For the past few years the US has been enjoying a economical boom and gamming and technology in general have thrived. But the economy is staring to slow down and we are moving into an ressecion. The high oil prices are already moving though the rest of the economy and causing inflation. Its possible that our president elect will slow or stop it. Hard to say.

Anyway i was just wondering what sort of things would happen if we do go into ression. Id imagine the rate at wich technology advances would slow, make alot of smaller game compaines would go under making for less nich games. Alot of people will turn to the cheaper consoles.

I wasn't terribly impressed with the industry this year but 2001 promises to be one of the hotest years scine the year tetris came out. how many of the highly anticipated titles wont hit the market or be rushed out because of slowdowns?? What do you think?

P.S. This site is rocks!

Thanks!

Games are pretty pricey when new, so if the economy tanks, I'd have to think it would hurt the industry. People out of work won't have $50 to lay down for a new game.

The biggest problem I see right now is that there are too many games being published. If you add together the PC and console titles, there's just a veritable flood of games. Good games get lost in the crowd.

As to what games might slip or get rushed, about the only prediction I'll make is that Warcraft 3 will slip, mainly because Blizzard games are always late. :)

Whatever the cause, page counts for the Christmas issues of the gaming magazines are dropping. I have the PCGamer December issues here for 1998, 1999, and 2000. 1998 was 416 pages, 1999 was 272 pages, and 2000 is 256. Aren't more games being produced now? What's up with the reducing page counts? CGW is especially sad looking, at a paltry 192 pages in the 1/2001 issue (last one before Chirstmas). I don't know what the console mags are like, but I presume they are doing a little better?

"I have the PCGamer December issues here for 1998, 1999, and 2000. 1998 was 416 pages, 1999 was 272 pages, and 2000 is 256. Aren't more games being produced now? What's up with the reducing page counts?"

Great info! Thanks for posting that.

Here's what's up. Ad sales are down at the mags. The page counts of the magazines are determined by the ad sales, which is why the Xmas issues are always so fat. They have a formula they follow: X number of pages of ad sales = Y number of pages of editorial content.

Why are ad sales down? That's the tougher question. I don't really know. Console dominance? Could be, but I don't see console mags getting fatter. Gamefan just went under.

Game companies trying to cut expenses by cutting down on ads? That might be part of it too.

Game companies shifting money to web advertising? From what I've heard, this doesn't seem to be a likely cause.

"They have a formula they follow: X number of pages of ad sales = Y number of pages of editorial content."

Ah, that's how they do it. I always thought editorial content was sort of a constant, and the variation came from ad counts.

I always save the Christmas issues, they make a great window back in time. The 1998 issue has a huge Creative RivaTNT ad on the back. Wow, 2 years from that to the Ultra.

Yhea i have most of my PC Gammers for the past few years and ive noticecd a decline in the thickness of the magazine too. But i dont think the quality has really sufferd because of it. Yhea thech has really grown in the past few years. In fact i think i got this PC for x-mas 2 years ago a P2 350mhz 96mb RAM 8gb HD and a 4X DVD (first kid on the block w/ that!:) And back then it was a dream machine this year the P4 hit the market and its atleast 4 times faster than mine. Anyone else remember walking into a staples early 98 and seeing borken 300 mhz barrier plastered on ever mag in the store? Early this year was the race to a Ghz now we already have 1.5ghz. And my high shcool Avd. Computer class are still working on thier 486's wich are what 5 generations behind the norm? As weird AL put it best "Your Windows boots up in what?.. a day and a half?"

WC3 out junst in time for x-mas 2001 also waiting for Empire Earth, Black and White, Battle for Dune. Thats just from the big name games ive heard of. :)

Hope everyone had a Happy Holiday!