PC Game Revenue Beats Console Revenue

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Both PC and console gaming continue to be quite popular going into the midst of 2014, but one person believes that computers have eclipsed whatever an Xbox One and PlayStation 4 can offer.

DFC Intelligence owner David Cole explained, “On a global basis, PC games have surpassed console games, but the new console systems means consoles should show an increase.

“Among core gamers, there is a heavy overlap with most console games also playing on a PC. The big difference is that consoles are now the luxury item and PC’s are the necessity. Just a few years ago, the reverse was true. This means PC’s have the broader audience.”

This follows DFC’s previous predictions that PC gaming would overtake console gaming by 2015, with its market rising as high as $25 billion.

As far as what titles are leading the charge for PC, multiplayer online battle arena (or MOBA) games were pointed out. “The MOBA games League of Legends and DOTA 2 dominate everything else by an order of magnitude in terms of more usage than other products,” said Cole. “In the first part of 2014, we saw signs that may change with the introduction of new titles and some increased play of games outside the MOBA category.

“But MOBA is dominating. Beyond that it is a nice mix of MMO, strategy and first-person shooter. We can say that our top 20 list for 2013 had no titles released that year and in Q1 2014, we saw three new titles crack the list: DayZ, Rust and Hearthstone.

“PC player hours have also been remarkably consistent. We had expected hours to fall in 2013 because there were not any major new releases. However, hours were actually flat with 2012, which bodes very well for the market going forward as more triple-A titles are released,” concluded Cole.

Source: PCR Online

Microsoft Confirms Xbox One Sales

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Microsoft formally announcied that the Xbox One has sold five million units since launch, in its quarterly earnings report. It’s important to note that Microsoft is reporting units sold to retailers, whereas the 7 million units of the PlayStation 4 Sony reported selling have been sold through to consuners. This means, depending on how much inventory is left in the channel, that Microsoft has sold something less than 5 million Xbox One consoles to consumers, so the gap with Sony is even wider than it appears.

Microsoft notched $20.40 billion in revenue for the last quarter, with a net income of $5.66 billion. During that time, two million Xbox console units have sold, including 1.2 million Xbox One systems — so the Xbox 360 is still selling pretty well..

“Xbox One has sold in over five million units since launch, and engagement has been high with users spending nearly five hours per day on their console,” said Amy Hood, executive vide president and chief financial officer, during the company’s earnings call.

“We will continue to extend the unique entertainment value proposition of Xbox One, particularly in markets outside of the U.S. where some services aren’t as mature. Xbox 360 sales exceeded our expectations this quarter. Across the platform, Xbox Live members continued to embrace the service, with transactional revenue growing 17 percent. We do expect to work through some inventory in Q4.”

Source: GamesIndustry International

Toy/Game Market Gets Competitive

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Activision’s Skylanders and Disney’s Infinity series both make big bucks when it comes to bringing interactive figures to life in video games. Now, Jakks Pacific is throwing its hat in the ring with its own branded console and games; you get the console for $39.99 and additional figures in packs of two for $9.99.

The company is working on a new Hero Portal range that will feature a variety of heroes, including Superman, Batman, the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The toys are set to launch in August, and will sell at $39.99 for the portal set, and figures that sell in packs of two for $9.99. Obvoiusly the graphics and gameplay aren’t anywhere close to an Xbox 360 or a PS3, but then again you’re getting a console and a game for only $39.99. You can see a short demonstration of the console here.

“The Hero Portals go straight into the back of the TV and you can play just like you could with Skylanders, but you’re taking out a lot of cost,” said Jakks senior marketing director Ken Goodisson. “The figures are three and three quarter-inch size, which is standard for any toy in the boys action figure aisle. So in terms of size they are appropriate, and in terms of licenses they are very up-to-date.”

The Hero Portal will have its hands full with competition, as both Disney Infinity 2.0 – which features Marvel characters – and Activision’s Skylanders: Trap Team will release this fall.

Source: MCV UK

TV Is Where Streaming Happens

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Mobile devices and game systems may be ideal for streaming services, but the good ol’ television medium is pulling away as the surprising leader in video streaming.

A report from the Wall Street Journal indicates that smart TV’s take advantage of a number of services, including Netflix, YouTube, and others, and take a commanding lead when it comes to utilizing them. The report shows that TV’s actually take quite a lead over both handheld devices and computers, thanks in part to built-in compatibility, as well as accessories like the Amazon Fire TV and Apple TV.

