Digital Comfort Food

With an industry that’s taught the current generation more about Roman numerals than the modern education system ever has, it’s hard to really visualise anything significantly upsetting game sales figures. This is an industry that mirrors the big bang in both the way it exploded into being and the force with which it‘s been expanding ever since. Indeed, features such as Kirsten’s Credit Crunch, Credit Schmunch! post have communicated the fact that it has, on the whole, enjoyed a pretty recession-proof ride. It’s seemed apparent to me for a while now that games are the digital comfort food of society, the indulgence we turn to when feelings of depression set in. After all, what player can’t recall heatedly inserting that copy of [insert name of abominably violent game here] into his or her console’s disc tray and furiously firing at AI-controlled life forms until they have been reduced to a convulsing heap of virtual viscera? And all because that unreliable twa… twit never called when he said he would. We’ve all done it, at least us gamers. It’s a very satisfying way to exorcise negative emotions and one that doesn’t involve being reunited with a not long consumed bucket-load of ice-cream.

The prosperity of the games industry in the face of economic adversity suggests that we may also turn to games when the economic chips are down. After all, pound for play-time, games offer a relatively cost-effective form of entertainment. But recent sales figures suggest that the industry is not as recession-proof as it might have appeared to be. According to a report published by the market research firm NPD Group, industry sales as a whole in the US were down by 23 percent in May this year, dropping to $863.3 million for the month. This makes sales lower than $1 billion for the first time since August 2007. Wii sales fell by more than half to 289,500 and the PlayStation 3 overtook the Wii in sales for the first time ever in Japan in March this year. More significantly, however, May’s software sales have dropped by 17 percent.

Now percentages, just like any other form of mathematics have always scared the bejeesus out of me. So I find it even scarier when ones such as these are attached to what is perhaps my favourite industry (I say perhaps because, you know, tie-on rubber novelty boobs and all that). But is a recession-proof industry even a realistic notion? Economists such as Karr Ingham believe not and as gamesindustry.biz’s Rob Fahey explains, this is an industry that has permeated so many others and netted so many people that in some ways, it’s actually increased its chances of being negatively affected by the recession.

So does this mean that more people will be replacing the videogame with the Ben & Jerry’s through these economically dark times? Well, I doubt that’s likely and as PricewaterhouseCoopers happens to agree with me, I’m going to be pretty candid in this opinion right here. The PwC has just this month released its estimates for digital media showing predictions that the US and Canada’s revenue for games, minus hardware sales, will grow at an average rate of 5.8% annually over the next five years. The videogame market is predicted to grow globally at a 7.4% annual rate to $73.5 billion in 2013. Giggity giggity goo!

Despite the relatively small drop in sales, then, it still looks like it’s 1 up for the games industry. It’s entirely possible that the industry will remain one of the favoured forms of entertainment indulgence throughout the economic slump. It even looks likely that it will go on to become one of the digital industries enjoying the most significant upturns. And with companies such as Apple diversifying the choice of digital dishes on offer with its deliciously versatile iPhone, this industry certainly seems the one to watch right now.