Americans of all ages are spending more on video games

[erek]

"“This year, video games is one of the most consistent growth categories in terms of overall participation and investment relative to 2019,” NPD analyst Mat Piscatella said. “This may simply reflect an acceleration of trends that were in effect prior to the pandemic. If this is the case, then the gaming market could experience continued growth without a post-pandemic pullback. If not, however, we may see a post-pandemic valley before returning to growth. It all rests on engagement.”

While mobile is a big factor in increased spending, consoles are also on the rise. And it could be easier to keep those players engaged now that they’ve already made the investment in the hardware.

NPD will report the results of its video game sales tracking for November by the middle of next month."

https://venturebeat.com/2020/11/30/americans-of-all-ages-are-spending-more-on-video-games/

 

[jeffnmu]

My waist line agrees with pretty much everything you just said.

 

[OutOfPhase]

And would spend even more on GPUs, if they could.

 

[GSDragoon]

I've been spending less. Games aren't as good anymore. Just a bunch of gotcha crap.

 

[Krenum]

I've been spending less. Games aren't as good anymore. Just a bunch of gotcha crap.

Me too, I just purchased Pillars of Eternity for $6 off of GOG. Its the first game I've bought since The Witcher 3 when it came out 5 years ago. Ive just been going back and playing older games for the most part, on PC and console. I have enough to hold me over until I'm atleast 65 years old.

I like it though, the more crap they pump out the fatter my wallet gets.

 

[[Spectre]]

Bought a new console for the first time since the Wii U.

 

[ThreeDee]

Last game I spent money on was Hunt:Showdown over a year ago .. but I download the blankety blank out of all them free games on Steam, Epic ..etc .. Does that count?

 

[harmattan]

I've been spending less. Games aren't as good anymore. Just a bunch of gotcha crap.

Appeal to the masses normally means appeal to the lowest common denominator e.g. "gotcha crap". Look at the film industry, Hollywood's attempts to appeal to "international" audiences, and the obsession with leotard-hero media over the past 10 years.

 

[noko]

Doom Eternal, yuck - Res 3, ok - New Dawn - boring, FS 2020, cool - Serious Sam 4, utter bliss

 

[GoodBoy]

Amnesia: Rebirth is a worthy successor to Amnesia: The Dark Descent. Worth every penny, and not even that expensive really.

I do have about 150 games on steam that are not even installed.

The money they are talking about is probably Fortnite...

 

[Comixbooks]

I just refunded 3 games from the Steam sale they were all pre 2020 games even though I only spent 40.00 on them.
I wonder how many games are going to come out in 2021 I know alot of stuff was delayed but the stuff has been in development for years.

 

[LukeTbk]

The money they are talking about is probably Fortnite...

Considering they are saying mobile and that most of the boost is quite advanced in age, a lot of the increase could be free to play mobile casino games type of affair yes.

That said it is a survey and not actual data, so getting dependant on a free to play type of games is not something you would necessarily be honest/keep track off correctly either, looking at Nintendo explosion of sales, lot of it must be regular games as well.

 

[IcePickFreak]

I mean technically I guess yeah they are when someone has to be buying stuff from scalpers.

 

[OutOfPhase]

Considering they are saying mobile and that most of the boost is quite advanced in age, a lot of the increase could be free to play mobile casino games type of affair yes.

That said it is a survey and not actual data, so getting dependant on a free to play type of games is not something you would necessarily be honest/keep track off correctly either, looking at Nintendo explosion of sales, lot of it must be regular games as well.

It is probably a lot of what you say (mobile / casino / casual), but in my experience things ARE really changing in all sectors. Where I was once an outlier ... really not so much anymore.

I think there are a lot of factors. One would be more people are just playing games, but I think even more than that - there is no longer a stigma associated with Vidya Games. I'm old, but when i was younger, I would actively deny being a gamer, because I didn't want to increase my Pariah Skill Level any more than it already was.

These days, you can just talk about a fun game and nobody thinks you're a loser. In fact, the people who don't know about the game are now on the back foot.

I view this as "we have won".

 

[drescherjm]

I think a lot of this is due to more time playing games and the pay to win model of many mobile games.

 

[AlphaQup]

Amnesia: Rebirth is a worthy successor to Amnesia: The Dark Descent. Worth every penny, and not even that expensive really.

Is it really? I read some unfavorable reviews (I should stop doing that...), but man, Decent made me jump so hard... such a GREAT atmospheric horror game. I missed a jump on the boxes in the water level with the invisible beast... I actually dropped my controller I freaked out so hard, lol. Heights don't scare me personally, but holy cow water does...

I'm gonna get it. I've been looking for a new horror game for a while now. Any other recommendations? Not trying to steer off topic, but man, it has been hard for me to pull the trigger on games these last few years.

To keep on topic, I've spent so much less on games the last 3-4 years then ever in my lifetime. I am WAY more selective now. And the gaming industry as an almost whole has steered me this way.

 

[SnowBeast]

Ready Player One
Coming True........ "Freakin Chucky!"

 

[Krenum]

They should start up a video game, game show like the Running Man.

