Make buying adult rated games and giving them to minors illegal. Simple as that. You do it with alcohol so why not violent video games ?
Analyst: Sandy Hook shooting won't impact game sales
By
Eddie Makuch, News Editor
Cowen's Doug Creutz says any impact from possible legislation or consumer backlash in wake of deadly Connecticut shooting would be "minor at most."
The shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. last week that left 20 children and six adults dead will not have a significant impact on game sales. That's according to Cowen & Company analyst Doug Creutz, who issued a note to investors today outlining the issues at hand.
Creutz said investors have expressed investment concerns regarding potential legislation that could arise from the deadly shooting, as well as fears over consumer backlash against games with depictions of violence. He said investors need not worry about the issues, as their impact is likely to be "minor at most."
"We have received many questions from investors about the potential impact of the recent tragedy in Newtown on our covered universe of video game publisher stocks," Creutz said. "While this is a difficult issue to address due to the intense emotions surrounding the incident, we have attempted to present a summary of the relevant facts herein."
Creutz pointed out that the Supreme Court's high-profile ruling last summer, which deemed the sale of violent video games to children a violation of the First Amendment, would make it difficult for any potential new legislation to ever be enforced.
"We believe that any new attempts to regulate video game sales would be quickly struck down by the courts based on this precedent," Creutz said.
Just this week, West Virginia senator Jay Rockefeller introduced a bill to Congress that would direct the National Academy of Sciences to investigate how violent games and other such programming affect children.
The analyst also suggested that most adults already have "entrenched opinions" about the links between violence in games and violence in the real world, and these are unlikely to be changed by recent events like the Connecticut shooting.
"While these concerns are understandable--particularly given the currently emotionally charged environment--we think video game shares are now pricing in much more risk to their business models than actually exists," Creutz said in a statement. "As a result, we think the group now generally represents a buying opportunity ahead of what should be a strong year for the industry in 2013 due to a loaded first half release slate and the likely launch of new Microsoft and Sony game consoles in the back half of the year."
What's more, Creutz said retailer checks with Amazon show that shooter games like Call of Duty: Black Ops II and Halo 4 have continued to sell "very well" in the wake of the shooting.
By
Eddie Makuch, News Editor
Eddie Makuch (Mack-ooh) is a News Editor at GameSpot. He works out of the company's Boston office in Somerville, Mass., and loves extra chunky peanut butter.
88 comments
1 Like I'm sane and I own guns.. I guess that makes me an insane, killer according to the government.
I feel bad for the children, not terrible, though. This happens every day around the world and everyone acts so sad for this one incident. The way the world is today...
Well duh! We sane and rational people understand that murdering other people is wrong and video games aren't real!
Damm talk about being a hypocrite. you call this a tragedy? yh it's sad but there rlly blowing this out of proportion. See this every day on the news while in Syria with the civil war the death total is more than 40000 or 50000 wich include more than 500 children. Don't see any of that on TV...
The sale of violent video games, a violation of the First Amendement. Then why wasn't I going around when I was 13 buying X rated movies all the time?
Games dont corrupt or inicte peope to bad things they are evil how they been raised makes them evil,
1 Like Unfortunatly sales deturmines if new games get made or not, so it is a distasteful part of the industry but also a nessasary part.
Interesting considering that years ago, like the Columbine shooting, they used to blame games and even modders for stuff like this!
1 Like @91210user It's all about guns this time. Especially assault guns. And the shooter seemed to have had mental health problems. Games are usually blamed when they got nothing else to blame it on.
The Sandy Hook tragedy wasn't game related, it's strange how lawmakers and media types are now speaking up on the matter as if we are all dumb sheep and can't see the correlation the media are pushing into everyone's faces.
It's absurd to think that these kinds of tactics probably do work.
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4 Like This article is pointless and it's rather distasteful overall, but the people saying that "HOW CAN YOU WORRY ABOUT MONEY!?!?!" are idiots.
Look, what happened was terrible, no one here is arguing that, but the fact of the matter is this: The world is going to go on, with or without those people, as hard as it may be for some people to accept, and people, massacre or no massacre, have to worry about how they're going to survive in the world, and guess what: Money is a REALLY helpful way to do so.
What happened was a tragedy, and it should be given respect, but you CANNOT blame people who depend on game sales to worry about... Well, game sells, they depend on it(They might have families too). It's how the world is, simple as that.
Also, people die all the time, the world isn't stopping for them, why would it now?
1 Like @cfstar Nobody expects to world to stop, or blames the analyst for doing his job. The fault is with the journalist that is reporting a story that is highly disrespectful.
I don't appreciate coming to my favorite gaming website and seeing tabloid like coverage of a terrible event.
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@nurnberg @cfstar And you know nothing about me. By your logic you're nothing more but a typical self-righteous bully and a douchebag, You accuse me of the things you couldn't possibly know. You made that up in your self-righteous mind.
You are doing exactly the same thing, just from a different perspective.
1 Like @nurnberg @cfstar First, just because you have a different set of morals and considering sales & profit over the respect for the lost lives of children doesn't mean there is nothing distasteful about the articles.Second, tabloid journalists do their jobs as well, doesn't mean I like it.
Third, there are thing that should be reported on, and things that shouldn't be. Scientific studies have shown that reporting on such killings will in a lot of cases cause 1-3 similar events in the coming weeks. Experts suggested multiple times not to report extensively on such events, especially not to dramatize it by listing amount of people killed, and showing intense images, both of which this article does.
Fourth, I don't see why do you even need to involve yourself in this. If you care about the article, comment on it, not on us who dislike it.
3 Like While I do find this distasteful as a news article, it IS news and it IS related to gaming. This is Gamespot, a gaming website after all. People here are taking this too much to heart I think. If anyone should be offended here, its me, since I know people that knew who the shooter was. Living 3 miles away from the incident and all...
