Will Data be Used to Fuel SOPA Support?
If big gaming companies in the United States and the ESA needed strong evidence to further support the controversial SOPA and PIPA legislation, they now have it.
A report on GamesIndustry.biz today said overall industry sales fell eight percent in 2011. The industry sold $17.02 billion of games, consoles and accessories last year, compared to $18.59 billion.
More troubling were December’s sales. While in the heart of the Holiday shopping season, overall game sales dropped to $3.99 billion, a more than 20 percent decline versus the more than $5 billion of sales made in December 2010. The Wii, in particular, took a big hit during the month, with sales related to that system tanking some 55 percent compared to last year, according to analyst Michael Patcher.
Software sales were also of concern. Overall, $2.14 billion in game software was sold last month, but that’s down fifteen percent versus the previous December.
Why should you care? If you’ve been following the SOPA debate closely, you absolutely should. The main reason the Entertainment Software Association supports SOPA, as was reported last week, is due to, in their words, “blatant illegal piracy,” which in turn, according to them, “restrict(s) demand for legitimate video game products and services.” The truth may be that Wii sales were carrying the industry for a while, and that ship has sailed in preparation for Wii U. To be sure, the report also suggested the XBOX 360 was the best selling console of 2011, and software sales on both XBOX 360 and PS3 rose 5 percent last month. Nevertheless, under the pretense of piracy, one only needs to look at the more than billion dollar decline as described above to see where the ESA and others can make their case–ethically so or not.
These and other entertainment industry numbers may come up to compel passage when the SOPA debate continues in the US Congress next week.
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Unfortunately it would be a logical fallacy if it were used to support SOPA. These game sales reflect both a recovering economy and the beginning of the transition into the next gen consoles.
People of a recovering economy are more likely going to spend money on investments like cars and houses rather than luxuries such as video games.
We know the Wii is dying with news of the Wii U, and it’s apparent Nintendo is focusing on its new brainchild. Games and the console itself is cheaper, so by consequence profits reported will be smaller. The Xbox 360 and PS3 are still good, but news of the 720 is already going to convince people to wait and save. And Sony is still suffering since its attack last spring.
I doubt piracy has increased so much that it reduced overall sales by a staggering 15%
Shoot.
still not worried….SOPA claims the problem is “blatant illegal piracy” the problem with SOPA is that the side effects of putting the act into effect are just “blatantly unconstitutional”
“Will data be used to fuel SOPA support?”
Possibly. But no it won’t.
Does this not usually happen at the end of a generation. People wait for new consoles especially when rumours of next generation consoles (in this case the 720 and PS4) with a next generations console already confirmed and shown (Wii U), developers bring support for older consoles to an end(granted this happening more quickly for Wii than the others), and move development to new consoles (again Wii -> Wii U). I’m sure once the next generations arrives sales will be much more brisk.
Definitely logical fallacy.
Riddle me this…blantant be that by if ur not careful the fansites will be destroyed by the SOPA act. Be warned…software sales may fall but does it not occur to some, most, or all that our economy is bout shot and the cuts are killing us all. Prognosis…SOPA very bad for an already bad economy…remember that when u elect these politicians next time round.
It probably dropped because the economy sucks right now and Congress is being run by a bunch of apes
Doubt it.
WE know what the numbers mean, obviously. End of a generation, et al. But to a lobbyist, the number cared about most is the number their constituency lost in business. And to be fair, it’s a big number, and any smart lobbyist will spin the number any way possible.
That’s the way you have to look at it, I think. Did $1 billion of piracy happen last year? Not likely. But if you think a lobbyist isn’t at least trying to connect the dots and make it stick, you’re kidding yourself.
-T
@Tristen Oliver Yeah with politicians, twisting truths with causes and effects is child’s play
I guess this finally means that people don’t like grey gritty realistic shooters now.
@darkgomugomu
Exactly. But the thing is, it’s probably not a causal (not casual) relationship. Hypothetically, if I didn’t know how to drive, someone could say that I never learned because my great grandmother didn’t learn to drive either. One did not necessarily cause the other, so that statement is logical fallacy. I agree with Tristan though. The lobbyists will twist the truth to it’s breaking point.
w00t! My gravatar shows up now!