It's the most playful time… of the year…

As just released by the ESA

Washington, DC – December 11, 2013 – Approximately 79 million Americans intend to purchase video games during the holiday season, according to new market research and analysis released today by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA).

The report, “Holiday Purchasing Study 2013,” found that nearly 30 percent of those who said they intend to buy games and game-related items as gifts also plan to spend more on these items than last year. This demand is driven by a strong line-up of video game releases, and the launch of new next generation video game consoles, including the Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Wii U.

“With a new generation of consoles and growth in expanding genres such as mobile and social games, video games continue to be among the most sought after holiday purchases this season,” said Michael D. Gallagher, president and CEO of ESA, the trade association representing U.S. computer and video game publishers. “This new research underscores the industry’s ability to continually innovate and anticipate consumer demand, making it an economic engine, especially during the holidays.”

Other key findings in the report:

  • Video games and related items are among the top five categories of gifts that Americans plan to buy this holiday season;
  • Physical games and next generation consoles are among the top three categories of video game items most likely to be purchased by gamers; and,
  • Consumers aged 25 to 44 are planning to spend an average of $219 on video games and game-related content.

The NPD Group conducted the survey for ESA among a U.S. representative sample of approximately 3,000 individuals over the age of 13. Survey respondents said they currently play video games on at least one system or device, such as a smartphone, video game console, portable game console, computer, or other game system.

Posted in Apple, Digital, iPad, iPhone, iPod, Kinect, PlayStation, Wii, Xbox | No Comments »

Gaming platform evolution…

Since I will be speaking about games, gamification, applied games and my book the upcoming two days in Istanbul I might as well share this slide about the evolution of game platforms, also because the most recent addition to platforms can be pre-ordered per direct. The Game Stick that works with a controller and a USB stick is a sheer novelty!

Although they (Ouya, Gamestick, Onlive) still have to prove their success I am really curious if they will change the way we will play our games in the living room. Yesterday I tweeted that Apple will introduce the ‘next gen’ game console in a form called ‘Apple TV’ probably this year. Providing gameplay through their iPhone, iPod Touch and iPads as controllers. How great it may sound, personally I still prefer controllers that have buttons. And what will Sony introduce along with their PlayStation 4…? Indeed – touch screen – in between their two sticks. Another mistake in my opinion. They could better have made their buttons even MORE analogue. So I can use the buttons as a ‘gas pedal’, or for sneaking (pressed slightly), walking (pressed normal) or running (pressed all the way). I advice the traditional companies to stick to their competences and optimize their systems in line with their own vision to keep hold of their fan-base instead of trying to become a ‘all in one- product… Stick to the Core I say! And let the young innovative companies try to shake up the world with novelties like the Game Stick….

Posted in PlayStation, Wii, Xbox | 1 Comment »

Nintendo's Pre E3 2012 vision …

Social gaming according to mr. Iwata from Nintendo. The speech maybe boring, but the vision is sound…

For people that don’t know, please bare in mind that Nintendo was founded in 1889…, not 1989 ! It’s incredible that they have been innovating ever-since, sometimes revolutionizing the world with play.

Posted in Nintendo, Wii | No Comments »

It's been two years!

>It’s been a while since I wrote a full article myself, but here we go again! – I am trying to do this every morning now starting today (although it is hard to find inspiration sometimes).

The past two years have been great. I wrote my first posting just a little over two years ago preparing myself for writing my book ‘Laat met je merk spelen’ which we have almost finished translating into English. The English summary is available at www.brandnewplayground.com

18 months ago I started my own company called BrandNewGame and since then I have been working on great projects for ABN Amro Bank (confidential), Air Cargo Netherlands, Dutch Customs, Schiphol Airport, The Port of Amsterdam and Holland Casino (confidential). All great projects where games were used to influence behavior in all sorts of ways. This is one of the reasons I wasn’t able to write so much from time to time, but I am still very happy and very proud of the thousands of unique visitors that visit my weblog each year – I thank you for that!

If you have any comments or ideas for this blog, please share them by email, Twitter (@BartHufen) or on my group on Linkedin called BrandNewGame. Twitter probably works best as I get a lot of spam theses days by email.

Now, let’s have a look at the Top 10 games of today (thanks to http://www.vgchartz.com)!

I must say I am still happily surprised that games like Wii Sports Resort, Wii Sports and even Zumba Fitness (10th place) are still selling well! This means women (mostly) are still using the Wii actively to do their workout at home in front of the TV, instead of going to the gym! I hear this a lot from friends around me.
Exercising for fitness by means of motion controlled games is something I describe in chapter 3 of my book. Here I show all sorts of cases how games can be used as a marketing tool, for instance to keep your staff healthy doing exercises! It was great to see that at Holland Casino, they stimulate staff to use the Wii at all their casino’s to keep their staff in a good healthy state. Check these pictures of Holland Casino Headquarters…

As you can see it’s not just women playing Wii Sports…

And this is me in an office with ‘my Deal-or-no-Deal-ladies’…

I will try to post some more in-depth articles soon, but hope you appreciate my efforts! 😉

Posted in Personnel, Wii | No Comments »

Johnny Lee demos Wii Remote hacks – TED TV

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Posted in Innovation, Nintendo, talks, Wii | No Comments »

Rexona Robot plays Wii Fit

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I am not sure wether this is consumer generated or successfully seeded by Unilever / Rexona…, but it looks great!

Posted in Advertising, Nintendo, Wii | No Comments »