My OperaI Aint Got Time to Read
Monday, February 22, 2010 1:31:07 PM
I'm not sure where I stand on the whole 'videogames as mainstream media' argument. I'd like them to be treated with more respect, the higher class ones any way, and I'd certainly like them not to be the whipping boy for this generation, but at the same time I think that they aren't really worthy of Newsnight Review coverage and developers on talk shows yet. I'm sure it will happen, it already has happened in a few cases, as people who play games work through the various systems, and as those in the systems start to become attracted to games, it'll happen. More out of a desire for profit/viewers I assume, but also the dilution of media to increasingly banal and trivial lows. Not meaning any disrespect to games, by that comment, only that tv, the news and papers are all so desperate for content nowadays that Halo 3's record breaking launch is deemed worthy of coverage, so how long until the hype for the sequel to big selling game starts getting coverage, then it's not so far from the game itself.
This isn't actually what I wanted to talk about, mainstream acceptance through the news and various magazine/talk shows is a topic I've probably talked about before, along with a thousand other bloggers. The 'mainstream' acceptance I want to talk about is more commercial, literally.
Last week Film4 showed Aliens, nothing especially newsworthy in that, it's a modern classic, granted I personally may have seen it too often but I can understand why it would be on at every opportunity. The reason why I took note was that on Friday the new Aliens vs Predator game came out. I speculated to a friend of mine that perhaps the reason for the scheduling of the film was to tie into the release of the game. It seems a bit far fetched, but if you're channel 4 and you're looking at what film to put on to maximize viewers (and so revenue), then why not stick the film on a couple of days before the game comes out?
I dismissed it as semi-wishful thinking, there's no way Channel 4 would pay any attention to which games are being released. Except last night Channel 4 (for our non-Brit readers, Channel 4 own a few channels, one of which is Film4) showed Predator. Again, it's a great film, there's no reason to read anything in to it, and we can have the Arnie vs Danny Glover argument another time (Glover wins), but the timing got me thinking. Surely the same broadcaster showing an Alien film and a Predator film in the same week as the game comes out is not mere coincidence? Sure enough come the first advert break I get my answer.
I forget the exact wording from the announcer, but it was something along the lines of "here's a treat for you Alien and Predator fans", before an extended trailer for the game ran. The trailer was nothing special, or maybe I'm not fan enough to get excited by it, and maybe this is a problem with the low quality of Freeview, but it looked a little rough, but it did run for the entire ad break. I know it's pathetic to get excited about an advert. and I'm not, really, but I do think this is an important step. I'm sure at some point in the build-up to the world cup, or maybe the FA cup or Champions League final, one of the sports wear manufacturers will launch a new ad campaign by buying the entire commercial break for an extended advert. It happens every year or so, ever since Cantona smacked a football through satan's chest. In fact I've done games a disservice, I think EA may have taken the same approach with FIFA the past couple of years, but certainly this is a first for a non-established franchise, especially to have a broadcaster piggyback 2 films on its release.
It looks like it paid off too, as I type the charts have come through and AvP has taken the multi-format no.1, and in doing so it's become the fastest selling game so far this year. Quite a (surprising) achievement I'm sure you'll agree, especially as the past 3 weeks I've seen endless adverts for "the sequel to the BAFTA winner for best game" Bioshock 2. That's quite a billing for Bioshock 2, and I mean that sincerely, people. including cynics, have been won over by the game, and being able to wave a BAFTA around as a reason people should pay attention adds some stature, certainly more than "the only game to receive a Bitparade 10/10, even though none of the regular writers really thought that much of it".
During Predator, and the Dawn of the Dead remake that followed it, there were a couple of other video game adverts. While not one of them I've seen Sega's Olympics game advertised endlessly, hardly a surprise given that the Olympics are on, but aimed at a similar audience (who also love zombies and ugly mother fuckers) was Nintendo's advert for New Super Mario Bros Wii. I've had this trend pointed out to me before, but you'll find that Nintendo's advertising presence rockets whenever the kids are on holiday, and last week was half term. Granted late Sunday night is maybe a bit late to be planning your family activities, that's homework time, but the point remains. There was one other advert of note though, the advert for Heavy Rain.
As excited as I am for Heavy Rain I will admit to being a tad disappointed by it, it's content more than it's style though. For those that didn't see it, a robbery at a convenience store kicks off, the robber's got a gun and the teller isn't too keen on handing his money over. Present is one of the main characters from the game (the middle-aged detective Scott Shelby), and as the advert draws to a close he must make a decision as to how to deal with the situation. There's a few normal adverts sandwiched in between, then the second part starts up. I'm assuming they've put together a few different outcomes to this otherwise splitting the adds is pointless, but on the version I saw Shelby chooses to negotiate with the robber. Shelby convinces the guy to put his gun away and run, avoiding confrontation, unfortunately there's not a huge amount of tension in the scene, at least in advert form, hence my disappointment. Something more dramatic would have been more memorable, and maybe that's coming, one scenario could see you do nothing with the shop keeper ending up dead, another you fight and and up shot yourself.
So why the proliferation of gaming adverts at the minute, is it that games are in fact becoming more mainstream? To a point I'd say yes, I also saw an advert for a cruise yesterday that had Wii Sports golf prominently featured, and the new Alfa Romeo advert is a pastiche of Space Invaders. However the other factor is that advertising revenue is down. Whatever the reason for that is, and there's a few, the upshot of it is that it's now far cheaper to buy advertising time than it was 5 years ago. Despite the job losses the games industry is still worth a lot, it may even be still growing (I guess that depends on how well Nintendo do, given they're the ones who've set the bar so high), and as such it can afford to spend money on adverts when other industries are cutting back. Want proof, just look at the various adverts for people wanting your gold at the minute. These used to soley reside on the shitty digital shopping channels, they certainly weren't going to appear during Coronation Street or the news, now they're omnipresent.
