According to NPD marketing research, consumers will spend equal to or even more money on entertainment this year than last year.  This is great news for the gaming industry in general – though I’d like to think that indies have even more chances now than ever to make a mark because people will still be searching for the greatest value for their money.

“Even in the face of a down economy, entertainment remains a popular spending category,” says NPD analyst Russ Crupnick.

“Most consumers say they’ll continue to purchase at least the same amount of many entertainment categories in the coming year.”

This makes me wonder if the bursting economy was just an excuse for the big-AAA gaming industry companies to “right-size” its projects because all signs show that the entertainment industry would not be affected by the economy. Well… Except for the massive “adjustment” the stock market made in the last few months. But even then, the creators of Grand Theft Auto IV who sold over 13 million copies, still took major losses, so why wouldn’t their stock fall in the open market?

I believe that the current models of business for the entertainment industry are unsustainable – not without a substantial increase in technology for the creation of game content or a completely different business model, such as fostering more downloadable content “episodes” of an established product.

The amount of effort it takes to create high-quality game content versus the payoff it makes is getting more and more marginal as technology increases and there is a significant shift to DLC and multiplayer experiences to create a “long tail” effect on keeping a game alive in the market and making money.

The other factor to consider is that the  NPD study seemed only to focus on the US market.  The world economy in general is in deeper trouble, and more than likely there will be a dramatic spike in piracy in the coming year.