News Games outsold DVD and Blu-ray last year

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/gaming/2009/01/27/games-outsold-dvd-and-blu-ray-last-year/1

According to sales data from last year videogames managed to outsell the combined forces of DVD and Blu-ray last year.

 

And that doesn't include digital distribution. Damn isn't piracy having a terrible effect on the market?

 

but it also doesnt include Cinema Viewings

whats the cost of making a movie vs making a Game surely a game is like 10x cheaper

 

It really depends, you can get extremes in both industries.

In the film industry some films are made on cheap digital gear in people's spare time or by huge budget studio productions.

In the games industry you can have games made by small indie game development studios with a handfull of staff and six months time or by big devs that might have 200-300 highly skilled (and generally decently paid) professionals working for four years.

 

Piracy :: cough ::

 

Is this units sold or revenue, because if its revenue 1 game = ~4DVDs, which is hardly a useful comparison.
If its units - holy hell I'll be shocked.

 

Indeed. They do tend to cost a heck of a lot more..

I should imagine (from TFA's use of GBP) that it's revenue.

 

It looks like it is in value. But to be honest, when comparing different industries, it'd be daft to use anything other than value. Cotton Wool buds, for example, sold over 72 billion units last year (according to QI), so much more than all entertainment media added together. But this is a stupid comparison as they are completely different products, with completely different monetary values. Likewise DVDs have a completely different monetary value than Games (as you say, 4x different), so comparing unit sales is again stupid.

 

Did the MPAA already sue anybody? This seems to show that soooo many people rather download the movie than buy the DVD, right?

Any numbers on PC alone? I think it might be interesting to see how dead PC gaming is.

 

I'm not so sure the gaming industry is more resistant but rather simply slow to react and thus in a long downturn, it would too get hit. After all, while games are more value for dollar for the gamers, the same can't be said for the developers and publishers. Gamers may be able to play games longer... but they may also be less inclined to buy games if they don't have the spare cash. Likewise, when a publisher has invested several million into a game that is near completion, it's usually more prudent to finish the game and release it... even if the development team itself will be fired at the end of the development cycle. And since games take a year or more to release, less projects are started and more are canceled mid-way. As well, since work can sometimes be consolidated - trim QA from 50 to 20 - the visible product may not appear much different to the consumer.

If any part of the video game industry is resistant, it's serious games that already have their money given or granted to them or the smaller studios or projects that are working short cycles with small teams (and possibly second jobs). Only the larger studios with existing ample money to help weather the downturn (or entice people to remain confident in them) can afford to hold tight for a little.

 

yeah request for bit could you actually find out what the average cost of development is for games against income

you could do an article and base it around something like hale life 2, the latest Fifa reincarnation and something like darwinia

just to compare the different spectrum of development styles

 

Whoa, games out sold DVD's & Bluray films in 2008?

Wow, just wow.

How did they compare against toaster sales, or winscreen wiper sales? ZOMG, I wonder if they outsold Coke & PEPSI!

What other industries can we compare next to each other? How about motor bikes compared with push bikes?

 

Seconded. I think this might be interesting allthough it sounds like a lot of work. Then again... it's your job! I have to admit I doubt this'll help a lot clarifying the whole situation. Does anybody have some numbers on how much movies cost in production?

 

I very much doubt that any company would just so easily hand over data to me, but I'll try and look into it today.

 

From the MPAA

 

Let me just quote themovieblog.com:

That was after rumors appeared Depp would get $75m for Pirates 4. Seeing the average budget of a movie is >$100m I can only agree with them.