Idolator

Do you still buy CDs? Do you also spend dozens of pale, friendless hours a week attempting to find warp zones and stomp mushrooms wearing Charlie Chaplin shoes? Have you ever thought there might be a correlation between the two? No? Well there might be, according to entertainment industry analysts who think the record-selling biz needs to take advantage of the ever-expanding audience still willing to pay for video games.

"While it's true that growth was centered on gaming last year, core gamers—those who played video games daily or several times each week—still spent most of their entertainment budgets on non-gaming entertainment," the NPD Group states. "These consumers remain more likely to buy a DVD or CD than they are to purchase a new video game. In fact, 58 percent had purchased a new DVD in the past six months, 46 percent bought a CD, and 43 percent purchased a game for a console...

"It's easy to lose sight of the fact that all of these entertainment categories are interlaced with one another, and they are all separately vying for a larger share of consumers' leisure time and wallet share," said Russ Crupnick, entertainment industry analyst for NPD. "New technologies, new devices, and digital-content delivery are changing the entertainment landscape in such a way that companies must keep tabs on the latest trends in competitive categories—not just on their own entertainment sectors..."

"We have this perception of hard-core gamers glued to their consoles, and immersed in virtual worlds, when in fact, they are still spending a lot of time with, and money on, music, movies, and other pastimes," Crupnick continues. "To be a winner in the entertainment wars, companies need to make sure they lead at every consumer touch point—from traditional retail to digital to wireless. In doing so, they stand a better chance of increasing their share of the time and money consumers choose to spend on their products."

Nostalgia for physical formats/record company digit-intractability aside, downloads might still be the way to go for any future music/game industry reacharounds, because if I could somehow get music to a video game console that also played DVDs I might not bother leaving the house for the two hours a day that I bother venturing into the sunlight as it is. Also are we ever gonna get a Mega Man game for the Wii or what?

Gamers Still Hot And Heavy For CDs, DVDs [Ars Technica]