Ok, so this might be a little video game heavy for a film blog but I hope you find it interesting.
Is the video game industry bigger then Hollywood? Will it ever be? With so many biased opinions and views of whether the video games industry will eventually take over the main stream of entertainment, are there any predictions that can be used? Of course people from their line of work will say that it will or won’t, such as Bill Gates, founding father of Microsoft (PC, Xbox, Xbox 360), has been quoted to say that ‘It’s bigger than the movie industries,’ but who really knows whether it will. To find out we’ll need to look at it from both points of view, from the film-fanatics to the gaming gods, and we’ll need to look at the sales of blockbuster movies such as I am Legend or Iron Man and the blockbuster’s of games like Halo 3 and Metal Gear Solid 4.
The film industry started over a hundred years ago and has been developed ever since. It has been going through different phases whilst new film-makers try new things to develop techniques to keep audiences from around the world to keep coming back for more. On the other hand video games started in the early seventies with Atari’s PONG, which has now become pop culture along with many other video games. Even though it has been a short time that video games have been around, it has grown vastly in popularity among adults and kids alike. In fact over the past couple of years with consoles such a the Nintendo’s Wii and Sony’s PlayStation 3 are now aiming a lot of games towards the ‘casual gamer’ with video games like Guitar Hero 3 and Wii Sports. These kind of video games are inviting people to not go out to the cinema but to stay indoors with friends and contribute to the entertainment pleasure. All though another big factor is the fact that Hollywood is not watched everywhere on the planet however the vast majority of video games are reaching out to different continents. However with that in mind, Hollywood does take in billions of US dollars ever year.
But with video games, it has only been recently that big companies like Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft have been aiming to bring new audiences from all ages into the market. A good example is the advertisement for Nintendo’s DS game Dr Kawashinma’s Brain Training, It features appearances from some of England greatest actors such as Patrick Stewart. So other older people of the community can relate to them and consider having a new DS instead of the traditional newspaper quizzes.
Hollywood made $15.4 billion on DVD sales alone in the year 2007, with Disney raking in $3 million just on iTunes sales, that’s only
$15 on a new release (£8 in the UK). With the video game side it
took in $3 billion on MMORPG subscriptions, downloadable content and digital game downloads. Last year video games took in only 23% whist Hollywood alone took in a massive 77%. These figures show that Hollywood is vastly in the lead over video games however in the future it might tell a different story. In fact there another big contender coming into the scene, that could potentially over take both Hollywood and the video game industry. The music industry. Downloadable content is becoming a big thing with Apple’s iTunes. And as the graph shows the music industry almost doubled the video game industry.
The film industry started over a hundred years ago and has been developed ever since. It has been going through different phases whilst new film-makers try new things to develop techniques to keep audiences from around the world to keep coming back for more. On the other hand video games started in the early seventies with Atari’s PONG, which has now become pop culture along with many other video games. Even though it has been a short time that video games have been around, it has grown vastly in popularity among adults and kids alike. In fact over the past couple of years with consoles such a the Nintendo’s Wii and Sony’s PlayStation 3 are now aiming a lot of games towards the ‘casual gamer’ with video games like Guitar Hero 3 and Wii Sports. These kind of video games are inviting people to not go out to the cinema but to stay indoors with friends and contribute to the entertainment pleasure. All though another big factor is the fact that Hollywood is not watched everywhere on the planet however the vast majority of video games are reaching out to different continents. However with that in mind, Hollywood does take in billions of US dollars ever year.
But with video games, it has only been recently that big companies like Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft have been aiming to bring new audiences from all ages into the market. A good example is the advertisement for Nintendo’s DS game Dr Kawashinma’s Brain Training, It features appearances from some of England greatest actors such as Patrick Stewart. So other older people of the community can relate to them and consider having a new DS instead of the traditional newspaper quizzes.
Hollywood made $15.4 billion on DVD sales alone in the year 2007, with Disney raking in $3 million just on iTunes sales, that’s only
$15 on a new release (£8 in the UK). With the video game side it
took in $3 billion on MMORPG subscriptions, downloadable content and digital game downloads. Last year video games took in only 23% whist Hollywood alone took in a massive 77%. These figures show that Hollywood is vastly in the lead over video games however in the future it might tell a different story. In fact there another big contender coming into the scene, that could potentially over take both Hollywood and the video game industry. The music industry. Downloadable content is becoming a big thing with Apple’s iTunes. And as the graph shows the music industry almost doubled the video game industry.
But even if the video game industry or even music industry take over Hollywood, it’s not the only studio. Hollywood is just the biggest American studio. There are massive studios around the world such as Pinewood Studios in England which has done some other the biggest blockbusters this year (like Quantum Of Solace). From the majority of the charts and graphs that are scatterd around the internet it is apparent that Hollywood is looming over the video game industry however it could turn around in the near future if more people stay in to watch a film on their consoles than go out to watch the latest Hollywood blockbuster.
Oliver Hunt
Excellent site, keep up the good work. I read a lot of blogs on a daily basis and for the most part, people lack substance but, I just wanted to make a quick comment to say I’m glad I found your blog. Thanks,
ReplyDeleteA definite great read…
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