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| Liz Baker is a senior marketing major and writes 'From the 32nd Floor' for the Daily News. Her views do not necessarily agree with those of the newspaper. |
Video games used to be something to do in leisure, and usually it was my brother and his male friends who were shooting tanks and racing cars. The tomboy I was, I played, but let's just say no one picked me for his team.
It was exciting to roll the little oblong bowling ball in Atari. (Some younger students probably have never even heard of Atari. It was great.)
A single button and a joystick guided about four video games. Ah the good ol' days.
Next came Nintendo. There were only two buttons and a cross that guided direction. Then Super Nintendo took our living room by storm. The graphics, sounds and controllers were "high tech." Video games have come a long way since I used to play with the boys.
The gaming industry rakes in $9 billion annually with $4.6 billion in software sales. We must have a lot of time on our hands. Video games have become more than just a way to have fun; they're an addiction. Regional "Madden NFL" tournaments feed into a national football video game championship.
Graphics aren't just wizards, burning bushes and little cartoon characters anymore. Today, the new world of video gaming is in sports. "Madden NFL" has become one of the most successful in its 14 years on the shelf. It sold 4.5 million units last year and more than 19 million since 1989.
EA Sports, the company that develops a new edition almost annually, budgets $15 million for advertising this single game. The company's marketing must be working because it pulled in $100 million in profits last year.
Sega, EA's largest competitor, is trying to steal market share with professional athletes like NBA star Jay Williams singing the company's praises. Sega is pushing the graphic design, and trying to up the bar, by adding minute details like specific tattoos to the animated players. Sega has pumped its advertising budget to $35 million for its two top-selling games.
The gaming industry didn't explode overnight, but it hasn't taken long for new technologies to emerge. Take graphic creation, for an example. Engineers now use body suits, lasers, video replay, and motion detectors to simulate skills in an animated game of the NBA finals. Just think of how drastically different the next Disney movie will be when Jackie Robinson is taking batting practice. Maybe it's not the best example, but being able to take exact movements and recreate them into software could be a way to develop entire new industries.
But gaming isn't just about driving technology into new fields. It's about marketing. The $35 million EA Sports and Sega each spend on a just a pair of software offerings throws us into yet another brands war. Think IBM and Apple in the early days of computers. Think branding isn't that important? Look at how much companies spend to just push its name into the public eye. In the fiscal year 2000, Nike spent $978.2 million on advertising. Do you remember a single product or just the name?
The gaming industry hasn't created just another brand war; it's created another advertising medium. Car companies are placing new sports cars in racing games to build hype before the cars are released. The gaming industry could make product placement, putting brand names where people will see them, a large contributor to revenue. Louisville Slugger could pay millions to EA Sports just to put its name on the animated bats.
EA Sports generates $1.5 billion a year in revenue, just a small token of the overall gaming industry's wealth. The company has helped create a new age in marketing, pushing limits of risk and budgets. Now if we could just find a way to hit the feminine markets.
Write to Liz at eabaker@bsu.edu
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