It was big news last year in July when E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo) announced that they would no longer be hosting their behemoth gaming industry trade show. Like many others, we often looked forward to the costumed characters driving traffic to gaming booths to check out latest innovations and title launches. In many ways E3 was a 3-day event that mixed geeks, gamers, and huge entertainment companies together in their attempts to try and out-do one another in spiraling high-cost “booths” backed by a very professional and high-end conference series (in which Label Networks has presented in the past). However many industry insiders speculated that the show had just gotten too big and expensive and competitive for gaming companies to continue to be in, especially when balanced with its overall effectiveness. This was compounded by the fact that the launch of the top new gaming consoles didn’t do as well as planned last year, and so the show folded, sort of. What’s popped up in its place was last week’s E3 Media & Business Summit, hosted for insiders only, at the Le Merigot Hotel and Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, CA from July 11-13th.
Label Networks got an inside-view of what to expect from the world’s largest gaming companies:
Disney Interactive announced the launch of their new online community which will be included in all Disney Interactive Studios’ Nintendo DS games as of May, ’08 called DGamer. DGamer will link to the DGamer Channel on Disney.com. Disney also announced their next installment of video games including sequels Chronicles of Narnia: Princess Caspian and Spectrobes II.
Ubisoft launched an “Imagine” series of video games targeted for girls 6-14-year-olds. This may be a very good idea based on the growing marketplace of video games for girls as seen by the success of games such as The Sims. Ubisoft’s Imagine games will allow girls to explore their favorite hobbies and interests towards playing games that tap into their lifestyle. First launch is in October of this year with Nintendo DS system is Imagine Fashion Designer, Imagine Animal Doctor, Imagine Babyz, and Imagine Master Chef. In early ’08, Ubisoft will publish Imagine Figure Skater.
The two best games we believe will be Imagine Fashion Designer whereby players can become hip Manhattan designers creating their own clothing line and directing photos shoots. Imagine Figure Skater may be popular among younger girls as it takes on a Julliard school theme whereby the skater has to balance school work with training and friends.
Capcom showcased at the Summit their new exclusive game for Wii called Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros’ Treasure. It’s a puzzle adventure game that challenges players to play differently using the Wii remote. The game includes the character Zack who finds a talking skull that talks of Barbaros’ treasure. Zack has to help lift Barbaros’ curse to find the treasure. The winner gets the title as best pirate in the world. Expect the game to be introduced in October.
With the retro craze continuing to be an important component of youth culture not only in fashion, but also aspects of music and dance, we expect that Sega’s announcement of a Vintage Game Collection for Xbox Live Arcade may be a big hit, especially among females. The new old Sega collection will include Sonic the Hedgehog and an enhanced version of the arcade classic Golden Axe, which are out now. Coming soon will be Streets of Rage 2, Ecco the Dolphin, and Sonic the Hedgehog 2. Now on Xbox Live Arcade, these old classics may have a new life with online multi-player modes. As we’ve noted in our North American Youth Culture Studies, arcade games generally do better with females in terms of popularity, as well as older games in general. The Sega Vintage collection may just tap into this growing marketplace.
Konami will be releasing, yes, another sequel! The legendary horrors of Silent Hill will now be enhanced in Silent Hill 5 for Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. Silent Hill is among the top games when it comes to the horror franchise category and the 5 version will again offer up new excitement and fans of horror with haunting streets, fog-shrouded towns and landscapes in the town of Shepherd’s Glen. The cool thing about this game is the original soundtrack created by famous composer Akira Yamaoka.
Entertainment Arts (EA) is reaching outside of the box, literally, and pouring energy into mobile phone games and handheld devices like the Nintendo Wii. During the summit, they announced new titles such as Boogie, Skate, and Army of Two, plus new versions of games such as Medal of Honor and Need for Speed.
Finally, Activision announced that Guns N’ Roses guitar player, Slash, would be providing the soundtrack in Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, and also appear as a character in the video game. In addition, the game will feature the band’s “Welcome to the Jungle,” along with music from The Rolling Stones, Beastie Boys, Muse, and PearlJam. This crossover of using great music in the soundtrack of a video game, known as the “rhythm-action genre” is another application of collaboration in entertainment and should help boost sales—of course depending on the consumer target group, which in this case based on the music would most likely be attractive to males over 25-years-old.
In addition, Activision will be releasing Bee Movie Game based on the upcoming animated film from DreamWorks, Duty 4: Modern Warfare, EnemyTerritory: QUAKE Wars, Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, Spider-Man: Friend or Foe, and Tony Hawk’s Proving Ground. Out of this bunch, we anticipate that Tony Hawk’s Proving Ground will make up ground among female players as indicated by the high preferences among females for Tony Hawk titles in general.
For more information about Label Networks’ North American Youth Culture Study subscription package, including the video gaming section, email info@labelnetworks.com; (323) 630-4000.
