On Oct 5, 2004, at 3:06 PM, curt cloninger wrote:
> It was initially set to happen at the Fine Arts Theater downtown where
> they have been showing the short films, but the owner of the theatre
> refused to host it because, in his own words, "there's no money in
> interactivity." Which is hilarious now that the gaming industry makes
> 3 times more money than Hollywood, but anyway.
Sorry to be didactic, but is this really true? Every time I've looked
into these numbers, they're always incorrect comparisons because they
compare Hollywood's box office gross with video games' retail sales –
and completely ignore the billions that Hollywood makes through DVDs,
VHS tapes, and license replays of movies on TV, never mind selling all
those damned Matrix posters.
I like me some video games, but I still do not believe they surpass
film as a cultural force. Why? Because whenever I want to talk about
video games I have to be careful not to dive into them too much if I'm
in a group of people who may not give a shit. (This often plays out on
gender lines a bit, but not always.) I never have to do that with
movies. I hear "I don't play video games" a lot more than I hear "I
don't watch movies".
Francis Hwang
Director of Technology
Rhizome.org
phone: 212-219-1288x202
AIM: francisrhizome
+ + +
video games vs. film [was: Thinking of art, transparency and social technology]
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Type: discussion
Comments
Hi Francis. I haven't done any research. I just like to throw
around dramatic statistics that prove my point. (In this instance,
it was an independent film theatre, so I don't think it's much of a
stretch to say video games outsell independent films.)
I found this article:
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&call_pageid
Apparently video game sales have stalled at around 18-20~ billion dollars. Thats Gross sales.
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/technology/2004-09-01-videogame-sales_x.htm
According to film sources, total movie revenues are in excess of 200 billion dollars.(these are all global sales figures)
So the comparison, which is based on real Gross sales figures puts to lie the Game Industries myth.
Still though, Games are a large part of the digital economy.
Note that ebays net revenue(not gross) was 2.1 billion in 2003.
Nor are the two separate…
Look at how the industries (are they really distinct?) cross in many
blockbusters (which we seem to be talking about blockbusters, not
independent film/video as curt pointed out) - the Matrix, Italian Job,
etc. as you can tell "i don't play video games or i'd be able to name
more. ;)
ryan
On Oct 7, 2004, at 8:55 PM, Eric Dymond wrote:
> Apparently video game sales have stalled at around 18-20~ billion
> dollars. Thats Gross sales.
> http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/technology/2004-09-01-
> videogame-sales_x.htm
> According to film sources, total movie revenues are in excess of 200
> billion dollars.(these are all global sales figures)
> So the comparison, which is based on real Gross sales figures puts to
> lie the Game Industries myth.
> Still though, Games are a large part of the digital economy.
> Note that ebays net revenue(not gross) was 2.1 billion in 2003.
Good point. And there are a number of video games that get turned into
blockbuster films, Resident Evil and Tomb Raider being the examples
that come to my mind most easily. I wouldn't be surprised if there are
some enterprising film production companies who have bought up small
video game companies in the hopes of locking up the film licenses in
the case of landing a hit video game. I remember there was a company
that did the same with Dark Horse Comics in the '90s, though I don't
remember how that worked out for them. (This was _after_ Tank Girl and
The Crow were released as films.)
Now, if we only had an independent games business to complement the
indie film business, we'd be good to go.
On Oct 8, 2004, at 2:18 AM, ryan griffis wrote:
> Nor are the two separate…
> Look at how the industries (are they really distinct?) cross in many
> blockbusters (which we seem to be talking about blockbusters, not
> independent film/video as curt pointed out) - the Matrix, Italian Job,
> etc. as you can tell "i don't play video games or i'd be able to name
> more. ;)
> ryan
Francis Hwang
Director of Technology
Rhizome.org
phone: 212-219-1288x202
AIM: francisrhizome
+ + +