In a year that has seen several “blockbusters” released in the Video Game Market like Doom 3, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Half-Life 2, and the grand daddy of them all Halo 2 (which had a larger opening weekend than any movie in history), Slashdot points out an interesting article in SFGATE that points out the Video Game industry has surpassed Hollywood in generating entertainment revenues.
I know what you’re thinking, “What?!?! John, you must be reading the info wrong, there’s no way that’s true”. Ummm… yes it is. I think we all knew it, but it’s weird seeing it in print right in front of your eyes.
The latest Entertainment Software Association survey shows that the average gamer is 29 and spends more time playing games than engaging in traditional forms of entertainment such as watching TV or going to the movies.
“If I had some time in the afternoon, and it was a choice between watching a movie or playing a game, I’d rather play a game,” said Marlon Castro, 35, of Foster City.
This just re-enforces what I’ve been saying on The Movie Blog for a long time now. The Movie Industry MUST come up with a new model and restructure itself. What more and more people are faced with is a choice to:
A) Stay home and play a cool game that they already know is good, eat cheap food and drink inexpensive coke while doing it. Or..
B) Go to a theatre, pay FAR too much for a ticket to get in, pay WAY to much for some snacks and a drink, be subjected to 10-20 minutes of commercials and then sit through a film that they really have no idea is any good or not.
Guess which option more and more people are choosing? And while this is going on the idiots at the MPAA will continue to insist there is nothing wrong with the film industry and any problems that do exist are only because of piracy. The people at the top need to give their collective heads a shake and fix this or it will face a MAJOR crisis in the industry within the next 3-5 years.
