All eyes are on video games as the lone bright spot in a weak economy. So far, the industry is succeeding in delivering fun to otherwise shell-shocked consumers.
Sales of video game hardware and software appeared to be strong on Black Friday and over the holiday weekend, according to analyst Colin Sebastian at Lazard Capital Markets.
Sebastian said that initial checks indicated sales were strong at stores and that comparison-shopping engines Shopping.com and Pricegrabber.com show that video games were among the most sought-after gifts for the holidays.
Microsoft was the first to issue a press release among the Big Three console makers, saying that U.S. Xbox 360 console sales over the Black Friday weekend were on pace to beat previous years. It estimated Black Friday sales were about 25 percent above 2007 numbers and that the Xbox 360 outsold the PlayStation 3 by a three-to-one margin. Of course, analysts are expecting Nintendo to trounce Microsoft in consoles sold. Nintendo doesn’t have a Black Friday report ready yet.
Sony, meanwhile, thumped its chest back at Microsoft. Peter Dille, senior vice president of marketing and PlayStation Network at Sony, said in a statement that the company’s U.S. sales are up 90 percent year-to-date and that sales are on track for the company’s fiscal year which ends March 31, 2009.
Mass market retailers reported strong sales on Black Friday, but many analysts attributed that to deep discounting. Video game companies have bundled more games with each console, and Microsoft cut its console prices in September, but the industry hasn’t resorted to big discounts. In the game industry, the most expensive new games debut at $60, but there is always the danger that new games won’t sell well and that used games will surge. That isn’t the case right now, evidently.
Sebastian said that the hottest products over the holiday weekend were the Nintendo Wii and the Wii Fit game. Other top sellers were the Xbox 360 hardware bundle, Microsoft’s Gears of War 2 game, and Activision Blizzard’s Call of Duty: World at War. Sebastian said several titles seemed to be weaker than expected: Electronic Arts’ Need for Speed Undercover and Rock Band games, as well as Activision Blizzard’s Guitar Hero franchise. He attributed that to possible consumer boredom with those familiar franchises.
I can attest to the fact that Gears of War 2 lived up to the hype. I finished it last week and was quite delighted with the sequel to the 2006 original. Microsoft said it sold 2 million copies of that game on its first weekend after the Nov. 7 launch.
Microsoft said that Fable II and Lips (a sing-along game) also sold well. And it said that sales of Xbox 360 hardware have been strong worldwide since the company cut prices in September. Among the big titles that should push November U.S. sales of video games are Gears of War 2, EA’s Left For Dead, Sony’s LittleBigPlanet and Resistance 2, Activision Blizzard’s World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King, THQ’s WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2009, and Nintendo’s Pokemon Ranger: Shadows of Almia for the Nintendo DS handheld game player. NPD is expected to publish November game sales results on Dec. 11.
I guess they should rename the company Blizzard Activision. In any case, Activision Blizzard scored big time with the launch of World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King. Published by Activision Blizzard’s Blizzard Entertainment division, the online game expansion for WoW players sold 2.8 million copies in its first 24 hours.
That’s a big chunk of WoW’s 11 million subscribers, which suggests an unusually high enthusiasm for the game, nicknamed “Warcrack” because of its addictiveness. Activision Blizzard said this makes the expansion pack the fastest-selling PC game in history.
The previous record was set in January 2007, when Blizzard Entertainment launched the first WoW expansion, The Burning Crusade. The Wrath of the Lich King was launched simultaneously in North America, Europe, Chile, Argentina, and Russia on Nov. 13. Eight more countries launched by Nov. 18. More than 15,000 stores had midnight openings.
Online gaming hasn’t been measured well by market researchers who focus on retail sales. The monthly console game sales numbers from NPD don’t show this growing side of the game business. NPD’s periodic snapshots of the online gaming business show that it is growing at a healthy clip. The Lich King numbers suggest that game companies that create the marquee titles are going to have happy holidays, no matter how tough the economy.
Nintendo showed off both its strengths and weaknesses as a game company last week in San Francisco as it debuted its lineup for fall 2008 and games for next year.
Over two days, I saw games that I liked, including the wonderfully creative “Wii Music,” and games that I hated, like Activision Blizzard’s “Call of Duty: World at War” for the Wii. And then there were weird games, like “Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party,” which required me to steer with my butt. Here are my first impressions, based on spending a small amount of time with these games hands-on.
