Video games is the only entertainment industry where several business models are successfully used at the same time.
For a long time it seemed like the music industry was struggling the most but in the end it is first to live completely in the future. Streaming takes 85% off the market growing from 80% only a year ago. The retail sales are around $5 billion per year but they do not affect or relevant to the market anymore.
The period of retail sales dominance was an era of huge worldwide stars. If you wanted to sell big you needed to be on the radio and later on MTV. The number of broadcast placements was finite, so those who were able to take a prime spot would become mega popular. Everyone else could aim for local popularity but not much else.
Today everyone has access to all the songs in the world. Turns out music is very different and there are listeners for pretty much every niche genre that could come to your mind. Hundreds of thousands of artists can find an audience and earn money not just the ones that got a blessing from major labels.
In the meantime the movie industry has not even been able to come to peace with the reality. The pandemic of 2020 killed all new releases. Tenet, one of the most promising titles of the year, didn’t sell enough tickets. Everybody freaked out and moved all the releases to 2021 and beyond. And they want to believe it is Covid related and soon will pass. But it will not.
The movie industry produces around 10 blockbusters per year. The production costs are so high that these titles need to be mega popular worldwide or they are bust. So they need to appeal to everybody. This leads to safe and uninspiring content. And don’t get me started on the whole “cinema watching experience” in a time of huge OLED TV’s at home.
Netflix is releasing 3000 items of content per year. For you, me and for Adam Sandler fans also. TV series cover a vast range of themes and stories. They move into the topics that could never succeed as a cinema release. But streaming makes it possible to find enough of even a very niche audience. As long as you’re a Netflix subscriber everybody is happy. TV series are relevant and part of the public discourse.
The books industry is a great example that progress should not be stopped. Everything was great until a couple of bad legislations haven’t messed with pricing. And now ebooks often cost more at Amazon than softcovers.
Only in video games you can find successful subscription model (GamesPass, Apple Arcade), online distribution (Steam), micro-transactions (F2P), ad-based (free with ads). And all these models are growing.
Currently not a single reason is visible that could hinder this diversity. Games are so different from each other that there is a healthy market for all these models. Free2Play for casual games, online distribution for pc indie and AAA console games, subscription for AA console.
The future in games turned out to be better and more flexible than anywhere else.🎂