The potential here is huge. See ComputerWorld article below. We just need to get a piece of this pie...
Jerry
The power of electronic
play
By Don Tapscott
05/24/99 Here's a straightforward message to
the electronic entertainment industry: If they
play their cards right, game creators could
end up driving the entire entertainment,
learning and IT industries.
The gaming companies will soon be so
sophisticated in key areas such as virtual
reality and collaborative computing that
expansion into nongaming software
development is the next logical step.
Consider how quickly the industry has grown.
This year, video game revenues will top $8
billion, $1 billion more than Hollywood box
office receipts. Another indicator: This year's
Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in Los
Angeles, which I spoke at, was huge. It
attracted about 50,000 attendees, and more
than 1,900 new products were showcased.
New state-of-the-art gaming units outpower
most desktop PCs. IBM just announced a $1
billion deal to put a customized 400-MHz
version of the PowerPC chip into Nintendo's
next player. The new Sony PlayStation 2 will
rival a Pentium III-equipped PC. And Sega's
new Dreamcast player, the hit of the show,
comes equipped with a 56K-bit modem to link
to the Net for less than $200.
Past innovations by the gaming industry in
graphic displays, animation, rendering,
multimedia and user controls have all made
their way into business applications. The
games on display at E3 provide a strong
indication of applications and features to be
found on tomorrow's corporate and education
desktops.
For example, Sony's road-racing simulator
Gran Turismo lets the user drive any one of
165 realistically depicted cars. The next
generation of the game will truly be a
multimedia automobile encyclopedia, with
highly accurate simulations of the cars'
performance, handling, engine sounds and
other characteristics.
Such technology will soon be ideally suited to
interactive learning. In a few years, marine
biology students may acquire much of their
education by going for computer-generated
interactive swims with dolphins, whales and
other sea life.
Corporate human resources departments will
love this technology because it will enable
low-cost, highly personalized employee
training. Programs will be delivered directly
to the desktop, and employees can learn at
their own pace.
The hottest product group at E3 was
Internet-based multiplayer games. Players
find them the most challenging and
rewarding. Some games can involve
thousands of players simultaneously, forcing
the users to divide into teams and share
information to survive. As those games
improve, gaming companies will develop new
techniques to help teams develop strategies,
reach consensus and coordinate their activity.
The most successful techniques will be quickly
adapted to collaborative software for business
use.
Nintendo or Sony as the next Microsoft? Why
not? Each has leading-edge technology and
hundreds of millions of fans willing to devote
countless hours to honing every innovation.
It could be an unbeatable combination.
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