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

Electronic Gaming Business, May 5, 2004

News-o-matic

Whassup?: With its purchase of hardcore gamer and industry news wires GamerFeed and GameDaily, game download network Gigex re-launches itself as GameDaily.com. The site now aggregates all of Gigex's pieces, a recently launched consumer editorial site of reviews, previews, et. al., the GameDaily feed of company announcements, and demo/trailer/patch downloads.

So What?: GameDaily almost gets it right by offering a cleaner, quicker presentation than the overstuffed big boys of game content. The tight, short drive-by reviews from the recently installed editorial staff are the best feature here. Still lacking is tighter integration of the consumer editorial, industry news and downloads areas, which lack a consistent navigational structure across the pieces.

Whassup?: Children are now spending more time with video games than TV, according to Michigan State University research with 1,000 5th, 8th, 11th graders and college students. The 8th graders are the sweet spot of game activity, with boys playing 23 hours a week and girls playing 12 hours. Collegeage boys (16 hours) and 11th grade girls (6 hours) are the least frequent gamers for their genders. Competition with peers and against themselves are the core motivations to game, the research finds, and as the gamers age they prefer more social interaction.

So What?: Researchers say that while boys are clocking in twice as many game hours as girls, the gaming gender gap clearly is closing with this generation, and educators may even want to encourage this trend. Gaming is an important way that kids become acquainted and comfortable with the technology that will be so important to their adult careers, MSU professor Bradley Greenberg says. Rather than "slapping a bow on Pac Man," he recommends designing games that appeal to female cognitive strengths: matching, memory, and verbal skills.

Whassup?: SiliconValley.com ran a profile of new head of Microsoft Game Studios, Shane Kim, saying he may (or may not) be the bottom-line bean counter some are assuming. MS has cut internal game development staff from 1200 to 1000 since last year and decided to skip a season of its entire line of sports titles. Kim argues it is because more third parties are now developing for the Xbox and MS is focusing energy on the big hits.

So What?: As the article also notes, some developers are grumbling, despite Kim's claims, that MS is losing direction in expanding its games library. Indeed, several industry analysts also argue lately that Xbox simply needs more titles and cannot subsist on an too limited a selection even of top drawer titles like Halo and Splinter Cell. After all, wasn't that the Nintendo GameCube strategy?

Whassup?: Cablevision initiates the first subscription games service for interactive TV. The IO Games Variety Pack ($4.95/month) includes clones of Tetris and Mine Sweeper as well as simple word games, backgammon, etc. In the next few weeks a Casino module will add video poker, slots, and other Vegas faves. Cablevision claims over 1 million ITV customers, and that the service attracted subscribers in the first half hour it was available, despite no advance promotion and a 3 am launch.

So What?: ITV gaming is already proving to be one of the top revenue streams for cable providers in the UK and Europe (albeit with legal gambling), and it is poised to snatch a lot of casual gaming eyeballs away from console game publishers who never took the time to focus on this market. If ITV gaming evolves in the U.S. as it has elsewhere, then expect living room wars over who games on which devices on the family TV. Digital cable with rudimentary ITV is spreading very quickly, and interactive gaming could surprise everyone with the speed at which it becomes a fixture on low end set top boxes - especially surprising to all of the video game companies that missed this boat.

Whassup?: American Technology Research analyst P.J. McNealy projects that the recent Xbox price cut will help the platform sell about 275,000 units vs. 200,000 PS2s for April, the first time any competitor will have outsold Sony's war horse. If Sony hasn't already cut its PS2 pricing as you read this at E3, it almost certainly will soon. After Sony surprised every one recently in announcing that PS2 sales could dip by 30% this year, many financial analysts suggested that unless Sony cuts console pricing game sales will suffer this year.

So What?: Without a compelling new title soon, Xbox sales will back off as quickly as GameCube sales did. Clearly Sony is working hard to extend the usual price drop cycle for its own machine, as they also reassured publishers and the market recently the PS2 would still be relevant until 2010. All of which begs the question of how confident Sony is about hitting its timetable and/or a good price point for its enormously complex, still unseen PS3.

Whassup?: AT&T Wireless starts a new mobile games promotion, giving away five titles for a week's free use (each $1.99\mo thereafter). Titles include Jamdat Bowling, Who Wants to be a Millionaire (Cosmic Infinity), and Snood (THQ). Customers can get a free week of each title whenever they want. So What?: Mobile gaming needs more enticements like this to prime the pump on this platform by getting free games into people's hands. But $2 a month to play solitaire on a 2-inch screen? The telcos have to let go of this fantasy that people will pay for phone games they way they do for HBO.