Digital Display Technology - Consumer Electronics Association

driver’s seat these days. Developers can sign pricey exclusiveagreements with any of the four main platforms, includingthe PC world, limited exclusivity deals with one ormore platforms, or non-exclusive pacts that make theirtitles available to every platform. In other words, as CEA’sWargo puts it,“they can hedge their bets.”All these technological and market changes also make iteasier for game developers to tinker with different, moreenticing distribution and revenue models, including subscriptionand pay-per-play methods. Software designers areexcited about shifting their games from the static, one-time,off-the-shelf purchases they now are to continually expanding,updated products that generate regularly recurringrevenue.A few early successes indicate that these differentrevenue models could work. It’s still too soon, however, toreally know the kinds of titles, if any, for which gamers willpay and the kinds for which they won’t.Certainly, the range of escapist, interactive games is broad.Despite the misconception that electronic games fall intojust a couple of categories, there are actually about a dozentypes of titles from which to choose.WHY DO PEOPLE PLAY ELECTRONIC GAMES?REASONPERCENTAGE OFTOTAL SAMPLEGames Are Fun 87.3%Games Are Challenging 71.4%Like Playing withFamily/Friends 42.4%Lots of Entertainmentfor Price 35.6%Like to Keep Upwith New Technology 18.9%Interested in Stories 17.9%Like Music and/orCelebrities Involved 15.5%Do Same Thing inReal Life 13.1%Source: Interactive Digital Software Association, May 2002.“Software designers areexcited about shifting theirgames from the static, one-time,off-the-shelf purchases they noware to continually expanding,updated products that generateregularly recurring revenue.”THE FUTURE: GIRLS (& BOYS) JUST WANTTO HAVE FUNOne thing’s for certain: Computer and video games aren’tgoing away. Indeed, no matter which delivery and distributiontechnologies succeed or fail in the next few years,electronic games are bound to keep getting bigger.As thereal world becomes a more serious, somber, even deadlyplace, the demand for fun-filled, safe fantasy worlds willonly grow, among both young and old.As people feel theyhave less control over national, international and otherearth-shaking events that seem to have no rhyme or reason,they have all the more reason to retreat to other,parallel universes with clearly defined rules and consequencesthat they can understand, master and control.In short,Americans need their escapist games now morethan ever simply to cope with life.In fact, video and computer games are already America’sfavorite way of having fun, both home and away. In its annualsurvey of consumers in 2001, the IDSA found that an astonishing35 percent of all Americans see computer and videogames as the most fun entertainment activity.TV watchingcame a distant second at 18 percent, followed by surfing theInternet (15 percent), reading books (13 percent) and goingout to the movies (11 percent).Plus, gamers are showing no signs of quitting or even slowingdown. In the IDSA’s 2002 consumer survey, 60 percentof the most frequent players say they’ll be playing computerand video games in 10 years as much as, if not more than,they do today.Among PC gaming homes, an average of 1.6family members play computer games regularly, or at leastfive hours per week. In households with video-game consoles,two people typically play games regularly.And awhopping 87.3 percent of gamers play games becausethey’re fun, while 71.4 percent play games because they’rechallenging and 42.4 percent participate in games becausethey like playing with friends and family.So maybe it’s finally time that we all took electronic gamesa bit more seriously and treated them as legitimate, evenfirst-class, home entertainment for the many, not the few.Perhaps then, we could all have a bit more fun. ■28 OCTOBER 2002 5 Technologies to Watch