Overview of the current state of video games

The videogame industry now rivals the movie industry as one of the biggest entertainment businesses. The Entertainment Software Association valued the videogame industry at $22 billion in 2008. Gaming has gone from a niche market during the ‘80s to a mainstream source of huge revenue, and it seems to pervade many aspects of our daily lives. For some, it even seems like gaming is a way of life.

Think about how often we encounter videogames in our normal routines. While checking social networking sites like Facebook, users flock to a wide variety of games to play with their friends. One of the best examples of gaming on Facebook, FarmVille, has over 81 million active users at the time of this writing.

Traditional games made with big budgets are available for both the PC and gaming consoles. The three powerhouse consoles of this generation are Nintendo’s Wii, Sony’s Playstation 3, and Microsoft’s Xbox 360. All these consoles represent the efforts of companies that proved their worth in the console wars, and as technology progresses, next-generation consoles are always eagerly-awaited.

The Wii is especially significant, for having captured a demographic that was previously unheard of playing videogames. Not only do kids love the console, but their parents and grandparents seem to enjoy the system as well. This is thanks to the motion-sensing controller used to play the Wii, which represented a big risk for Nintendo that ultimately paid off. The ability to control a game by mimicking real-life motions is a huge leap from the simple controllers from two decades ago.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2DuW-ZQxZo

There is also a market for handheld-gaming, currently dominated by the Nintendo DS and Sony PSP. Again, these systems have widespread appeal with a broad range of age groups, giving anyone the ability to enjoy a videogame on a plane or bus.

But you don’t need to own a stand-alone system to enjoy gaming on the go. Mobile phones are cluttered with a massive amount of cheap games, all in the effort to hook the player and rake in the dough. In a recent article for The New York Times, Bob Tedeschi examined the emergence of the iPhone as a gaming platform.

Tedeschi explained that thanks to the increasingly-powerful processor in the iPhone, games can be made for the platform featuring impressive graphics for such a small system. He also mentioned the business model for mobile gaming, where companies can produce games cheaply and therefore sell them at a greatly reduced price. There are even games that cost next to nothing, reel the player in, and then charge them in “micro-transactions” for special items, gear, or food. Tedeschi dubbed this the “freemium” approach.

You can read Tedeschi’s article here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/28/technology/personaltech/28smart.html

With gaming becoming such a widespread pastime, I’d like to use this blog to analyze and assess various aspects of the ever-growing industry. With technology moving at such a rapid pace, what lies in store for gamers of tomorrow? How is gaming affecting society? Can gaming be considered art? Hopefully, by the time you’re done reading this blog, I will have enlightened you on at least some small detail of videogames today.