The job market at the moment is tough, and it seems tougher for some people than others, and in particular World of Warcraft players seem to have been singled out.
Gamesindustry.biz reports today that employers are specifically requesting recruitment consultants not to send them World of Warcraft players.
The post, spotted cites a recruiter working in the online media industry as saying that employers think WOW players are too sleep-deprived and distracted to be effective in the workplace.
“Employers specifically instruct him not to send them World of Warcraft players,” said the poster. “He said there is a belief that WOW players cannot give 100 per cent because their focus is elsewhere, their sleeping patterns are often not great, et cetera.”
This seems to fly in the face of many recent articles which focus on the positive of MMOG games such as World of Warcraft, where the skills necessary to persevere and suceed in the game are the same types of skills that can develop a hardworking and diligent employee. Infact President Obama’s cabinet advisors even include WoW players.
But in the meantime, unless you’re after a job leading the country, it may be best to keep World of Warcraft off your CV.
The UK Games Industry reports record sales for 2008 of £4.034billion per ELSPA (the games industry association).
Leading the way in Games sale is the Wii, with it’s broad range of family based games titles, and innovative hardware. “Videogaming is increasingly bringing families together with the introduction of so many outstanding family-based console titles,” said Michael Rawlinson, MD of ELSPA. “These have really opened up the market to those who may never have even considered playing a videogame before.”
And this is reiterated in the fact that wii sports has just become the best selling game of all time, selling now over 40million copies. Undoubtedly the bundling of the game with the console will have contributed to the sales, but Wii Sports is the game that most people associate with the wii.
DS, Playstation and Xbox software all saw increased sales in 2008 over 2007.
Sony’s focus for 2009 is to get the PS3 profitable. Which is a telling sign of the state of the industry. Although there are big grabbing headlines telling of the games industry’s successes, more quietly there are the stories about EA’s scale down in operations and cessation of non-profitable titles, and publishers such as Midway fighting off bankruptcy.
Despite the increasing sales of both consoles and software, and the announcements that the games industry is “recession proof”, Sony are highlighting that it is only the profitable companies that will be able to take advantage of these circumstances, the recession harshly separating the wheat from the chaff.
The Wii has sold record numbers this month in America. Despite the worldwide recession and the credit crunch. Looks like it’s going to be the platform to take gaming into the new markets.
EA has issued a second profits warning, and is planning further jobs (in addition to those announced in October), on the back of disappointing sales of their console & computer games.
Rumours are also around that EA is considering closing it’s Canada Black Box site, which produces the racing games. Need for Speed is one of the titles which has shown disappointing sales levels, along with Mirrors Edge and Rock Band.
The biggest factor in all of this seems to be the Wii, the newspapers are reporting daily record number of Wii sales, and the popularity of the newer platform with the family market, taking gaming out of the teenagers bedroom and into the family sitting room.
Nintendo publish most of their own games, and have 4 titles in November 2008 top ten games, as opposed to EA’s single title in position 4; Left 4 Dead.
All in all, EA seems to be the weaker player, struggling for market share in a market which is growing, with an estimated 22% increase in console and game sales than 2007. Making the video games industry one of the few retails sectors to see year on year growth. But one thing that these figures are telling us is that the traditional video game market, of shot & slash is diminishing, and that the larger untapped family market is where the growth of the future appears to be.
The UK Firm of solicitors Davenport Lyons have been critcised by the Games industry, the legal industry and now the consumer associations Which? and Watchdog for it’s very heavy handed tatics in persuing individuals for perceived copywrite infringement.
People have been receiving demands for £500 for the illegal sharing of video games and pornography, however, Davenport Lyons has based all of their evidence on IP addresses alone, and this approach has already been discredited in two other european countries. Many personal home networks aren’t secured, making it relatively easy for other people to download using their networks.
In fact, in many cities these unsecured free “hotspots” are even identified using a mark on the walls etc outside peoples houses, or listed on websites.
Atari, previous clients of Davenport Lyons, dropped the company last month in the persuit of claims for unauthorised sharing of of Race07.
Lawdit are acting for hundreds of clients being hounded by Davenport Lyons, and also by Digiprotect lawyers who are using similar tatics for the copywrite infringement of the Scooter song.
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