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Thursday, September 16, 2010

A Video Game: The Biggest Entertainment Launch of the Year

You thought Avatar was big grossing $27 million dollars on its first day of release? You thought Toy Story 3 was big at $41 million on opening day?

Sit back, Halo: Reach available only for the Xbox 360 made over $200 million on opening day. This makes it the biggest launch of an entrainment offering this year. (Avatar made $200 million only after 3 days)

Check out the full article: Halo: Reach Tops $200 Million on Launch Day, Crushes Avatar

So anyone dismissing the impact video games have on society, learning or entertainment is completely missing the big picture. While many managers may dismiss educational games or the use of a video game type interface to teach or train, they are missing a huge opportunity. See how video games can be used for learning in my earlier post Good Games and Good Learning.

The launch of Halo: Reach also reinforces the fact that from another post about the increase in video games among younger children called: Tween's Playing Online Games Like Never Before.

Check out the game for yourself:



Here are some other interesting statics about the size of the video game industry.

The NPD Group, a market research group providing consumer and retail information, reported that U.S. retail sales of video games, which includes portable and console hardware, software and accessories, generated revenues of close to $19.66 billion, an 8 percent decline over the $21.4 billion generated in 2008. Source

Nintendo's internal sales figures show that the Wii(TM) video game system has now sold 30 million units in the United States alone. This significant milestone was reached in just 45 months. This further establishes Wii as the fastest-selling console in the history of the industry, reaching this milestone 15 months faster than the next best-selling console. Source

Sixty-eight percent of American households play computer or video games, according to new research from the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), which represents U.S. computer and video game publishers. The number of households playing games increased three percent over 2008, illustrating the expanding use of entertainment software across all demographics. Source


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1 comment:

Staying healthy through swimming - Strength, Flexibility and Technique said...

I think at some level its no surprise, watching a movie your always a spectator. But a video game makes you feel you become the character through your immersive movements. This goes to the strength of why 3-D environments will be (prediction) shown to be better learning tools than digital stories. While it will take some time for 3-D environments to take hold, recent improvements in translating words directly from human brain activity will ultimately point to a new computer interface akin to the device found in Brainstorm(1983)