Like “Guitar Hero” and “Rock Band,” Wii Music basically lets you pretend you’re an air guitarist — with a little more diversity. You can strum a virtual violin by holding the Wii Nunchuk (an attachment to the Wii remote) up in the air as if you were cradling the neck of a violin. When you move your other hand (holding the regular remote) back and forth, the character on the screen mimics your movements and violin sounds emanate from the TV. You can do the same for drums, guitars, saxophones — a total of 60 instruments. The movements you make produce the expected sounds.
Wii Music is one of those games that doesn’t really keep score, so there’s no way to lose. That’s a big contrast to Guitar Hero, where you can “fail out” of a song if you don’t hit the right notes to match the playback of a song. The idea behind Nintendo’s game is to get everyone involved in music, from the youngest to the oldest, from the musically-inclined to those who have never picked up an instrument before.
I’m in that second camp. Never played an instrument in my life — at least not seriously. But I had no trouble jamming with the Nunchuk in my left hand, the Wii remote in my right, and the Wii Balance Board under my feet. I started with the snare drums and just started banging away. I tapped with my feet to play the bass drum and the hi-hat cymbal. It didn’t sound good, but I had fun just cutting loose and making a lot of noise at the same time. Read the rest of this entry »
The party is on for video game entrepreneurs. Big Fish Games just raised the bar for the industry by reeling in a huge venture round by video game standards.
The Seattle-based casual downloadable games company raised $83 million in a first round of financing from Balderton Capital, General Catalyst Partners, and Salmon River Capital. That’s the biggest round I can remember for a game company. The deal is the largest in the state of Washington this year, according to the National Venture Capital Association. That’s pretty impressive, given the state of the economy. But the game industry has proven resilient during the recession.
This will certainly prompt questions about whether games have hit a bubble peak. But Jeremy Lewis, chief executive of Big Fish, said in an interview that his company is profitable and its execution is solid. Big Fish reported $50.8 million in revenue last year and has grown revenues more than 100 percent a year in the past three years.
“Do I think the market is frothy?” Lewis said. “In some areas of online games, that may be true. I’m not an expert on that. But we don’t feel that is the case with our own company.”
But the surprising thing here is that Big Fish has a business model that is considered old and decrepit among the newest game startups. Big Fish uses the “try before you buy” downloadable games business model. You can download a game from Big Fish and play it for free. But after an hour, you have to decide whether you want to pay or move on to the next one.
Popular titles include “Mystery Case Files: Madame Fate,” “Build-a-lot 2: Town of the Year,” “Ranch Rush,” and “Azada: Ancient Magic.”
These days, ad-supported models supported by companies such as NeoEdge Networks or Mochi Media are more popular. Korean and Chinese online game companies have adopted a “free to play” model, where they monetize their games through sales of virtual goods. But Lewis said that the older model has served the company well.
Big Fish was founded by former Real Networks game executive Paul Thelen in 2002. It now has 310 people. And, no, they’re not in China or India. Big Fish has bucked the outsourcing trend as well, with all but four of its people in the Seattle area. More than 500 independent developers work with the company now, providing games that Big Fish distributes on its web site.
More than 1 million games are played every day and 50 percent of sales are overseas. The company is launching a version of its site in Japan and has expanded to various parts of Europe. There is no particular plan for the new funds, but Lewis said they give the company a very strong balance sheet. And although he said the company has no acquisition plans per se, Lewis said the company has the funds to acquire if it needs to. He looks at his big fat wallet as giving him “strategic flexibility.”
Prior to today, the company raised $8.7 million in angel funds — in two different tranches — in 2005. Growth has been strong thanks to the extended reach of broadband, a growing interest in casual games among all demographic groups, overseas expansion, and strong social networking.
Big Fish has tried to be a MySpace of games by creating reward programs for those who spread games in a viral fashion, sharing them with friends. After a year, players get rewards. And they can chat with each other in forums built into the site. The company has partnerships with Activision Blizzard, which publishes some of the company’s biggest hits in retail stores, and Nintendo, which recently published “Mystery Case Files: MillionHeir” for the Nintendo DS. Mystery Case Files was a big hit on Big Fish.
Rivals include casual game companies of all sorts, including Real Networks and Electronic Arts’ Pogo.com division. Compete.com shows that Pogo.com has far more unique visitors a month than Big Fish, while the traffic at Disney’s Club Penguin is equal to that of Big Fish.
