Family game night gets facelift
Dave Gerardi -- Playthings, 4/1/2001
Traditional board games buoyed a lackluster holiday season in 2000.
Steering customers down the board game aisle this year will be difficult with kids clamoring for Nintendo's GameCube and Microsoft's Xbox, which launch in the fall and are backed by long lists of third-party developers. Last year's supply problems will be a mere memory for Sony's Play- Station 2. Nintendo, mean- while, will keep its almost insurmountable market share of the hand-held segment with its new 32-bit Game Boy Advance.
The trade gets a good look at the future of gaming during next month's E3 show in Los Angeles. "It's a big year for the industry," said Peter Dille, THQ's vice president of marketing.
Consoles are moving out of the basement and into the living room as mainstream America embraces them as an integral part of any media center. An entire generation has grown up on video games, has not grown out of the habit and, according to Jeff Brown, Electronic Arts' vice president of corporate communications, won't.
Gaming, explained Nintendo spokeswoman Beth Llewelyn, "is becoming the Friday night activity (for families)." Multi-player titles are naturally suited for this. Nintendo's Mario Party 3 , in fact, is essentially a board game enhanced by various mini-games.
Apart from the stalwart sports category, E3 will see developers strike out in two distinct directions. Kid-based gaming will be one.
THQ inked deals with Mattel and Nickelodeon for just this purpose. Its stable of licenses now includes Matchbox, Hot Wheels, SpongeBob SquarePants, Rugrats and Jimmy Neutron (Nick's animated film for fall 2001).
Parents may scratch their heads at Pokémon products in their various forms, but the video games are to the younger set what EA's Madden Football franchise is to twenty-something males. Accounting for 12 percent of all game unit sales last year, the Pokémon juggernaut shows no sign of slowing with the third movie making its U.S. debut this month, Nintendo's Pokémon Stadium 2 has hit for the N64, and Pokémon Crystal for the Game Boy Color appearing in the fall.
Konami is updating Frogger as a light-hearted adventure following a frog's search for a princess whose kiss will change him into a prince. The company balances this E-rated title with more mature offerings such as the gritty Metal Gear Solid 2 and grittier Silent Hill 2 (pictured at left), both for PS2. Whereas "Resident Evil shocked you, Silent Hill wants to creep you," says Konami Producer Ken Ogasawara.
Less spooky but equally immersive is Sega's Shenmue II (pictured at right), the continuation of last year's epic revenge story. Indeed, games like Shenmue II, Silent Hill 2 and THQ's Red Faction show developers flexing their muscle with the 128-bit systems. Red Faction is a graphically stunning first-person shooter for the PS2 that features the ability to destroy practically every piece of the gaming environment.
Try that with a board game.
