Five years ago, I managed to somehow attain a degree in Theology. It was an awesome time, and the dissertation I wrote garnered some interest because it was on a subject no one had written about before. Others had written about the Early Church, or Contraversies and Heresies Through the Ages, or The History of Methodism and so on and so forth.
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| At 20 pages long, it didn't do the subject justice. |
My dissertation was entitled Videogames- A Forgoten Media?
It's main focus was on how videogames were becoming a powerful force in entertainment, and the culture that has been shaped around them over the recent years. My conclusion, in short, was this: Christians need to get involved with videogames, as they ignore them at their peril. Five years after writing the piece of work that got me a BA, I can see that my conclusion is still as valid today as it was in 2005, perhaps even more so! This is the reason I'm writing this blog after all!
After some typing I realised this subject was going to suffer from "wall of text" syndrome, because just like five years ago, once I start writing on the subject of games.. I kind of don't know how to stop. To this day I don't know how I managed that word limit. So I've decided to make this a multi part series. Let's dive in with a fairly humdrum starter for ten:
The Numbers
Videogaming is big buisness. Seriously big buisness. With big numbers to boot. When I first started playing games, one or two people would code away in their bedroom to create a hit game. You'd buy it for a couple of quid and there'd be about four names attributed to the creation process, tops. Today you fork out £40 and when you finish the game you're met with a list of names longer than any you'll see after any movie you go to. The money involved in the videogames industry is insane. Let me garnish you with a few examples.
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| I am one of the three people that doesn't own this game. |
Call of Duty: Black Ops, the latest in the Call of Duty franchise, sold more than 7 million copies worldwide, with 1.5 million of those copies being sold in the UK. It's reported that this game netted Activision, it's publisher around a billion dollars after six weeks of being sold in shops. On it's first day it made the company over 360 million dollars. That my friends, is some serious cash. Some other fun money based stats include:
Final Fantasy 13 sold over a million units on it'as first day in Japan, and 5 and a half million copies worldwide. If each copy is sold for £40... you get the idea.
Halo: Reach for the XBox 360 Grossed $200 million dollars in the USA on launch day.
Uncharted: Amongst Thieves for PS3 has sold roughly 3.8 million copies worldwide.
World of Warcraft, the Massively Multiplayer Role Playing game from Blizzard, boasts 11 million players paying it's monthly fees. It's about £12 a month. So £12 X 11 million.. per month.. yikes.
Last but not least, Grand Theft Auto 4, the game the media loves to hate, raised $500 million on it's first day and so far has sold over 20 million copies.
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| Ker-ching! |
So yeah... games are kind of a big deal when it comes down to the numbers. If a company can get it right, then just like Activision or Blizzard they can create themselves a cash cow. As of June 2001, the Videogames Industry was valued at $65 Billion Dollars. Here in good old blighty, we have the honour of being the second largest market in Europe after Germany (Of all people!) raising around $6 dollars in 2008. In 2009, The UK Videogames Industry took a giant leap by outselling the Film Industry. Globally, games outsell Hollywood.
This means a lot of games in a lot of peoples homes. Even aside from some of the other points I'm going to make, the numbers alone tell us that we Christians need to sit up and take some notice! Come back soon and I'll wax lyrical about my next point- It's About More Than Just The Games.
Have something to say? Then please, leave a comment. It gets lonely here.
Linkage to facts and stuff.
Wiki Page on Call of Duty Black Ops
Wiki Page on Final Fantasy 13
Wiki Page on Halo: Reach
Wiki Page on Uncharted 2
Wiki Page on World of Warcraft
Wiki Page on Grand Theft Auto IV
Wiki Page on The Video Games Industry in General
Wiki Article on the UK Video Games Industry
Telegraph Article on Games beating films
Guardian Article on the tough environment for UK Developers
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