Lewis said that the company continues to experiment with new business models, and he noted that more than half of the company’s staff is dedicated to research and development.
Paul Sams is the chief operating officer of Blizzard Entertainment. The Irvine, Calif.-based company is a division of Activision Blizzard, the newly created gaming powerhouse created from the $18 billion merger of Activision and Vivendi Games. Sams is one of the top executives responsible for making sure that Blizzard keeps pumping out hits like “World of Warcraft,” which has 10-million-plus paying subscribers.
VB: How many people do you have in Blizzard?
PS: It’s around 3,000 globally.
VB: Will Blizzard will still be left autonomous? And what’s critical about what should be left alone?
PS: From top to bottom. There is not one individual thing or person at Blizzard that is the magic ingredient. We have great people in all departments and regions. All product decisions should stay as they are. We are the only company in the world that has been as successful in all the markets where we participate. We have a global reach. Usually, [when people say they have a global reach, they] just mean they sell in Japan. But we’ve got product across Asia. No other company has been able to do that. We have built a global expertise that none of our other competitors have. It’s hard for them to gain that expertise because you have to start with products that consumers love. That’s why it’s important for Blizzard to continue to run its operations. The Activision leadership understands that. Our merger provides a broad portfolio, with Blizzard in PCs and online games, while Activision is strong in consoles. The combination makes us No. 1. Blizzard knows how to provide Blizzard experiences better than anyone else. The same goes for Activision games, like playing music games in the living room.
VB: But you are open to an exchange of ideas.
PS: Yes, we don’t care where the ideas come from. Just that they’re great. We won’t hesitate to exchange information on how things can be done better.
VB: Your games take a long time compared to the rivals, and your games wind up being better. You took six years on World of Warcraft, while NCSoft took six years on Tabula Rasa and they didn’t get anywhere near the same result.
PS: This may sound boastful. But I believe we have the very best game developers in the world. The key element is they have a recipe. They are the best at their craft, whether that’s programming, art, or sound. Also, we have a rule. We only hire gamers. The very best programmer on the planet could walk into our doors. If he or she isn’t a gamer, we’re not going to hire them. They won’t be right for us. We want people who play the games they are making to be part of the decision-making process. Something that is common among most other publishers is they sit in a big board room and they have a lot of people with button-down shirts, slacks, analyst reports, marketing people, sales people, and finance people. They sit in a room and talk about strategy. Those folks, who may not be gamers, will be making decisions on what the products will be. Then they tell the development team that the next great thing is to do a sailing online game. They can say that they think that sailing is an under-served market and the CEO is really passionate about sailing. The odds are there aren’t a lot of sailors on that development team. At Blizzard, the difference is that we ask the team what they want to make next. At Blizzard, it doesn’t matter what marketing says or what business development says. When you empower developers to make the game they want to play, you have a level of commitment that is unlike anything you are going to get from product concepts handed down from up high based on analyst reports and sales reports. Read the rest of this entry »
Simon Jeffery is the president of Sega of America. He joined the U.S. arm of the Japanese publisher, famous for games such as Sonic the Hedgehog, in 2005 to recruit U.S. and European game developers to work with Sega on both original games and to Westernize its portfolio. Before joining Sega, Jeffery was the president of LucasArts from 2000 to 2003. We spoke about how the Japanese company is doing at its “Westernization” strategy and its moves into new areas such as iPhone games and the Nintendo Wii.
VB: How is Sega doing?
SJ: We’re having a great year. We’re the No. 6 publisher in the U.S. year to date. We doubled our market share from a year ago. There has always been quite a gap in the top 5 market share. We’re in the 5 percent range now. That’s been extremely positive for us. We have great hopes for the rest of the year with Sonic coming on the Nintendo DS and Samba de Amigo for the Wii, we’re improving with quality as well.
VB: What got you to the better market share?
SJ: A lot of it is sales from our catalog. One thing we suffered from for a while was that we didn’t have catalog that turned over. That gives games more legs. We’ve had a lot of releases in the first part of the year, such as “Condemned 2,” “Viking,” “Sega Superstars Tennis.” They didn’t sell huge numbers but significant enough to increase our share. “Iron Man” and “The Incredible Hulk” have also done good numbers, thanks to the movies.
VB: How do you look at things like iPhone games and Facebook games?
