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Games Industry To Double By 2011 34

Posted by Zonk from the that's-a-lot-of-sequels dept.
GamesDailyBiz is reporting that the games industry will double in market size by 2011. This is according to a study, not some sort of time-scrying device. From the article: "The videogame industry has been growing exponentially in recent years, and a new study from ABI Research has indicated that the growth will continue. According to the study, the videogame market will expand from $32.6 billion in 2005 to $65.9 billion in 2011. Online and mobile gaming will be the primary source of the growth, while the rest of the market will see growth, but to a lesser extent."
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Games Industry To Double By 2011 More

Games Industry To Double By 2011

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  • Double? Is this like a "Gartner Graph" with the big curve that shows that sales of electronic teddy bears, remote control toothbrushes or whatever else their clients paid them to pitch will double/triple/whatever the number they want to see in five years?
  • Do you think we'll have to put up with some sort of American Idol game release?

    MMO reality shows?

    Just shoot me now.
    • SIMON: So, what are you going to do?
      CONTESTANT: I'm going to do a Five Man Scholo run.
      SIMON: Alright, let's see it

      [FOUR HOURS PASS]

      CONTESTANT: TADA! I got my Purple Shoulders!
      SIMON: I have to say, that was the most abysmal group we've seen in Seattle. You Whiped three times. You only survied because three of your members were paly-s. Paula?
      PAULA ABDUL: I'm not sure why I'm judging this stuff, Simon. I'm going to vote..... yes.
      SIMON: It's all up to you, Randy.
      Randy: [sighs] ...Sorry man... y
  • One minute they say it's declining, the next they say it's gonna double.
    • For those who weren't paying attention, parent is referring to this [slashdot.org] from yesterday...

      I suppose it was a *really short* downturn. Or perhaps they were holding the graph upside-down. Or maybe the "experts" don't have a freaking clue what's going to happen and they just spout off a different opinion daily. Who can know of such things?
    • Yeah I think we're in a bubble that's going to burst. For one, I hear a lot of stories about famous game makers going bust...Acclaim, Atari's slashdot article this week, RareWare owned by M$ with no upcoming games. Maybe these companies did something to cause their own failure, but it seems the software market is a slippery one where past success buys no guarantees.

      Two, while M$ and Sony have made a point to cater to the "older gamer," I have to wonder whether this market segment will persist. I suspect
  • "Do you think we'll have to put up with some sort of American Idol game release?"

    too late [gamezone.com]

  • I should be happy... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by casualsax3 ( 875131 ) on Friday February 17, 2006 @12:13PM (#14742674)
    ... about this "growth" but I'm far from it. If the popularization of video games so far has given us anything - it's the Spike TV Video Game awards - a ceremony that last year didn't mention Metroid Prime.

    I liked being a gamer in high school, because not a lot of people were into it, and because of that games had to be good to sell. Now I'm not the kind of guy that stops liking a band because they've gotten popular - that doesn't make any sense. What I'm complaining about is how previously good genres are being dilluted and ruined to appeal to a new wider audience. What about us loyal customers that have supported Square from the beginning? We didn't deserve Final Fantasy X-2. Now EA can pump out Madden after Madden - actually remove features and charge $10 more for the Xbox 360 version and get away with it.

    I'm glad that the industry is robust now, I just don't like the direction it's headed.

    • Re:I should be happy... (Score:4, Funny)

      by xxxJonBoyxxx ( 565205 ) on Friday February 17, 2006 @12:45PM (#14743013)
      "What about us loyal customers that have supported Square from the beginning? We didn't deserve Final Fantasy X-2."

      Since Final Fantasy I on the Nintendo 8? True, they've been pumping out the same game for twenty years, but if it took you until X-2 to realize it, I would think it's your own damn fault.

      • That's a ridiculous statement, spoken by someone who just glossed right over 9 because 7 wasn't what they wanted after falling in love with 6 and 8 was... well... awful. 4, 5, and 6 are exceptional games, 7 you either loved it or you didn't, and 9 was just excellent.

        It's your own damn fault if you didn't enjoy 8 or 9 of the 12 major Final Fantasy games Square put out.

