The Bloomberg article shows the game being off it's launch peak by 20-25% or so, with a spike in engagement that it doesn't explain a few weeks ago. This is normal for this kind of game- and mobile games tend to make their profit on a small percentage of users that spend a TON on microtransactions (more pokeballs, lures, etc), not in raw user count. The game is likely still wildly overperforming what Niantic expected it to- and there are plenty of features (direct trainer battles, more pokemon) for Niantic to implement to extend the game's lifespan.

Small hit? Pennsylvania has 12 million people in it. If 15% of them are Netflix subscribers (this would be in line with the national average though it's probably higher- The Philadelphia metro region is along the dense NE corridor) Netflix would be letting about 20 million dollars a month or 240 million a year in cash roll out of the door.

Exactly.

Let's be honest, the skyrocketing cost of college and debt are very real issues, but a $200,000 bill for a bachelor's degree is extremely rare. Your average state university might be a quarter of that, and the cost can go even lower if one starts at a community or junior college and transfers in.

Now, if you're talking $200,000 for a BA plus the cost of a graduate degree like an MS, M.D, PHD, or JD- that's a completely separate issue as those fields are entirely off limits to those without advanced degrees. "good skills" without the degree won't allow you to practice law, medicine, or teach at a university level.

The article summary also concentrates on the argument that "learning to code" doesn't take a four year degree, and perhaps it doesn't- but the american workforce consists of far more than just coders, and its very likely that if said coders want to advance up the corporate ladder later in their careers, the lack of a degree is going to stop them dead in their tracks. The article fails to note that the unemployment rate for those with just a high school degree is three times higher than those with a bachelor's degree- 12% vs 4% or so. You can't ignore a statistic like that, and a large part of the reason why is that HR departments and Recruiters are in the habit of asking for a BA by default and will automatically trash a resume that lacks it, despite how good one's skills may be.

The "skip college' argument is extremely short sighted here, ignores the realities of the hiring landscape, and is really only useful advice for a very, very small percentage of those looking to start businesses.

This is the Internet! Where the men are men, The women are also men, and the children are FBI Agents

The difference between PC software and console software is that console software is tailored EXTREMELY closely to the hardware. Just getting another machine to run the same OS won't cut it. Even changing the speed at which the discs load can completely break a game and render it unplayable.

Using the Playstation as an example, Even the PS2 couldn't run all Ps1 games 100% and that had Ps1 hardware IN it, and was (roughly) 10x more powerful. Original PS3's couldn't run all PS2 games 100% either, and they had copies of the PS2 CPU and GPU inside them. Current PS3's cut the parts for cost reasons, and can't run PS2 software at all. And this is SONY trying to get their own software working on vastly more powerful machines.

And emulators? Forget about it. PCSX2 is the best PS2 emulator available, and you need at least dual core processor running at 3.0+ ghz to attempt to run anything at a decent speed, and it STILL chokes on games like Shadow of the Colossus and MGS3. Keep in mind the PS2 is a ten year old console with a 300mhz processor.

So as you can see, Current PCs don't have a prayer of running current console software for a billion reasons, some of which are technical but not all of them.

Simple. It's the phone itself. The average phone is given away "free" and higher end phones are substantially discounted when you sign up for a plan at X dollars a month.

You want to buy that new Iphone/Blackberry/Next Big Thing outside of a contract? Good luck. IF it's available at all, it can easily run $600 or more up front.

In contrast, prepaid phones are typically stripped down budget models. They'll make calls, send text messages, and some will surf the web, but in the era of "phone as fashion accessory/status symbol" they're really for those that have no other options, or simply don't care.

Yes, SNES and N64 carts cost more to manufacture than Disc based games do. It wasn't just this though- nintendo had some pretty draconian royalty policies in place as well. New games could and did cost up to $30 more than comparable PS1 games back in the day, and you can't tell me that was all just the cost of the cart itself.

But that's besides the point. What the OP was trying to point out is that since the advent of disc based games (say, 1995 or so) the cost of a AAA game has only risen 20%, from about $49.99 to $59.99.

I'll say that again. that's TWENTY PERCENT in about 12 years. Less than two percent a year- it's barely tracking the rate of inflation. Hell, it's probably LESS than the rate of inflation. Up until "next gen" the cost of gaming hadn't budged at all, and if you're still gaming on a PS2, GC, or Xbox1 it STILL hasn't.

People, the dollar is tanking. It's currently worth less than Canadian money. Imported goods are skyrocketing in cost, and even basic staples such as gas and food have doubled in cost or more. There's almost no other product you can point at that hasn't had a substantial price increase in the past twelve years, and yet somehow gamers expect the price of games to not move at all in twelve years? Seriously?