From:	Twist0059@***.com Twist0059@***.com
Subject:	Video Game profits (Was - SR future products ...)
Date:	Tue, 17 Aug 1999 23:52:14 EDT

In a message dated 8/17/99 11:22:18 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
bluewizard@*****.com writes:

> >Don't bet on it. MW3 will make more money in one year than all of FASA's
> >stuff put together in the same year, most likely.
>
> And if you had read the rest of my post you would see that the money gets
> spread a LOT thinner than the cash made by ANY SR book.
>


I did read the rest of your post. I'm telling you that a video game rakes in
more cash than a single RPG company sees in a long time. A $30 RPG
rulebook brings only a few dollars after all expenses and distribution costs
have been handled. And then you have the consumer bases. A game like Deer
Hunter has outsold, IIRC, the yearly total of BattleTech units. And that was
a cheesy, moronic video game. Why'd it sell? Because it was the brain-child
of WalMart and was pushed in the faces of hunters and their rugrats. And
there's the great power of video games. They are everywhere. Impuse buys R
Us.

And then you have the expansion per successful video game. How many new
players came to SR when SR3 was released? Practically nothing compared to
the kind of numbers that jumped onto Resident Evil 2 or Tomb Raider 2. So
the expenses of creating a new game to a hit series is nill compared to the
profits that series brings. And the big video game companies don't have to
hire out to other companies either. Everything is done in-house.

A company like FASA has to sell out of various scattered game stores over the
country or directly (which greatly cuts down on impulse buys by the
youngsters). A video game gets pushed at every department store, electronic
game store (at your local malls), video rental shops, and not to mention Toys
R Us.

RPGs are a hobby industry. Video games are for the great masses.




-Twist