        • "That's a ridiculous statement, spoken by someone who just glossed right over 9 because 7 wasn't what they wanted after falling in love with 6 and 8 was... well... awful. 4, 5, and 6 are exceptional games, 7 you either loved it or you didn't, and 9 was just excellent."

          You're right - I never played anything after FF4. My kid brothers played higher numbers in the series, but the "NUKE 4" crap was getting old by that time and I was starting to discover that girls were more interesting than airships by that

    • I didn't watch the Spike TV Video Game Awards, and I never plan to. I never took it seriously because, I mean, come on: it's Spike TV. What did you expect?

      I'd have to say that EA is one of the causes of this new-version bloat we're seeing now, but it's mostly regulated to sports games and racing, things that ultimately lend themselves to iterative releases. Sports games can only do so much: new roster, improved graphics/sound. That's it. There's not much room for improvement on such a simple game conce
      • Great post there, I agree with everything you've said. While the Revolution's controller is certainly going to promote innovation in terms of controlling and interacting with games - it's no guarantee that the experience will be new and fresh. I guarantee you EA will release Madden for it, doing nothing but making it so you control the game differently.
  • Growth may be a less important concept than that of a convergence of music, video, social and educational activities, with online gaming technology as a core.

  • That is... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by sc0ttyb ( 833038 ) * on Friday February 17, 2006 @12:22PM (#14742765)
    Until everyone gets tired of playing the same old unimaginative crap over and over.

    As the industry gets bigger, fewer companies are going to risk making games that don't fit a norm. Right now we're seeing tons and tons of me-too/same-old games coming out and very few new, refreshing game experiences. One of these days people are going to get tired of playing Unreal Tournament 2600, Madden 80 Hojillion, and Need For Speed: New Cars. Well, maybe not. If people can watch the same damn sports games only with different rosters over and over and over again, then I assume they'll continue to play games of this type as well.

    We're in for a shake-up, and I think that Nintendo just might be on to something. Surely, the PS3 and Xbox 360 are very powerful machines, but the cost of producing a 14-20 hour game at or beyond the quality level of all previous offerings can be staggering. I expect that we'll soon begin to see the trouble the movie industry is currently having: multimillion dollar budgets for titles that ultimately flop.

    We do still have the occasional rare nugget of gaming goodness that's truly unique and fun, but I don't know how long that'll last.

    Despite all this naysaying, I am still hopeful for the future of the hobby I love.
    • >Until everyone gets tired of playing the same old unimaginative crap over and over.

      In related news, people are getting tired of having sex in the missionary position. They also seem to be tiring of drinking beer, walking upright, and talking on the phone.

      Seriously. How can you possibly tire of playing first-person shooters? It's just not possible.

       
      • How can you possibly tire of playing first-person shooters?

        I'm not tired of first-person shooters. I'm tired of playing first-person shooters that aren't significantly different from one another. I'm tired of playing first-person shooters that don't even try to differentiate themselves in a meaningful way from any of the other offerings available. This applies to other genres, as well, and I tried to explain this. If I didn't come across clearly, then my apologies.

      • >Seriously. How can you possibly tire of playing first-person shooters? It's just not possible.

        I moved on to 3D gaming and never looked back. Seems odd how you and the other fps jerks missed this seminal improvement in computer technology.

  • This is because the population of the earth will double!
  • ...the number of major players will continue to shrink.
  • Thesis: Directed games always loose. You either limit success to almost no one and piss everyone else off, or you make the goal infinitely achievable and everyone wins, making winning loose all sense of distinction. Why not just give everyone a gold metal, they tried really hard right?

    Real victory is enguagement. Armored Core is a great example; the quintessential giant mech fighting game. I'd dub Gran Turismo the Armored Core of racing, except you'd have to throw in motorcycle, hovertanks and machine g
  • Twice as many of the crappy, formulaic excuses for games that we have today, with fewer of the true rare gems.

    Joy

  • Maybe by that time I will forgive someone for the end of KotOR II.
  • And I for one will find it hard to keep my hand-cranked game console running without Arabian crude!
  • By 2010, EA will have bought out all its rivals and have enough power to destroy a small country. Small games makers can't survive. I look back in the days of Westwood and Command and Conquer, Maxis with the Sims all good games before EA engulfed them.
  • The game industry is expected to double yet again in 2022.

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