Report - Video Games At Risk For Another Crash

[Gahars]

"The Great Crash" (not to be confused with this great Crash) shook the fledgling games industry to its very core. Seemingly overnight, the market shriveled up. Companies collapsed, stores shuttered, and arcades became aren't-cades. It was a dark time, indeed.

Luckily, that could never happen again, right? (Pretend you haven't read the title of this thread when asking that question.)

The marketing push for next month's Xbox One and PlayStation 4 launches is beginning to ramp up, but not everyone is sold on the new consoles just yet. In a new report prepared by Superdata and released by Digital River, the research firm warned that the market for consoles is already crowded, with 79 percent of gamers already owning a console, and that group having an average of 2.6 consoles each. The report was based in part on a March survey of 1,105 respondents.

"Industry veterans will remember the crash of 1983, when the games market was saturated with hardware devices," the report states. "Today, the industry runs a similar risk, as [with] a higher-than-ever console installed base, consumers may be resistant to adding more hardware to their living rooms."

While the report acknowledges there are more gamers now than ever before, it suggests their habits are changing. Specifically, Superdata found gamers increasingly gravitating toward versatile, multi-purpose platforms like PCs and mobile devices. As a result, an increase in the number of gamers won't necessarily translate into an increase in demand for consoles.

GamesIndustry International

The report goes on to note that a majority of the game-playing public do their game-playing on PCs today. This is a far cry from 2008, where the majority relied on consoles for their gaming fix.

So, is this report an accurate foretelling of dangers to come, or merely sensationalist doomsaying?

Yes.

 

[master801]

Well.... Fuck. The game industry is going down.

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

tl;dr PC MASTER RACE LOLOLOLOL

 

[DinohScene]

Personally, I blame mobile gaming and android based consoles.

Back in the 70's, Magnavox and Atari where the big names and other copy consoles flooded the market.
Android does the same thing unfortunately.

 

[Carnivean]

I love doomsday predicitions, it must be great being paid to spout this bullshit.

 

[Xexyz]

The video game industry is bigger now than 1983.

 

[Gahars]

The video game industry is bigger now than 1983.

But isn't it true that the bigger they are, the harder they fall?

*PonderOverYonder*

 

[ThatDudeWithTheFood]

Will wait for Foxi or FAST analysis before panicking.

 

[Xexyz]

But isn't it true that the bigger they are, the harder they fall?

*PonderOverYonder*

Where do you get these?

 

[DinohScene]

But isn't it true that the bigger they are, the harder they fall?

*PonderOverYonder*

Ninty got born out of the last crash.
Time for Gahars to make a console which throws godawful puns at you when you boot it?

 

[ForteGospel]

so, according to this article... gamers are moving to PCs and that is going to crash the market? riiiiiiiiiiiiiight...

now about mobile devices... i dont see a gamer owning only a mobile device...

now if third party companies are planning on releasing the same games for the new gen and the old gen at the same time, it is going to slow down the selling of the new consoles

 

[calmwaters]

Gamers are moving to PC's? That means that the Xbone can become a true entertainment system since everyone will play games on the PC. But I'm still keeping my old systems just in case the PC game market crashes like the 1983 game crash.

Edit: I'm glad this is actually a thread because I knew something like this would happen. There're just so many things wrong with the industry. Curse you, Android.

 

[blinkdragonid]

"1,105 respondents" thats nothing! and i remind you GTA V made 1 billion$ in 3 days.

 

[Foxi4]

Let's not forget what caused the original Video Game Industry Crash in the first place - inflated prices, lack of software due to a difficult development cycles caused by a multitude of entirely different target devices and an incredibly large selection of devices to choose from, each with an uncertain future.

Today we suffer from none of that - software is released on an almost daily basis, the prices are hardly to be frowned upon (at least in comparison to those from the times of the original crash) and we only really have three major players, one of which was knocked out before the race even began. I don't think a new crash is coming anytime soon - the industry has taken a turn in the right direction, simplifying developnment and narrowing down the numbers of architectures of interest, not to mention that the sheer number of libraries facilitating development is staggering.

 

[ThatDudeWithTheFood]

People concerned about gamers migrating to PC.
GTA 5 makes a billion dollars in a couple of days while being only available on consoles.

 

[Jiro2]

The report goes on to note that a majority of the game-playing public do their game-playing on PCs today.

That's written in a way that has holes you could crash Lavos through.

• Does "game playing on PCs" mean the kind of games hardcore gamers think of as PC gaming (GTA, Doom, etc.) or does it refer to such things as Facebook games?
• Does "a majority play on PCs" mean that people have moved from consoles to PCs (thus reducing the console gamers and causing a crash), or that new gamers go directly to PC (this not reducing the console gamers and not causing a crash), especially since new gamers who play Facebook games are probably in the second category?
• Same question for mobile gamers.

I suspect this is overblown and the article is just ignoring that. You won't get a crash unless you reduce the number of console gamers, not the percentage of console gamers--you can reduce the percentage just by having more non-gamers play Farmville.

 

[ken28]

kinda goes along with his theorie
http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/thread.php?id=166018&page=1

 

[Silverthorn]

I doubt such a crash will happen.
I quite agree with this report for that matter, and don't think that we should expect a great console sales decrease anytime soon.

 

[Terenigma]

The soloution is obvious, become one big massive company that involves all 3 of Nintendo/Sony/Microsoft and blow the mobile gaming out of the water by offering decent prices for games. No nintendo, im not paying £9 pound for a HD port of one of the wii sports. No Microsoft/Sony im not paying £10 for DLC to play a game i already bought and is on the disc.

 

[Deleted member 473940]

That group had an average of 2.6 consoles? Well make that 3.6, cuz they are gonna buy PS4 or Xbox one.. or even both.