Videogames Outsell DVDs For The First Time Ever

Andy Chalk

One Flag, One Fleet, One Cat
Nov 12, 2002
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Videogames Outsell DVDs For The First Time Ever


Look out, Hollywood: Videogame sales are no longer catching up to DVD and Blu-ray, they've surpassed them.

Worldwide retail sales of "packaged media" grew by six percent to $61 billion worldwide, according to figures from earlier comments [http://www.mcgfk.net/] by Nintendo that it was responsible for 99 percent of the industry's revenue growth in 2008.

Meanwhile, combined DVD and Blu-ray sales actually shrunk by six percent, accounting for $29 billion in sales. The figures for both videogames and DVD/Blu-ray do not include any sort of rental income.

In 2007 the videogame industry made up 47 percent of packaged media sales and the figures for 2008 are actually lower than GfK's predictions, which called for a 22 percent growth in videogame sales and a one percent increase in DVD and Blu-ray. Amy Heller, president of GfK's U.S. operation, said the economic downturn that gripped the world in the second half of the year was responsible for the slower-than-anticipated growth.

GfK is calling for even further growth in 2009, predicting the game industry will hold 57 percent of media sales in 2009 while DVD and Blu-ray continue to slip, even though Blu-ray sales are expected to double to $2.9 billion. The decline in DVD and Blu-ray sales is primarily the result of a slowdown in the U.S., which experienced a sales drop-off of eight percent, compared to three percent in Europe and four percent in Asia.

Source: GamesIndustry [http://www.videobusiness.com/article/CA6631456.html]


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Mstrswrd

Always playing Touhou. Always.
Mar 2, 2008
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Wooh! Go video games. Now we just need to see what the numbers are for this year. I hope they grow even more so that the games industry can have a silent "Hahahaha" moment.
 

mattttherman3

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Dec 16, 2008
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Well this would not be the case if there wern't websites where you could stream or download videos, at least not yet it wouldn't. Maybe Hollywood will give out academy awards for games.
 

fluffylandmine

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Jul 23, 2008
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mattttherman3 said:
Well this would not be the case if there wern't websites where you could stream or download videos, at least not yet it wouldn't. Maybe Hollywood will give out academy awards for games.
Nah, I doubt the games industry will want to be around such hateful paupers(yes they can now be called paupers). We know what they think of the industry, and it is not very inviting.

Besides, some of them(the acting community) will be out of jobs(possibility), more than the amount now. I doubt they would want their killer to be at their party.
 

shatnershaman

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May 8, 2008
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mattttherman3 said:
Well this would not be the case if there wern't websites where you could stream or download videos, at least not yet it wouldn't.
But these do also not include flash games that are free online like Bowman or Line Rider (although now there is a line rider Wii game...sigh) and you can also download games (XBLA/PSN/Steam legally and PSP/360 illegally).
 

ioxles

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Nov 25, 2008
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mattttherman3 said:
Well this would not be the case if there wern't websites where you could stream or download videos, at least not yet it wouldn't. Maybe Hollywood will give out academy awards for games.
This would never happen.

Could you imagine the troll like figures, hobbling bent double onto the stage to collect the award for best ambient lighting on normal mapped textures award? This would never work.

jk/
 

Andy Chalk

One Flag, One Fleet, One Cat
Nov 12, 2002
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mattttherman3 said:
Well this would not be the case if there wern't websites where you could stream or download videos, at least not yet it wouldn't. Maybe Hollywood will give out academy awards for games.
This works both ways. Bear in mind that these figures include packaged retail sales only, so while streaming and downloadable video may have negatively impacted the DVD/Blu-ray market, the game industry doesn't get the benefit of sales made via digital distribution (Steam, etc.) and MMOG subscription fees. I think the truth is that it could be a lot worse for the movie industry than these figures make it out to be.
 

BobisOnlyBob

is Only Bob
Nov 29, 2007
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Is this purely outsell in $ terms? That would mean that box-for-box, DVD continues to outsell games, because games are typically in the $20+ range, whereas DVDs tend to cap out at $20, maybe $30 for a collector's edition boxset abomination THING, where the equivalent collectible atrocity in gaming would hit $100.
 

SomeBritishDude

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Nov 1, 2007
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I may not have touched my Wii in months, but you've got to hand it to nintendo...they're helping the games industry along.