Data Filter: The News You Need in Easy-to-Swallow Gel Cap Form

Electronic Gaming Business, July 28, 2004

News-o-Matic

Whassup: The Microsoft Game Advisor launched in late June with substantial online promotion across gaming and other entertainment sites. Originally promised as part of the Windows XP gaming initiative from MS, the advisor lets users find games according to age and genre and then lets an online benchmark program determine whether his current PC can run the game well. Demos, trailers, screens, and printable specs are all attached to the titles as well as emailing the listing to someone else. Find it at www.windowsgaming.com. It boasts 170 games listed from three dozen publishers.

And So?: It's a great execution, but will people really come to the site to use it? Without a way of guiding people to it from every portal and company site, MS might as well toss it away. Publishers and game sites should be partnering with MS to make it ubiquitous, a pop-up at most gaming destinations. Moreover, game editorial sites would be well advised to construct some of their own content in such a well-organized, easily searchable manner. This could be a model for how to organize games-related content generally. It should also be in kiosks at most major retail outlets. Oddly, Microsoft is not thinking big enough here.

Whassup: Broadband ISPs remain slow to partner substantially with games providers and hardware makers to promote connected console play, despite all research showing that gaming is one of the key drivers of high speed access adoption, reports CNNMoney. Only small regional ISPs have experimented with deals like Seattle's Speakeasy service which offered a free Xbox to DSL customer agreeing to a longer term contract. Columnist Eric Hellweg quotes Speakeasy director of online gaming saying, "It was the most successful broadband promotion we ever had." Nevertheless, the major ISPs seem to have only casual relationships with the console side despite the 3 million or so already using connected consoles and the $226.4 million in revenue IDC expects from the platform by 2007.

And So?: ISPs like Comcast and AOL are focused on PC downloadables and the games-on-demand models, but these are not of great value to the mainstream game makers. Microsoft and Sony, as well as the major publishers, need to convince ISPs that connected consoles are more lucrative both in shared subscription revenue and cross-promotion. The cable/DSL ISPs have a tremendous promotion and billing engine game companies should covet, and many ISPs are also getting into the home network installation game, which could help sell consoles and install the connected boxes with less consumer pain. Meanwhile, networked game subscriptions offers the ISPs another premium channel of revenue. The game industry should be offering attractive deals to ISPs to get into their value chain. It will benefit both industries.

Whassup: A new survey from media company Carat and Maxim Magazine give the lie to the great flight of young men from TV. In a survey of 1,000 18-to-34-year old men, eight in ten said they would rather give up their video game console than their TV. The study found that the group are massive media consumers nonetheless, and that they multi-task feverishly. There is also a notable age split. Among 18-to-24-year-olds, 68% play video games, but only 51% of 25-to-34-year olds game.

And So?: Further evidence that industry claims of male flight from TV need to be tempered. But it is the age differential that should be of most concern. Despite the "aging gamer" model, this survey suggests that gaming becomes less important to older men or that they simply game less often, or that they just don't like to talk about it. As we have said before, the adult handheld model rests on the shaky assumption that the aging gamer really wants to play on the go.

Whassup: The new Sony Ericsson K500 cell phone will come bundled with a sample level of Gameloft's Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow. For Java 2.0. According to Gameloft, the original splinter Cell for Java 1.0 was downloaded 1 million times.

And So?: Distribution/merchandising remains the sore spot in mobile gaming. We need more game demo bundling with new phones, levels or trials loaded at the phone sales center. Ideally, we need more phones with SD memory cards that can come with game bundles bought at phone storss.

Whassup: According to a report in Hollywood Reporter on game music licensing, nearly 25% of Madden NFL owners buy or download one or the more of its 21 music tracks because they heard it in the game and 15% will buy or download an album because they heard one of its songs in the game.

And So?: While the game press was diverted by the price and timing war between ESPN NFL and Madden this year, a more important long term differentiator may be music. Sega also licensed songs into its title but claims that Madden is using much more mainstream music while it is aiming for the cutting edge, undiscovered bands. Whether music emerges as an important point of product differentiation bears watching.