Trade group: Game industry growth to slow in '08
by Kyle Orland 
{ Jan 7th 2008 at 11:00PM }
Game industry business stories in 2007 were a pretty one note affair -- record-breaking this, unprecedented sales that, blah blah blah. But the boom times might be ending soon, as the Consumer Entertainment Association is predicting that games industry growth will begin to slow in 2008.To be clear, this doesn't mean the industry is going to get smaller, by any means. The CEA is still predicting that the industry will grow 13 percent, to $17.9 billion, in the coming year. What's getting smaller is the rate of growth, which was a ridiculously high 22 percent from 2006 to 2007.
This isn't all that distressing, considering economic analysts are pointing to recession across the economic board. In fact, plenty of industries would be positively giddy with 13 percent growth these days. Then again, declining growth is the first step to actual industry shrinkage, which is the first step to the total evaporation of the industry. Then again again, given that we're entering the middle of the current console generation, this is probably just a sign that the chronically cyclical game industry is going through yet another one of its regular cycles. Amid all the uncertainty, one thing is for sure ... economic analysis makes our heads hurt.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
DeltaP42 @ Jan 7th 2008 11:08PM
I know I'll be contributing less to the growth of the industry, I've bought so many f*cking games this past year that I'll be spending every dollar of my paychecks on my bills and finance charges from bill I HAVEN'T paid from the past 6 months or so, hehehe.
Anticrawl @ Jan 8th 2008 2:29AM
You and me both buddy. No more video games or food for me for a while..
ThornedVenom @ Jan 8th 2008 3:04AM
The game industry growth will slow down in 2008 because gamers worldwide became broke by end of 2007.
Too many games released at once killed the industry. xD
name123 @ Jan 7th 2008 11:19PM
Crash! Just like before. I warned you all, but NOOOooo!
Vegeta (aka Ska Oreo) @ Jan 7th 2008 11:49PM
No one listens to you because you're an idiot.
Gun Barrier @ Jan 8th 2008 1:01AM
wuts with ur avatar? i can only guese that it represents ur hatred of a blogger with a smmilar avatar.
hvnlysoldr @ Jan 8th 2008 2:40AM
Nintendo predicted it. Oh what you thought that was just marketing?
GRANTED @ Jan 8th 2008 2:13PM
NNNOooooooooOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooOOOO
Batzarro @ Jan 7th 2008 11:35PM
I CAN STILL FIX THIS!(RUNS WITH A GRENADE TOWARDS YOUR CONSOLE OF CHOICE)
Psaakyrn @ Jan 8th 2008 1:51AM
Ah crud. *steals grenade with gravity gun* Anyone wants a free 'nade?
Worst Review Ever @ Jan 7th 2008 11:39PM
Shit! This is going to be like the Great Depression of gaming! We'll have to tell our kids stories about making shoes out of video games, and then how we subsequently ate those "shoes".
Anticrawl @ Jan 8th 2008 2:28AM
And also how we had to walk 15 miles up a hill in the snow with no shoes to the nearest Walmart so we could buy the video games to make our shoes which we later ate after we walked home 15 miles in the snow, also the walk back was up a hill too.
jamma @ Jan 8th 2008 3:59AM
Transports Psaakyrn to self with portal gun, hits him, nicks gravity gun (+grenade), runs away
jamma @ Jan 8th 2008 4:01AM
argh, fecking reply system!
Psaakyrn @ Jan 8th 2008 4:13AM
ps: I hope Batzarro didn't prime the 'nade beforehand. Just saying.