Console Companies
Wage Gaming Wars
Coke vs. Pepsi. Backstreet Boys vs. ’NSyric. Boxers vs. briefs.
And now, Sony vs. Nintendo vs. Microsoft.
In a video game industry that has experienced a rush of
popularity and an explosion of profits in recent years, these
three companies are fighting a war of
business deals and bottom lines. Sony’s
Playstation 2, Nintendo’s Game Cube and
Microsoft’s Xbox have been duking it out
for consumer dollars.
The greatest success story for Xbox so far has been “Halo,”
a smash-hit first-person shooter with a man-versus-alien sto
ryline. Nintendo’s “Super Mario Sunshine” is the latest vehicle
for the beloved Italian plumber. Sony’s system has seen many
first-class games come its way “Gran Turismo 3 A-Spec,”
“Final Fantasy X” and “Grand Theft
Auto 3” have brought favorable
reviews and huge sales.
Games are like bombs in this indus
try - the really good ones can sell
hardware for one company while cut
ting into the sales of the other two. At
times, the console wars have proved to
be especially costly for the participants.
Sega, whose Genesis console bat
tled the Super Nintendo
Entertainment System for top dollar
in the early 19905, recently gave up
the console fight and switched its
focus to making games. The Sega
Dreamcast had been eclipsed by the
next-generation systems of Sony,
Nintendo and Microsoft. ■
“They were leaking money like a 1
sieve,” said David Smith, PSX/PS2 j
editor for IGN.com. “Over the life i
of the Dreamcast, Sega repeatedly 8
required massive cash infusions
from its parent company to stay in
business.
“Microsoft is in the same position,
in a way, but the difference there is
that Microsoft can blow all the money
it wants on a long-term gamble.” ,
With the Xbox, Bill Gates and m
company have shot for the moon "
on their first try. The system’s hard
ware is more capable than that of the j
Playstation 2 and the Game Cube. |
But in this war, allied support is just as
effective as the power of a company’s
weaponry. At this point, Sony has the
largest game library and the success of
its first Playstation to help the PS2.
“This generation has shown, more
than anything else, the power of an
established brand as opposed to an
immediate advertising campaign,”
Smith said. “People seem to have
bought the Playstation 2 almost out of
reflex. That was the brand they trusted.”
Sony got a head start on the
Nintendo 64 with the first Playstation
and managed to take control of the
market with a wealth of good games.
Nintendo, previously the industry’s
giant, saw its power diminish as the
Nintendo 64 struggled to compete.
Nintendo, the home of the Mario
and Zelda franchises, may have lost
some of its luster, but the company
still has plenty of fight left in it.
“(Nintendo) still makes a tremen
dous amount of money by selling
these games that are made in-house,”
said Ben Silverman, editor in chief of
game-revolution.com.
Anew aspect of video games -
how well they play online - also
could be a strong factor in their mon
etary performances. Each of the three
consoles has the ability to connect
gamers from all parts of the world.
Microsoft has been the most ambi
tious in its online aspirations, drawing
from its experience in the market of per
sonal computers. The company’s sub
scription-based Xbox Live online ser
vice allows Microsoft to operate each
game’s network. Sony and Nintendo
have been quieter on the online front.
Consoles
Compared
Get to know the world's
three biggest gaming
systems.
$1
Nintendo
Game Cube
Price: $149.99
Processor speed:
485 MHz
Polygon speed:
12 million per second
Game medium:
Proprietary 1.5-GB
optical disc
Online: 56.6 K modem
and broadband adapter
(both for $34.95)
4>
Playstation 2
Price: $199.99
Processor speed:
300 MHz
Polygon speed:
70 million per second
Game medium:
Proprietary 4.7-GB DVD
Online: Network
adapter ($39.99) comes
with all necessary
software, hardware.
Requires phone line/
broadband connection.