SJ: The social networking area is challenging for game companies. As soon as EA focuses on Facebook, the kids will move on. Look at how fast MySpace came and went in the U.S. That space needs to mature. We will play in it but won’t over-invest. We have the No. 1 application on the iPhone. We made a bet early on and have a great relationship with Apple. We use that to our advantage. Super Monkey Ball is No. 1 and it’s an extremely high profit-margin business. It’s likely it will do a million units.
VB: Will the iPhone become a real game platform alongside the consoles?
SJ: I think the iPhone and all of the ones that copy it will absolutely be a new platform. We’re investing in a forward-looking mobile games group. The point isn’t just to get Sonic on as many handsets as possible. Direct consumer delivery is where it’s going, as Apple has proven. We’re in a really good position and see it as a viable platform.
VB: I assume you’re happy with the Nintendo Wii. Your “Mario and Sonics at the Olympics” has done very well.
SJ: We are very happy. Mario and Sonic will sell more than 7 million units by the end of the year. The Olympics will help. We are happy with our relationship with Nintendo. We’ve shown that we can be successful on their platform. Read the rest of this entry »
The original “StarCraft” is one of the most successful video games of all time. The sci-fi real-time strategy game debuted more than a decade ago and had sold more than nine million copies by spring of last year.
No doubt the sales would have been even bigger if the game had global distribution from the start. With years of experience in China behind it, the game publisher now looks like it will be aggressive about launching the game early in China.
Now the time is nigh for the sequel from the Blizzard Entertainment division of Activision Blizzard. The video game publisher announced today that NetEase.com will distribute “StarCraft II” for Blizzard Entertainment in China. NetEase.com will host the game on its online multiplayer game service. It has also licensed older Blizzard games including “Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos,” “Warcraft III: the Frozen Throne,” and the Battle.net technology behind Blizzard’s online games.
StarCraft II promises to be huge. It’s a game where a variety of players can square off against each other, playing one of several alien (or Earthling) races. The action is fast and furious. Like a chess game, you can either set up for a fast defense or a fast attack. But the players all make their moves simultaneously and the action plays out in real time. The scene pictured above (from Starcraft 2) is typical of the frenetic action of the game.
The two companies will set up Shanghai EaseNet Network Technology, a joint venture which will provide support for the operation of the games in China. It is interesting that Blizzard did not choose its current partner in China, The9, which operates the “World of Warcraft” online game. (Maybe the partial ownership of The9 by Activision Blizzard’s rival, Electronic Arts, has something to do with the choice of NetEase.com). Worldwide, WoW has more than 10 milion subscribers, but many of them are in China.
The NetEase.com deal will last three years with a one-year mutual renewal clause. This deal should prove critical in determining whether Starcraft 2 garners a bigger audience than the original. If Blizzard has chosen well, then it will grease the skids for yet another mega hit.
Dell tests digital music player — The computer maker stopped selling players in 2006 due to disappointing sales, but it has a new offering that could go on sale as early as September.
Job site Monster acquires search company Trovix for $72.5 million in cash — Monster says the acquisition should help it deliver more relevant search results for employers and job seekers. The Mountain View, Calif., Trovix, had raised $18.25 million in funding from 3i Group, Granite Ventures and U.S. Venture Partners. Forrester Research buys Jupiter Research for $23M — Forrester plans to incorporate Jupiter’s team into its marketing and strategy division. FBI warns of new Storm worm — The Storm worm is a dangerous botnet, so if you get an email entitled “FBI vs. Facebook,” don’t click on the link.
Mobile-chip maker ARM’s new licensee likely to be Apple — Apple’s acquisition of PA Semi earlier this year makes the deal seem more likely. As an ARM licensee, Apple would be able to tinker with ARM’s architecture and processor cores.
Intel working on third-generation Classmate PC — The latest version of the low-cost laptop, which is aimed at schoolchildren, could be available next month.
Omidyar Network backs nonprofit Endeavor – The VC firm from eBay founded Pierre Omidyar has committed up to $10 million to Endeavor, an organization that supports entrepreneurs focused on emerging markets
Activision Blizzard lets go of Bourne game license – The newly-merged game company dumped the license just a month after the release of the first game based on the popular film franchise. Are communication companies the new OPEC? — The answer is yes, argues Columbia Prof. Tim Wu, because bandwidth is becoming a precious commodity. Facebook chooses Intel servers – The Xeon 5400 processor-based servers will cover the social networking site’s hardware and software needs. Leading broadband provider offering stake to Western investors — International cable operator Liberty is one of the contenders for a 20 to 25 percent stake in Akado.
