Not convinced by his argument. He does seem to be presenting the worst of E3 rather than a balanced impression of everything. And there is some good stuff being shown there, but like any market, 80% of what is on display is rubbish anyway.

At least the Kinect games will be in HD unlike the Wii....

Otherwise the article is pretty crap tbh, the games industry wont die, it's one of the few that consistently makes money, even in the recession.

Um..... crappy dancing never killed the music industry......

Crappy music never killed the music industry

They should have got Steve Ballmer involved.

Yes but the music costs for funding crappy music are considerably lower. Plus it is not always them funding it. With games that is more likely to have been the case, they might have to fund up to $100 million for a games development.

Two words: "Portal Two".

You've never seen me DDR. The bloke in that gif looks pretty damned cool compared to me

OK, I've now read the rest of the article and the guy is talking crap IMO.

I have no problem with a console being around for years - Sony have said the PS3 will live 10 years or more. The only reason I expect a new console every few years is because that's been the norm. up 'til now.

The biggest problem with games, IMO, is lack of original and compelling stories. Yes, I love new features, new abilities etc but TBH I'd be happy with a graphically/technically similar COD if the story was new and compelling.

I also refute that games companies are "losing money" - the games industry is worth more now than ever before, and I believe is worth more than both films and music too.

Did you read the link from the article?
http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/2010 ... es-crater/

I personally think this is a knock on from the recession. Maybe people aren't so keen to spend loads on something with little in the way of lasting reward. I'll take a computer with an internet connection over a session of gaming any day.
There again, we all want some small distractions from time to time, but perhaps the era of gaming blazing a trail in ultra-hyper-mega frames-per-second 3D renderings is beginning to falter as the majority of people either
a.) Aren't interested.
b.) Don't have the hardware.
c.) Don't have the time.
Gaming's changing, I think. Just my thoughts, I'm not a gamer, and I don't keenly follow the industry. The short time I spent inside Activision didn't fill me the feeling that 'here's an industry that's going places' either, mind you.

Successful games don't require $100 mil to be successful, just like successful musicians don't need 6 figure contracts to be successful (xfactor). Some cost a lot more (beyonce, MW2), some cost a lot less (arctic monkeys, 'I made a gaem with zombies in it!!!1') yet still turn a VERY healthy profit

It's the same principle, just different scales of costs involved.

In both a producer fronts the money as an investor/entrepreneur/whatever you want to call them
In both the work is to be produced by a musician/developer.
In both the contract budget includes money for advertisement, promotional work, live events etc.

The cost involved in funding games is actually a HELL of a lot more than many think (depending on game obviously*), around 1 in 10 games are "successful" as in make release and turn a profit. I can see the music industry being better given the lower costs involved

Prof: That article is pointless to counter Linux_User's argument (especially as it only mentions sales being down, not losing money), that article ONLY talks in detail about console sales, which means very little given the age of consoles concerned. The games industry rarely has much to release in summer, it is the 'slow' period, it's why E3 and all the other expos are held, the time it matters is Thanksgiving/Christmas.

Yes but I did say UP TO when I mentioned budgets. In the gaming industry the roles of creator and producer are generally within the same organisation. Whereas in the music industry all the segments you described are more likely to be by different groups. Music being created by the artists or even songwriters and the performers just to sing it. The performers are also not likely to be the producers and marketing. In gaming much can be done by the same company though ads and marketing are more likely bought in. Sometimes the producer is separate but not always.