Survey: Game pre-orders on the rise, strongly tied to sadness

This week Adobe published results from its recent survey of trends in the video game industry, and they include findings that suggest the video game pre-order business is growing year-over-year even as most people find the topic depressing.

Developers, especially those who work at big-budget studios, may appreciate learning that (according to Adobe) pre-orders of games are generating 33 percent more revenue year-over-year, and the number of pre-orders is up 24 percent in the same period. 

Yet popular opinion seems to be negative, as Adobe claims the most popular emotion associated with social media conversations about video game pre-orders is sadness. Joy is #2 on the spectrum, followed (oddly) by admiration.

Adobe culled these results from what it calls "consumer data comprising +4 billion global visits" to websites in various industries, as well as "20+ million engagements" on platforms like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

If you're curious about those results, you can check out Adobe's full "U.S. Gaming Trends 2015" report for more data on everything from E3 media trends to VR hype.