With a combination of a strong Internet speed and the right compatible TV, viewers can access high-definition programming through these channels — and obviously on a much bigger picture than mobile devices can offer. That makes it a reasonable choice, especially when watching with friends and family.

Source: Wall Street Journal

Amazon Phone May Offer Prime Data

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According to the rumors, Amazon is ready to jump into the mobile market this summer with its very first smartphone model, with a number of both hardware and software-oriented features that fans are sure to enjoy. That said, the company is already looking into possible data plans for the device, under the code name “Prime Data.” The idea would be to offer free access to streaming features of Amazon’s Prime service, like video and music.

This program is being aligned as one of the major selling points for the phone, although specific details haven’t been revealed as of yet. BGR indicates that the phone could be made to work exclusively with the AT&T network, as a high-profile partner with the “Sponsored Data” program. The only things that could stand in the way are API limitations and co-branding requirements.

“Sponsored Data” enables companies to pay for data traffic used by certain apps and services on customers’ phone and tablet devices, and would not apply towards a subscriber’s monthly data cap. It’s easy to see the importance of it, if you think about the range of content Amazon offers through Prime.

More details on Amazon’s phone models should be revealed over the next few months, and perhaps details of services provided as well.

Source: BGR

‘Warcraft’ Movie Details Emerge

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It’s been a long, bumpy road for Blizzard’s movie adaptation of World of Warcraft. At one point, director Sam Raimi (Spider-Man) was attached to the project, only to drop out to work on the new Oz film for Disney. Finally, it looks like progress is being made, with director Duncan Jones (Moon) at the helm, based on the picture released from the set, showing the director reviewing a scene.

Image source: Empire

Empire magazine has unveiled the first image from the set, and also talks a bit about Jones’ progress on the film, and how he wants to evoke the same style of adventurous spirit as the games do. At BlizzCon last year, Jones said the film will tell an “origin story” of the conflict between humans and orcs, and human character Anduin Lothar and orc Durotan, father of Thrall, will be the focal point. World of Warcraft is slated for a March 11, 2016 release, and features a cast that includes Ben Foster, Paula Patton, Clancy Brown and Dominic Cooper.

Source: Digital Trends

Brave New Game Marketing

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Marinating for a day in viewpoints of the top game marketing executives and thought leaders at the Game Marketing Summit gives you some interesting insights into the state of game marketing. We all know the game industry has been changing rapidly in the past few years as it grows explosively. We’ve seen mobile games grow into an enormous business (in Japan, mobile game revenues are passing up console game revenues), indies become a major force (that’s where Minecraft started, for instance), free-to-play games becoming billion-dollar businesses, and the game industry heading for $100 billion in revenue in short order.

What hasn’t been as generally acknowledged is that game marketing has been changing as much or more than the rest of the game business. Game marketing used to be pretty sedate compared to the frenetic dash of product development, where they would be forever stressed in trying to adapt to new platforms or squeeze out more performance while trying to meet an impossible shipping date with code that had to be near-perfect because you’d never be able to update it. Meanwhile, game marketers would be busily copying their marketing plans for the last game and substituting the new game title before languidly preparing some new copy for the magazine ad. No wonder product development hated marketing.

Now it’s the marketing team that’s frantically responding to rapid changes in the market. Last year’s marketing plan? Tear that up, it’s not relevant to the latest social media outlets and livestreaming reality. A marketing plan from a couple of years ago? How quaint, it still called for TV advertising! Marketing plans from when the Madden franchise first launched? Yes, it was written in cuneiform on clay tablets, why do you ask?

Now game marketing is a vast array of choices, and many of them haven’t been around long enough to develop a predictable outcome. Social media has become a mainstay, yet even the nature of which outlets to use and how to use them is in flux. Facebook is fading among teens, while Instagram is surging. How much does Twitter matter among your gamers Where does Tumblr fit in Wait, Facebook changed the way its News Feed works again this week, so we have to rethink what we post…It’s tough to be a marketer when you can go into work in the morning and find out last week’s carefully made marketing plan is obviated by an algorithm change some social media company made late at night without telling anyone.

One theme that became clear during the GMS is that companies aren’t in control of their brands any more — it’s the customers. Their voices will be heard loud and clear, and woe betide those marketers who try to shout them down. If the game has problems, you’re going to hear about them — and so will the rest of the customers. The development team has to be responsive and the marketers have to be honest; stonewalling and denial and taking months to fix things just won’t fly.

