MINING IN MEXICO S - ProMéxico

38 Negocios i The Lifestyle photos courtesy of digital media / archive
Playing In The Big Leagues
Playing golf is not easy. To play it on a videogame console with the skills of a champion sounds even more
difficult. With a videogame for Nintendo inspired by Mexican golfer Lorena Ochoa, the Mexican company
Digital Media has placed itself on the shelf of international videogames and is moving towards it’s goal of
positioning the Mexican videogame industry on the global scene.
By FRANCISCO VERNIS
In 2002, when Iván Díaz de León decided
to start his own company –Digital Media–
he did it with a clear goal in his mind: to
support the consolidation of the videogame
industry in Mexico.
Since then, he has launched proposals such
as the creation of a university degree in videogame
development, the foundation of a national
association of videogame developers and the
creation of special funds to support small and
medium companies in the country.
To date, Digital Media is a small company.
With barely an eight-year history, it has done
what was said to be impossible: develop a game
to be launched worldwide by Nintendo for its
Wii console. Digital Media’s videogame was
entirely designed and developed by Mexican
professionals and is based on Lorena Ochoa,
another Mexican who is world champion in
her specialty, golf.
“This game presented the opportunity for
entering the industry at a professional level.
It comes from the idea of having a ‘made in
Mexico’ product to be exported to the world,
leveraging in the fact that Lorena is at the top
level of a high profile profession. Negotiations
took almost two years,” says Díaz de León.
Launching will be defferred according to
each market: US, México and Latin America in
the first half of 2010, Europe and Asia in the
second half of the year.
The Beginning
Díaz de León, founder and general manager of
Digital Media was in Spain, being certified in
videogame development, when he decided to
create his own company and become part of
the “creation wave” for a new market.
Value of the
International
Videogame Industry
• 2007: 62.6 billion usd
• 2008: 71.7 billion usd
• 2009: 81.9 billion usd
Source: International Data
Corporation
Growing Market
• 50% of Mexican gamers buy at
least one videogame every three
months.
• 20% of Mexican gamers buy
several videogames per month.
• Xbox 360 holds 36% of the
market share in Mexico, Wii has
11.5%, PS2 9%, and PS3 8.7%.
• 20% of Mexican videogamers
play daily, 24% play every other
day and 16% play at least once a
week.
• Average Mexican player is 35
years old, 40% are women.
Source: Competitive Intelligence Unit
“It was easier opening something in México
at a slower rhythm because it gave the opportunity
to collaborate in founding this industry
in the country. Since then, many cases have
projected the Mexican industry to the world,”
says Díaz de León from his Guadalajara-based
office, in the state of Jalisco, west Mexico.
As a consumed gamer, Díaz de León knew
since he was a child that he wanted to develop
videogames. With that in mind, he specialized
in it. His passion happened to be contagious to
the members of his team, now integrated with
29 professionals, all focused on the same goals.
The company began developing advertgames
–advertising based games– to promote
specific brands and products. Three months
after operations started came the first client,
Aeroméxico. Since then it has not stopped.
Among its extensive client list are familiar
names such as Samsung, Sony, Mercedes Benz
and Intel.
Experience acquired in multimedia development
has allowed the company to survive and
keep a place in their favorite market: videogames.
“Advertgames helped us to know, learn,
improve techniques and to become internationally
competitive. As these videogames are
developed by request, specific objectives and
needs have to be met. We produced multimedia
projects to gain experience and learn how
to deal with big international companies,” says
Díaz de León.
Díaz de León foresees a great future for the
videogame business, especially due to the fact
that sales in México are higher than in other Latin
American countries, like Brazil or Argentina.
“Latin American markets present the opportunity
of creating different projects that can
be produced for diverse audiences, keeping all
of them satisfied, as they are eager for different
products,” says the businessman.
Since he presented Digital Media’s project
in Spain, the company has gained the trust
of firms like Nintendo and Xbox, both giants
fighting resistence to share their technologies.
Even though, since its beginning, the Mexican
firm has been working with the most advanced
systems.