| Set On Stun |

First of all let m get this out of the way …

JP you ignorant slut!

Now moving on. Natal may sound like all that and a bag of DLC the way JP spins it, but who’s to say we’re not looking at the 21st century “power glove?” Yeah, yeah the big show off  of WinMo7 in Barcelona was all the shizzle for the new revolution in social media and gaming last week but guess what folks, behind the curtain is just a wimpy old Henry Gale trying to trick us all.

Developer Debacle — Natal Ain’t Got Nothing To Do With This

That alleged “gap” JP speaks of that Natal will create will only be filled if Natal has the ability to become the YouTube/game creator of gaming. And honestly we’re soooo far from this with a peripheral that doesn’t even have a firm drop date much less a price point . Addressing the bigger issue is if Natal (version 1) does not come built in with user friendly GUI then all of this is moot. It’s nice to think I can wave my arms around, make some cubist masterpiece and then disseminate it across all my social media but if the device I’m using is chock full of glitches then–

a. It won’t work

and b. Who care if it does? Who cares about my stupid picture in the first  place?

Taking that one step further  if the developers don’t have the tools to make the games they want to make for this device then all we’ll be stuck with is a bunch of gimmicky BS casual gamer games that will pile up like a stack of old gameboy cartridges at a yard sale next to Buzz and Woody. The same developer issues apply to WinMo 7 software and even more so when you consider the simplicity that developers now have in making iPhone apps versus the headaches they may encounter with the Microsoft version.

New and Improved OS

Allegedly Microsoft’s new OS will mix Xbox Live gaming, Zune multimedia, personal media (photos and videos), social media utilities, productivity tools and third-party apps organized into “Hubs.” So that social platform that my octopus loving counterpart envisions looks like it would all be there right? And somehow, Natal, in it’s infancy will be part of this? No &^%$#&*(* way.  The way this new OS reads is like social media and gaming for cats –

“Oooh shiny thing, Oooh dress my avatar, Oooh play bookworm, O0000h nap”

Sure you can use it -- just not on that phone

Join the club or else!

One word, a word that will kill this entire fantastical notion — EXCLUSIVITY!

I’ve been lucky enough to have a few conversations with some game industry watchers about Project Natal and the reactions to it range from, “it’s a gimmick” to “it will revolutionize gaming”.  However, under the surface lurks the visage of Microsoft’s un-stated strategy.

Project Natal could become the means of content creation on the Xbox 360.

It’s very clear that Microsoft is turning the Xbox 360 into a primary device for consumers. We can update our Twitter & Facebook profiles from the console, we can stream Netflix’s digital library at will, we can listen to our playlists on Last.fm and we can enter a virtual world to play classic arcade games.

The underlying theme is that the Xbox Live platform is a strong social network for gamers to consume media that we want.  However, what’s lacked in the platform has been something that’s inherent in all web and mobile based social networks, content sharing.

One of the core things that changed the web into the social web is the ability for browsers to run native applications through the browser and allow the user to participate, modify and share those applications as they interact with it.  The social participatory network that social media sites have mastered have given us all a platform to share the things we love, hate and do to a wide variety of groups.  Twitter is, for the most part, public.  Facebook is experimenting with different ways of balancing personal privacy with our desire to distribute information.

The second aspect of social media collaboration as it’s evolved has been the advent of real-time updates.  Search giant Google has integrated Twitter streams into its search results page:

Click to embigulate

With the social web combined with the real-time web, there has to be a way to consume media in written, audio or video form, there needs to be a way to share that media with another person in your network and there needs to be a way to modify that media in some form.  Traditionally, the modification of media is comments, ratings or tagging. Lastly, there needs to be a way to create new media, let it reside on a social platform where your network can consume, share and modify it.

Natal fills that gap for Xbox Live. It is a way to modify existing media, it will be able to create new media.

Once that media is created, Microsoft’s Xbox Live has already been looking for ways to spread that media to your network, they’ve been collecting data on how Xbox Live users are actually using Last.fm, Facebook and Twitter and presumably, adding a method that’s more intuitive to share your created content via the Natal update.