So while there's every reason to believe that the spate of adverts is indicative of a growing acceptance of games (and a more disparate release schedule), I will just finish by saying that the longest advert I saw all night was for hair regrowth treatment, starring Shane Warne and a bunch of other antipodean sportsmen you've never heard of.
This isn't actually what I wanted to talk about, mainstream acceptance through the news and various magazine/talk shows is a topic I've probably talked about before, along with a thousand other bloggers. The 'mainstream' acceptance I want to talk about is more commercial, literally.
Last week Film4 showed Aliens, nothing especially newsworthy in that, it's a modern classic, granted I personally may have seen it too often but I can understand why it would be on at every opportunity. The reason why I took note was that on Friday the new Aliens vs Predator game came out. I speculated to a friend of mine that perhaps the reason for the scheduling of the film was to tie into the release of the game. It seems a bit far fetched, but if you're channel 4 and you're looking at what film to put on to maximize viewers (and so revenue), then why not stick the film on a couple of days before the game comes out?
I dismissed it as semi-wishful thinking, there's no way Channel 4 would pay any attention to which games are being released. Except last night Channel 4 (for our non-Brit readers, Channel 4 own a few channels, one of which is Film4) showed Predator. Again, it's a great film, there's no reason to read anything in to it, and we can have the Arnie vs Danny Glover argument another time (Glover wins), but the timing got me thinking. Surely the same broadcaster showing an Alien film and a Predator film in the same week as the game comes out is not mere coincidence? Sure enough come the first advert break I get my answer.
I forget the exact wording from the announcer, but it was something along the lines of "here's a treat for you Alien and Predator fans", before an extended trailer for the game ran. The trailer was nothing special, or maybe I'm not fan enough to get excited by it, and maybe this is a problem with the low quality of Freeview, but it looked a little rough, but it did run for the entire ad break. I know it's pathetic to get excited about an advert. and I'm not, really, but I do think this is an important step. I'm sure at some point in the build-up to the world cup, or maybe the FA cup or Champions League final, one of the sports wear manufacturers will launch a new ad campaign by buying the entire commercial break for an extended advert. It happens every year or so, ever since Cantona smacked a football through satan's chest. In fact I've done games a disservice, I think EA may have taken the same approach with FIFA the past couple of years, but certainly this is a first for a non-established franchise, especially to have a broadcaster piggyback 2 films on its release.
It looks like it paid off too, as I type the charts have come through and AvP has taken the multi-format no.1, and in doing so it's become the fastest selling game so far this year. Quite a (surprising) achievement I'm sure you'll agree, especially as the past 3 weeks I've seen endless adverts for "the sequel to the BAFTA winner for best game" Bioshock 2. That's quite a billing for Bioshock 2, and I mean that sincerely, people. including cynics, have been won over by the game, and being able to wave a BAFTA around as a reason people should pay attention adds some stature, certainly more than "the only game to receive a Bitparade 10/10, even though none of the regular writers really thought that much of it".
During Predator, and the Dawn of the Dead remake that followed it, there were a couple of other video game adverts. While not one of them I've seen Sega's Olympics game advertised endlessly, hardly a surprise given that the Olympics are on, but aimed at a similar audience (who also love zombies and ugly mother fuckers) was Nintendo's advert for New Super Mario Bros Wii. I've had this trend pointed out to me before, but you'll find that Nintendo's advertising presence rockets whenever the kids are on holiday, and last week was half term. Granted late Sunday night is maybe a bit late to be planning your family activities, that's homework time, but the point remains. There was one other advert of note though, the advert for Heavy Rain.
As excited as I am for Heavy Rain I will admit to being a tad disappointed by it, it's content more than it's style though. For those that didn't see it, a robbery at a convenience store kicks off, the robber's got a gun and the teller isn't too keen on handing his money over. Present is one of the main characters from the game (the middle-aged detective Scott Shelby), and as the advert draws to a close he must make a decision as to how to deal with the situation. There's a few normal adverts sandwiched in between, then the second part starts up. I'm assuming they've put together a few different outcomes to this otherwise splitting the adds is pointless, but on the version I saw Shelby chooses to negotiate with the robber. Shelby convinces the guy to put his gun away and run, avoiding confrontation, unfortunately there's not a huge amount of tension in the scene, at least in advert form, hence my disappointment. Something more dramatic would have been more memorable, and maybe that's coming, one scenario could see you do nothing with the shop keeper ending up dead, another you fight and and up shot yourself.
So why the proliferation of gaming adverts at the minute, is it that games are in fact becoming more mainstream? To a point I'd say yes, I also saw an advert for a cruise yesterday that had Wii Sports golf prominently featured, and the new Alfa Romeo advert is a pastiche of Space Invaders. However the other factor is that advertising revenue is down. Whatever the reason for that is, and there's a few, the upshot of it is that it's now far cheaper to buy advertising time than it was 5 years ago. Despite the job losses the games industry is still worth a lot, it may even be still growing (I guess that depends on how well Nintendo do, given they're the ones who've set the bar so high), and as such it can afford to spend money on adverts when other industries are cutting back. Want proof, just look at the various adverts for people wanting your gold at the minute. These used to soley reside on the shitty digital shopping channels, they certainly weren't going to appear during Coronation Street or the news, now they're omnipresent.
So while there's every reason to believe that the spate of adverts is indicative of a growing acceptance of games (and a more disparate release schedule), I will just finish by saying that the longest advert I saw all night was for hair regrowth treatment, starring Shane Warne and a bunch of other antipodean sportsmen you've never heard of.
