New From Activision: Guitar Hero III–World Recession
by John Paczkowski
Posted on December 12, 2008 at 5:35 AM PT
In a month when some 533,000 jobs were lost nationwide, Americans bought an astonishing amount of videogame paraphernalia–$2.91 billion worth, according to market research outfit NPD Group. That’s a 10 percent increase over November 2007. Shipments of Nintendo’s Wii for the month totaled 2.04 million, while those of Microsoft’s (MSFT) Xbox came in at 836,000. Sony’s (SNE) PlayStation 3 ranked a distant third, with shipments of just 378,000 units. Said NPD analyst Anita Frazier, “With $16 billion realized for the year so far through November, the industry is still on pace to achieve total year revenue of $22 billion in the U.S.”
A remarkable metric, given the economic downturn. How is it that gaming is thriving at a time when the global financial crisis is squeezing wallets? “There are a couple of reasons,” Ron Meiners, director of community for the Hollywood Interactive Group, recently told News.com. “One is the traditional value of entertainment during tough economic times. Like the great fantastic musicals in the 30s. Movies did great, because they took people’s mind off of the troubles they were facing. [And] videogames have great value as entertainment. The number of hours of solid entertainment that comes from a videogame purchase is much greater than a movie, for example, for very comparable cost.”
Comments
when the going gets tough, the tough play GTA
Posted by Sam Harrison at December 12th, 2008 at 12:48 pm