On their annual pilgrimage to the video game mecca, the Electronic Entertainment Expo, the 45,000 or so attendees likely will tap a smartphone or tablet along the way to play Angry Birds or other mobile games.
Microsoft Game Studios
A family plays ?Kinect Disney Adventures,? where players can fly on the Peter Pan Neverland ride.
Microsoft Game Studios A family plays ?Kinect Disney Adventures,? where players can fly on the Peter Pan Neverland ride.
But when the doors open for E3 at the Los Angeles Convention Center on Tuesday, all eyes will be on the new big-screen, high-definition ? and body-engaging ? games for console video game systems such as Sony?s PlayStation 3 and Microsoft?s Xbox 360.
This industry showcase comes as the dominance of games played with a console system and TV is under assault by new mobile and social gaming. A third of Americans have a smartphone capable of playing addictive games such as Angry Birds, according to Nielsen. Nearly 20% play social-network games such as CityVille and FarmVille, NPD Group says.
The rapid adoption rate of casual games now outpaces traditional console games, and U.S. spending is expected to exceed $3 billion this year, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers. With all these people playing Tiny Wings or the mobile app of the day, will stay-at-home console games be left in the dust?
Not likely. For starters, console games still dominate, while mobile and social online games are a fringe of the $25 billion game industry. And this year, spending on console games is expected to grow an estimated 5% or more.
Spending on all games ? console, PC, mobile and social ? already rivals the total spent on movies at the box office, on home video and online.
At E3, the top hardware makers ? Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony ? as well as such publishers as Activision and Electronic Arts are expected to announce strategies to make their systems and games more versatile and blur the lines between traditional and new forms.
?All those leading companies are very immersed in and excited by the growth we are seeing in the industry on other platforms,? says Michael Gallagher, president of the Entertainment Software Association, which owns the E3 show.
Hard-core hardware expected
Nintendo on Tuesday will unveil the successor to the Wii, which is expected to offer a high-definition display and, rumor has it, an iPad-like touch-screen.
The Wii sold 35 million in the U.S. and attracted new players, including families and older people.
But Nintendo was the last console system to add Netflix streaming and could gain from adding other TV and movie content. ?That is something Nintendo has been weak on,? says Pietro Macchiarella, research analyst at Parks Associates.
Having sold 55 million Xbox 360s worldwide and more than 10 million Kinect motion controllers for it, Microsoft will unveil titles that take advantage of the 7-month-old Kinect. Some are more ?experiences? than games, says Kudo Tsunoda, Microsoft?s Kinect creative director.
Among those to be announced Monday at a pre-E3 event are Kinect Disneyland Adventures, which lets you visit a virtual Disneyland; Kinect Star Wars, which allows you to swing a light saber and use The Force; and Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster, where you can hug Elmo.
First-time Xbox buyers have bought the majority of the Kinect-Xbox 360 bundles, and Microsoft hopes to sustain that momentum. ?We?re really making the experiences approachable, making them social and allowing (users) to play how they want,? Tsunoda says.
Microsoft began selling smaller downloadable games through its 35 million-member Xbox Live network, years before Apple?s iPhone and its App Store. The newest Xbox Live offering will be a Kinect-enabled version of iPhone hit Fruit Ninja.
Meanwhile, Sony will show off one of the year?s most-anticipated console games, the Indiana Jones-style PS3 adventure Uncharted 3: Drake?s Deception, coming Nov. 1 and playable in 3-D.
Sony also is doubling down on portable games. Its so-called Next Generation Portable system due in 2012 has social-network-friendly Wi-Fi and 3G connectivity. It also will boast a touch-screen and cameras that let you photograph yourself and, in the augmented reality game Reality Fighters, make your surroundings the backdrop for the game.
Top publisher Activision is expected to detail how the next iteration in the billion-dollar Call of Duty franchise, Modern Warfare 3, incorporates features of the planned Call of Duty Elite subscription service ? and perhaps shed light on its highly watched plans for a monthly fee for special features aimed at online players of Call of Duty.
While mobile and online social games are handy, developers of home console games promise a focus on fewer but bigger games.
?What we are trying to do is utilize those new technologies and new behaviors and those new devices as a way to amplify and supercharge our franchises and our core business,? says Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg.
Consoles growing, but for how long?
While attention has been on new mobile and online games, console gaming continues to grow. Video games are played in 72% of U.S. households, up from 68% two years ago, according to data that the Entertainment Software Association will release this week.
Contrary to the clich? of the teenage boy playing video games in the basement, the average video game player is 37 years old; the average buyer of computer and video games is 41, according to Ipsos MediaCT research for the group.
Women are 42% of gamers, up from 38% in 2007, while 29% of gamers are over the age of 50.
?Video games are making up an ever-increasing wedge of the overall entertainment pie for all Americans,? Gallagher says.
Newbies tend toward mobile and social games because they are less intimidating. That has led traditional publishers to test the casual waters.
Electronic Arts has created online and mobile games around its major sports franchises such as Madden NFL, FIFA and Tiger Woods PGA Tour, as well as console games such as Battlefield and Dragon Age. Activision has released iPhone versions of Guitar Hero and Call of Duty: Zombies (also on iPad).
Some developers say the writing is on the wall for console game makers. ?They are still trying to support a $40 to $60 price point for games when people can play games for free,? says Andy Eades of Relentless Software, which after spending seven years making Buzz trivia games for PlayStations now is working on an iPhone game, Quiz Climber.
Game developers now can sell a game for a small price and use microtransactions to make more money, Eades says.
?The Sony and the Nintendo business model has now been outpaced by Apple?s. I believe the actual console market is dying out and is going to be replaced with (smartphones) and smart TVs.?
Others see these forms co-existing. ?The elements of the industry that think (FarmVille publisher) Zynga and Angry Birds is the answer and that?s where all the money can be made are very misguided,? says Adam Sessler, co-host of G4?s X-Play daily TV show about video games. ?There?s no way to predict what is going to pop, and to just assume that Angry Birds 2 is going to be as successful as Angry Birds is misreading the market.?
As more people try casual games, console companies have a chance to woo them, says Jack Tretton, president of Sony Computer Entertainment America. ?If you are already a gamer and I have got to migrate you from a mobile device, to me that is a much easier transition ? than to migrate you into gaming when you have zero interest whatsoever.?
While Sony is developing a version of the action game Uncharted for its portable system, the 3-D-ready chapter being created for the PS3 is a full-fledged immersive experience. ?It?s up to the console manufacturers and software developers to really give people experiences that just can?t be done elsewhere,? Tretton says. ?I don?t think any consumer is going to play Uncharted 3 and confuse that with something that could or ever would be done on a smartphone.?
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Source: http://psnlog.com/2011/06/06/1766-taking-aim-at-game-consoles/
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