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ANIMATION WORLD MAGAZINE - ISSUE 5.05 - AUGUST 2000
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Your Move... "Our on-line rallying cry is to create games that are as easy to play as television is to watch," said Jeff Brown, Senior Director of Corporate Communications. "This means that while we will create challenging games, there will also be games for everyone. There are going to be deep game experiences for the more experienced games, but also games that are easier to play for new and intermediate gamers."
The site, an enhanced version of which will only be available to AOL subscribers, will be a subscription-based model with fees forecasted to be under $10 per month. Non-AOL users will not have access to free games and the interface will be slightly different. The gaming company, which still plans to treat packaged goods as their number one source of revenue, predicts that on-line gaming will provide a good, sustainable business model for future growth with revenue streams, in addition to subscription fees, being realized from the sale of on-screen or banner advertising, e-commerce and, in the future, interspacial advertising. "Commercials within gaming are going to be a reality," says Brown. "The only question is whether it will look like American television with commercials interspersed or British television with commercials grouped at the end of the broadcast hour." Rounding out the list of hard core gaming groups looking to profit from soft gamers is PlayStation2. The PlayStation2 gaming console has been designed to merge movies, music and games heralding what the company claims is a "new world of computer entertainment." Don't Rule Out... The system will support audio CD and DVD video formats offering consumer's music and video entertainment options while retaining the ability to play games created for the original PlayStation systems. With a phone connection, PlayStation2 will allow Internet-based electronic distribution of digital content when used with an Ethernet connection to broadband networks (i.e., digital cable). Users will be able to download data-intensive computer entertainment content to an accessory hard-disc drive through their PlayStation2. Additional connection ports on the PlayStation2 include a wide range of digital and s-video outputs for televisions, monitors and speaker systems. Gamers will be able to attach two computer type joysticks and game play accessories. Players will be able to hear more about the gaming giant's broadband strategy after the game ships on October 26, however industry reports state that sometime next year the company will have an expansion unit that will ship with the hard drive allowing for a future network interface and on-line gaming element. Jacquie Kubin, a Washington, DC-based freelance journalist, enjoys writing about the electronic entertainment and edutainment mediums, including the Internet. She is a frequent contributor to the Washington Times and Krause Publication magazines. She has won the 1998 Certificate of Award granted by the Metropolitan Area Mass Media Committee of the American Association of University Women.
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