Ok, I know that the title will send the less sophisticated readers to the SPAM folder of their inboxes to send me messages of dubious claims of enlargement processes, but I am talking about the claims that the video game industry is bigger than the movie industry.
If you've been following the debate at all, you know that video game developers, designers and game academics like to tout the numbers that video game sales have out stripped Hollywood's domestic box office receipts. But I've only heard about this for one year so far. What are the trends?
And as this article on Slate indicates, are we comparing our selves to a metric that is in decline?
The metic is definetly skewed. Hollywood studios shifted the majority of their income to video sales and rental a bit over twenty years ago. Now DVD sales bring in tens upon tens of billions. So while, yes, game sales outstrip the box office by several hundred million (or more), Hollywood has several distribution methods (network broadcasting also brings in a bunch). Games only have one distribution method, and if you ask me, its broken.
Posted by: Patrick Dugan | October 31, 2005 at 03:47 PM