Gaming market suffering big time; EA stocks down from 50 to 15

I always thought the video gaming industry would not suffer much from these economic down times. Regardless of what the banks, oil and car industries are facing, I thought paying $60 a month for a game or $40 for unlimited rental for a month was a small manageable expense. I guess i was wrong. Apparently the fear for a failing market has bleed into the gaming industry as well. The following is the stock price of Electronic Arts during the course of the past year – courtesy of Marketwatch.com:

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Usually gaming stocks jump up and down by as much as 10 points every quarter, but the stay consistent and only during major breakthroughs do they climb real high. This however, is a bloody nose dive.

At first i thought well, the months of sept. to nov. are slow months for video games, because people are saving up for the holidays. And i believed the success of Warhammer and Little Big Planet might keep peoples faith in the industry over time. Apparently not when EA stocks steadily fell from 50 to 15. I guess investors, who are feeling their pockets getting lighter are just pulling out without of the market before they lose everything. Or maybe its something else. I dunno? What do you all think?

Electronic Arts tries to reach younger women through TV

Electronic Arts apparently hired the founder of Oxygen Channel, Geraldine Laybourne, to their board so they can look into the young women market. The full story is right here.

What the hell EA? Us men not good enough for ya? I have no problems with girls playing video games (rare though it may be) but if this leads to a game about Paris Hilton, I am boycotting EA for life. And probably kidnap all the board members and do to them what Sega did to the Golden Axe series with latest release of Beast Rider.

I understand EA is feeling the pinch right now with all the layoffs and shutting down offices, but i have seen what is on Oxygen and dear God that is not what video gaming culture is about. Video gaming culture is about bragging rights, trash talking and bowing down to the all-mighty out of respect and then trash talking behind their back. It’s nasty, it’s humorous, it’s insane and it creates an unusual bondship with random screen name like BigChief101. It’s about escaping reality and not being obsessed with it, although i must some of the shows on Oxygen are pretty darn delusional to me for instance the show Coolio’s Rule . I refuse to put up a picture of that mistake-of-god on my blog and disturb the sanctity of this sacred zone. Seriously, WTF. I mean imagine a game with that dumbass as a side character or even has a line in it.

I don’t know how Ms Laybourne will pull this off, but if she can actually get a lot more girls interested in blowing stuff up, impaling hairy monsters on mighty swords, screaming wildly at the sight on dominance and then splurging in a gore of pawnage, then my hats are off to her.