Just as user-generated content (UGC) has become an important game feature (see, again, Minecraft), user-generated marketing (UGM) is becoming an important factor for game marketers. Look at the thousands of YouTube channels and blogs devoted to gaming, with passionate fans providing countless hours of game streaming, commentary, analysis and strategy for other fascinated fans. This can’t be shut down or controlled by the game developers. At best, you can hope to influence it a little, but certainly you should try to amplify the best of it and try to channel its power into helping your other marketing efforts. In the end, though, the game had better be damn good and continuing to get better, or else the crowd will turn on you.

Streaming has become immense, and the easy sharing capabilities of the PS4 and Xbox One are only going to accelerate this trend. Marketers are just beginning to figure out how to use this fast-growing technology as part of marketing efforts. Don’t take too long to think about it, though, because the competition isn’t. You’d better just jump in and start doing stuff, course-correcting along the way as you get feedback. It’s fast-moving, seat-of-the-pants flying in shifting terrain, and that will terrify some people. Find somebody on your team who’s an adrenaline junkie that can be exhilarated by this opportunity, and push them out to go hurtling through space and see if they soar or hit the ground. You may get a big crater, but you can always share the video of the crash.

The lines are blurring between game genres, between platforms and brands, between marketing and community and PR and product development. Getting products to market and continuing to get great revenue from them for years is the goal big companies (or those that hope to become big) are shooting for. To reach that goal, you can’t have different departments that don’t talk to one another. Product development is becoming one discipline that includes marketing, community, PR, design, programming, art, sound, and support.

Are there dangers in this brave new marketing world Of course. Social media is seductive because it’s so great at engaging fans, but you can end up preaching to much to the choir and risk not attracting a broader audience. Gaming is going global, and the demographic is also expanding to include nearly everyone as a possible gamer. Game marketing has to be able to reach a broad array of possible gamers as well as going deeper to engage committed fans better.

New technologies may be hard to master and you may waste a great deal of time and money on a technology that turns out to be not terribly effective at generating revenue. We are deluged by massive amounts of data, but that makes it harder than ever to find the important data amidst the flood. Then you have to analyze it properly, and ask the right questions, and draw the right conclusions, and make the right decisions. This requires a team of savvy people with a wide array of skills, and leadership that can bring them together for maximum effectiveness. And the skills needed will be evolving and changing as the market continues to change, so marketing leaders have to be on top of that as well.

Game marketing today means no complacency. The market is moving fast, and marketers must move faster or risk being overrun. It’s an exciting time, and marketers should be energized by the creative challenges ahead. Let’s see some game marketing that’s as creative as the great games coming out!

Airbnb Versus Cadillac

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Airbnb Founder Brian Chesky recently posted an article on Medium about the most important piece of advice he has ever gotten when building Airbnb: Don’t fuck up the culture!

The advice Chesky got came courtesy of Airbnb investor Peter Thiel, after the company pocketed some $150 million from his Founders Fund. Why is this important advice for any growing business?

Chesky puts it this way: “Our culture is the foundation for our company… The culture is what creates the foundation for all future innovation. If you break the culture, you break the machine that creates your products.“

A clear and well communicated company culture speaks to how empowered the employees feel to innovate as well as how likable the brand is in the eyes of the consumers. This is where storytelling comes into the picture, because behind the logos are real people with real stories to tell. People that we can then chose to like or dislike. If the culture is strong enough, users will become fans and tell their own brand stories and do your marketing for you.

Airbnb have so far put community and usability front and center in their content marketing and hopefully they’ll use real hosts and guests in their future ads as well.

Sure, there has been a backlash to Airbnb’s business model, but it has enough fans to back them up for the long run and that’s why Peter Thiel invested in them.

A different school of thinking is represented by Cadillac in their recent ELR electric car campaign that ran during expensive Olympics spots as well as during the Oscars.

“Why do we work so hard? For what? For this? For stuff?” asks actor Neal McDonough as he gazes out over his pool and then goes on to give his take on capitalism and the American Dream: “Other countries, they work, they stroll home, they stop by the cafe. They take August off. Off. We’re crazy, driven hard-working believers. Those other countries think we’re nuts. Whatever.”

If you’re in marketing, you’ve probably seen the commercial already, if not, here it is:

{video link marked as “private”}

Discover The New ‘Skylanders’

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