Why this recession will help video games in the future...

I've been thinking...and it came to me that despite all the so-called "financial analysts" out there predicting whats going to happen to the economy, I don't see anybody changing their financial spending habits in my area. Where I live I have seen no drop in people at retaurants, the company I work for is growing by double digit percentages, and I haven't heard of any substantial job losses from my friends or family that live nearby. I'm not saying that this current "economic downturn" isn't affecting anybody.

Yet, this downturn, in my opinion, will help the entertainment industry in the near future, specifically video games. When this recession reverses and the economy starts booming again video games will take advantage of people finally having jobs and feeling secure. No doubt you will see companies like Sony and Microsoft releasing games at a faster rate than even before the recession. This is due to the fact that these companies need to make up for money that they lost previously. Yet, video game systems will be more powerful, more reliable, and definitely have longer "tails". I believe you will see the "720" or "PS4" be strong longer than 4-5 years, perhaps having a 7-10 year cycle. These companies will learn from their mistakes by bringing out their new consoles with new launch game and they will make them all last as long as they can. But with the recession a lot of companies will be bought up by other companies and this should in effect create better games. This will bring about tighter collaboration teams within developers since three companies are now one. If this does happen, then with these think-tank teams, we may see some of the greatest games ever created in the near future. Perhaps 2011, 2012, or 2013 being the new 1998.

But who knows! I'm sure not everyone agrees with me. So let me pose a question to everyone who reads this:

With the end of this "economic downturn" what do you think will happen to the video game industry? Will we see a boom? Will we see downfalls?

I've been thinking...and it came to me that despite all the so-called "financial analysts" out there predicting whats going to happen to the economy, I don't see anybody changing their financial spending habits in my area. Where I live I have seen no drop in people at retaurants, the company I work for is growing by double digit percentages, and I haven't heard of any substantial job losses from my friends or family that live nearby. I'm not saying that this current "economic downturn" isn't affecting anybody.

Yet, this downturn, in my opinion, will help the entertainment industry in the near future, specifically video games. When this recession reverses and the economy starts booming again video games will take advantage of people finally having jobs and feeling secure. No doubt you will see companies like Sony and Microsoft releasing games at a faster rate than even before the recession. This is due to the fact that these companies need to make up for money that they lost previously. Yet, video game systems will be more powerful, more reliable, and definitely have longer "tails". I believe you will see the "720" or "PS4" be strong longer than 4-5 years, perhaps having a 7-10 year cycle. These companies will learn from their mistakes by bringing out their new consoles with new launch game and they will make them all last as long as they can. But with the recession a lot of companies will be bought up by other companies and this should in effect create better games. This will bring about tighter collaboration teams within developers since three companies are now one. If this does happen, then with these think-tank teams, we may see some of the greatest games ever created in the near future. Perhaps 2011, 2012, or 2013 being the new 1998.

But who knows! I'm sure not everyone agrees with me. So let me pose a question to everyone who reads this:

With the end of this "economic downturn" what do you think will happen to the video game industry? Will we see a boom? Will we see downfalls?

That makes sense, although It's a bit unlikely it will happen. Game companies can't just produce a huge amount of games at a certain time.

The reason you don't see the recession yet is because you don't work in the financial market. It doesn't happen to all industries at once. Don't worry, you will see the shit hit the fan soon enough.

As for the video game industry, who knows. It's obvious that publishers and developers have already been hit hard. Look at all the studios that have closed in the last year and all the future projects that have been canceled. There's going to be a huge slowdown in games. Only the games which they KNOW will make a profit (any new mgs, halo, gears, sports titles) will be hitting store shelves. I don't think there will be much risk taking in the near future and I think a lot of creativity won't be able to break through due to lack of funding.

I think that you're already seeing game companies try to pack as much revenue as they can into the inputs they've already made. This means an explosion of downloadable content, sequels in the same engine as the prequel, and that sort of thing.

Consoles will not be made more reliable in this economic downturn, it will be just the opposite. They will cut costs however they can, and nobody cuts marketing budgets (it's just not how things are done for some reason) so of course they're going to cut production costs in any way they can. And if they can find a way to cut production costs in such a way that allows them to increase revenue (i.e., forcing hardcore nerds like us to re-buy the console) then they will.