It's not about the economy ... it's all about the games.

According to an AP Article, sales of video games have plunged 29% year-over-year and Wall Street is concerned that it is proof the video game market isn’t as recession-resistant as everyone believed.  Seriously.  That’s the crap that’s coming out of these news rooms.  News flash: Look at the game release schedules.  Last year saw a host of relaunches of various Final Fantasy titles, new version of the Civilization franchise, another installment of Harvest Moon, and the updated Soul Calibur.  Nothing really exciting has been released for six months.  The real action comes in the back half of the year.

My household spends a lot of money on video games.  We have virtually every system imaginable and we are big RPG and action players.  Right now, I’m working my way through Blue Dragon and Aaron is in the middle of Lost Odyssey, both released by the Mistwalker company setup by the genius behind the Final Fantasy series.  We aren’t spending any money on games now.  That will change when Aion – The Tower of Eternity is released.

You have the new Madden coming out on August 14th, Wolfenstein on August 18th, Halo 3 ODST on September 22nd, and Assassin’s Creed II on October 17th, just to name a few.  The video game industry does not follow the same pattern as furniture sales or theme park admissions.  It is all about the games. If a new Final Fantasy was released tomorrow, I don’t care if I hadn’t paid my electric bill and needed to come up with money to eat dinner, I’d find a way to get my hand on the title.

Aion Tower of Eternity

It’s only 1/10th as Expensive as the Movie on a Per Unit of Time Basis
Why?  Hour for hour, video games represent the single greatest value for your money.  A good RPG, for instance, will require you to play for at least 100 hours.  I typically level my characters up, maxing all of their stats out so I can dominate.  If you pay $50 for a game, that’s $0.50 per hour of entertainment.  Compare that to a 2 hour movie where you pay $10 for admission, costing $5.00, or 1,000% more per unit of time.  That assumes you don’t get popcorn, a Coke, and some Reese’s peanut butter cups which are, of course, absolutely required.

People who don’t understand a market should not be allowed to write about it.  It is almost as bad as Tech Ticker on Yahoo Finance, which is, in my personal opinion, the single worst source of financial or investing advice that has ever been sponsored by a major media company.  It takes all of my resolve not to hurl things at the screen when those idiots open their mouth.  It’s a fairly good bet that we are doing almost exactly the opposite of what they say at any given time on the webcast.  The civilization would be much improved if the plug was pulled on that monstrosity they call financial journalism.  Again, just my personal opinion.

Related posts:

1. Final Fantasy XIII Is Released Tomorrow
2. First Impressions of Final Fantasy XIII
3. Nothing Like Being Down $100,000+ In the First Few Seconds of Morning Trading on Wall Street