Are blogs to blame for Cuil backlash? — The harsh reaction was caused in large part by the tech media’s over-the-top hype of the search engine’s launch, Sarah Lacy says. She makes a strong case, but loses points for not including a Cuil-related pun her headline. (The company’s name is pronounced “cool,” so the comic possibilities are endless.) China to limit web access during the Olympic games — Apparently, the ability to access an uncensored version of the Internet wasn’t included in China’s promises to allow the foreign news media to “report freely” on the games.
SAN DIEGO, CA— The Comic-Con show is on the rise, with so many game companies showing up there to unveil new games that it is probably a contender to replace E3.
Over 150,000 fans flocked to downtown San Diego for Comic-Con less than a week after the E3 Media & Business Summit, which is undergoing a big makeover as we write. While E3 focused on a core group of journalists, Comic-Con International is an event squarely targeted at consumers. And not just any consumers, but those are the most likely to pre-order both mainstream and genre games, DVDs, and Blu-ray discs; order their “Dark Knight” tickets for the first midnight screening; and collect comic books, action figures and any type of merchandise associated with their favorite movies, TV shows, and games.
As Hollywood has learned over recent years, if you can win over the Comic-Con crowd, as Paramount Pictures did last year with the film “Iron Man,” you can just about guarantee a hit when the movie debuts. This year’s focus was on Warner Bros.’ upcoming comic-based movie, “Watchmen,” which also has a episodic (where gamers download and play one episode at a time, much like they watch one TV episode at a time) downloadable game in development with director Zack Snyder (“300”) on board. Come next March, this movie should replicate “Iron Man’s” success (the comic might be too cult for “Dark Knight” box office). It also could help episodic gaming take off on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The PC space has had success with this emerging form of interactive entertainment, but a popular Hollywood/comic license like “Watchmen” could get consumers used to buying and consuming games as they buy and consume TV shows.
Although E3 and Comic-Con were back-to-back this year, Comic-Con now receives the type of mainstream media coverage that the old E3 of two years ago once received. Game publishers who take part in the show will get all of the regular game coverage, as well as a lot of mass market coverage that the new E3 format no longer attracts. But perhaps most important, Comic-Con does what E for All hasn’t been able to achieve—it attracts 150,000 consumers with disposable incomes and many with blogs and puts the latest games in their hands. It’s this active group that can make or break a film, so they certainly have some say over games, as well. Hollywood has learned this, and it seems game publishers are learning, as well. Read the rest of this entry »
LOS ANGELES — I just came back from the “Rock Band 2″ party at the E3 video game show. Inside the Orpheum theater, The Who belted out 40-year-old songs to the delight of the crowd of game executives and journalists. The event was the most exciting so far in a dull conference that has proved, in most respects, to be a shadow of its former glory.
As lead singer Roger Daltrey exhorted the crowd to belt out words “It’s only teen age wasteland!” from “Baba O’Riley,” it occurred to me, like words flashing across a giant karaoke screen in front of my face, that music has made video games bigger than ever.
It’s an obvious trend, arguably one of the most significant forces driving video games into mainstream culture. It started a few years ago with “Guitar Hero” and is now a juggernaut force that is taking hold throughout the industry. The momentum behind this trend is growing, and continues to contribute to a broadening interest in video games. The Entertainment Software Association reports that 65 percent of American households now play video games, and of last year’s top 15 games, five were music games.
Sure, there are pulse-pounding shooting games like “Gears of War 2″ and “Resistance 2″ at E3. But it’s easier than ever to say that music has stolen the show. The halls of the Los Angeles convention center are ringing with music games from every major publisher. The Rock Band 2 game coming this fall is the joint product of Harmonix, MTV Games, and Electronic Arts. It will go up against Activision-Blizzard’s “Guitar Hero World Tour.” Both games involve players using faux instruments which make it easy for just about anyone to play a guitar or the drums in an effort to match the chords and beats of familiar songs, like those from The Who.
While Napster and the iPod have crushed CD sales, which were long ago surpassed by video game sales, the enjoyment of live or recorded music has never been more popular, as evidenced by shows such as “American Idol” and the record concert sell-outs of Disney artists Hannah Montana and The Jonas Brothers. With music-pirating rampant, the music industry has looked to license its music to game companies, who have a proven model for making old songs popular and introducing new artists in the games. Pete Townshend, the guitarist and singer for The Who, joked during the concert, “It’s all about merchandising, isn’t it? That’s why we’re here.”
