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I was interested to see this in the paper this morning:
LA TImes Business section, December 10th. "Electronic Arts Inc., which produces such franchises as the Sims and Madden NFL, said Tuesday that it probably would miss sales and profit targets for its fiscal year because of disappointing holiday sales in North America and Europe."
Disappointing holiday sales. Ya think? I'd been thinking for ages that they should have worked out their problems with Aspyr in time to get at least one EP and maybe two SPs ported for Mac for the holidays. Mac owners would have rejoiced, asking for them for Christmas, buying them with gift cards at the Apple Store. Now, after the holidays, people will go back to being frugal. Harder to sell ports of new stuff then.
According to the article, which you can find here, video games are considered to be a relatively healthy sector in a recession, because consumers choose less expensive forms of entertainment. They eat in more, go out less. Video games are fairly cheap. And overall, the industry is still going to post a gain. But EA didn't do as well with Spore as they thought they would. First releases of new games often take a while to catch on. So you would think . . .porting games you already have? I'm not betting on it:
"Company spokesman Jeff Brown said consumers this year were buying more intensely from among the top five bestselling games, whereas in the past they had spread their purchases more among the top 20. So publishers are deciding to make fewer titles.
'We are going to make some changes in our publishing strategy to publish fewer games but making bigger bets on them,' Brown said. 'But that does not mean we will stop taking creative risks.' "
I don't know how sorry to feel for the suits who helped create this silliness. I do, however, feel very sorry for the workers who will be laid off. I wonder if this will delay the release of the Sims 3?
In other entertainment news, there may be an actor' strike, which, if authorized, would begin in January. This is why Summit is so crazy to be shooting for a November 2009 release date of *New Moon*--they're going to have enough obstacles that they might as well leave an extra six months and do the thing properly.
We almost had a strike at my university. It was called off at the last minute. The times, they are a goin' hard.
Ugh, have to get up early for exams--four hours and some paperwork, and possibly no chance for lunch. Blech.
LA TImes Business section, December 10th. "Electronic Arts Inc., which produces such franchises as the Sims and Madden NFL, said Tuesday that it probably would miss sales and profit targets for its fiscal year because of disappointing holiday sales in North America and Europe."
Disappointing holiday sales. Ya think? I'd been thinking for ages that they should have worked out their problems with Aspyr in time to get at least one EP and maybe two SPs ported for Mac for the holidays. Mac owners would have rejoiced, asking for them for Christmas, buying them with gift cards at the Apple Store. Now, after the holidays, people will go back to being frugal. Harder to sell ports of new stuff then.
According to the article, which you can find here, video games are considered to be a relatively healthy sector in a recession, because consumers choose less expensive forms of entertainment. They eat in more, go out less. Video games are fairly cheap. And overall, the industry is still going to post a gain. But EA didn't do as well with Spore as they thought they would. First releases of new games often take a while to catch on. So you would think . . .porting games you already have? I'm not betting on it:
"Company spokesman Jeff Brown said consumers this year were buying more intensely from among the top five bestselling games, whereas in the past they had spread their purchases more among the top 20. So publishers are deciding to make fewer titles.
'We are going to make some changes in our publishing strategy to publish fewer games but making bigger bets on them,' Brown said. 'But that does not mean we will stop taking creative risks.' "
I don't know how sorry to feel for the suits who helped create this silliness. I do, however, feel very sorry for the workers who will be laid off. I wonder if this will delay the release of the Sims 3?
In other entertainment news, there may be an actor' strike, which, if authorized, would begin in January. This is why Summit is so crazy to be shooting for a November 2009 release date of *New Moon*--they're going to have enough obstacles that they might as well leave an extra six months and do the thing properly.
We almost had a strike at my university. It was called off at the last minute. The times, they are a goin' hard.
Ugh, have to get up early for exams--four hours and some paperwork, and possibly no chance for lunch. Blech.
