Some General Articles
Irish Times FINANCE Friday, October 2, 1998
Computer games revenue catching up with cinema
By Karlin Lillington
Computer games: Computer games are not just big business.
Within the past year, they have become very big business
indeed. Revenues, at about $5.5 billion (£3.7 billion) in 1997, now
nearly total those of the film industry, at $5.7 billion.
Nonetheless, industry analysts estimate that game publishers
only reach about 15 per cent of their prospective audience of
children and adults. That elusive remaining 85 per cent, which
generally prefer to spend their entertainment budget on books,
films, television, videos, sports events - just about anything
besides dungeon and dragon adventures, virtual space conquest,
gory digital shoot-em-ups or just a quiet game of computerised
golf - are a crowd many developers would love to reach.
Who the 85 per cent are, why they don't play games, and how to
reach them, quickly became one of the major topics of debate at
an unusual three-day gamers "think tank" event held at the Banff
Centre for the Arts in Alberta, Canada. At the
government-supported arts and business centre set in some of
Canada's most magnificent scenery high in the Canadian
Rockies, some 35 leading game designers, digital theorists,
artists, writers and technologists were invited to ponder and
probe the current state of the gaming industry.
"The idea was to bring together people who normally don't ever
talk to each other, like game designers, theorists and writers,"
said Mr Josh Portway, an organiser of the weekend, and a game
designer, animator and artist who directs projects for musician
Peter Gabriel's Real World Multimedia near Bath.
From the first session of the first day, the challenges and
frustrations of defining and reaching a larger audience - even
reaching a receptive audience now distracted by a tidal wave of
gaming titles flooding the market - became a recurrent theme.
One problem, said many developers and game designers, is the
way in which games are marketed. "I actually hate even the
term 'game'," said Mr David Braben, managing director of game
company, Frontier Developments Ltd in Cambridge. In 1984, Mr
Braben co-created Elite, considered by gaming enthusiasts to be
a classic that spawned the entire space games genre. According
to Mr Braben, the word "game" alienates non-gaming converts.
Like many at the event, he sees games more broadly as
immersive environments, but dislikes that term as well.
Even dividing games into genres was seen by most participants
as problematical. For marketing purposes, the large
conglomerates which publish games like to slot games into
specific genres like "shooters", strategy games, adventure
games, role playing games (or RPGs), and simulations such as
golf and football. Gaming magazines generally classify games by
genre as well: "The readers seem to feel it's very helpful in
finding what they want," said Mr Johnny Wilson, editor of US
games magazine Computer Gaming World.
But Mr Braben feels an addiction to genres stymies creativity,
forcing games developers to produce clones of
already-successful games. "Publishers are reluctant to take on a
game if you can't, in one line, explain what that game is," he
says. "A lot of games have fallen between the stools."
Ironically, the games which challenge existing genres tend to be
those rare breakthrough products - the ones which sell to
non-gamers, cross age boundaries, and appeal to women, who
normally make up less than 5 per cent of a typical game's
audience. One developer cited popular games like Myst, Sim
City, and Tetris as those which went outside the typical market
and on to establish new genres.
Two forces are working to discourage innovation in the games
industry, according to the event's participants. First, like much of
the technology industry, games companies are consolidating. The
resultant behemoths want reliable hits. And second, the sheer
cost of creating and marketing technologically-demanding games
engenders a reluctance to experiment with new gaming forms.
According to Mr Stewart Kosoy, an executive games producer
at MGM Interactive in Los Angeles, on average it takes $2.5
million to design a game and another $2.5 to $3 million to market it.
He knows about the difficulties of pitching an unusual
genre-breaking game firsthand. After years of turning down
games, as a producer, which he thought were too risky, he now
has a decidedly different game in which the players take on the
roles of sharks, dolphins and whales. He demonstrated the game
to general approval but admitted that even he was getting a wary
response from potential publishers.
Yet he believes the game is a potential boundary-crosser which
will appeal to that hidden 85 per cent of the market. It was
created as a response to the question, "What is the nature of
play that appeals to the broader market?" he said.
Some game designers argued that the computer itself still
mediates against the kind of total immersion which might draw in
a wider gaming audience. "The screen's too flat and safe and the
mouse is too pathetic [as an interface]," argued Real World
Multimedia's Mr Portway.
In addition, he thinks many games have bloated into complicated
products which focus too much on the latest technologies and
befuddling sets of rules and constraints, rather than on sharp
gameplay. "The games I find interesting have a small set of rules
which blossom into all sorts of complexity," he said.
Designers like Mr Braben say they are committed, even within a
generally hostile publishing environment, to creating the games
which they hope will shatter definitions and convince the
non-gamers to become fans of sound cards, joysticks, keyboards
and screens.
