Video games gaining star power

[Mara]

Now that games have matured into a $11 billion business, topping movie box-office sales and siphoning television viewers, the lucrative and increasingly influential genre has attracted more star power than ever.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/fun.games/05/18/games.hollywood.ap/index.html

[Nova]

It is unfortunate that this will lead to more crappy titles based on movies.

[Terry Penrod]

.

Most of us game, traditional media entertainment, business, marketing and tech industry watchers have been discussing this trend for almost a decade now. It was inevitable from the moment that game technology first supported graphics and sound. The logical marriage of Hollywood and interactive games has always been a natural, as have all the obvious cross-marketing opportunities for merchandise and special third party promotions.

Cheers, Terry

.

[Kalbrecht]

Yep. Been happening for a while now, and it's a good thing.

The game industry is clearly maturing, and needs to extend its reach and levels of quality. Sure we'll have some duds in the next little while as the kinks get worked out of the system, but this can only be good for making gaming an accepted, popular pasttime and part of mainstream society.

[Nova]

Gaming becoming too mainstream is what I am worried about. Will companies eventually focus solely on trying to appeal to the masses? This could very well lead to a major decline in the quality of games, by our standards.

Maybe I'm just too pessimistic. Hopefully, us hardcore gamers (I can't stand the word, but it is appropriate in this case) won't get pushed aside.

[Jagndeke]

Focusing on the mainstream isn't necessarily a bad thing if your tastes run along those lines. I guess it just depends on what "mainstream" turns out to be. Mainstream generated revenues mean more dollars for development and "can" translate into better games. Time will tell, I suppose.

[Kalbrecht]

We already have "mainstream" games.

The Sims, for one is a mainstream game that has cameo'd on the Drew Carey show, made headlines, and is played by lots of people who don't otherwise relate to games. the same goes for games like Rollercoaster Tycoon, and games based on Disney properties, Barbie, even Mary-Kate and Ashley!

What we'll likely see is an increase in the production of mainstream games. Hopefully this will be accompanied by an increase in quality.

We will also likely see an increase in the alternative scene. Most likely that's where most of us 'hardcore' elitists will end up - similar to elitist moviegoers and so on. If it turns out anything like the movie industry there will be plenty of games to appeal to the more 'bleeding edge' hardcore gamer.

In addition - they know to listen to the market - and moviemakers have realised the ch-ching value of appealing to a generation who grew up with Spiderman, XMen etc. This should hopefully influence future projects - the interaction of an open beta allows for the market to really help with making a good game, far more than a movie's test audience. If it works out, it will mean good things for gamers.

Plus - the huge influence of things like E3 allow for a good degree of interaction between gamers/market and producers.

Fingers crossed, of course.

[Nova]

Well, let's hope you are right :):