 

[Criticalhitkoala]

Video games are way to subjective for me to make a statement about how games are all horrible now, but I don't even feel that way. Been loving Ghost of Tsushima, Mile Morales, Monster Hunter World, Zero Dawn, and many current games the last 5 years that it's been a pleasure playing them. Been playing video games for 35 years and gotta say still pretty happy with both console and pc gaming.

 

[LukeTbk]

Saving money won't do any good if inflation skyrockets ala post WWI germany

Inflation tend to be influenced by money velocity, people investing/saving it instead of sending it is a strong way to go.
I cannot imagine US dollar having 1/100 of the inflation of Weimar Germany, imagine all the giant amount of debt in US dollar all around the world that would simply disappear if that occured (1% of Germany inflation would be dividing non inflation adjusted debt by 263,156,250), there so much value/use in that device.

But many form of saving tend to be protected from inflation (house equity, stock market and so on) and could still do a lot of good.

 

[DukenukemX]

You may be all for sucking on the tits of the government, but I'm not. That milk went sour decades ago. Nor am I keen on taking money from a government that is 22 trillion dollars in debt. Not a good track record.

That sour milk isn't any different than the milk you're tapping into. No amount of gold buying, crypto currency, or canned food is going to save you. We've officially did what Greece did, just that we didn't realize it yet.

I'd argue that people need to stop spending money on video games and hardware and start investing their money into meaningful things or just outright saving it, because you're right. A crash is coming.

People are bad at saving money, which is why they're buying video games. Depression is a serious issue in America, which is why we take all the drugs. No joke, we are consuming 80% of the global opioid supply, and that's before COVID. Male physicians are 3x more likely to kill themselves than others, and female physicians are 4-5x as likely, and again that's before COVID. It's not a surprise that Americans are wasting their money on video games during COVID because they weren't in a good place before the epidemic. Playing video games is just another method of coping with the shitty reality around you. We never got over 2008, because we just dumped debt onto Americans and claimed victory over an economic recession. That debt weighs heavy over Americans, and is why we're doing everything and anything to forget our troubles, including playing video games. About 12 years ago the video game industry was also immune to the recession for the same reasons. I haven't looked this up but I'd imagine drugs, alcohol, and sex is also higher than ever in America. That's what people do when they're depressed.

Saving money won't do any good if inflation skyrockets ala post WWI germany

Get ready to wheelbarrow those American dollars for a loaf of bread. If you really want to be ahead of the game then start saving bottle caps, as that'll be the future currency of America. I'm joking, that's a Fallout reference. Maybe not, who knows.

 

[LukeTbk]

Get ready to wheelbarrow those American dollars for a loaf of bread.

I would really not advice for people to make serious decision (like betting heavy on that), that sound extremely extremely unlikely, that said that would remove all the debts weighs heavy over Americans (and people with USD debt or USD matched currency debt). Pretty much every big entreprise, every government would be really interested in buying cheap US dollar, they all have debt in them for which they could use them to pay them back, a large percentage of the over 250 trillion in debt around the world is in USD, that make everyone/entity with such debt someone interested in USD, that a giant weight to move for the dollar to get cheap, when a country like China for example could want to keep the USD strong, that create a lot of momentum.

No joke, we are consuming 80% of the global opioid supply

That sound impossible, I would imagine the global legally pain prescripted market (and mostly synthetic opiod) not the global opioid supply.

Male physicians are 3x more likely to kill themselves than others, and female physicians are 4-5x as likely, and again that's before COVID.

I am not exactly sure what you mean by that if you mean in the population in general, before COVID:
https://www.registerednursing.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/High-Low-Suicide-Profession.png
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6903a1.htm#T2_down

Hard to find hard data for physician but:
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/06/17/doct-j17.html
As a result, the suicide rate among physicians has exploded in recent decades. The suicide rate among male and female physicians is 1.41 and 2.27 times higher than that of the general male and female population, respectively.

That suicide attempt resulting to death, the difference in suicide attempt / suicidal thought is not necessarily that much higher than average, they are much better and have much better access to painless way to commit suicide than the general population (suicide by poison being much more common in that population for example).

And it is worst at the school level for medecin than on the workplace, I am not sure I understand the point you were trying to make too with that fact, so maybe my tidbit are irrelevant.

I haven't looked this up but I'd imagine drugs, alcohol, and sex is also higher than ever in America

I doubt (if it exclude porn) that sex is particularly high right now, would not be surprised if never a generation in world history had so little of it than modern youth and that was before COVID.

Alcohol would be hard to beat the eras where water was so bad and works/city smell and life was so terrible that drinking alcohol instead of water was kind of good for health and was an all day affair from waking up to the night every day for a large % of the population:
https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-31741615
Continuous imbibing clearly built up a tolerance as most Americans in 1790 consumed an average 5.8 gallons of pure alcohol a year.
In 1830, consumption peaked at 7.1 gallons a year and drinking became a moral issue.

I would be surprised if Americains achieve significantly more than half that peak in 2020 (it is probably under 3.5, the modern average being a 2-2.5 I think). You can read/listen podcast about the very similar Gin Craze that occured in London in the 18th century (it went to 14 gallon of gin a year for the average Londoner, even if a giant 50% of the population dranked that mean 10 ounce of gin every day): https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b084zk6z, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gin_Craze