Investing in the computer gaming industry

[rabbi45]

Originally Posted by Samanosuke_04

Yeah I heard about that too, there are certain company pays for gamers to play and win. Have you heard of championship gaming series? The team which enters the tournament are pretty well organised, with coach and some specialist, gaming industry is not one to be taken lightly... Also the most popular job for gamers is game tester, as being one of them gets you to play games even when it is unpublished yet!! I heard that IGN were hiring some.... Also this job is a bit tiring, I heard that gamers were given about a week to finish up the whole game!!

Yes. They are organized into teams and then everyday they got to play with each other to really familiarize well to the game. They just have to play everyday and they are paid for what they do.

[zapper]

Originally Posted by buaya

If you cannot start a company to develop games, you can also start a company that specalize in game commerce, like selling ingame items, ingame money, etc. This supporting industry is also profitable

Yes!. you sure could start a game commerce industry. But you must also realize that Trading of in-game items for real world items/cash, is illegal and might get your account banned in most games that managed to get popular over a long period.

[buaya]

Originally Posted by zapper

Yes!. you sure could start a game commerce industry. But you must also realize that Trading of in-game items for real world items/cash, is illegal and might get your account banned in most games that managed to get popular over a long period.

There are games where this trading is allowed. For example, Second life, Entropia Universe, etc.

There have been people who have profited from such activities and have turned it to real business. I would like to quote the example of Ailin Graef aka Anshe Chung. Her business is so successful that her turnover are in tens of thousand dollars(Not really much for a normal business but a lot for just playing a game). Her business decisions always have a major effect on the games 'economy'

As for myself, I am just a currently small time small fry in-game currency exchanger. But in the past four months I started my small business, I made like $200 dollars in profit. No big deal, some might say. I have to agree but as I put in little captial in it and do not spend much time with my this sideline, I can't ask for better return. At least it beats investing in some hyip that are ticking time bombs or the lastest rage, forex, which I never encourage people to do unless they are sure what the hell they are doing (It is still much the domain of banks and big companies. Retail trader are like drops in the ocean)

[neela]

I wold say if you cannot invest in gaming com0panies,then you can still also get returns if you invest in gaming hardware industry.with vista coming in these industries have tremendous potential.So we can get very good returns.

[Samanosuke_04]

well I also heard that people really makes money with in-game trading. Especially for the private server owners, they can take advantage of selling equipment with real money especially for MMORPG games!! Also, I heard that lots of private server owners get rich just by charging their members to play. Many people like private server as they're cheaper and has lots of rooms to join!! This can be a new opportunity for server owner rather than just selling hosting..

[buaya]

Originally Posted by neela

I wold say if you cannot invest in gaming com0panies,then you can still also get returns if you invest in gaming hardware industry.with vista coming in these industries have tremendous potential.So we can get very good returns.

The last time I heard, vista was not that popular among computer user and may still use windows xp. The computer memory maker got screwed and had to sell their stock of computer ram at long prices. Coupled with this, the mainstream gamers were so disappointed with the peformance of the first generation of directx10 card that those do not really have much budget avoid them, leaving the rich and the euthanstic to get those cards, which do not point to a really good sales figures. Of course, it is expected to change this year, when vista sp 1 comes out, more game companies coming up with dx 10games and hardware getting cheaper

Actually, it takes both hands to clap. The software and the hardware. The industry is full of gaming hardware which fell to obscurity due to lousy games and software. Like sega saturn, jaguar 64, nintendo 64, dreamcast, etc

[Samanosuke_04]

thats true, it needs perfection from both sides, the gaming console company such as Sony or Microsoft.. and the game developers side such as EA or square enix. Although this may seems a little bit of problem of achieving great works from both sides. But I'd say its a good thing cause there will be more opportunity to get a work such as in the field of software or hardware engineering. Indirectly, increase the potential of earning by investing in the gaming industry!!

[buaya]

Originally Posted by Samanosuke_04

thats true, it needs perfection from both sides, the gaming console company such as Sony or Microsoft.. and the game developers side such as EA or square enix. Although this may seems a little bit of problem of achieving great works from both sides. But I'd say its a good thing cause there will be more opportunity to get a work such as in the field of software or hardware engineering. Indirectly, increase the potential of earning by investing in the gaming industry!!

I can say that it is not easy to work in such industry. You must learn to love the software and hardware aspect of the stuff and have undeading passion for it. Not many people can even stand that, let alone love it as a lot of thing does not make sense to average joes.

And beside, in many situation, you are at mercy of ur boss and the marketing people. If the product sells, they take the credit. If it bombs, you are the first on the chopping board

[Goliath764]

Gaming industry is one of the industry that rise in rocket speed and currently is a big business around the world. I do, planned to be a game designer but that's my dream.

[italkcash]

Well as a game designer you sure get a lot of insight into how gaming companies are ran and how they operate with the financial aspects. Good luck with your dream job, and hopefully you can open your own company one day and give us kick ass games.