Issue 7, vol. 2 - May 2006

Last week Youthography traveled to the California coast for three days of rays, babes and adventure. That is, gamma ray guns, booth babes and wild game play adventure from the biggest and the best video game industry event of the year: E3.

While analysts balked that this year's show was less impressive than last, the convention was still busting with plenty of exciting game announcements from Master Chief's ass-kicking return in Halo 3 at Microsoft, to Nintendo's announcement of a joint Zelda + Wii launch, to Sony's PS3 price point of US$599 which made wallets around the world just a little more sad.

The real positive story though was on the E3 show floor where the Nintendo pavilion remained jam-packed with visitors and where a lucky find was a Wii lineup less than 3 hours long. With 27 playable Wii games, from Super Mario Galaxy to Madden, and new titles like Red Steel and ExciteTruck, even the most hardened XBOX player had to get their hands on the Wii controller.

If you're still of the mindset that its not acceptable for anyone out of university, or uses soap, to play video games than it's time for a wake-up call. With Wii, Nintendo is expecting to make a gamer out of you yet. Their latest mantra, “Playing=Believing”, may sound like something straight out of the boardroom. But in a lot of cases it rings true, especially for the Wii and especially for North America. Potential consumers will really have to physically feel the Wii controller and interact with the game to truly understand Nintendo's “new” generation of game play. With the flick of a wrist, players can now effortlessly hike an NFL-worthy pass, or turn the controller to literally steer a car through an off-road desert track.

Come launch time, effectively sampling the Wii will be Nintendo's biggest challenge. We're confident that regular gamers and even so-called lapsed gamers will immediately love playing the system, but can it turn non-gamers into gamers?

Gaming as we know it is fundamentally different here in North America games that require active movement like jumping up and down, beating a drum or strumming a guitar are usually relegated to dark arcades or the living rooms of otaku (people obsessed with Japanese culture). Nintendo is setting everything on innovation. And while the Wii is new and smart, it's also a very unusual way to play games. The actions may be everyday swinging a tennis racquet, conducting an orchestra, and even running on the spot but acting these out in a living room in front of a television is a whole different thing. The conditions Nintendo will have to overcome, with non-gamers especially, are feelings of shyness, insecurity and embarrassment.

While E3 revealed that Nintendo is not going to be muscled out by Microsoft and Sony, there were all kinds of great developments in the works for the next year. The following is our list of the good, the bad and the just plain weird from the LA Convention Centre, and a special note on the new investment by Microsoft:

The Good:

• Ubisoft: Props to the French developer for fully embracing the Wii controller and creating what will be two innovative triple-A titles: Rayman: Raving Rabbids and Red Steel.
• Spore: Will Wright's (the creator of The Sims) game that allows you to create your own evolving civilization from the single-celled organism to galactic empire
• PS3: Despite the absence of actual consoles the PS3 graphics are quite amazing, especially in HDTV. Titles we are especially eager about include Metal Gear Solid 4, Final Fantasy XIII and Singstar, a karaoke game with a plethora of Sony artists to sing the night away with.
• Activision + Tony Hawk: A giant half pipe and some great tricks and falls from the legend himself and his BMXer friends were cool. Being close enough to hear the bodies hit the ground was friggin' rad.The Bad

• PS3: With consoles behind the glass and a small handful of launch titles, it's not surprising that the crowds were staying away. Why wait in a line to see a 20% done Gran Turismo game that's running on a development kit?
• PSP: Sony strikes out again with their narrow-minded strategy that sounds something like, “Who needs games, look how cool this looks?” Another year and the game titles for PSP are just not there.

The Weird:

• NCSoft: They paid a $2,500 noise violation fine for a new-age-hard-metal rock show that included fire jugglers. Yeah, that was weird.
• Booth Babes: Okay, so maybe bikinis weren't allowed, but skintight jumpsuits, dresses, shirts and miniskirts were in full effect. Many noted the booth babe presence was much less than previous years, but the girls were still smoking and the nerds were still uncomfortably awkward.

The Big Investment

• Microsoft: The Vista Operating System was showcased this year as Microsoft takes the next step in controlling your living room. Their push this year at E3 was to showcase the new Windows OS for gaming and their new networked gaming structure that will allow for play across platforms computer players vs. XBOX players. It's a big investment from them and it could revolutionize game play. Or it could have no impact at all.

If you're a consumer youth marketer, you need to consider the impact of video games on your brand. Either you use video games as a pillar of youth culture that helps you get closer to your target demographic or, well, you miss out. One way to get video games working for you is to partner with Montreal-based game studio, Ubisoft. Ubisoft has a number of programs designed specifically for youth marketers looking to use video games as a platform to reaching teens and young adults.

These tools range from in-game branding, to co-branded demo game CDs, to full version games distributed as co-branded premiums or GWPs. And most of Ubisoft's games are available for all consoles and PCs, so you're able to reach anyone interested in playing games, regardless of their hardware. With many new video game titles now outselling Hollywood, a strategic partnership with a powerhouse brand like Ubisoft just simply makes sense.