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The Video Game Industry
While the world-wide economy has been hit hard in several industries in 2009 and 2010, the video game market still was able to record it's best month ever in December 2009 with $5.53 billion in sales in the US alone. Revenue from video games has now exceeded the movie industry by a solid amount for the past several years. Competition for market share is cutthroat and the consumer demands ever more complexity and lifelike graphics and animation.
 As recent as March 2010, US software sales in the video game segment grew 10% over the same period in 2009 with 875 million dollars in total sales.
By 2018, the Bureau of Labor is estimating that careers in software development will rise by 29%. This bodes well for video game software programmers and the developers that work along side them. The artists and multimedia specialists segment is expected to grow nicely as well with a projected growth of 14% between now and 2018.
As for the opportunities themselves, there is a huge spectrum of video game related jobs. With the huge rise of iPhone/iPad video games along side the more hardcore gaming experiences found on the PS3, 360, and Wii, there are ample possibilities. From huge studios like Bungie or SCEA down to the smaller developer creating portable games on an app store for smart phones and tablet devices, the possibilities are there for the video game designer. The industry is also expecting a spike in video game sales with the future releases of Sony's and Microsoft's answer to the motion controls found on the Wii sometime in late 2010 or early 2011. Both Microsoft and Sony are expecting some serious growth in casual gaming as Sony Move and Kinect are released.
Make sure to also check out:
Video Game Design Schools
Animation Schools
Video Game Design Jobs
Texture Artist Jobs
AI in Video Games
Motion Capture
Storyboard
Animation Studio
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