Data Filter: The News & Numbers That Matter

News-o-Matic

Whassup?: Namco proposes merger with Sega, which would create the largest
software company in Japan (reportedly under the Sega brand), ahead of current
leader Konami. Sega says it is studying the proposal. Expect a response in
late April.
So What?: After five years of losses, Sega could regain street-cred and a
lot of industry leverage with this deal and also avoid "selling
out" to U.S.-based Microsoft or EA, both of which have been rumored to
be sniffing around Sonic's lair.

Whassup?: U.S. Senators Lieberman and Brownback will introduce legislation
to fund research on the effects of violent games on youth via National
Institutes of Health. In calling for this "objective" research,
Presidential candidate Lieberman specifically cited Grand Theft Auto:
Vice City as a trend "to link sex with violence and reward players for
degrading and killing women." So What?: This is a direct response
to the accelerated development of Mature-rated video titles, and it is
where the industry will need to do what the comic book medium failed to
do 50 years ago: make its case for being an adult medium.
Government media research funding almost always goes to academics
who already believe in "negative effects" theories. For the
real poop on the scholars most likely to get funded, go to
http://www.digital-kids.net/, the coalition present
at the Senators' announcement.

Whassup?: Activision's redone Web site (www.activision.com) strives
to serve many masters: consumers, press, investors, and business partners
with a very "flat" design that uses drop-down and mouse-over
menus to link the respective audiences directly to the right material. With
deep game catalogs and diverse audience needs, most larger publishers
face a similar problem/opportunity online.
So What?: More functional than compelling, especially for consumers,
the new architecture looks and feels more like an index than a strong
marketing vehicle.
It serves investors and press well, with well-organized and thorough
material, but it needs to make clearer to consumers that this is simply
a launch pad to the much richer game-specific mini-sites that really
make the sale.

Whassup?: Games information network IGN.com purchased VE3D.com to
add to the fold. The acquisition adds about 250,000 monthly uniques
to its current 6.4 million (per Feb. comScore Media Metric).
So What?: IGN says this adds in-depth action/strategy coverage.
Actually, because VE3D has a good Blog-like newsfeed that is updated
throughout the day, it may serve IGN to develop it as an answer to the
brilliantly done Blues News (a UGO affiliate).

Whassup?: Sony will invest $1.6 billion in a new chip fab plant in Nagasaki
to build the CELL chips that will power PS3 and other network and set-top
devices. Sony says it will start revealing details of the PS3 hardware
capabilities at its next strategy conference, which has yet to be scheduled.
So What?: Given the normal development and factory-building cycles, this
puts introduction of the PS3 in the 2006 time frame, probably at the
earliest, giving software developers a better indication of when the
platform transition period will take place. This chip (a Sony/Toshiba/IBM
design) vaults across current gen chips, so if the PS3 depends on this
CELL chip, we may not see the next-gen begin until 2007.

Whassup?: Konami puts box shots of World Soccer Winning Eleven 6
International on 2.1 million bottles of Langers Juice in a contest promotion
that pushes consumers to the Langers.com site and offers WE6 products
as prizes.
So What?: International sports titles are a tough-tough sell in the U.S.,
especially via the usual games venues. Co-market plans with products like
juice boxes that might penetrate the soccer-kids segment is smart, but
getting demo discs into their hands could be smarter.

Japanese Console Game Sales (April 7 - April 13, 2003)
Rank  Title/Publisher                     Platform
1     .hack Vol4/Bandai                   PS/2
2     Dragon Warrior Monsters/Enix        GBA
3     Necchu! Pro Baseball 2003/Namco     PS2
4     NARUTO/Tomy                         GC
5     Wario Ware/Nintendo                 GBA
6     Super Robot Battle Pt. 2/Banpresto  PS2
7     Final Fantasy X-2/Square            PS2
8     Taiko no Tatsujin/Namco             PS2
9     Dynasty Warriors 4/Koei             PS2
10    Do Don Pachi Daioujou/Arika         PS2
Source: Media Create Co.

Japanese .hack fans send Vol. 4 to #1 in its first week with 77,000 units, while FF X-2 drops with surprising speed from four last week to seven only a month after its release. Several perennial GBA brands (Zelda, Pokemon and Mega Man) got displaced this week as well, giving PS2 titles impressive dominance. April marks the end of a brisk sales season in Japan, with revenues dropping to 82% of the previous week's takes, which itself amounted to only 54% of the late March sales pace.

Top 10 Renting Video Game Titles (Week Ending April 13, 2003)
This Week  Last Week  Title/Publisher                   Platform  Earnings
                                                                  (Millions)
1          *          Midnight Club II/Take2            PS2       $0.31
2          4          Splinter Cell/Ubi                 PS2       $0.25
3          1          GTA: Vice City/Take2              PS2       $0.18
4          3          Def Jam Vendetta/EA               PS2       $0.17
5          2          Yu-Gi-Oh:Duelists/Konami          PS2       $0.13
6          5          The Getaway/Sony                  PS2       $0.11
7          6          The Sims/EA                       PS2       $0.11
8          7          Dragonball Z: Budokai/Infogrames  PS2       $0.10
9          10         Zelda: Wind Waker/Nintendo        GC        $0.10
10         8          All-Star Baseball 2004/Art Data   PS2       $0.09
c 2003, VSDA VidTrac/Video Software Dealers Association

After a five-month run at the top of the rental chart, Vice City finally gets displaced...by another Take2 mega-hit, Midnight Club II. The real news in vid stores this quarter is the mysterious drop of 9.6% in game rental revenue and an 18.8% fall-off in "turns" (number of rentals) compared to Q1 2002. Carrie Dieterich, vp marketing and industry relations, VSDA, tells EGB that game rentals are coming off of a banner 2002 (over 40 million turns), so there may be a natural drop occurring after record highs. As well, she suggests the rising popularity of online console play may be drawing mindshare from rentals. Chris Roberts, vp sales, Rentrak, suggests that a dearth of new blockbuster titles in the first quarter may be to blame here.

Top 10 Children's Video Game Titles (February 2003)
Feb. Rank  Jan. Rank  Title/Publisher                 Platform
1          2          SpongeBob Dutchman/THQ          GBA
2          1          SpongeBob Supersponge/THQ       PSX
3          3          SpongeBob Dutchman/THQ          PS2
4          5          Bob the Builder/THQ             PSX
5          6          Rugrats: I Gotta Party/THQ      GBA
6          4          SpongeBob: Dutchman/THQ         GCN
7          9          Hamtaro: Ham Unite/Nintendo     GBC
8          *          Tigger's Honey Hunt/NewKidCo    PSX
9          8          Rugrats: Royal Ransom/THQ       PS2
10         7          Dora Explorer: Pirate/NewKidCo  GBA
Source: The NPD Group/NPD Funworld/TRSTS

Generally, children's titles simply swapped places on the chart in February, with NewKidCo's Tigger title the only new entrant. Get beyond the familiar but still stunning dominance of THQ and its Nickelodeon licenses in the kids' category and we also see the remarkable mix of platform popularity in this segment, suggesting that there are several ways of accessing the kids' market now. Older siblings may be handing down their former PS-1 systems to little brother/sister, and families with younger children may not be able to justify the upgrade to the PS2 quite yet. Nevertheless, with two PS2 titles in the chart, Sony is well-positioned to market the PS2 into this next tier of family consumers.

[Copyright 2003 PBI Media, LLC. All rights reserved.]

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