But hey, guess what? This doesn't offend me. My only concern is our government using this tragedy to further their own agenda and enforce pointless (and I'll go as far as saying dangerous) gun restrictions, as well as more censorship in violent games.
Wow, how distatseful can you be!? Horrible tragedy occurs, so let's talk about your shitty video game future earning projections. Booo, bad taste everyone concerned in this "news"!
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1 Like @nurnberg Not the point. Belittling a tragedy where children were killed by a lunatic for media exposure does no one any good. Of course your avatar pic says it all...internet tough-guy.
shift blame on video games instead of the real issue which is gun control we need it but the NRA don't want you to know that they need to sale more guns for that $ & on another note the NRA calls for armed police officers in every school you know what kind of disaster that will be think about it. its about money if these gun manufacturers make an extra buck off our kids & family getting killed then so be it sick what they're doing sad people don't see that way.
Wow for a minute there, when I saw the Article on Sandy Hook, I thought Gamespot were going to ask us not to play any FPS games for 24 Hours [CeaseFire one day online] and even if it did, this won't make any difference and there is o% if this way Video game releated to the Shooting.
3 Like We have the right to play video games and shoot guns. As civilized people we're supposed to know the Difference between right and wrong.
6 Like Another pathetic web trawling article from Makuch. Regurgitating other peoples press releases and shitty stories does not make you a news editor. At a time when a bright light shines on standards of games journalism Gamespot.COM have really taken a turn in the wrong direction. The Gamespot sites in the UK and Australia are leading the way with actual self produced journalism and opinion. Page hits at all costs is not legitimite journalism.This piece is crass and misplaced, it does not belong on this site and I find the inclusion of the picture wholly inappropriate.
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@nurnberg The news shouldn't be censored. I agree with you on that part. But everyone who disagrees with you is not a crybaby. They're just disturbed by the fact that some people care about more about money than the dead kids. Of course that's wrong. I'm sure that the analyst and Eddie are sad about the kids. But they're just doing their jobs.
1 Like @nippals "Regurgitating other peoples press releases and shitty stories does not make you a news editor". Well said.
3 Like Creutz is an analyst whose job it is is to calm investors in a volatile market. He is doing his job. Why Gamespot decided to post about this makes no sense.
2 Like This is insane...These people have to stop with the video game and gun BULL...It wasn't the games and it wasn't the guns that did this. It was the lunatic that played the game and stole the guns. There are an estimated 3 million AR 15's privately owned in the US. The numbers don't add up... More people die every year from drunken driving then shootings. Take away the cars??? Wake up people! Stop looking at the guns and video games...It's a poor excuse for what the real problem is. Start looking at the people with all the issues and help them.
The whole thing is stupid anyway. If a parent wants their kids to play those kinds of games, nothing's gonna stop them!
5 Like Highly inappropriate. So many deaths and you're concerned about sales & profits that could be affected by the tragedy?
I can understand that, people still go about their lives, but there's no need to write about it publicly.
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2 Like This article makes me sick. I bet if Mr. Creutz's child was involved in this, the article would have never been written. The fact that he has the audacity to speak about this tragedy in such a way is disgusting.
4 Like @sjawz3288 Creutz sent an internal memo to investors. Eddie Makuch is the one who wrote about it.
@Brishon1 @sjawz3288 I think describing Makuchs copying + pasting of other peoples articles "writing about it" is a bit too generous in my opinion.
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@Suikogaiden Stop being a crybaby! If news make you cry and lose sleep at night, maybe they are not for you. For the rest of us who want to be informed, they are fine. Nobody forced you to read this article. By the way, you are gaining nothing with your self-righteous moral lessons.
@Suikogaiden Eddie is just doing his job dude. For all we know, he found this offensive too. But his bosses told him to write about it, so he did. Are you quitting your job because of this tragedy? Probably not. If anyone is to blame for this distasteful news, it's Creutz. Sandy Hook was indeed horrific, it'll be remembered here where I live for decades, when the rest of the world will forget about it months from now. But people have jobs and their own lives, and need to move on.
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1 Like @Suikogaiden Like I said, the blame isn't on Makuch, hell, you can't even blame Cruetz. They have their superiors telling them what to do. Yea, it happened last Friday, and I remember how I found out...
My mother's coworkers' best friend had a kid that went to Sandy Hook, and sure enough, her son was one of the 20 that were gunned down. It was horrifying to hear that, and I'll never forget it. So don't question my maturity, when this incident hit me probably closer than anyone else here.
I see this news as rationally and logically as possible, people have jobs to do and has nothing to do with people not being sympathetic to the tragedy.
2 Like @Suikogaiden Stop trying to be so damn righteous. IIts just an analysis. Sure school shootings are horrible but that shouldnt make them taboo.
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1 Like @Suikogaiden Im talking about faking acutal emotional investment. Im not talking about feeling disturbed.
I think most people feel disturbed by it which is quite normal. But you're evading my questions nicely i see.
1 Like @Suikogaiden Do you cry yourself to sleep at night? probably not
Do you feel depressed and helpless? probably not.
In my opinion its disrespectful to the ACTUAL victims (the familiy/friends of those involved) to pretend emotional investment by inventing fake taboos that'll help absolutly nobody.
3 Like Im by defintion against taboos. The kids wont come back to life because we have a month of fake 'silence of respect'
None but those who were part of the tragedy truely understood the horror of it. I object to people faking to really care just because its what is required of us.
I have huge amounts of respect for this subject - but the analyst isnt monetizing the tragedy. He is merely analyzing the situation - and his analysis is quite relevant since alot of people wrongly blame video games for the tragedy.
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