The Cultural Gaming Shift
Posted on 07 May 2008, at 12:38 pm, by Bjenk Ellefsen
We have been talking a lot lately how the gaming industry is rapidly changing into a mainstream entertainment industry. The years of 2007 and 2008 are turning points for this industry as PC gaming is declining into old age and death and the consoles are rising to complete domination. The 360 and PS3, and to some extent the Wii (I have very mixed feelings about the Wii as a gaming console), are not only fantastic gaming consoles but they are media platforms on steroids too. They are important players in home entertainment and living room evolution.
Let’s just look at the sales as I think it’s really interesting. There were some pretty fantastic games in 2006-2007 like, Gears of War, Uncharted, Bioshock, the fabulous Orange Box, etc. However, the hype around the release of Halo 3 last September was really something else. In the 24 hours after its release, Halo 3 earned 170 million dollars. That never happened for an entertainment product, movie or music record. Halo 3 would go on earning 300 million dollars in the first week.
Blizzard’s World of Warcraft, the Massive Multiplayer Online game, is the leading PC Game even after 4 years from its release. With one expansion released in 2006 and another one on the way, WoW is still going to push its user base. There are about 16 million subscribers to the king of the MMO genre. Back on the console side of things, Grand Theft Auto IV was released at the end of April and it has earned 500 million dollars with 6 million copies sold so far. That is very impressive!
Ok, the game is seen as controversial because of the violence and questionable things the character can do in Liberty City, an open world environment created as a stage for the characters in the game. However, the game is probably more a work of art for its creativity and the possibilities in gameplay that is offered. I am still waiting for my copy so I am not going to discuss it in great lengths. The game is getting a lot of attention in the media and is creating a lot of buzz but very little pragmatic discussions on the cultural phenomenon. I have to agree with fellow researcher Jyrki Kasvi: rational and researched analysis of the culture of gamers and games are still very few even though this is the fastest growing area of the entertainment industry. The older academics are missing the point and we will probably have to wait a younger generation of researchers in the many areas of social sciences to get good science on these things. A good place to start if the cultural shift that is happening right now is of interest to you is Kasvi’s website who keeps unbiased sources on gaming culture.
The worldwide sales for the much talked about Wii is around 24 million units, the Xbox 360 is about 19 million and 13 million for the PS3. That is without looking at the portable systems like the Nintendo DS, the PSP, or Game Boy Advance which are even more popular. Prices are expected to drop again as we get closer to the 2008 holiday season. People not too savvy are always amazed at what these things can do when I show them. For around 300-400$ you get a gaming console, a powerful media platform and a piece of a strong cultural phenomenon that is changing our living rooms.
Related posts:
