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Game-makers versus Hollywood

I usually spend my evenings surfing the web, looking for ideas for my writing and also checking up on the various market segments where I either have an interest or am planning something.

Last night my websurfing experience was crap.

Most sites loaded okay but attempts to use YouTube were plagued by what appeared to be some real bottlenecks in our international connectivity.

Why was that?

I wonder if it might have been the launch of Diablo 3?

Reports indicate that unprecedented crowds of gamers were cyber-queuing to get in.

Good for them I say.

Unfortunately for some, parts of the Diablo 3 online infrastructure crumbled and somewhere denied access, the servers buckling under the load and throwing up errors instead of authentications.

I have to admit that it's been a good many years since I played any kind of computer game.

The main reason for this would have to be the fact that most modern games seem (from a superficial examination) have quite a significant learning curve and require a huge investment in time to really enjoy.

What ever happened to Pong and "Space Invaders"?

These were great games -- you didn't have to "invest" in playing them. Their operation was obvious and it was dead-easy to take 10 minutes off and have a blast. I doubt the same can be said for today's highly sophisticated and complex RPGs.

However, it's obvious that lots and lots of people have the time, the energy and the willingness to become immersed in these virtual worlds for long periods of time.

I've been told that the computer games market is now bigger than the movie industry and that's a very interesting fact (if true).

Just look at the difference between these two industries and their business models...

Movie makers spend a fortune creating a 90 minute stream of video and then try to sell it to the great unwashed, usually on shiny plastic disks. Many people don't buy those disks -- often claiming that 90 minutes of video is not worth the price being asked. They will instead, copy the disks or download an illegal rip from the Net.

Game makers spend a fortune creating software that produces a virtual world. People flock to buy that software (although some do pirate it). However, whereas the movie industry gets a single payment per customer, the game-maker hooks them up to a drip-feed by charging for access to their online service. That's the 21st-century business model. That's why the gaming industry is worth more than the movie industry. They're smarter and using a much better business model.

The secret to making long-term profits is not to make one-off sales of movies or games.

The secret is to get people subscribing and paying you a regular stipend.

The game-makers have twigged to this and are doing very nicely thank-you.

The movie-makers are still living in the 1960s and just don't "get it".

Hollywood -- here's a thought...

Why not place all your content online and charge people a $20/month flat-rate fee to access it?

Hell, I'd be in like a robber's dog and I suspect most of the people I know would also be in for a deal like that.

Who'd want to risk illegally downloading a movie when you could, for such a small stipend, have immediate access to all the movies you want.

Surely Hollywood's beancounters have done their sums. Why not follow the game-makers and hook your customers into a monthly drip-feed so they can legally access your content in a way that would effectively kill the vast majority of piracy?

For all their arc-lights and lime-lights, there are a lot of dim bulbs in the movie industry.

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