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Industry News from Germany:
(Disclaimer: I am not a professional journalist/writer nor related to the video game industry)
1. Re-Structuring of the German ESRB
The German Website 'MakingGames' reported on the new structuring of the German version of ESRB. Before, it was organized in a rather obscure, bizarre fashion - combining political and civil appointees, including religious groups, without any transparency who was part of it or how or why.
Now it is an Association held by the German Trade Association of Interactive Entertainment Software and the more German Dev focused Association Bundesverband der Entwickler von Computerspielen G.A.M.E. e.V. (- they have no English-Language Website: tells you something), the two biggest Industry Associations representing the interests of all major video game companies doing buisness in Germany.
There's a short press statement in english (between the german lingo) on their website.
[source: (c) by IDG Entertainment Media GmbH and USK.de]
2. Statistic "How should so-called 'Killer Games' be dealt with?"
In Germany they call First Person Shooters 'Killer Games'. It is a term crafted by Conservative politicians to quickly evoke emotions from their voters. Today, every video game that has some sort of 'shooting' or 'killing' in it may fall under this newspeak-lingo polit-marketing term.
- 26% Distribution/Sales should be controlled better
- 21% Age Restriction should be bumped up
- 41% [These games = FPS] should be 'verboten'
- 18% Everything should stay the same
The poll was taken by Infratest dimap a well respected pollster, who does i.e. political polls.
They asked 1000 people, age over 18 years-old.
3. German Retail Association predicts -2.0% loss throught 2009
In the first 5 months of 2009 overall sales in Germany's retail business dropped 2.2-2.8% The Retail Association predicts minus 2.0% sales for 2009. This is not about videogames, but commerce in general.
[source: http://www.einzelhandel.de/servlet/PB/menu/1097933_yno/index.html]
4. Statistics about Germany in English Language available
Federal Republic of Germany federation-wide surveys of official statistics:
http://www.destatis.de/jetspeed/portal/cms/
This is the official Government Website about all things statistical: Demographic, Commerce, etc...
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Really? That's incredible. Like, incredibly bad. This is really true?
The sales in 2009 are still good/excellent, I guess, that's why nobody is paying attention to it, plus the 'issue' is affecting only a small part of overall business, of course.
What is going to be more expensive in the future? Rewrite your code each time so you can publish your game in countries like Germany, Australia, etc... or lobby now and get the society to accept that video games will not eat their children?
Video game publishers and developers should not leave the turf to politicians and the media frenzy.
They will have to live with societies and cultures that are video game hostile for at least another decade. And legislation will show it. Think of video games as the Tabacco Industry during the Congressional/Senate Hearing days.
On the other end I see the positive: PR and Marketing is no longer needed in countries that do not allow video games to be advertised anymore.