Weakening Economy Reaches Video Game Industry
The buoyancy of the video game industry may be over. In March, the market research firm, NPD Group has reported a 17% drop in video game sales. This comes after thousands of job losses in the motion picture industry, and dramatic losses in the music industry.
The decline suggests that the constricting economy has slowly reached teenagers and college-aged consumers, who had been relatively immune from the first waves of the mortgage and banking collapses. The economy has trickled ever downward, reaching into the dorm room.
But there may also be other powers at play. The pricing of video games has been growing ever higher. The iPhone has become an excellent, a cool, high quality gaming platform (that happens to be a phone, music player and video player, etc.).
Pricing models should mirror the economy, not try to ignore them. The video game industry has just received a wake-up call. Expect to see some creative pricing in certain segments of the market. And some refusals to acknowledge the drop in sales by others until it is too late.
The decline suggests that the constricting economy has slowly reached teenagers and college-aged consumers, who had been relatively immune from the first waves of the mortgage and banking collapses. The economy has trickled ever downward, reaching into the dorm room.
But there may also be other powers at play. The pricing of video games has been growing ever higher. The iPhone has become an excellent, a cool, high quality gaming platform (that happens to be a phone, music player and video player, etc.).
Pricing models should mirror the economy, not try to ignore them. The video game industry has just received a wake-up call. Expect to see some creative pricing in certain segments of the market. And some refusals to acknowledge the drop in sales by others until it is too late.
