Maybe it’s just me, but I cannot help but laugh when I hear about the entire entertainment industry blaming their own shortcomings on a single video game. I can imagine, however, a game as well conceived, as seemlessly produced, and as ingeniously marketed as Halo 3 has been, could be a real nighmare for any one of competing media giants.

As is true with so many other facets of American culture, the entertainment industry finds it easier to sit back and point a finger at someone else. Rather than examining the teams that drive their own development, licensing and marketing departments, they have opted to pile the blame on Bungies’s most recent success for their own shortsightedness and failures.

Halo 3 blamed for poor box office sales

Tuesday 16-Oct-2007 10:44 AM Ticket sales down a whopping 27 percent for first October weekend, film execs blame the Chief.

Film executives are blaming Halo 3 for lower than expected October Box Office numbers, which on the weekend of the 5th were down a whopping 27 percent from the same time last year.

Many film executives, reports Advertising Age, are convinced that punters stayed indoors to play Master Chief’s latest, which let’s not forget broke all box office records by making $170 million on its first day. It’s now gone on to sell well over $300 million.

I have read several articles about the lessons Bungie has taken from the highs and lows of the first two Halo releases. Rather that just pushing forward and releasing sub par games, they stepped back, re-evaluated their own performance, and adapted in order to fine tune their product. Those lessons learned and the subsequent changes that were made, all added up to a majestic game title release, and Bungie deserves every bit of the success that has come from all of their efforts.

Even Sony, who has been floundering, has accused Bungie of “cannibalizing” sales, although I don’t know how you can even think about throwing those kind of stones.

 

Analysts: September PS3 sales ‘dismal’

Reaction to NPD report finds industry watchers sullen about Sony’s console; Halo 3 accused of cannibalizing sales.

The biggest news to come out of the industry-tracking NPD Group’s September US retail sales figures yesterday was that Halo 3 sold 3.3 million copies and helped push Xbox 360 hardware sales in a big way. Today, a handful of industry analysts added a bit more shading to the story with their own interpretations of the numbers.

Jesse Divnich, analyst for the gaming-prediction market simExchange, accused Halo 3’s blockbuster sales of cannibalizing the market.

“The most curious result was that all other games severely underperformed the prediction market’s expectations, indicating that Halo 3 had a substantial negative effect on other major titles across the board,” Divnich said. “Games that were especially impacted were the Xbox 360 games Stranglehold, BioShock, and Madden NFL 08.”

Nothing is ever perfect, at least not at first. That is one of wonderful things of hand made products, and, yes video games are, in fact, hand made, movies too. Well made products, honest craftsmanship, and earnest work ethics are quickly becoming thing of the past. Bungie has proven with Halo 3 that hard work, honesty, and quality can indeed still pay off in the end. Media giants have exposed their hubris in their short sighted approach to the creative process, willingness to cut corners, and overall lack of quality.

All in all, I honestly think that the movers and shakers in the entertainment industry would be much better served looking closer to home for the real solutions to their own ego maniacal failures.