[geeks] Second Life is not a game?

[Doug McLaren]

On Tue, Jul 31, 2007 at 10:57:31AM +0300, Geoffrey S. Mendelson wrote:

| For example. I recently got Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator 1 and
| 3 in discount bins
...
| > I know it's a big industry (mostly aimed at grabbing  
| > lots of money off kids - ain't that cute!) but you have to accept  
| > that some people don't really care. 
| 
| Our market research showed that the average U.S. family bought 2 new
| games a month. That was about $1500 a year just for games. 

The math here doesn't work.

$1500 / 12 months / 2 games per month = $62.5 per game.

I realize that $60 is the new price for `hot' console games, and maybe
you're including tax, but there's lots of games that cost less.  And
then there's the bargain bin, used games (though you did say `new
games', so maybe they're not included), etc.

Isn't the PS2 still selling the most games of any console?  It's games
are generally a lot less than $60.  I know the PS2 sold more units
last Xmas than the Xbox360, PS3 or Wii.

(Are PC games still included in these figures?  They tend to be
significantly cheaper, as they don't have to pay
Microsoft/Nintendo/Sony/etc to write a game for their console.)

There's a very few games that cost more than $60 -- they're mostly
collectors editions and such, or include special controllers like
Guitar Hero.

Also, I believe that the US video game industry brought in $12 billion
in 2006?  That's about $40/person in the US.  Even assuming that
everybody is in a five person family, that's only $200/family.

Also, that $200/family figure includes the consoles and accessories --
not just the games.

On a side note, the idea that video games are `bigger than Hollywood'
is wrong too -- they're only looking at box office receipts, when in
fact most money is made elsewhere.  But give it time -- video games
will probably beat Hollywood `for real' soon enough.  I know you
didn't make this claim -- I think it was Jon Gilbert who did.

-- 
Doug McLaren, dougmc at frenzied.us
"Verbosity leads to unclear, inarticulate things."  --Quayle