Game over for television advertising?

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Television, that box in your living room or bedroom that not only connects to your chosen games console, but also transmits them fancy moving pictures – or television programmes as they’re also known. Now, while television is of course still a massive form of entertainment in many households throughout the world, publishers seem increasingly keen to move away from advertising their games on the box.

Why? Well, some just don’t see TV as that relevant to video game marketing anymore. Speaking to thealistdaily, THQ’s VP of core games Danny Bilson said;

“One of the bigger questions we have to ask ourselves is how important is television? How important is television to a core gamer on a non-television brand? So I think television has some relevance on WWE and UFC because I consider those TV brands. But our other stuff, I question it severely.”

“It’s incredibly expensive, and what I can do with two million dollars, which will buy a few TV spots on a big sporting event, what I can do in outdoor, or on the web, or direct-to-consumer is way more exciting.”

“You know where I want to market? I want to market on Xbox Live. I want to market on PSN… Television is a big question mark for me.”

Mr Bilson does appear to make a good point, why spend millions on a television ad which non-gamers will not be interested in, when you can spend much less on advertising the game online?

EA share a similar view, and senior VP and head of European publishing, Dr Jens Uwe Intat recently revealed that they also plan to spend less on advertising with the intention of investing the saved cash into games development.

“Part of it will go online, but most of it will actually be invested into making good games – despite the fact that a lot of marketing money is spent on a Call of Duty or FIFA, when we look at our research, most people actually buy a game because of a referral from a friend.

“So the product quality at the end of the day is still the dominant criterion,”

Online games communities are ever expanding and it’s likely that a gamer will see more adverts online than they would on television, or as EA point out, hear about a game from a friend via word of mouth or perhaps an internet forum.

The very nature of online advertising also means that it’s easy for smaller independent Games Developers, Games Designers and Games Artist & Animators to market their games. Of course, a Train2Game student is unlikely to have the millions needed to fund a high profile television campaign at this time!

So, what are your plans for advertising your first game? How will you market your first creation? And do you think online advertising will become superior to its television counterpart?

As usual, leave your thoughts here or on the Train2Game forum.

Nintendo President – ‘Slow sales due to lack of great software’

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The lack of quality games – not the global recession – is the main reason behind slow software sales. That’s according to Nintendo President Saturo Iwata who was speaking in an interview with Venture Beat.

“I cannot say that the recession has no effect on the sales of video games. My belief is we should not blame the bad economy for the cause of slow sales of video games. The slow sales must be due to the lack of great software that everyone wants to buy. We have not shown off the great attractions of whatever we are selling. This is not the problem of Nintendo alone, but the entire video game industry”

There are some in the games industry, Activision with their 20 million Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 sales, who may not necessarily agree with the Nintendo President that the Market is slowing. Nevertheless, Mr Saturo believes the games industry – which includes Games Designers, Games Developers and Games Artists & Animators – needs to innovate in order to keep us, the consumers, interested.

“Something that is really fresh can make our industry grow. The important thing we have to tackle is making attractive games and marketing them well toward the end of this year. I think the whole industry should be more cautious about how we act and how the general public perceives us.”

Basically, Mr Saturo is warning that the games industry shouldn’t become boring and repetitive. Producing video games is a creative industry after all and the Train2Game students have already demonstrated that they’re full of ideas, and are even working on their own games.

However, there does appear to be a prevalent theme within the industry where some developers do make very creative and interesting games, but then churn out numerous –perhaps better looking – sequels. This may be repetitive, but developers with a successful product are seemingly less likely to take risks with new ones. The Nintendo President also touches upon this during the interview with Venture Beat:

“I think the whole industry should be more cautious about how we act and how the general public perceives us. In the past, the formula was to make the computer graphics more gorgeous. It used to fit the taste of the majority of the gaming audience, but it doesn’t work so well in this day and age. It’s more difficult for us to come up with something new and different and show people how different we are. The whole industry has to recognize that.”

“Looking at the product line-ups this year, these titles might have been big hits three years ago. But now this year, they are not selling that much. In other words, people get tired of games more quickly than they did before.”

