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..Gary Dretzka
..Leonard Klady
..David Poland
..Ray Pride
..Patricia Vidal

March 4, 2003

This being the season of unnecessary awards shows, it would have been easy to dismiss last week's Interactive Achievement Awards as just another dopey excuse for like-minded people to get together and pat each other's backs on television.

It was impossible, however, to begrudge the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences its time in the Las Vegas sun. Last year, the entertainment-software industry - a.k.a. video games -- recorded nearly $7 billion in revenues in the United States, up 8 percent from the year before.

Those numbers put the 25-year-old business on a par with feature films, videos and key segments of the recorded-music business.

Then, too, the ceremony and concurrent D.I.C.E. Summit (Design, Innovate, Communicate, Entertain) scored points for being compact enough to fit into the nightclub of the Hard Rock resort, and too far off the radar screen for red-carpet gadflies Joan and Melissa Rivers to notice. The event was covered by the niche G4 network - no, I hadn't heard of it, either - and featured such semi-celebrities as Dave Foley, Tony Hawk, Blue Man Group, Kelly Hu, Kristen Dalton, Kristina Anapau and motocross "pioneer" Mike Metzger.

In an imitation of Miramax at the Golden Globes and Norah Jones at the Grammys, software publisher Electronic Arts cleaned up by winning 13 awards. Its Battlefield 1942, which was developed by Digital Illusions, was the big kahuna of video games, grabbing prizes for Game of the Year, Computer Game of the Year, Innovation in Computer Gaming, and Online Gameplay of the Year.

Nintendo's Animal Crossing received three awards, including Innovation in Console Gaming, Console Role-Playing Game of the Year and Outstanding Achievement in Game Design. Overall, Nintendo went home with seven awards.

Video games and other entertainment software tend to make headlines, even in the business pages, only when some demented teenager goes on a shooting rampage, or when characters like Lara Croft and the Mario Bros. become pop-culture icons. So many of the movies aimed at toddlers and teens arrive with software tie-ins that it's no longer news when they become hugely successful.

Knowing that citizens of Nintendo Nation someday had to grow up, Las Vegas hotels have slowly but surely been turning their casino floors into video arcades. By law, they're not allowed to incorporate kid-friendly images into the signage of the slot machines, but the noises and bonus-round set-ups will be familiar to anyone who's owned a Sega or Nintendo machine.

"One obvious trend apparent from the 2002 data is that console software is capturing an even greater share of the market than ever before, accounting for 80 percent of industry software sales compared with 65 percent five years ago," Lowenstein said, after the results of the survey were released. "Again, this is another reflection of the fact that the market for consoles is aging and broadening far beyond its original base of teenage boys."

This observation was a recurrent theme in D.I.C.E. seminars.

Rather than put away their digital toys, adult gamers have demanded software that continues to challenge them. The introduction of so-called Hollywood-style games, which feature multi-dimensional characters and narrative storylines, has raised the demographic target from males 12-18, to professional men and women, 18-34.

That qualifies as a success story in an industry generally assumed to be limited exclusively to pimply-skinned boys with ADD and without prom dates.

The immense success of Grand Theft Auto III and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City -- named Computer Action Game of the Year and Console Action Adventure Game of the Year -- has shown that gamers of all ages will embrace titles that expand the video environment by adding narrative plot, composed music and characters with complex personalities. Grand Theft Auto is one of the first -- if not the first -- examples of a "Hollywood-style" game, and its soundtrack has even done great business.

"Think of 'Miami Vice,' except you're playing the bad guy," said Chad Barron, director of communication for Criterion Software Inc. "You get to extort money ... steal cars. There's a much greater level of immersion, and the characters have real personalities.

"Role-playing games aren't limited to dwarves and elves anymore."

Attempts to cross-fertilize movie, TV and game titles is nothing new. Despite the horrendous critical and commercial response to the movie based on Nintendo's trademark Mario Bros., Mortal Kombat and Lara Croft have since proven their cross-over appeal. Games spun from Star Wars and various Disney products have prospered, as well.

A recent survey showed one key fissure in the demographic makeup of gamers.

Players of console games most often purchased action (25.1 percent), sports (19.5 percent) and racing titles (16.6 percent). So-called "edutainment" (7.6 percent), role-playing (7.4 percent), fighting games (6.4 percent), first person shooters (5.5 percent) and adventure games (5.1 percent) followed.

By contrast, computer gamers favored strategy games (27.4 percent), children's games (15.9 percent) and shooter games (11.5 percent), followed by family entertainment titles (9.6 percent), role-playing games (8 percent), sports titles (6.3 percent), racing (4.4 percent), simulation (4.1 percent) and fighting games (0.1 percent).

One assumes that the average console player is younger than those addicted to computor-based games, if only because older players can play games on their office computer.

Just as PG and PG-13 titles rule the theatrical box office, a majority of games sold were rated "E" for "Everyone" (55.7 percent), followed by "T" for "Teen" (27.6 percent) and by "M" for "Mature" (13.2 percent). Of the top 20 best-selling console games, 80 percent were rated E or T, while 90 percent of the top 20 computer games were rated either E or T.

Other winners at the IAA ceremony included Medal of Honor: Allied Assault and Medal of Honor: Frontline (Computer First Person Action Game of the Year, Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composition, Sound Design), Neverwinter Nights (Computer Role Playing Game of the Year), The Sims Unleashed and Sims Online (Computer Simulation Game of the Year, Massively Multiplayer / Persistent World Game of the Year), Madden NFL 2003 (Computer Sports Game of the Year, Console Sports Game of the Year), Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos (Computer Strategy Game of the Year), Tekken 4 (Console Fighting Game of the Year), Metroid Prime and Metroid Fusion (Console First Person Action Game of the Year, Handheld Game of the Year), Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell (Console Game of the Year, Outstanding Achievement in Gameplay Engineering), Ratchet & Clank (Console Action Adventure Game of the Year), Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2 (Console Racing Game of the Year), Mario Party 4 (Family Game of the Year), Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus (Outstanding Achievement in Animation, Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction), Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem (Outstanding Achievement in Character or Story), Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (Outstanding Achievement in Visual Engineering).

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