US Game Industry Pulled In $23.5B In 2015

[HardOCP News]

According to the Entertainment Software Association, the U.S. game industry pulled in a whopping 23.5 billion in 2015. If the quote below is to believed, it was the game industry's psychic abilities that were responsible for the impressive numbers.


"The video game industry excels because it anticipates demand - giving people what they want before they realize that they want it - and drives trends in entertainment and across countless other sectors," said ESA president and CEO Michael Gallagher.

 

[Wiffle]

How the heck can you "anticipate" demand or give someone what they want before they realize it? You can't, its impossible. Its more like they are relying on a bunch of hype for a pre-release, nostalgia for a 2016 edition of a 20 year old game, or they are just riding the sequel wave.

""The video game industry excels because it anticipates demand - giving people what they want before they realize that they want it - and drives trends in entertainment and across countless other sectors," said ESA president and CEO Michael Gallagher. "Our products are revolutionizing how we consume and interact with media. We know that hardware and software innovations have established this industry as a leader in high-tech development."

That whole line is BS, its just investor bait. Its literally a copy paste of speeches ive heard regarding the tech industry, the movie industry, and any other "innovative" market that is doing well. Im not sure whats worse, all the corporate greed, or all the parasite Yes-man companies that make their living by spouting whatever nonsense they are paid to say.

*oh snap new forum i can edit now! but i wont

I guess you can anticipate demand, like if an area was hit by a major hurricane and its all flooded, im sure food clean water and other essentials would be in demand.

 

[Gorankar]

The video game industry excels because it spends nearly approximately 2/3 of a game's budget on marketing to sheeple that have proven again and again they will buy it day one with enough hype.

 

[krotch]

How the heck can you "anticipate" demand or give someone what they want before they realize it? You can't, its impossible. Its more like they are relying on a bunch of hype for a pre-release, nostalgia for a 2016 edition of a 20 year old game, or they are just riding the sequel wave.

""The video game industry excels because it anticipates demand - giving people what they want before they realize that they want it - and drives trends in entertainment and across countless other sectors," said ESA president and CEO Michael Gallagher. "Our products are revolutionizing how we consume and interact with media. We know that hardware and software innovations have established this industry as a leader in high-tech development."

That whole line is BS, its just investor bait. Its literally a copy paste of speeches ive heard regarding the tech industry, the movie industry, and any other "innovative" market that is doing well. Im not sure whats worse, all the corporate greed, or all the parasite Yes-man companies that make their living by spouting whatever nonsense they are paid to say.

*oh snap new forum i can edit now! but i wont

I guess you can anticipate demand, like if an area was hit by a major hurricane and its all flooded, im sure food clean water and other essentials would be in demand.

I don't see how it's impossible. I mean how many times does a new game come out with some new feature that no one was really asking for. FPS where you can drive vehicles. Open world games. MMOs, etc. There was always a time where they tossed out something before ppl even thought about it. Nowadays, it's a different story. There's really nothing new going on, just a mixing of different genres. We'll take an FPS and give it RPG elements or well make this RPG have a FP perspective instead of 3rd person.

 

[Creig]

I always wondered what happened to Miss Cleo. Apparently she's working for EA now.

 

[Dwango]

"The video game industry excels because it anticipates demand - giving people what they want before they realize that they want it - and drives trends in entertainment and across countless other sectors," said ESA president and CEO Michael Gallagher.

Really? That's the narrative you're going with? It seems to me that the video game industry is largely no different than the movie industry. Someone makes something a hit and clones of it get churned out ad infinitum until consumers make it clear they're sick of the same thing over and over and then someone stumbles headlong into a new hit and the whole thing starts over again. The only place there is any original thought put into games is with independent games which will never hit the level of anything mass market from the major studios, which is also just like the film industry.

 

[krotch]

Really? That's the narrative you're going with? It seems to me that the video game industry is largely no different than the movie industry. Someone makes something a hit and clones of it get churned out ad infinitum until consumers make it clear they're sick of the same thing over and over and then someone stumbles headlong into a new hit and the whole thing starts over again. The only place there is any original thought put into games is with independent games which will never hit the level of anything mass market from the major studios, which is also just like the film industry.

Not necessarily. Angry Birds. Minecraft. They made it huge, but if you mean something like a AAA production. Nope. They aren't spending tens of millions of dollars to produce some crazy 3D graphics and such with brand new game engines. They'll usually just be your normal small casual games.

 

[Spidey329]

Had it not been for those pesky pirates and their dog, we would have made $23.51bn!

 

[Dezner]

Numbers like these will always go up year after year until a massive population control measure (WW3) happens. Marketing aside, 100's of 1000's of people are born each day. Everyday a kid gets his first paycheck and goes and spends it on games etc... I'd say that ALL types of sales go up each year when you think about it. Anticipating demand could simply be realizing that the population never stops growing and newly found interests only happen more rapidly.

 

[kbrickley]

Perhaps the anticipate demand comment was more targeted at genre preferences. Game genres definitely wax and wane a little. Knowing when is the right time to launch a new Turn Based Strategy franchise or Turn Based RPG can be tricky as those markets have a base set of consumers but wax and wane with the general consumers. With nearly 2 billion computers, hundreds of millions of consoles, and billions of phones and tablets, there are more opportunities to produce gaming products (hardware and software) than ever before. I would be much more surprised if they weren't making revenue gains.

 

[Dwango]

Not necessarily. Angry Birds. Minecraft. They made it huge, but if you mean something like a AAA production. Nope. They aren't spending tens of millions of dollars to produce some crazy 3D graphics and such with brand new game engines. They'll usually just be your normal small casual games.

You just mentioned the Blair Witch Projects of the gaming world. They're the exceptions that prove the rule and they pop up every once in a blue moon. And look at how many copycats both of those ended up with (including Rovio's own Angry Birds 2, which is a steaming pile). If it's a hit they just crank it out over and over again until everyone is sick of it.

 

[krotch]

Except that happens often nowadays, thanks to things like Steam, Apple Store, Google Play, Playstation Store, Xbox Live, etc. Sure, most don't ever hit the sheer Angry Birds, Minecraft, etc success, but they are hardly failures. Some easily sell a million or more copies.

Also who said there weren't copies of the games afterwards or a horrible sequel right after? That's the way the world works. If something works well, others will copy it or the original creator will make another one for a cash grab. Be it games, movies, clothing, music, food, etc.