But for now, it's still wait-and-see. With the Christmas buying
season approaching, traditionally a crucial, lucrative spending
period for the gaming industry, few prospective offerings already
heavily hyped in the gaming press seem set to try and push the
limits of existing genres, much less invent new ones.
Karlin Lillington is at karlin@indigo.ie
The Wall Street Journal Interactive Edition -- October 1, 1998
'Deer Hunter' Success Surprises
The Snobby Gaming Community
By DEAN TAKAHASHI
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Like all snobs, elitist gamers are quick to turn up their noses at mass-market
computer games. But SunStorm Interactive Inc., a small, closely held
computer-game publisher in Indianapolis, is forcing game designers to take
note.
"Deer Hunter," the company's new game, has sold more than one million
copies at $20 a pop and ranked No. 1 on PC Data Inc.'s top-selling-games
list for the week of Sept. 6-12. Even more surprising, most of the sales have
come from Wal-Mart Stores Inc., where shotgun sales ordinarily outnumber
computer sales.
"Game designers are dumbfounded at our success," says SunStorm's
29-year-old chief executive, Anthony Campiti. Indeed, many design houses
spend millions developing complex games with three-dimensional animation
and ear-popping sounds, but few produce a hit as SunStorm did, with only a
five-member team, three months, and $125,000.
'Misunderstanding of the Market'
"They have a complete misunderstanding of the market," Mr. Campiti says
of his peers. "They think everyone with a computer is just like them. That is
the problem with gaming companies. People want something simple that is
easy to get into."
Asked to create a realistic game for hunters,
Mr. Campiti turned to his 72-year-old
grandfather for advice. Rather than create a
game where players could bag a deer every
second, Mr. Campiti used "immersive" realism.
He made sure hunters could use binoculars to
peer through dense woods, track trails and wait
patiently for deer to move into rifle shot.
The slow pace might bore some gamers, but
John Levo, 82, veteran hunter from Santa
Rosa, Calif., says he doesn't mind the wait. It
usually takes him a whole hunting season to get
a deer. On the computer, it takes him 30 minutes.
The 'Bubba Factor'
Johnny Wilson, editor in chief of Computer Gaming World magazine in San
Francisco, says the lesson to be learned from "Deer Hunter" is "never
underestimate the Bubba factor."
Many Wal-Mart shoppers couldn't buy personal computers until prices
dropped below $1,000 and machines came with useful programs. That done,
now they are buying games, especially those such as "Deer Hunter," which
are sold next to hunting supplies. But many want games that are easy to
play.
Sophisticated games might seem more enthralling, but Mr. Campiti says they
can put off newcomers because they are hard to figure out and come with
thick instruction manuals. Few games appeal to both beginners and serious
gamers. The biggest success to date is "Myst," developed by Cyan Inc. and
published by Broderbund Software, a unit of Learning Co., which sold more
than five million units world-wide.
Mr. Campiti says he has gotten more than a few complaints from designers
who say their bosses are now ordering them to do low-budget knock-offs or
otherwise pursue mass market audiences.
But other designers admire Mr. Campiti's accomplishment. John Romero, a
veteran game designer at Ion Storm Inc., Dallas, and a champion of
elaborately designed games, hopes simpler games will expand the market for
gamers who will later trade up to more elaborate games such as his
"Daikatana," a 3-D adventure-shooter game that has 65 different monsters.
Perils of Elitism
Game designers ignore the mass market at their peril. Ron Chaimowitz,
CEO of publisher GT Interactive Software Corp. in New York, estimates
the hard-core gaming audience numbers several million compared with
about 30 million casual gamers.
Sony Corp. says its mass-market game "Jeopardy," a takeoff from the
popular television show, is one of the hottest online games at its Station
Web site. Hasbro Inc. has done well converting "Monopoly" titles and
other board games into computer games, and Mattel Inc. has scored
big with "Barbie" games.
Robert Kotick, CEO at Activision Inc., a Santa Monica, Calif., company that
also has a hunting-software division, notes "mass-market games are where
the growth is."
Wal-Mart buyer Robert Westmoreland figured that out when he saw
several bass-fishing games take off last year. He commissioned GT
Interactive executive Paul Rinde to blast out a "Deer Hunter" title within
three months to make the Christmas season. Mr. Rinde contacted Mr.
Campiti's company, which had created other titles such as computer
versions of board games for GT. At the time, Mr. Campiti acknowledges,
he was "ready to work for food."
Now, Mr. Campiti has expanded his team to 14. They just finished "Deer
Hunter 2." That game features 3-D animation and more elaborate features
than the original version. Mr. Campiti, who enjoys playing hard-core games,
eventually expects to set up a division to focus on more sophisticated games.
As other veteran game designers have learned, follow-up games have to be
more elaborate to stand out from the mass of copycat games using the
"Deer Hunter" name. But passionate hunters such as Mr. Levo are out
there waiting.
