Jim Liebelt's Youth Culture Watch

Modern Warfare 2 Sets Sales Record

According to internal figures released by Activision, opening day sales for its heavily-anticipated game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 smashed records, generating $310 million in 24 hours in North America and the U.K. to become the "the biggest launch in history across all forms of entertainment."

The game shipped worldwide on Tuesday, although Activision has not released sales data from regions other than the U.S. and U.K. The company estimates that roughly 4.7 million copies of the game were sold in the first day of availability in just those two territories.

The previous record-holder, Grand Theft Auto IV, sold 3.6 million copies and generated $310 million worldwide in its first day. If Activision's numbers are correct, Modern Warfare managed to eclipse those figures in only two regions, meaning the game's final worldwide tally is likely to be significantly higher.

And that's simply staggering, as the U.S. and U.K. figures alone dwarf both the record-setting $150 million opening weekend of last year's "The Dark Knight" and the $300 million earned by fellow first-person shooter, Halo 3, in its first week.

Source: Yahoo Plugged In
http://videogames.yahoo.com/events/plugged-in/-modern-warfare-2-breaks-day-one-entertainment-sales-record/1372471

Almost 1 in 10 Young Video Game Users 'Addicted'

What if your child is one of the almost 10% of kids addicted to video games? There are steps you can take. See Jim Burns' article, Help for a Child Who's Addicted to Video Games on HomeWord.com.

A sizable number of young video game players -- fully 8.5 percent -- exhibit signs of addiction to gaming, a new study has found.

These kids aren't just playing a lot. Their gaming interferes with school performance, disrupts interaction with family and friends and poses health problems, the study reveals.

Douglas A. Gentile, a developmental psychologist and an assistant professor at Iowa State University in Ames, said the study is the first to document the prevalence of video game addiction using a nationally representative sample of children and adolescents.

"What's most concerning to me is really the total percentage, just the vast number of kids that are having real problems in their lives because they play games, and they may not know how to stop it," said Gentile, whose study appears in the May edition of Psychological Science.

Pathological gamers played more frequently and for more time, received worse grades and were more likely to report having trouble paying attention in school than non-pathological players. They also reported more health problems associated with playing video games, such as hand and wrist pain.

They were more than twice as likely to have been diagnosed with attention-deficit disorder -- 25 percent of pathological gamers versus 11 percent of non-pathological players. And they were more likely (24 percent vs. 12 percent) to report having been involved in physical fights in the past year.

"I think it does highlight that parents and kids do need to talk about game play and they do need to talk about rules," said Cheryl K. Olson, co-director and co-founder of the Center for Mental Health and Media at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

Source: Forbes
http://www.forbes.com/feeds/hscout/2009/04/20/hscout626221.html

Economy (Finally) Hits Video Gaming Industry

I've been wondering when (or if) the video gaming industry would ever see a downturn in sales during these tough economic times, and the time has arrived. At least for a short time, anyway. Sales were down in March of 2009, compared to March of 2008. Industry leaders, however, are hesitant to pin the decline in sales to the economic downturn. Rather, they site very strong sales in March of 2008 due to the introduction of popular new games, as well as the Easter holiday having been in March of last year.

Overall U.S. video game sales fell 17 percent in March to $1.43 billion, research group NPD said recently, a revealing figure for an industry that had so far shown resilience in the economic downturn.

Video game software sales dropped 17 percent to $792.8 million in the month, while hardware sales fell 18 percent to $455.6 million.

NPD attributed some of the decline to the fact that Easter fell in March last year, boosting purchases for gifts.

For the first quarter of 2009 as a whole, video game sales were flat at $4.25 billion.

Source: Reuters
http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSTRE53F7JH20090417

Guitar Hero III First Ever Game to Sell $1 Billion

Guitar Hero has reached another important milestone, as Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock has become the first ever game to generate $1 billion in sales.