Another thing to consider is that Apple has dominated the Zune in usability, user penetration and more importantly, the application distribution and development potential.

With Natal, Microsoft has a unique way for developers to create motion specific applications that can be downloaded from the store, played with and the result of that media consumption and creation will need to be shared with your networks.  If I were to create a really cool picture using “Natal Paint”, I should be able to send that picture to my email, to Twitter, to Facebook.  I should be able to make that creation my background image, the ways for Natal to inspire unique user generated creations is absolutely limitless.

That distribution capability is now being tested.  While some, including my partner Shawn has called Microsoft “drunk” or “stupid” when new features come out that only go half way, I think that this is just the foundation for Xbox Live, in combination with Natal, to explode in the ability to create content and then distribute it.

If I were to be able to link my YouTube account to Xbox Live, I could record my motions in video, apply some paint techniques to add some style, upload it to YouTube and Facebook, promote it with Twitter, then Microsoft would have been successful in creating a fully functional social network out of the browser, away from the computer and in front of all the media we belong to.

The integration of Xbox Live into the Zune is just one more way to spread that content. If I’m right, I think that all of the seemingly random and strange things Microsoft has been doing with Xbox Live lately has been a carefully coordinated test-bed to truly launch Natal as a content creation mechanism supported by a network that will share it with the browser based web.

Video game marketing, welcome to the 21st century.  For an industry that thrives on technological innovation to the point where it’s feasible to link PS3s together to simulate the work of a supercomputer, most of the marketing of video games seem to be in a digital rut.  The reliance on enthusiast media, review scores, print and TV media to promote their products are outmoded structures that betray the inherent interactivity that’s in the games themselves.

For their launch on February 2nd, Star Trek Online has joined with some of the bigger names in advertising, like the Ayzenberg Group, Dan Klores Communications and DKC Connect.   Their adoption into the social media blitz is fascinating to watch, eschewing more traditional outlets, they’re creating portals and campaigns that leverage the excitement of the fanbase and the uniqueness of the campaigns themselves to promote the game.

For example, on Twitter (over 2800 followers), they’ve created “Tweet in Klingon” which will translate your tweets into Klingon, simple enough… and of course, it’s attracting fanboys and haters all at once.  In this case, it’s a great way to leverage the unique history and richness of the Star Trek universe to digital promotion.

Also on the social media landscape is the game’s Facebook page, which allows a pretty standard application to turn your profile picture.. or a picture you upload into one of the iconic Klingon, Vulcan, Andorian, Borg, Bajoran or many other of the races in the Star Trek universe.  Overall, it’s pretty cool and it seems to be working with them capturing almost 28,000 fans at this point.

Another fairly unique avenue they’re exploring is the distribution and partnership route.  They’ve joined forces with Del Taco where they’re actively promoting Del Taco’s own Facebook page where you can get trailers, downloads and fun things like that.  While I wonder why they didn’t select a national chain, it’s unique for a non-movie to partner with a fast-food restaurant so early in the conception of the game.  World of Warcraft took several years to branch out into the food partnership marketing efforts.

Atari’s VP of marketing, Jonathan Anastas said :

“Other promotions have focused on ad networks and Google SEM/SEO, Anastas explained. “We’ve more than doubled our digital spend each month for the last three [months],”

This one quote seems to me like a significant shift in efforts.  With SEO, you use technology and good keyword research to get to the top of the search engine results page.  Something that would, on the surface, seem redundant for a video game.  After all, if someone is looking for Star Trek Online, wouldn’t they easily find it on Google?

The short answer is yes.  However, the keyword “Star Trek Online” is a very brand specific search, if someone is looking for a more general search like “star trek games”, as of right now, Star Trek Online is nowhere to be found on the first page, but it’s tucked back on the third page of search results.  The goal is to reach users through their searches that haven’t been reached by their traditional, social or partnership marketing efforts.  Unfortunately, I think they need some better SEO advice, looking at the Google text cache on Star Trek Online’s homepage, it reveals that Google & other search engines see absolutely zero content on the page.

Ultimately, while Anastas wouldn’t reveal the results so far of the pre-orders of the game, he said that he was “extremely pleased” with the digital marketing efforts.