"I've filled up the trophy room five times over," he says. A new computer
user, Mr. Levo says during the past deer-hunting season, he bagged a deer
with two-point antlers. Playing "Deer Hunter," however, Mr. Levo notes
with pride, he "shot a 13-pointer."
The Wall Street Journal Interactive Edition -- September 24, 1998
For Sony and Nintendo, Name
Of the Game Is Kids Under 13
By DEAN TAKAHASHI
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Call it the battle for the sandbox.
In the fiercely competitive video-game business, Sony Corp. has muscled
past pioneer Nintendo Co. to take a 2-to-1 edge in selling game machines.
Among kids age 12 and under, however, Nintendo retains a huge base of
loyal fans.
Sony aims to change that, while Nintendo is equally determined to remain
the big kid in the playground. Both companies are directing massive
marketing and product development campaigns at the 12-and-under
market for the fall season.
"Nintendo is protecting its core market, and Sony is looking for new
territory to conquer," says David Ward, an analyst at DFC Intelligence, a
market researcher in San Diego.
Blockbuster Season
The fall season already was shaping up as a blockbuster, in part because
both companies have reduced the price of their game consoles to $129.95
from $149.95. Now Sony, which had emphasized sports and fighting
games for its PlayStation system, will go after younger buyers with
software that includes "Spyro the Dragon," "Sesame Street," "Rug Rats,"
and "A Bug's Life," based on the animated film coming out at Thanksgiving
from Pixar Animation Studios and Walt Disney Co. Much of Sony's $140
million U.S. ad campaign will be tailored to appeal to children.
"For the first time, we're expanding our marketing to target the young,"
said Andrew House, vice president of marketing at Sony's U.S. division,
Sony Computer Entertainment of America in Foster City, Calif. "We feel it
will be easier to extend the market down from an older age group than it
would be to go up from a young age group."
Sony had to prepare its game developers well in advance for the effort.
Germaine Gioia, vice president of marketing at "Rug Rats" publisher THQ
Inc. in Calabasas, Calif., said earlier games for teenagers had natural
appeal to 12-year-olds to 14-year-olds who aspired to be like their
elders. But he said his company had to design a game that could appeal to
much younger children.
"We had to balance the play so that an eight-year-old could get through a
level in 20 minutes," he said. "And we put things like mazes and golf games
into it where they could just sort of explore instead."
Nintendo is trying to throw sand in Sony's works with a campaign built
around Pokemon, which are furry little creatures that young gamers in
Japan have embraced as fanatically as the animated pets called
Tamagotchi. Pokemon has helped Nintendo hawk 11 million games for its
portable GameBoy machine, and inspired a cartoon series, a movie and a
toy line.
It isn't clear whether U.S. kids will automatically adopt Pokemon, but
Nintendo isn't waiting to find out. Next week, it will launch its U.S.
Pokemon game for the GameBoy. In November, Hasbro Inc. will release
a Pokemon toy line, and the restaurant chain KFC, a unit of Tricon
Global Restaurants Inc., will launch a nationwide Pokemon promotion.
Nintendo and its partners will spend $30 million on the advertising
campaign, it says.
Peter Main, executive vice president at Nintendo, says his company is
using its time-tested tactic of focusing attention on a few hits. In addition to
Pokemon, which will work on the original GameBoy and a new color
GameBoy device, Nintendo plans to protect its base on the Nintendo 64,
its latest video-game system, with "The Legend of Zelda: the Ocarina of
Time," a sequel to an earlier hit produced by Shigeru Miyamoto, a
near-legend among Nintendo game designers. The company plans to
throw an estimated $12 million in advertising behind the new Zelda title
alone.
Waiting List
Mr. Main says Nintendo already has a waiting list of 400,000 signed up
for the Pokemon game, surprising considering the GameBoy technology
was first launched in 1989, ages ago considering video-game systems
usually have to be replaced every five years.
Nintendo is being careful to avoid one public-relations disaster that
occurred last year. Hundreds of toddlers who watched a particular
episode of the Japanese version of the Pokemon cartoon were stricken
with seizures and fainting spells. The children apparently reacted to a
high-intensity strobe-light effect in that cartoon.
For the U.S. launch, the offending episode has been removed and others
have been screened to ensure they are safe for kids of all ages. "We like it
to be arresting," Mr. Main says. "But we aren't looking for that kind of
impact."
Sony will also have special promotional tie-ins with toy makers and
fast-food chains. But it will generally stick to its philosophy of spreading
its marketing efforts among a variety of games for multiple age groups,
allowing fans to determine which titles will take off, Mr. House said.
Sony will spend a large portion of its $140 million in advertising during the
fourth quarter, including $40 million on television ads that tout the "attitude
and coolness" of PlayStation games, Mr. House said.
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