Nearly all of us have been hit hard with the current economic meltdown (we are going to do our best not to over use the R word – which has become a blatant excuse in everything that we do – from not doing everything from cleaning the dishwasher to spending 50c on a stamp!), many know someone who’s lost a job or had to take a pay cut – but more importantly, how is this affecting our leisure pursuits closer to home? Has the gaming industry, and the gamers who support it, gone belly up, or is this one industry that’s always going to suffer through the trawls of recessions and NAMA?
The Industry
Certainly video game developers have been hit hard, with many creative geniuses who draw up the concept for new titles and work on developing them have found themselves working longer hours for little reward, or being laid off by the studio they’re employed by. Considering animation and gaming are such niche industries, it can be hard losing your passion and career, especially since your life revolves around the devotion you hold to creating a technological masterpiece many will enjoy for years to come. While video games themselves are recession proof, the developers who make them are not and in the last couple of years some of them are taking hard hits. With companies such as Frixas (Civilisation series) and EA unable to keep their staff on, this has had a knock on effect on some of their newly redundant staff. Carl Dungca, a lay off from Gorilla systems corporation (Hannah Montana), echoed the gloomy sentiment:
“During our final internship presentations to the current class, there was a sombre, uncertain air as many of us were unable to retain our positions. I felt bad for the gloom that the students must have been feeling about the uncertainty of finding a job out of school, but I’m hoping things will have brightened up by the fall.”
It isn’t all bad news for the industry though, in a survey published last year, 1400 people in Ireland were shown to be employed in the computer games industry, which was an increase of 400% when the industry was last examined in 2002. It seems that jobs in the gaming industry in Ireland are steadily increasing and with larger multi-national companies such as Big Fish Games and Gala Networks, other companies looking for competitive markets and an educated workforce are now turning to Ireland.
What about value for money though?
It seems quite astounding though, that while video gamers themselves fork out up to €60 for the latest title in their local game stores, multinational corporations that dominate the industry such as Nintendo, aren’t buying up these flagging companies and small development studio’s, thus retaining bright creative sparks and giving more scope and choice in an industry that has such potential to inspire countless hours glued to a TV screen.
We haven’t seen any sort of lowering of prices of games, accessories or consoles but then we’ve always been willing to pay through the nose for the latest titles and gadgets only complaining about it behind the safety of our computer screens. Something new though is the stark rising in the number of people buying second hand games and trading. Most if not all game stores now offer a trade in policy, you can trade in two games and get your new release at a reduced price.
The gaming industry has hit out at stores who sell second hand games because it is the shop that retains the profit from the sale of the used game with nothing going to the company that actually developed it.
One company who has decided to combat this, THQ, has began introducing one time use codes which you get when you buy the game new and those of us who are trying to save our pennies will have to pay an arm and a leg to download these later on.
In a recent interview Corey Ledesma, creative director for THQ had this to say:
“I don’t think we really care whether used game buyers are upset because new game buyers get everything…So if used game buyers are upset they don’t get the online feature set I don’t really have much sympathy for them.”
While there were outcries from an angered community, we seem to have been placated with new releases and quietened with shiny downloadable content. We should point out though that all three major consoles offer and run various deals when it comes to downloading online games – something that has us here at the @rcade spoiled for choice!
So there have been a couple of blips on the gaming industries economic report, the multi-billion dollar/euro industry is still continuing to grow. With online gaming being revived from stagnant MMORPGs with social networking gaming, new developers springing up around the world and companies responding to the voices of their market, we can be sure that the financial future for the industry is secure for another few years.
Now can anyone lend us a fiver so we can get some Farmville coins?
