Video Games vs. Movies

Props for James Pinkerton. In his TCS column he quotes both Marx and Schumpeter effectively. I couldn't do that. No way.

More importantly, he digs deep into the news that video game revenues have now eclipsed movies.

First, studio execs as a group have never known anything about videogames, and can't ever be expected to learn. Movie makers, after all, think of themselves as being in the movie business, as opposed to being in the overall entertainment business. And so just as the railroads ignored the automobile -- because railroad men could not see that their business was transportation overall, as opposed to simply railroading -- and just as autos similarly ignored airplanes, so it is that movies are mostly clueless about the new entertainment platform, videogames. Long ago, management guru Peter Drucker made the point that a new technique would not be adopted until it was obviously and demonstrably ten times better than the old technique. Since then, much work has been done about the impact of "disruptive technology"; the general lesson seems to be that it's the rarest of companies that can make the jump from one way of generating profits to another.

I think this is a big story. The formulaic approach to movies has got to run out of steam someday. And I like the idea that young people would rather participate less passively in their entertainment.

I'm too old and dull for most movies and video games, but I cannot believe that the impulse is much different from blogging.

And, hey, when I was a touring musician I got quite good at "Tempest." Stop laughing!!!!

Media and Blogging Posted by jk at April 29, 2005 6:59 PM