I think this macro data is endlessly fascinating, much more fascinating than any single sales point.
This is a very interesting tidbit I found looking through an NPD macro research report. Apparently they got data from pretty much every first-party and third-party publisher regarding their R&D expenses....the total chart represents the entire USA video game industry including Japanese and European publishers...any publisher which has published games in the USA.
This is a logarithmic chart, so the diagonal straight lines represent a constant level of growth. Industry R&D expenditures grew almost exactly at 22.9% annually for 10 years, from 1998 to 2008, regardless of the point in the console cycle. After 2008 - which remember marked the peak of the Wii and music bubbles - there was actually a slight PULLBACK in R&D, which then completely flatlined through the present (Zero CAGR).
There has been no meaningful growth in industry R&D spending in seven years, and that's an incredibly powerful statement because it explains SO much, like why nowadays it's much harder for games to wow us graphically, why companies release fewer, increasingly-homogenized titles, and how they feel only slightly-upgraded from last gen.
It also completely contradicts the consensus view of R&D spending where the industry accelerates around console transitions, and then slows down after, allowing for a short period of margin expansion in the later years of console cycles.
In a way it's healthy for the industry because I don't believe video game companies can survive another budget leap past their current expenses. But what does that mean about video game graphics going forward if they refuse to budge like they've done for the past 6 years? Are we going to eternally remain disappointed with graphics now that it's at a plateau? Will people stop investing in the AAA scene once graphics stay the same for decades which will lead to a collapse leaving only indie games to fill in the gaps? What about the PC scene? Will there be any point to the latest and greatest PC gaming hardware once graphics hits its inevitable peak?
