Here’s a great piece by The Cut Scene’s Ben Fritz on why The NPD Group should start keeping tabs on downloadable content.

Journalists regard NPD as the ultimate authority on video game sales in the states, but right now the market research group doesn’t track the popularity of paid downloadable content. This is an aspect of the games industry that’s exploding this year — major releases like Fallout 3, Grand Theft Auto IV and Call of Duty: World at War were all given fresh life with new missions and maps — but we only have a vague idea of how successful they are.

Publishers will sometimes boast of superior sales, but typically they guard the hard data. There’s no standard metric of how lucrative this trend is overall.

In a sense, this is just a matter of satisfying the curiosity of journalists, analysts and shareholders; if downloadable content isn’t doing well, we won’t see as much of it. But hey, the groups of people I just mentioned above isn’t insignificant. If publishers and console makers are willing to use NPD data for bragging rights, why stop at boxed content?

Business | No Comments »

I have seen my share of video game boobs, uncovered, and they are polygonal.

The last time I witnessed bare female flesh in a video game was during Afro Samurai, a game that’s saturated with enough “not for kids” content that I chalked it up as par for the course and continued dismembering near-helpless foes. Don Reisinger, on the other hand, came across a pair in his playthrough of The Godfather II, and he’s pissed.

Am I pissed that he’s pissed? No, because his concern is valid: Shouldn’t this game be rated Adults Only? After all, AO games are described as “prolonged scenes of intense violence and/or graphic sexual content and nudity,” while the slightly more tolerable Mature games are marked by “intense violence, blood and gore, sexual content and/or strong language.” The addition of content descriptors on the back of the box, including one for nudity, did little to placate Reisinger.

So he took his questions to the ESRB. In short, they blew him off, something to the effect of “Get bent, our ratings are fine,” to paraphrase, of course. What Reisinger didn’t mention is the unspoken subtext: “We won’t rate anything short of Manhunt as Adults Only because console manufacturers won’t support it and retailers won’t sell it. Kind of like NC-17 films.” Why raise a stink over a pair of breasts, right?

I haven’t played Godfather II, so I don’t know if what Reisinger saw qualifies as prolonged nudity or the kind of brief encounter that would fly in a coarse R-rated flick. Trouble is, if the ESRB had a problem with the boobs, covering them up would be the only way out. Tone it down or the game dies.

Reisinger thinks the boobs didn’t belong in Godfather II to begin with, but that’s beside the point. The important thing is for naked humans to have a place in video games, safe from censorship. If it takes a notch up to Adults Only, so be it. Too bad the games industry won’t allow it.

Politics, Sex | No Comments »

Today’s newsletter from gamesindustry.biz is a scathing attack on game journalism, particularly as it exists on the Web. The so-called “specialist media” (what happened to “enthusiast press?”) stands accused of fueling rumors and speculation over the big reveals that may or may not happen at game conferences, in this case Game Developers Conference. Here’s the meat:

The reason for this constant cycle of rumour, expectation and disappointment - whose ultimate result is to create a large population of embittered, annoyed consumers, something which isn’t good for anyone in the business - lies in the continuing debasement of the games media itself. Blogs, podcasts and news sites can huff and puff as much as they want about GDC (or any other show) being “disappointing” - the reality is that it’s the writers themselves, through their credulity and unprofessionalism, who have created the false expectations which lead to such disappointment.

Even though the argument lacks the hard evidence that would really make for the best indictment, I’m on board with the sentiment. But what’s really troubling is how the essay charges full steam ahead at the games press for rumor mongering without assigning any of the blame elsewhere.

The article proceeds to argue that the problem goes far beyond GDC, blaming the media for creating a cycle of rumors without doing the proper legwork. “Instead, a culture where being first is vastly more important than being accurate has flourished, with writers desperate for “exclusives” converting wild rumours and speculations from forums like NeoGAF or GameFAQs into news stories in a matter of minutes,” it reads.

I’ve been at the low end of the totem pole, clawing at those kinds of stories, and it stinks, but it’s perpetuated by the feedback that comes with it, not by the press alone. Tasty rumors translate to more pageviews, which turn into more ad revenue, which result in higher bonuses for the writers, which starts the cycle anew. Certainly, journalists are to blame. So are the readers, who gobble up these stories, and the advertisers, who are often game publishers. Damaging as these thin journalistic fibers may be, the advertisers have no qualms shelling out the extra cash when the hits come rolling in. It’s a cycle that can’t be broken because it relies on all three sides to do their part. And let’s face it, that’s not happening.

So when I get to the article’s conclusion, where it laments the lack of “any real investigative, well-researched work,” it seems a bit like bitter finger-pointing instead of a constructive essay on how to end the rumor cycle for good.

Media, Rants | 1 Comment »