In turn, music is a universal language and thus it’s an important way for game companies to get their games in front of kids, women, and non-gamers. Moreover, it allows game companies to charge more for their product. The original Guitar Hero, for instance, debuted in 2005 on the PlayStation 2 with a plastic guitar and it sold for $99, compared to the typical $50 price for games at the time. Last year the third version debuted and this year it even made it to the handheld Nintendo DS. Rock Band came with a guitar, microphone and drum set. It debuted last year on three different consoles at $169 (plus a modified version for the PS 2 at $99). You can download your favorite songs to play in the game; EA said more than 15 million songs have been downloaded. The game was so successful that Konami, a pioneer of music games, sued its creators for infringing on its musical controller-related patents.
The popularity of music games has propelled the industry forward in the midst of a recession. Sales are growing rapidly this year. Last year, U.S. game software sales were $9.5 billion; compare that to just $2.6 billion in 1996. And while violent games expose generation gaps between kids and parents, music games are getting every member of the family on the couch together. That fact was acknowledged by Rick Perry, the governor of Texas, who gave a keynote speech at E3.
At E3, the latest trend in music games materialized Monday morning as Microsoft joined the fray with a karaoke game dubbed “Lips,” where you sing into a motion-sensitive microphone. The singer Duffy (who the heck is she?) came to belt out one of her tunes in the game.
Then Microsoft dropped a big bomb on its rival Sony. It announced that Rock Band 2 would be an exclusive for the Xbox 360. Exclusives are a big deal for console makers, and the original Rock Band has sold millions of units worldwide. Shu Yoshida, head of worldwide game development at Sony, told me in an interview, “Rock Band hurt.” But he said the popularity of music games has driven Sony’s own SingStar series of music sing-along games. The trend is everywhere. Disney has been making games for the past few years based on licenses from its properties like “High School Musical.” The games haven’t been particularly good, but they have sold millions to gamers such as young girls. Sega, meanwhile, will make a game based on its “Samba de Amigo” music franchise for the Wii.
Activision-Blizzard spent 25 minutes of its Tuesday night press conference talking about Guitar Hero World Tour, which will allow players to record their own original music and share it with others. It is adding features to the game to make it a true simulation of performance music; at one point, the developer said that the synthesizer could make something like 85 unique sounds.
But Nintendo, whose Wii console is the most popular, might have had the best idea of the show. Taking note of the growing complexity of the “battle of the band” games, Nintendo has been developing Wii Music for several years in an attempt to make a completely accessible music game.
Cammie Dunaway, head of Nintendo’s U.S. sales and marketing, said that simplicity is the driving force behind the game, which is being spearheaded by Nintendo’s chief game designer, Shigeru Miyamoto. I tried it out. You basically can hold the Wii controller and wave it around in the air as if you were playing an instrument. I used it to play a violin and a set of steel drums. It really gives new meaning to the phrase “air guitar,” as the movements are wirelessly broadcast to the Wii and then transferred into the animated graphics on the screen. The music includes easy titles like “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star,” and there is no way for gamers to “fail out” of a song by hitting the wrong notes. I have never played a musical instrument seriously in my life. I enjoyed Rock Band and Guitar Hero, as did my kids. But we dropped those games fairly early, after the novelty wore off, because we just kept failing to get the chords right.
Nintendo has made a game that is much easier for the non-musician to enjoy. There is very little built-in competition in the Nintendo product and it is really more a tool for free-form play. It’s likely to appeal to young gamers, but Dunaway notes that Nintendo has done the best job at expanding gaming to new audiences. There are two distinct strategies. Rock Band and Guitar Hero are in a kind of arms race to add new songs and new features. Nintendo, which will debut Wii Music with a mere 50 songs, could very well make musicians out of the rest of us. And that could be one of the gaming industry’s biggest victories as it seeks to become an ubiquitous form of entertainment.
“Nintendo’s execution on this is amazing,” said Joseph Olin, president of the game developer group, the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences. “It is just what the market needs at this point to drive us toward new users who would never otherwise pick up a controller.”
All eyes are on video games as the lone bright spot in a weak economy. So far, the industry is succeeding in delivering fun to otherwise shell-shocked consumers.