Xbox
Price: $199.99
Processor speed:
733 MHz
Polygon speed:
125 million per second
Game medium:
Proprietary 4.7-GB DVD
Online: Xbox Live, a
universal subscription
online service available
for $49.95/year. (The
Xbox includes a built-in
Ethernet port, but a
separate broadband
connection is required.)
They have both released network adapters to little fanfare, and
both have given developers the bulk of control over online games.
Asa result, third-party corporations that devote themselves
to making noteworthy titles are looking at each system’s online
setup. But most of them aren’t limiting their efforts to a single
console.
“The companies have learned over the years that if you put
all your eggs in one basket, you can really hurt yourself that
way,” Silverman said.
Regardless of whether more third-party companies are
becoming “platform-agnostic,” as Silverman put it, one of the
major players clearly has come out on top.
“The PS2 has a comfortably insurmountable lead,” Smith
said. “In any of the three major territories and worldwide, it
has Nintendo and Microsoft each beat by three to five times,
depending on which figures you look at.”
Playstation 2 is the king - for now. But new blockbuster
titles and the growing online realm will open up new battle
fields in this competition.
With so much money and market power at stake, no one’s
going to surrender any time soon.
The Arts & Entertainment Editor can
be reached at artsdesk@unc.edu.
I GAME I
I OVER, I
Hollywood
By Elliott Dube
Assistant Arts &
Entertainment Editor
LO\
IMAGE COURTESY
OF NINTENDO
Samus Aran (above) is the star
of Nintendo's upcoming
"Metroid Prime" for the
Game Cube. Link (below) has
been battling the evil Ganon
since the first Nintendo
Entertainment System.
■ M
Games, Technology Growing Up With Original Players
From Atari’s original “Pong” game to the
elaborate graphics and special effects of
I “Final Fantasy X,” the video
game industry has come a long
way.
The simple schematic of games such as
Nintendo’s original “Super Mario Bros.” has
become a distant memory, eclipsed by elab
orate characters and storylines.
“Ten years ago, it could be argued that
video gaming was still the arena of hobbyists
and children," said Steve Perkins, senior
product manager with Electronic Arts.
“Video games systems were viewed much as
toys. ... Today the hardware is much more
The Mario
Evolution
The world's greatest Italian
plumber has gotten his share
of facelifts over the years.
IMAGES COURTESY OF NINTENDO
Thursday, November 14, 2002
j Video Games Conquer
I Film Industry in Sales
For the Ist Time J
JS JS ove over, Rocky. Step aside, 007. Take a
/ f/l seat, Skywalker. Your time has passed.
If I Following the newest wave of video
game consoles - Sony Playstation 2, Microsoft
fc Xbox and Nintendo Game Cube
■ - video-game sales, which
include both console and soft-
P! ware sales, have skyrocketed. Riding a43
J. percent increase over 2000, grosses for the
computer and video-game industry totaled
$9.4 billion, according to a report by mar
ket research group NPD.
Compare that to the $8.41 billion garnered
in box office sales in 2001 (according to a
report by the Motion Picture Association of
America) and one thing becomes clear - video
games aren’t just for kids.
“We now see that all kinds of people of all
ages are playing -and obviously buying -
video games,” said Beth Llewelyn, director of
public relations for Nintendo of America. “We
predict that, in total, video games could possi
bly be greater than a $lO billion industry this
year.”
And if past trends have been any indication,
it will be much more than that. Market analysts,
such as the Interactive Digital Software
Association, predicted that sales would slump
last year due to the crumbling market and
decreased spending in entertainment fields fol
lowing the events of Sept. 11.
Instead, the market surged, showing record
growth and sales not only in consoles -with
the release of the new system -but also in soft
ware sales. According to IDSA, Americans pur
chased 225.1 million units of computer and
video games last year.
The huge gain of the industry in the past few
years, Llewelyn said, is a reflection of the
appeal of video games and their qualities of
lasting entertainment.
sophisticated and video games are no longer
viewed as toys but as entertainment systems.”
