Hard Times

A global economic recession is currently in effect, causing all lines of work in the U.K to suffer. But how is this recession affecting the games industry. Many games developers are shutting their doors to new employees and are giving current employees the sack! Some companies are going bust, while others are merging. The big companies are still healthy though. I see the industry heading towards a situation where only large scale developers can survive. People are still buying the best games. The problem is people cannot afford to buy as many games as before the recession. This leaves the more popular games selling high and the less popular games losing the customers they so desperately need. Look at ‘Killzone 2’, a game only recently released, but the third highest selling ps3 game within the first weekend of sale!

Competition is increasing between game companies, so arguably this could only lead to better games. I think that the games industry can survive the recession. Looking at recent innovations in the way games are played and the ways in which games have been viewed over the last three years only points to a promising future for games!

The drop of the U.K pound has seen the over-sea sales for games go on the rise. This is good for Europe and other parts of the world, and good for the games industry. I think that companies and retailers need to take a strong approach on the pricing of games in the future. Maybe this will increase sales and profit in the U.K. We will make it through; we just need to keep on making good games!