The news came from Activision Publishing CEO Mike Griffith during his keynote address at CES. Griffith also noted how the video game industry has had a profound effect on other entertainment sectors, and that Guitar Hero in particular has been hugely important to the music industry. For example, in its first week, Guitar Hero: Aerosmith sold over three times as many units as Aerosmith's last studio album. Furthermore, he cited Nielsen SoundScan data, which showed that artists whose music was playable in Guitar Hero had seen download sales increase 15-843%.

"Music has a history of evolving through technology and we are at the beginning of the latest chapter in that story," he said, as quoted by the BBC.

As for the newest Guitar Hero, Griffith said he's quite pleased with World Tour's user-generated aspect. 25,000 songs were created in the first 10 days and 141,000 songs have been posted so far. The Guitar Hero community site now has more than 600,000 members. To date, there have been 21 million user-song downloads.

Source: GameDaily
http://www.gamedaily.com/articles/news/guitar-hero-iii-first-ever-game-to-sell-1-billion/?biz=1

No Recession (So Far) for U.S. Video Game Makers

U.S. sales of video game hardware and software rose 10 percent in November from a year earlier, market researcher NPD said recently, as Nintendo Co Ltd reported its Wii console and DS hand-held system both set U.S. sales records in the month.

NPD said the U.S. video game industry is set to top $22 billion in 2008, and Nintendo, Microsoft Corp and Sony Corp said their strong sales in November showed that consumers are still spending despite the global economic crisis.

Rising unemployment and tighter credit have dented U.S. consumers' purchasing power, and most retailers have posted dismal sales results in recent months.

But the U.S. video game industry "continues to set a blistering sales pace," NPD analyst Anita Frazier said, with hardware and software sales strong even though this November had seven fewer shopping days than last year's.

Nintendo's Wii console sold over 2 million units in November, up from over 800,000 in the previous month, setting a record for console unit sales in a non-December month, Nintendo said. Nintendo's Wii console has sold over 15 million units since its release in November 2006 and holds the title as the country's best-selling video game console.

Source: Reuters
http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSTRE4BB0CX20081212

Violent Video Games Linked to Child Aggression

About 90 percent of U.S. kids ages 8 to 16 play video games, and they spend about 13 hours a week doing so (more if you're a boy). Now a new study suggests virtual violence in these games may make kids more aggressive in real life.

Kids in both the U.S. and Japan who reported playing lots of violent video games had more aggressive behavior months later than their peers who did not, according to the study, which appears in the November issue of the journal Pediatrics.

In the new study, Dr. Craig A. Anderson, Ph.D., of Iowa State University in Ames, and his colleagues looked at how children and teen's video game habits at one time point related to their behavior three to six months later.

The study included three groups of kids: 181 Japanese students ages 12 to 15; 1,050 Japanese students aged 13 to 18; and 364 U.S. kids ages 9 to 12.

In every group, children who were exposed to more video game violence did become more aggressive over time than their peers who had less exposure. This was true even after the researchers took into account how aggressive the children were at the beginning of the study -- a strong predictor of future bad behavior.

The findings are "pretty good evidence" that violent video games do indeed cause aggressive behavior, says Dr. L. Rowell Huesmann, director of the Research Center for Group Dynamics at the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research in Ann Arbor.

There are two ways violent media can spur people to violent actions, said Huesmann, who has been studying violence in media and behavior for more than 30 years. First is imitation; children who watch violence in the media can internalize the message that the world is a hostile place, he explains, and that acting aggressively is an OK way to deal with it. Also, he says, kids can become desensitized to violence. "When you're exposed to violence day in and day out, it loses its emotional impact on you," Huesmann said. "Once you're emotionally numb to violence, it's much easier to engage in violence."

Source: CNN
http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/family/11/03/healthmag.violent.video.kids/index.html?iref=newssearch

Just another reminder that parents should pay attention to the types of games their kids are playing and to keep a watchful eye for signs of aggressive behavior...

New 'Grand Theft Auto' Makes Cocaine Sales a Game

It seems as though "anything goes" is the operating principle of Rockstar's largely successful, yet controversial video game series, "Grand Theft Auto." In the newest installment of the game, players will sell drugs to earn money as they drive around town. We can complain all we want about the negative aspects of the game, but the game continues to sell, and the controversial aspects add publicity to the series and only seems to serve to increase sales.