It’s good to see the nearly completely social and digital launch go for such a highly anticipated game and they’re expecting the more traditional channels to be launched with in the next few weeks.

And for no other reason than that they’re completely cool, check out some of these amazing screenshots from the game distributed via the social media efforts.

Lately, the geekiverse has been all aflutter about Sega’s upcoming game, Aliens vs. Predator.  In fact, few movie franchise video games have really generated more excitement.  In my personal opinion, the first AvP game was probably the best AvP game to date.

With the release of the new trailer (be fore-warned it’s violent, with graphic mutilations, impalations, decapitations, evicerations and puppy-kicking) most of the major video game blogs have reported on it.  The comments on these articles range from excited “OMFG!” to “This is just over the top torture porn”.

As usual, this got me thinking about the marketing of this video game.  Is this blatantly over the top imagery designed to whip up the excited masses into a frothing heap of first day sales?  Does blatantly promoting the violence somehow make gamers look bad?  Is Sega’s marketing brilliant, reprehensible or just somewhere in between?

But first… watch the new trailer.

Got it?  Good.

First, the basics.  All marketing needs to start with an understanding of the target demographic.  Marketers do the research to figure out their audience, their purchasing habits and the desires they want fulfilled.  In this case, these are people (mostly male) who’ve consumed a considerable amount of sci-fi horror material.  They’ve seen the Alien and Predator series along with the AvP movies that followed them.  A portion of that audience reads the graphic novels, played the games and continue to debate in fan forums.

The second part of marketing that I want to focus on is the fact that marketers are tasked in describing what the consumer will actually get when they purchase the product.  Some games, like Brutal Legend were promoted as a kick-ass slash game through the “Metalverse”, some of them were visibly pissed off when they found out that there were significant portions of the game that were RTS elements… a genre that has yet to penetrate the console market successfully.  I can understand why Brutal Legend was marketed in the way it was marketed.  The reaction to a RTS console game is rarely well received.  From that angle, the marketing failed.  They pushed a product that didn’t give the consumer enough information to fulfill their expectations.

This looks a bit too well lit to be an Aliens vs. Predator game... but damn it's cool

In this case, the marketing of Aliens vs. Predator gives a tight group of the gaming demographic EXACTLY what they expect and what they desire.  This new trailer is probably one of the better trailers I’ve seen for a video game of that sort.  It communicates clearly, mixing what appears to be ingame scenes, pre-rendered scenes and actual gameplay footage into a bloody montage.

In fact, one of the quick scenes that’s stuck in my head is the part where you have the “mouth view” of the alien as it rushes in to separate a marine’s face from the rest of his head.

Yet is this a cheap attempt to gain media attention, to excite gamers by giving them what could be the bloodiest moments in the game?  Probably, but for the right audience, this is exactly right.  This is exactly what they want.  Fans of the Aliens and Predator stories (like me) have come to expect this over the top brutality in our comics, games and movies about this particular universe.

I’ve watched it dozens of times… and I don’t think I could get enough of this game.

However, Sega needs to watch it… if this game sucks, then this same trailer which is damn good video game marketing could become a touchpoint of fan anger if the actual game doesn’t live up to the standard that it’s presenting.  So even good pre-launch marketing could immediately turn into bad marketing if the product doesn’t live up to the hype.

Bruce Everiss, a veteran of the video games industry, writer of the excellent blog Bruce on Games (and personally, someone I’d love to share a pint with) added his voice to the never-ending discussion about turning movies into video games.

Bruce’s blog is one that I visit on a very regular basis, I’ve learned a lot from his unique and historical views and experience about the business, marketing and analysis of video games.  However, in this case, I think he’s got it half right.

He compares the game Avatar, made by Ubisoft to Rare’s GoldenEye.  It seems to me that GoldenEye was the exception that proves his rule.

However, I’m of the opinion that games and movies are only going to increase in their cross pollination of ideas.  There will be more games that turn into movies and more movies will add video game production into their overall budget.  I see that as an inevitability.

Bruce is spot on in laying out the strong case as to why games should not be made out of movies.  Allow me to summarize his points.

