There has been war, depession, natural disasters, and poverty in the world. It effects many, but how does it effect gamers? How does minimum wage and the cost of living effect us? In many countries in the world the new generation systems are just too much. There are many variables to consider…food, rent, clothing, etc. and the luxuries we have are only dreams for other people. The graph below shows by country the minimum wage and monthly earnings in US dollars. This cost does NOT include food, housing, and clothes but shows how many games a person on average could get without these variables added.
Locations were chosen at random and as a brief explination the graph shows how many games a person could buy monthly not inluding food,housing, and clothing. The numbers were found at http://www.wikipedia.org and the money was transfered from their original currency to USD from the following: http://coinmill.com.
Some regions are well able to get the games they want and live life normally, but others are lacking in resources and can hardly pay for their living and food costs You have to think about the cost of living when looking at the graph because the money systems are all different. It does cost more to live in japan so all of their money isn’t just going to go to games. Considering some areas around Iraq and Iran are at war they probably don’t have time for things like gaming because they are in a crisis. With the way things are going on these new gen systems, if the prices go any higher people with the average income will not buy them. $600 for the PS3 was really pushing it and therefore the sales aren’t as good as they could be. There are a number reasons why people aren’t buying it but I would say cost is one of the major effects on sales. $100-$400 seems about right on average but any higher is really pushing it.
I wrote this for another blog I am apart of so if you want to see more interesting peices check out:
http://www.flashfried.net 
J-E-N-O-V-A's blog
Follow
RSS
Contact
That's a major omission, because rent and food costs in places like Japan are astronomical. Also, I noticed the NY/USA in the chart - which leads me to believe that NY was the only place included when calculating the USA stats. NY is by far, the most expensive place to live in this country; a gamer living in KC will have a lot more disposable income than someone from NY.
Also, the minimum wage varies greatly from state-to-state: for example, the MW in Florida is nearly 7 dollars an hour, while the MW in Kansas is 5.15 an hour. But, a gamer earning Minimum wage in Kansas would probably be able to buy more games because the cost of living in general is lower.
Also, gaming has always been too expensive for many poorer countries like Russia and India. For example: While most Americans and Japanese were playing with PlayStations; people in Brazil were still playing with Sega Master Systems and Mega Drives. The NES was popular in places like Russia long after the system died in this county because that was all they could afford (if even that).
I find it really odd, for some reason, that Australlia owns twice as many games as The United States.
Is this your first post? Congratumalations. See you in the Vent.
hmmm... I need to go to Iran.
Also keep coming to vent/stickam! I love all the sausages but it's nice to have some other udders around :P
I struggle with paying for games. Prices are different due to tax etc. Most 360 games are around £39.99 and C&C brand new was £42 (I was surpised). So that works out to around 65/75USD. A lot! My cost of living is a lot too.
£450 = rent
£100 = Food
£50 = Games allowence (I always overspend)
£70 = Travel
and if I go clubbing I would need minimum of £30 if it is a club in the same town as me. So much money!