Mobile, Digital Gamer Segments Growing, While Core Share Shrinks

The NPD Group reported in the “Gamer Segmentation 2012: The New Faces of Gamers” study that there are 211.5 million gamers in the U.S, a 5 percent decline (close to 12 million gamers) when compared to 2011. Of the six gamer segments in the report, only Mobile Gamers and Digital Gamers saw increases in the number of gamers when compared to 2011, with Mobile Gamers up 9 percentage points to 22 percent and Digital Gamers up 4 percentage points to 16 percent, compared to Core Gamers, Family+Kid Gamers, Light PC Gamers, and Avid PC Gamers that were all down over 2011.

“Given the long lifecycles of the current consoles and the increasing installed base of smartphones and tablets, it’s not surprising to see a slight decline in the Core Gamer segment,” said Anita Frazier, industry analyst, The NPD Group. “It’s the revenue contribution of the Core Gamer segment that continues to outpace all other segments, and remains vital to the future of the industry.”

Game purchasers reported spending an average of $48 on physical games and $16 on digital games-PC/console/portable in the past three months, while Core Gamers spent $65 on physical games over the same time period; this is more than any other gamer segment. Close to 14 percent of total gamers report that they purchased microtransactions/additional game content in the past three months compared to 11 percent during the same time period in 2011 – Core Gamers and Digital Gamers are the largest consumers of these types of purchases at 27 percent and 23 percent, respectively.

Mobile Gamers are now the largest gamer segment, edging out Core Gamers, which was the largest segment in 2011. “While this study segments the gaming audience based on a number of key variables and attributes, looking across the total gaming audience we see a tremendous impact from mobile gaming, particularly on smartphones and tablets,” said Frazier. “Because of this, our next study, which will be released later this month, takes a deeper look into the area of mobile gaming.”

 

GameStop CEO Shows Interest In Ouya

The Ouya console is being positioned as a more indie friendly console, with its emphasis on open source software. While it’s all well and good to have support of homebrew developers, it must be encouraging that the largest dedicated game retailer in the U.S., GameStop, has announced interest in the device.

“We will be a part of any console launch in the future,” said GameStop CEO Paul Raines. “We think Ouya’s cool. We love the idea of open-source components. Everything we’ve read is great.”

“There will be games developed for that stuff. So you’re going to see more of these open source type products, and we will be right in the middle of all of it,” said Raines, noting support by Robotoki, Square Enix and Namco Bandai.

Source: Joystiq

 

God Of War Script Will See Kratos More Grounded

Marcus Dunstan and Patrick Melton has as a duo worked on films like Saw IV, the Feast trilogy and Piranha 3DD, and are now giving a workover to a God of War script from a screenwriter who also did Road to Perdition. Now they’re reworking the script for God of War, and were very direct as to the reason it needed changes.

“The only problem with that is it was written before Clash of the Titans, Wrath of the Titans, 300 and Immortals, and those movies borrowed quite a bit from the God of War stories. It was just a little bit outdated, so we wanted to differentiate it from those other movies,” said Dunstan. “In the same way that Batman was grounded with Christopher Nolan’s rendition, we were attempting to do that with Kratos so that when we meet him — like they’re doing in this newest game, which is sort of a prequel to the original — we’re seeing him before he became the Ghost of Sparta, when he was just a Spartan warrior and he had family and kids.”

“In the game . . . there’s that attack from the barbarians and Kratos has to call upon Ares to help him. Really, that’s going to be our first act break. Before then, he’s going to be mortal, and he’s going to have his family. We’re going to learn about him and understand how he operates,” he added. “So it’s potentially 30 minutes — give or take — of building up this character so that, when he does turn and becomes the Ghost of Sparta, we understand him as a human and we understand the journey that he’s going to take. We’re emotionally invested, so that it could go beyond just this one movie.”

Source: IGN

 

Madden NFL 13 Posts Best Series Sales Of This Generation

Electronic Arts announced that Madden NFL 13 has sold 1.65 million during the title’s first week, up eight percent jump on the HD platforms over last year and the most positive sales of the franchise this console generation. EA also said that there were over 24 million contests recorded, a 31 percent increase in the number of online games played compared to last year, and Daily Average User (DAU) rates on HD consoles increased 14 percent over last year.

“We’re thrilled to see the great momentum continuing on Madden NFL 13,” said Andrew Wilson, Executive Vice President of EA Sports. “The overwhelming feedback is that this is the best Madden NFL game in a generation. Fans are competing in record numbers, and we expect that type of engagement to only grow with the start of the NFL regular season last night, as fans connect with their favorite teams and players through our game.”

“We have seen strong demand for Madden NFL 13 leading up to launch and through its first week on store shelves,” said Bob McKenzie, SVP of Merchandising at GameStop. “Critic reviews are strong and the buzz from the Madden fan base is more robust than I’ve ever seen. We’ve seen this consumer momentum sustain throughout week one and we expect it to continue into the fall and holiday season.”

 

Army Of Two – Cartel Takedown

The guys at RocketJump made this trailer with the help of EA for Army of Two: The Devil’s Cartel. Sometimes, you just get lucky, and the guy you’re looking for is yelling at a plumber for not fixing his hot tub . . .

Madden 13 — Opening Video

Similar to EA’s E3 trailer, the Madden 13 intro is an extended cut of Ray Lewis talking about what inspires him. This opening video, however, cuts in video of the game being played more carefully, showing just how real the game looks.

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A (Condescending) Brand Page

Ever find yourself liking a brand on Facebook, only to spend the ensuing weeks — months years — vaguely regretting it, reading the same inane updates over and over in your feed in a self-loathing stasis, feeling personally affronted yet too damn lazy to click over and unlike the fools The Condescending Corporate Brand Page is for you.

A comic parody of the bottom-feeding like-bait, too-happy imagery, not-worth-answering questions and other obnoxious ploys of “engagement” that brands on Facebook love so much.

 

 

Ubisoft Appoints New Marketing Head In U.K.

Ubisoft has announced that it has appointed former head of brand marketing Mark Slaughter to the position of head of U.K. marketing. He replaces Murray Pannell, who left the position in July.

“I am delighted to give Mark this opportunity,” said Rob Cooper, managing director. “Ubisoft has got a variety of huge brands and with Mark’s previous experiences at Coca Cola, Ferrero, Sara Lee and with Ubisoft for the last four years, I feel confident that our future marketing campaigns will be exciting and inspirational.”

 

Nokia Reveals First Windows 8 Phones

Nokia rolled out their Nokia Lumia 920 and the Nokia Lumia 820, the the first devices in the company’s Windows Phone 8 range. Nokia no doubt hopes that the devices will turn around the company, which feature at 1.5GHz Dual Core Snapdragon S4 and 1GB RAM, with the 920 featuring advanced floating lens technology, Nokia City Lens and Nokia’s largest ever battery (2000mAh).

“Nokia PureView continues to deliver cutting-edge technology to make it possible for a smartphone camera to take the kind of images usually only seen on a standalone SLR camera,” said Jo Harlow, executive vice president of Nokia Smart Devices. “With the Nokia Lumia 920 we have made it possible to shoot pictures and video at home, outdoors, in a restaurant or even at night, and come out with professional-looking results.”

“We view imaging as a core area for differentiation in the smartphone space,” said Crawford Del Prete, Executive VP WW Products and Chief Research Officer, IDC. “Low light photography has been a weak point for smartphones. Nokia has addressed this with PureView to create real customer value. By applying its rich expertise in imaging Nokia has created a best of breed experience for everyday use.”