1. Films and books are linear experiences for the consumer.  However, “the best games” allow the user immense flexibility and creativity in a sandbox (non-linear) format.  This disparity between the movie experience and the video game experience causes an inherent problem.
2. Movie studios see video games as a quaternary revenue stream (after box office receipts, DVD sales and, to quote Yogurt from Space Balls… merchandising) and treat them as such.
3. Movies are passive experiences and games are active experiences.
4. The perception of the movie industry as bigger, more important and a “legitimate” form of artistic and creative expression.  Video games are seen as a hobby at best, a poison at worst.
5. Differences in time-tables and development philosophy.  Movies are made with a short shooting schedule and long pre & post production schedules.  Games are generally  made without such efforts in the production schedules.

I hope I’ve at least carried over the core arguments correctly.

Because I think that the movie and video game relationship is going to grow over the years, rather than saying they should stop, I think it’s upon people who not only understand video games, who understand gamers and understand the trends of games should actively inform the movie industry about how to maximize this potentially lucrative revenue stream.

Like Bruce, the last movie to game project I loved was GoldenEye.  I cannot think of another movie based game that came out that’s impressed me to that level.

My response would be different.  Here are things that I would encourage the movie industry to do when they’re planning a video game based off of a movie.

1. Linearity vs. Non-Linearity:  The game should not just be a replaying of the movie.  I can’t tell you how frustrating it is to love a movie, relish the action and drama only to play the video game and have to wade through hordes of expendable bad guys just to accomplish what the hero did in 2 minutes.  It degrades the experience and memory of the movie and makes for a generic hack and slash game.  When making a video game based on the movie, allow the user to have a variety of experiences.  The Matrix games had the right idea to continue the story of the franchise, but failed in every aspect of the execution.  If there’s a part of the story that needs to be expanded, if there’s some freedom in the story, have users explore and discover key places in the game that were merely touched upon in the movie.  Take the best aspects of the games and put them in the setting of the movie.  Don’t try to recreate a linear experience in a game, create a free-flowing and vibrant setting where the conflict can be resolved with new and fresh experiences.
2. Video Games as Merely a Revenue Stream:   Yes, video games in support of a movie must pass the return on investment threshold.  However, the potential for story, experience and shared events can be used to greater profits than the movie studios realize. If they avoid the cheap, formulaic game and if they don’t rely on the movie marketing to push the game to consoles by association, then they can actually realize how powerful video games can be to their revenue stream and story experience that they’re trying to portray in the movie.
3. Passive vs. Active Experiences: I think this is not the strongest argument.  It’s like saying people wont want to watch movies because they can’t feel the pages of the book.  I agree that the experience is different, but that’s a strength, not a weakness.  The active experiences of a video game can enhance the story, it can enhance the connection the player feels with the movie, it can create shared experiences between lovers of the movie and the game.  I think what Bruce is trying to convey is that when a movie is essentially ported to a video game, the passive vs. active experience creates a conflict between the two media and in the gamers’ mind.  I’d agree with that, unless the game is made with the story, the gamer and the experience first in their minds.
4. Legitimacy of Video Games: In this, I wholly agree with Bruce.  Because games based on movies are so horrible most of the time, video games gain nothing from this relationship.  If it were a good game, then the game itself would begin to gain more acceptance as a legitimate form of expression and art.  I’d even venture out to say take risks.  Don’t just make games about shooting people and blowing things up.
5. Production Differences: Movie makers can be masters of story telling.  I think that the video game industry can learn a lot about pacing, story telling, dialog and characters from the movie industry.  It’s telling that one of the best games of ‘09 was Uncharted 2: Among Thieves.  This is a fantastic example of a blended movie/ video game experience.  It has active and passive elements and the story and characters were phenomenal.  This game could have easily been a movie first.  It took the best parts of movies and passive story telling and combined them with a relatively free-form game experience with believable and likable characters.  I’d love to chat with the creative directors and production managers there about how they blended those bits of action.

My intent was not to completely disagree with Bruce Everiss, but to take his rules a step further and elaborate on how I think the relationship and continued collaboration between movies and games could be improved.