Naturally, with the upcoming release of the Nintendo 3DS, Mr Saturo believes that it’ll be the introduction of 3D games that will galvanise the industry.

“When you look at our 3D games concept, we recognize it will not be eternally appealing. However, it’s not a shallow concept that can be forgotten as a momentary fad.”

The Nintendo 3DS will be available in all “Major Markets” by April 2011.

So what do you think of the Nintendo President’s comments? As usual leave your views here or on the Train2Game forum.

iPhone 4G out today

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With the much anticipated iPhone 4G having been released today, we’ve had the seemingly usual scene of hundreds of Apple fans queuing up in order to get their hands on a shiny new product as soon as possible.

Seeing as the iPhone 4G is at the forefront of technological minds right now,  it makes sense to point Train2Game students in the direction of a previous blog: The iPhone 4G could provide a Train2Game student with their big break.

You can read it, I’m not going anywhere…

On the Train2Game forum, students reacted very positively to the iPhone 4G blog and many Games Developers, Games Designers and Games Artist and Animators do see it as a way into the industry.

So then, which one of you is going to produce the first one then?

Digital distribution – The Train2Game students best friend?

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Digital and pre-owned games constituted one third of the United States market last year, with US consumers spending over $4.5 billion dollars on them according to research by the NPD Group.

It wasn’t so long ago that discs, or cartridges, were the only way for the consumer to purchase a video game. But thanks to the wonders of the internet, it’s now so easy to buy games without even leaving the house.

Of course, there’s the standard online shopping which allows consumers to buy the latest Call of Duty or FIFA through just a few clicks, but even then they’ll have to wait a few days for the postman to deliver what they want. So the gamer might be happy about not having to leave the house – because let’s face it, if we can avoid moving we will – but less pleased about not instantly receiving the game.

Digital downloads almost entirely bypass this issue. When purchasing a game, then downloading it, the consumer doesn’t have to wait long at all before they can play it. Of course, Train2Game has previously examined the discs vs. digital debate, but over the weekend I saw for myself just how easy it is for us download games – games that we may have had no intention of actually buying in the first place!

I like to relax – if relaxing can be defined as bellowing instructions to teammates down a microphone – by playing Team Fortress 2. Now, in order to play Team Fortress 2 I need to log into Steam, Valve’s content delivery system. When I logged in, a special offer popped up saying the Mass Effect games were on offer over the weekend only, with a whopping 75% off the RRP. Having never played a Mass Effect game, and having heard how great they are, I decided to buy the first Mass Effect title for the grand total of £3.24. If I could have afforded to, I would have bought Mass Effect 2 for £12.99 too.

So, having signed into Steam to play Team Fortress 2, I find that I’ve parted with my hard earned cash and soon have a shiny digital copy of Mass Effect installed on my hard drive.

This is why digital downloads are ever-increasing their share of the consumer games market – it’s just so easy to download a game! The thought of buying Mass Effect hadn’t even crossed my mind before I logged into Steam on Sunday afternoon, but a few hours later the game had been added to my collection.

Of course, the knock down price played a massive part in my decision to make the purchase – which is probably why pre-owned games are doing so well too – but the fact is I parted with my cash and bought a game that is two years old through digital distribution.

Train2Game students should take heed of how powerful the digital market has become in recent years, and strive to take advantage of it. A Games Developer, Games Designer and Games Artist & Animator can get together and make a game yes, but ultimately in order to become successful in the industry their creations will have to sell. For Train2Game graduates just starting out in the industry, digital distribution would be by far the easiest way to do this, be it through a standard PC download, Steam, the PlayStation Network or Xbox Live.

There’s a consumer market out there, who with the right incentives will buy new games at the drop of a hat. What will you do to market yours? As usual, freel free to leave your comments here or on the Train2Game forum.

Nintendo’s E3

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Microsoft and Sony, I haven’t mentioned Nintendo? ‘Why?’ I hear you ask? But fear not, Train2Game hasn’t ignored you Nintendo fans, in fact my most excellent colleague Gabe has written a comprehensive round up of every Nintendo announcement on his own blog. Good ay?

As usual you can leave a comment – on his blog this time – or discuss it on the Train2Game Forum.