Posts tagged Economics 
Valve economist examines TF2's 'sophisticated' barter system
We're not sure why Valve's economist is concerned with the finances of prestigious Covenant Elites in Halo, but the first publication from Yanis Varoufakis on Valve Economics is about exactly that. Only he spelled "Arbiter" wrong like 20 times. Oh, he's talking about "Arbitrage," the practice of ca...
Valve has an economist now
Economist Yanis Varoufakis was analyzing the financial crisis in Europe, focusing on Greece, when he got a proposal seemingly out of nowhere. Valve co-founder Gabe Newell saw similarities between the situation in Europe and Valve's troubles with its own virtual economies (for DOTA 2 and Team Fortre...
ESA: Games industry responsible for $5 billion of US economy
A study commissioned by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) found that the video game industry added about $5 billion to the US economy in 2009. The report, "Video Games in the 21st Century: The 2010 Report" [PDF link], claims the industry directly employs about 32,000 people in the States...
MSNBC asks analysts if $60 is too steep for games
MSNBC asked several analysts -- but not a single consumer -- if game prices could retain the standard $60 next-gen price point in this worsening economy. So far, despite layoffs across the industry, game sales are up around the globe -- well, mostly. A survey by Frank Magid Associates last spring ...
Reggie: Wii production up; holiday supply might not meet demand ... again
So sayeth the immortal Pete Burns, "You spin me right round baby, right now, like a record baby, round, round, round, round." In an interview with Los Angeles Times, Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime has hinted that, yet again, the supply for the Nintendo Wii might not meet the demand ...
ESA releases video game economics study
An economic study commissioned by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) found the industry continues to outpace US economic growth, but is that really that hard these days? The report titled Video Games in the 21st Century: Economic Contributions of the US Entertainment Software Industry foun...
President Iwata, economics, and fun with automatic translation
Japanese publicatiion Toyo Keizai recently sat down with President Iwata for five questions about the economics of selling consoles what print money (hand over the proverbial fist, even). Since we're stuck puzzling out squiggles Kanji and scratching our heads over the auto-translation, only to disco...
The new economics of Counter-Strike
In an effort to ensure a more diverse usage of armaments, Valve is implementing a Dynamic Weapon Pricing system into Counter-Strike: Source. Essentially, all guns are divided into two categories: pistols and everything else. Within each category, data is collected from the servers as to how much mon...
Games sales figures show online is key
The NPD Group has released sales figures for 2005, estimating that the US spent $1.4 billion on games last year. An interesting and growing proportion of that income was from online games -- $344 million, about one quarter of the total spending, came from recurring subscription fees. Breaking that d...
Acclaim's MMO strategy examined
Next Generation brings us the lowdown from Howard Marks -- CEO of the newly-reopened Acclaim -- on Acclaim's MMO strategy. His plan is to bring Eastern games to the West with no subscriber fee, but instead to make money via in-game ads and micropayments. Next Gen's feature asks if this will work in ...
