Are Video Games Retail Stores Dying?
/A video game is basically an electronic version of a game that is played with the help of a user interface. The interface produces a visual world of virtual reality and it gives you feedback. The feedback you get is basically on a multi-dimensional video display. It uses some of the modernized features like touch screens and headsets enabled with Virtual Reality. Since the inception of video games in the market of entertainment in the 1980s, it has faced a fast increasing demand from the users. These games basically run on different platforms which are nothing but the electronic systems. In modern days the video games are developed in such a way that they get compatible with different systems. Previously these video games used to have specialized platforms and that caused the rapid decline of their popularity. But in recent times, the games are OS neutral and are available to run on personal devices like laptops, computers and so on.
The games are controlled through various controlling devices like joysticks, gamepads, mouse, touch screens and so on. These are actually input devices taught in the childhood lessons of the computer. Some of the games are so advanced that they can sense the movement of the user's body and accordingly they move. The games are made more attractive and realistic using sound effects and relative backgrounds. Since the year 2010, this industry has witnessed increasing commercial importance and its effect as the boom of the video game market in the Asian market. If the industry can maintain the pace of its boom in such a way, it is going to beat the markets of Broadcast and Cable TV very soon.
Some History of Video Games
The industry was not taken very seriously earlier also in the 21st century. There were interactive devices that had some odd looking displays. The earliest evidence of usage of video games came in 1947 when Thomas T. Goldsmith Jr. and his colleague Estle Ray Mann filed an amusement device with a cathode ray tube. There are several other examples of having early video games which are actually electronic devices to play interactive games. The first commercially sold video game was made by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney in the year 1971 which required a black and white screen for the display and it was coin-operated. The computer system used to run the game was 74 series TTL chips. The concept of the game was used in a movie also. The first home console game was made by the same company Computer Space that was named Magnavox Odyssey.
In the year 1977, the industry faced a crash due to some Pong Clones though it was ended after the successful launch of a shooter game name Space Invaders by Taito. This event initiated the start of the Golden Era in the area of arcade video games which eventually induced some manufacturers to put their first step in the market. Several shopping malls and mainstream public location authorities started keeping arcade gaming machines so that the video game lovers will come there to play games. But gradually it has started one another space of human life which nobody imagined to be. People are taking this industry so seriously that they are becoming professional games. There are some very popular games like CS GO where you can make money from it if you are taking it as your profession.
The Gaming Industry
Video games have now transformed as an industry of the prime economic sectors which also plays its part in the development of the country. This industry is creating lots of jobs in the recent market worldwide. Earlier it was known as a focused market but now it has secured its place as a mainstream industry. It generated about US$9.5 billion as revenue from the market and the count is increasing. GameStop is the largest video game retailer in today’s market. But despite all these, the retail business of video games is not doing up to the mark as per market reports. The company has faced a steady flow of decline in its revenue for a few years and the stock price of this company touched the bottom line in April 2019. The major challenge that the retailers of the video games have to face is the availability of the games on the internet where they offer free subscriptions sometimes along with affordable prices. Not only have this, due to the increase in online sales, the companies also started providing the amenities half-heartedly.
In the year 2013, the console platform was kicked off as two new platforms to play video games were launched at the same time named PlayStation 4 and Xbox. In recent times, most of the popular games are available in the digital shops operated by the big corporate houses of the country like Sony and Xbox live. This incident created a huge impact on the market of the largest video game store in the world.
Not only is the availability of popular video games in the online stores, but there are some more reasons why GameStop and other retail outlets of video games are not doing well. GameStop played with some wrong strategies. They initiated buying smartphone stores near them and started buying the chains of smartphone stores. They were also paying very handsome amounts to the chain owners for this. But the strategy did not work for him and the earnings came down drastically. As these stores didn’t make profits as were expected from them, they turned out to be a very huge liability in terms of the economic liability. Where they looked for a revenue of US$ 1.5 billion from 1500 stores of Spring mobiles, it came out with much lesser values and turned out to be a complete disaster. They spend almost US$ 700 million in cash and the rest of the amount in debt to buy those 1500 stores of Spring mobile but in the end, they had to sell them only for the US $ 700 which broke their enthusiasm.