediately denote half of the titles as the shovelware they are. The rest are probably the "prestige" titles of various publishers from the last year or two. Honestly, the comparisons between Hollywood and gaming aren't that far off...
  • Wow, $7.3B! That's more than the movie industry*!

    *not actualy more than the movie industry

    There has been way too much video game hype floating around this past year or more. I'm not complaining about the quality of games, or the marketing campaigns for games themselves, but rather this video game industry awareness campaign that tries to wow everyone into thinking video games are legitimate now (disregarding whether or not they have been a legitimate form of entertainment for some time now). Is this m

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