Lehman Shock is Happening in Game Industry Now

Lehman Shock is Happening in Game Industry Now
	Well, Lehman Shock is happening in game industry now.
	What the hell...
	Lehman Shock is the financial crisis due to the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers on September 15, 2008.
	Totally irrelated.
	We know what's Lehman Shock. How is that related to game industy?
	The effect of Lehman Shock 2 years ago is coming out in game industry this year and the next. I want to talk about that.
	Why does the effect coming out now?
	Game development normally takes 2 years, so Lehman Shock 2 years ago would give impact to game industy now. Those projects undergoing 2 years ago had changed their plan to deal with the situation. But those projects started after that had been checked severely.
	What do you mean?
	Game development project could not pass the board and just could not start. That's why this year we've got less new games than years before.
	Any other effect?
	Even though some project could start, the budget had been cut. They needed to finish development in a shorter period with less staff, resulting low quality games. Well, the quality could still be bad even if they have a normal budget though.
	Recently the quality of many games are low, we know the reason now.
	As for staff, SQUARE ENIX fired 10% of their staff. BANDAI NAMCO GAMES had restoration too.
	We had talked about that.
	SQUARE ENIX fired staff even achieving good business result. They just used Lehman Shock as an excuse. As for BANDAI NAMCO GAMES, their result is really bad so they could only fire staff to survive.
	Oh...
	Restoration is not evil but at the end the quality can't improve. They just cut out too many staff, including talented staff. This is also due to Lehman Shock.
	And some companies collapsed too.
	Middle class developers had a tragedy. Even though they had received offer from big company 2 years ago, all job ended this year and can't continue. Not only Japan but oversea developers are facing the same problem too.
	Any point outside the maker's view?
	I notice one situation oversea.
	How is the situation?
	In North America market, only those big titles with big budget and great promotion sales good, hitting 10 million.
	Not related to Lehman Shock.
	The point is, only such big titles can make a living. All middle class games can't sell at all. In the past, Capcom's oversea-oriented games could sell some, but now the sales drop a lot. After Lehman Shock, customer can't afford to buy too many games, so they just buy big title only.
	Huh.
	Anyway, the effect of financial crisis 2 years ago finally shown its true nature in game industy now. This situation will continue till next year.