Positive Notes on 2007

Both the Hollywood Reporter and BBC news have some positive footnotes to add to 2007. BBC takes a general look at the year and has a panel of industry people rate their top games.

Sales in the UK are at an all-time high, with more than £1.52bn taken in the last 12 months.

Some video games crossed over into blockbuster entertainment territory. Halo 3, for example, earned £84m in its first 24 hours on sale.

Many people will be joining the gaming revolution this Christmas – but what were the games which had people talking in the past year?

The stand out moments for many gamers include Master Chief delivering his “Wake me when you need me” line in Halo 3, to the nuclear bomb blast in Call of Duty 4, the arrival in Rapture in Bioshock, and the innovative gaming of Super Mario Galaxy.

Hollywood Reporter is speculating on the relative poverty of TV due to the writer’s strike helping the game industry during the holiday season.

As the Hollywood writers strike drags toward 2008, the video game industry is hoping a lack of fresh episodes in primetime could motivate more people to pick up video game controllers instead of remotes — especially with the millions of Wiis and copies of “Call of Duty 4” under Christmas trees this holiday season.

“If you’re a fan of network programming, maybe seeing another repeat of ‘Pushing Daisies’ or ‘Cold Case’ will inspire you to finish that level of ‘Ratchet and Clank Future’ instead,” suggests Joseph Olin, president of the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences.

Because game publishers rely almost completely on nonunion talent to create video games, the WGA walkout, now in its eighth week, hasn’t been an issue for the gaming industry. Only a handful of game writers are represented by the WGA, and they fall outside of the jurisdiction of the current strike.

“There’s a much better relationship between game developers and publishers than there appears to be in terms of all the polemics between the writers, producers and studios,” Olin said.

During the five-month writers strike in 1988, gamers were just beginning to become infatuated with “Tetris” — not exactly a narrative form. In the 20 years since the addictive bricks fell, plot and Hollywood have both become integral parts of interactive entertainment.
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Sales of consoles, games and accessories hit $2.63 billion in November, up 52% from last year. Sales of games alone hit $1.3 billion in November, up 62% from last year, according to NPD.

Spotted on GamerNode.