Four ideas popped out to me while attending a series of presentations from top executives in the gaming industry today: Ideas about price, women, mid-cycle relaunches and which games matter most to the bottom line.
The following all came from half-hour presentations to investors and press today at the BMO Capital Markets 17th Annual Digital Entertainment Conference today.
-"By making [a] game relevant [with DLC] we all keep the average retail price point up to $59.99." - Dan DeMatteo, CEO of GameStop, describing one of the added benefits of releasing downloadable content for a major game, presumably keeping gamers hooked for longer, making a game hotter, and diminishing the need to cut the price.
-"For a long time critics said that the video game industry didn't care about females." - Reggie Fils-Aime, president of Nintendo of America, before saying that Nintendo has identified two "broad propositions" that work for that audience: 1) games that appeal to their personal interests and 2) games that allow them to enjoy playing with the rest of their family.
-"This is like a relaunch in the middle of a console generation." - Dennis Durkin, COO, Interactive Entertainment Business, Microsoft, talking about the 2010-slated Project Natal hands-free controller for the Xbox 360.
-"Top 20" - Eric Brown, EA CFO, saying that that's the list EA wants to have more of its games in and is structuring its business toward. That compares, he said to the Top 40 best-selling games, which was an older goal. The Top 20 is, increasingly, where the lion's share is.
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