Las Vegas –
On the opening day of the massive annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES),
Digital Media Wire assembled a panel of gaming industry leaders to discuss
the industry’s future during a SuperSession panel called “The State of the Games Industry: View
from the Top.”
In front of a room packed with over 400 people, the
panel, which was moderated by Mike Vorhaus of Magid Advisors, discussed the current state of the industry as the business continues its
transition towards a digital future.
“Gaming on the fridge, why not?” said Eric
Anderson, VP Content & Product Solutions, Samsung Electronics America, who is in charge of
content on all Samsung devices except mobile phones and tablets.
While
many of today’s games are played on consoles
and other dedicated gaming devices, the panel seemed to agree that the
industry is moving away from “walled gardens,” such as game consoles, to
online apps and other forms of distribution that can be played on any platform
or device.
“Are consoles dead? Well I think that walled gardens are tough… My Wii at home
is mainly used for accessing Netflix. Consoles have a hard time accessing Farmville
and other popular games people want to play,” said Gene
Hoffman, CEO, Vindicia.
“However, retailers and stores (selling console games) are not
dead and everything will not be direct to consumer, they help with marketing
and discovery and what not,” he added.
Most panelists agreed that while
the games industry is changing, it’s a matter of evolution, not revolution,
like what happened as the music industry went digital with the introduction of
Napster.
“Marketing and distribution (of games) doesn’t change as fast as we who live in
high-tech centers might think,” said Bill
Young, Managing Director, EA Ready, Electronic Arts, who is based in San
Francisco.
An important trend that was recognized is
the introduction of Microsoft’s controller-less Kinect system for Xbox, which
allows people to play games using gestures and movement.
“I spent the Christmas Holiday playing Microsoft Kinect with my kids. Now
Samsung is thinking a lot about how to rethink the remote using motion and
voice for all kinds of devices,” said Eric Anderson.
Jay Baage