Earlier this week, news broke that Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars -- the forthcoming Nintendo DS rendition of Rockstar's immensely popular crime series -- would feature a drug-selling mini-game, where players could earn money peddling six different kinds of narcotics around town.

Unsurprisingly, this isn't going over very well with anti-drug organizations. GamePolitics reports that in a story by the British tabloid The Sun, a member of the charity Drugsline condemns Rockstar's use of illegal narcotics.

"Anything using drug-dealing as entertainment is sending out the wrong message," said Darren Gold, on behalf of the Drugsline organization. "Glamorization doesn't help our work trying to educate kids of the dangers of substance misuse."

In Chinatown Wars, players will sell weed, cocaine, ecstasy, heroin, acid, and downers.

Source: Yahoo News
http://news.yahoo.com/s/zd/20080929/tc_zd/232528

Study: Video Games Allow Teens to Explore Social, Civic Outlets

A new study released by the Pew Internet and American Life Project shows that video games might not have quite the negative affect on teens/kids as many of us fear. In fact, the study indicates that kids who game together are more likely to volunteer, perform charity work and become politically involved. The key here seems to be "gaming together." Kids who play video games together learn positive social interaction skills. So, it seems, let 'em play (together)! Still, you'll want to oversee what games and how much they play.

Video games may not stunt teenagers' social growth and civic engagement as many parents have long feared, according to a study just released.

However, researchers did find a correlation between how teens play the games and their social development.

Children who game together—whether in family basements or after-school clubs—are more likely to volunteer, raise money for a charity or participate politically than those who play alone, according to a report by the Pew Internet and American Life Project in Washington.

Sixty-four percent of those who play with others in the room said they have raised money for a charitable cause, for example, compared with 55 percent of those who are in a room alone when they play. The engagement did not appear to be affected by how often the teens played or the types of games they chose.

About two-thirds of teenage gamers said they most often play with others in the room. This counters many stereotypes of gaming as a young boy huddled alone in front of his computer. Nine of every 10 teenagers surveyed said they play some type of video game—a sign of how ubiquitous gaming has become. Despite concerns about sexual and violent content, nine video games sold every second last year, according to the Entertainment Software Association. More than a third of U.S. households now have a gaming console.

Source: Chicago Tribune
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-video-games-17_websep17,0,1232775.story

'Grand Theft Auto IV' Steals Video Game Sales Record

The mob-themed video game "Grand Theft Auto IV" raced into stores and off the shelves, smashing previous game records with $500 million in worldwide sales its first week, publisher Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. said Wednesday. That topped the previous high set last year by Microsoft Corp.'s "Halo 3," which took in $300 million in its first week. Take-Two said it sold about 6 million units of "GTA IV" during the first week, and 3.6 million units for $310 million on its first day of sale, April 29.  "We believe these retail sales levels surpass any movie or music launch to date," Take-Two Chairman Strauss Zelnick said.

"GTA IV," which has garnered accolades from reviewers and outcry from social critics upset by its edgy action, revolves around an immigrant protagonist who survives in a gritty urban jungle by running errands for the mob.

Some groups are not as enamored with the game, which features sexually explicit scenes and graphic violence. Mothers Against Drunk Driving, for example, objected to the game allowing players to drive "drunk," making it harder for them to steer accurately.

The Chicago Transit Authority pulled "GTA IV" ads from its subway, leading Take-Two to sue in U.S. District Court in New York for breach of contract.

After New Zealand and Australian officials threatened to ban the game, Take-Two created an edited version.

"GTA IV" carries a "Mature" rating that is the equivalent of an "R" rating for movies.

Source: Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-gta8-2008may08,0,2740866.story?track=rss

With the popularity of this game, it's hard for me to believe that most teen gamers won't be exposed to GTA IV, whether or not parents choose to ban the game from their homes.

What's your plan for handling GTA IV with your kids? Will you allow them to purchase the game? Will you set any type of expectations about playing the game? Let us know.