Market Research, Creative, & Viral Networking (Thanks Regan for contributing this article)

Regan sent me a link to a most interesting article:
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3icc586a5d1a4f3c60803eb84167aec807?pn=1


The article discusses the as yet unreleased movie 'Fanboys'. It was originally written and filmed as a dramatic comedy but then the producer decided to remove the drama and just make it a comedy, testing which version would do better - a simple case of market research? Then a group of fans emerged to back the original dramatic comedy version, which banded together virally through the Internet. The movie now has a ton of free press and should do very well, but what does this say about movie making, market research, and viral networks?

Locomatrix: Bringing Gaming Back Outside (Contributed by Robyn - Thank you!)

Mixing videogames with physical, outdoor games, Locomatrix is designed to get kids off the couch, without making them leave their virtual worlds. Based in the UK, Locomatrix offers games that kids play in both the virtual and real worlds. Using a GPS-enabled device like a cell phone, kids (and I suspect adults) can play games like “Treasure Hunt”, in which users must visit real locations based on picture clues that appear on their device. A thermometer on the screen informs the gamers whether they are getting hotter or colder, relative to the destination. Fruit Farmer is another game where participants run around trying to collect fruit that appears in the virtual world, while avoiding virtual obstacles and being captured by killer wasps.

Locomatrix is all about being active and socializing. Although they currently only offer two games, Locomatrix invites gamers to create their own levels and share them with their friends and the Locomatrix community. There is also a forum. On the message board, gamers invite others to try a game they created, troubleshoot their GPS devices, and brag about past wins. Not to mention, when games are played, they are also uploaded to the Locomatrix website, so others can see the date and time of past games.

What if gamers wanted to setup a game in their hood for all the uber-hardcore Treasure Hunters or a slower-paced Fruit Farmer game? Could Locomatrix benefit from "HUSH HUSH SECRET PROJECT"?

http://www.locomatrix.com/

Is the future of gaming on the PC? (Thank you Dino for contributing this one)

Note St. John's comment in the article below: “… if the low end of the PC market, the mass market PCs that everybody buys did not come with these crappy graphics chips on them and was not burdened with a fat OS, then the PC would be a larger contiguous gaming platform than all the next-generation consoles combined."

http://pc.ign.com/articles/861/861239p1.html

Gameasure data suggests that the PC, despite this, is still more preferred than any of the current gen consoles.

Trends in Casual Gaming & Advertising

This article is an interesting interview with Dave Williams, Senior VP of MTV Networks' Shockwave.com and Addicting Games:

http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?id=1006068&src=article2_newsltr

Mr. Williams argues that advertising in video games is increasingly moving towards in-game casual, borne out by eMarketer's projections of where in-game advertising will be spent over the next 4 years. They predict that growth will be concentrated in web-based video games (many of which are casual). Intriguingly, eMarketer's figures show that video game advertising will total $1B by 2012 (in today's dollars, not the greatly devalued dollars to come - but that is an economics not a market research story).

Who we should hire to make a movie for Interpret ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AC0sR5_NTFo

Double Fusion's Thoughts on In-Game Advertising - Appear to be heavily influenced by our Casual Gaming White Paper

Double Fusion (DF) is a good client of ours, and intriguingly the CEO of DF has just been interviewed by GameDaily on the subject of in-game advertising:

http://www.gamedaily.com/articles/features/my-turn-the-second-wave-of-ingame-advertising/?biz=1

In it he argues that in-game advertising is about to begin phase two of leading the way in the casual gaming space. Perhaps he was inspired by our recent casual gaming white paper? Advertising will have a greater impact in casual gaming because it is increasingly essential to the business model of giving such games away for free. Seen in this way, in-game advertising is 'an entirely new opportunity to build the gaming audience'.

More signs of Hollywood moving towards Video Games (contributed by Dino)

Genius Products Moves Into Game Publishing

http://www.gamedaily.com/articles/news/genius-products-moves-into-game-publishing/?biz=1

Pirates of the Caribbean Director Gets Game

http://www.gamedaily.com/articles/news/pirates-of-the-caribbean-director-gets-game/?biz=1