EA Sports’ most popular games
are prime examples of this
advancement. Though “Madden
By Michelle Jarboe
Staff Writer
NFL” was EA’s leading game 10 years ago,
Perkins said it was far from realistic.
“Today it’s like watching a sports game on.
TV, like the actual event’s happening,” he
said. “You’ve taken a lot more of the sport
and brought it into the video game, which
you haven’t been able to do before.”
Multiple camera angles, players whose
faces are modeled after those of the actual
athletes and even customization of play take
1985:
'Super Mario
Bros.'for the
Nintendo
Entertainment
System.
Page 5
“Video games are just a lot more M I. 1
fun. At the movies you pay $7 or
more to sit for an hour and a half nHB
and watch someone else’s story,” she
said. “But with video
games you get to have
adventures of your own. Jv
By Nick Parker
Arts & Entertainment Editor
“You really just get a better value and
more entertainment for your money.” i
And with newly released games’ prices *
ranging from $3O to $55 - depending on
producer and console - the industry has
no trouble funding its game creation.
But more money does not make for i
better games, Llewelyn said. t
“Some of the best quality and highest- ■
selling games that we currently have on ■
the market are not even visually B
impressive, much less groundbreak- I
ing,” she said. “The Pokemon games H
are a great example of how you do not HI
have to throw a lot of money at a Bp
game to make it great or to have it sell Mkf
great. MM
“It might look pretty and might CH
sell a lot the day it launches, but .:
games that just aren’t fun won’t have
any classic appeal - word spreads.”
And with greater credibility due to ,
greater competition and market exposure,
video-game makers have to keep things I
interesting. I
“You can’t just put a character in a 3-D M
world with a gun anymore; things are J||
just getting too competitive” Llewelyn MM
said. “We just have to keep video
games exciting.” jJR
The Arts & Entertainment
Editor can be reached at
artsdesk@unc.edu.
r
sports games leaps and bounds from their
two-dimensional, childish predecessors.
An older, more expectant gaming audi
ence is now the hot target for the video game
industry, which is moving in the direction of
more elaborate, often more mature, games.
“The audiences have matured, and their
tastes have matured,” said Beth Llewelyn,
director of public relations for Nintendo of
America. “They want something that is more
engaging, with a harder edge.”
It seems the gaming industry has jumped
to cater to this desire among gamers.
Playstation’s popular “Final Fantasy” fran
chise, made by Square Soft, is directed at
1990:
'Super Mario
Bros. 3’ for
the Nintendo
Entertainment
System.
■ A Long and Lonely Walk A rapper turned
actor trying to become a rapper, Eminem,
plays a familiar role in the first blockbuster
to properly portray
the hip-hop under- JBIk
ground, "8 Mile."
...page 7J
HI mmm 'PIJSk
ftfSt jgM fIMT §f\
9 Squaresoft's "Final
Fantasy X," starring
■j Tidus (above), has ML
■ been a blockbuster 9* K
m title for Sony's “Tmj
Playstation 2. INtoL)
W IMAGE COURTESY
OF SQUARES!)FT
teens. “BMX XXX,” an upcoming and con
troversial release from Acclaim, has been
classified as mature, for users 17 and older.
Hugo Reyes, public relations manager for
Namco, said the more mature leanings are nat
ural, considering the aging gaming audience.
“Nowadays, more successful games are
those that are being rated mature,” he said.
“Basically, from what I understand, the aver
age age of the gamer is between 18 and 24, or
it could be even older than that. The people
who grew up playing the original arcade
games are in their 20s and 30s now.”
See GENERATIONS., Page 7
%
1991:
'Super Mario
World' for
the Super
Nintendo
Entertainment
System.
I
1996:
’Super
Mario 64'
for the
Nintendo 64.
2002:
'Super
Mario
Sunshine'
for the
Nintendo
Game Cube.