TASK 15: Money, Money, Money!...

Oh how the gaming industry has grown. From a tiny arcade machine-based pup in the early 70's to the mammoth core duo 2 hell-hound that it's matured into these days, it seems as though the games industry never ceased growing.

The games industry in the United States is averaging a gross of $8 Billion a year which in comparison to it's closest rival, the movie industry, easily outpaces the annual box office takings it generates. Not bad considering that video games have only been around a fraction of the time movies have.

I'd say that the industry as a whole is doing very well at present and it only seems to be getting stronger as technology and interest grows. However, while profit for this particular industry is currently on the rise, I think that the takings may drop if new, innovative games aren't produced. It seems to me that companies are afraid of taking risks in the fear that they may lose a small piece of the pie when potentially it could be a success and boost interest in games AND their profit margins.

Certain people actually employed in the industry have a tough time with the amount of hours that they are needed to work for. I came across an article on the internet reporting on an EA software developer who was fired for refusing to work 80 hours a week. It seems that many people are generally expected to work this many hours a week during "crunch time", which we all know is a normal part of being part of a game development team. However, I was amazed to find that these people are not being paid overtime for the excessive amount of hours that they're expected to work. Current and former employees actually sued EA over this issue.
An employee from Atari also e-mailed the writer of the article saying, "Once it starts, it doesn't let up until the game ships, which can be up to two years away. It starts with 50 hours, then 60, 70, 80...they don't want people to have lives or families."

I think the major problem facing the game industry is the need to develop games that are fun and interesting. Graphics have currently become impossibly close to real life visuals and now people need something more than just a visually impressive experience.
I think the remaining populous that doesn't play video games is also a source that the industry would like to tap, but they're not going to do so by distributing recycled content over and over again. Few are actually succeeding in breaking into the mainstream audience. As found in another article, of the top 20 selling games of last year, Wii Sports and Brain Age can be truly called mainstream and different.

I think if the games industry were to act on the problems and challenges that currently faces it then it could grow immensely. The main objective has always been to please as many people as possible in order to make a bigger profit, with more of the population under it's belt this task will become a lot more manageable.