You just have to admire the good folks at Microsoft. Many a console launch in the past has been panned by the critics for having a lack of games at launch. Microsoft Australia, in a truly inspired move, has released the games before the console. And not just a day or so before! We're talking a good three weeks before the console sees the light of day. As you faithful PALGN readers would have known from the news item a couple of weeks back, the Xbox 360 games hit Australian retail stores late last week, with the Xbox accessories to follow in the next few days.
Are they serious? Who exactly are they kidding? Why not just take out full page ads in the national papers reminding the last few Australians who didn't already know that 'Woops - we missed the launch date'. Are we meant to be impressed that they at least got the rest of the stuff onto the shelves? This is just rubbing salt into the wounds of disappointed gamers across the nation. I've tried to think like a marketing executive. I’ve tried to get into the heads of the whiz kids that came up with this strategy. Marketing 101 stresses you need to carefully target your market and understand their specific needs. Now it's starting to make sense. Microsoft’s 'games and accessories first' strategy is clearly marketed towards:
- Shoplifters: Kudos to Microsoft for thinking of this often forgotten minority. The average shoplifter would struggle to just walk out the store with the Xbox 360 console let alone anything else. Now he or she can relax in the three week lead-up to the console launch, grabbing a 360 game one day and an extra wireless controller the next.
- The Collectors: While I can't see the appeal myself the Microsoft marketing guys clearly have them in their sights. Keen collectors can browse the local video gaming aisles for the next few weeks and make their selections without having to mingle with those insane gamers who are interested only in actually playing the games!
- The Time Poor: I read a post a while back on a US forum about a guy who'd bought a 360 at launch in the States and was so busy with work, family and his other consoles that he was yet to take it out of the box. Okay, so it's a fine line between being time poor and just plain crazy, but perhaps Microsoft figure we can put the next couple of weeks to good use, reading the game manuals...very very slowly.
- The Price Sensitive: Ok, perhaps these Microsoft guys are smarter than we realise. Once you start selling console games for $119.99 the number of consumers that fall into the price sensitive bracket starts to resemble the same number of buyers who actually bought the original Xbox. That's right. All of us! It's plain genius really. The three week headstart for the software is an opportunity for us all to get over a bad case of sticker shock.
So you bought the Xbox 360 Games and you really want to play them.
You’re going to have to do a Natalie Portman and set up camp
in your nearest Kmart – for the next two weeks at least!
You’re going to have to do a Natalie Portman and set up camp
in your nearest Kmart – for the next two weeks at least!
Box art blues
A couple of weeks back, gaming blog Kotaku posted a short item about Australia. It's always good to see our little corner of the world getting a bit of videogaming exposure. This little gem was titled 'How Australia destroys box art'. Expecting something dramatic (think - book burning for the new millennium) I clicked through to read the post and accompanying comments, hoping to see exclusive footage of bonfires, molten game cases and smug angry zealots brandishing placards. Turns out, that videogame box art isn't being destroyed by an angry mob, but according to Kotaku, by the Office of Film and Literature Classification. Apparently, the author of the post, as well as some of those who added their comments to the article, felt that the OFLC was guilty of a something no less disturbing than book burning - they were defacing their precious video gaming box art with the new OFLC colour -coded classification markings.
Now I'm more a gamer than a collector, not that there's anything wrong with being the latter. The movie 'The 40 Year Old Virgin', might have gone some way to make collecting, if not cool, then at least, just a little less daggy. Myself, I can't quite see the attraction in simply collecting video games. Given today's prices, it can sometimes be hard to justify purchasing a game to play it. To leave it sitting in your tv cabinet unopened seems almost criminal. Which is perhaps why the collectors are so miffed with the new classification system? Let's be honest: if you've just shelled out 90 big ones for a brand spanking copy of Shadow of the Colossus, and you’re not even planning on removing the shrink wrap, let alone playing the game, then perhaps you would be upset that part of your valuable box art real-estate has been gobbled up by the OFLC classification.
Still, for my money, this is all a bit of a storm in a DVD case. We're not alone in the world in having a classification system. The new markings are clean and clear - and a colour-coded system is idiot proof for all but the colour-blind among us. Give the publishers time to adjust to the new system and perhaps they'll adjust the box art (if necessary) to accommodate the markings. For those of you still jumping up and down, remember it's all relative. Take cigarette packets. This week saw the introduction of the new graphic cigarette warning labels. Now, as a non-smoker, I'm all for this new labelling. Just don't flash up the graphics on morning television - I almost lost my breakfast. These new labels are absolutely hideous. I mean, they are seriously vomit-inducing. And to put the whole OFLC markings in perspective, they also take up 1/3 of the front of the packet. Of course not many people out there actually collect cigarette packets. I think it ranks just slightly higher than finger nail collecting as a hobby, so the size of the warning labels is possibly not so much of an issue.
Videogames already come with health warnings tucked away discreetly on the inside front cover of the game manual. I don't want to give the OFLC or the Department of Health and Ageing for that matter any ideas, but let’s just be glad that our precious games don’t come branded with the following warnings on the box art itself.
RE Red-Eye: We've all woken up with a bad case of gaming-induced Red Eye. Any late night gaming session can cause it, with driving games being some of the worst offenders. Portable gaming takes a toll too; perhaps because of the combination of screen size and distance from your eyeballs. The brilliant Lumines is well deserving of the RE classification. Lumines, for the remaining few people yet to experience its sheer brilliance, is a game that no review can do justice, although PALGN got close, saying it was ‘one of the best puzzle games in years’. I too, could wax lyrical about this game for an entire column, but the only way you could come close to understanding how good this game is, is to play it. Just make sure you have the eye drops handy for the next morning.
CH Claw Hands: Face it . Regardless of your weapon of choice, be it Dualshock 2, Wavebird or the Controller S, we’ve all suffered from Claw Hands. V8 Supercars 3 is currently giving me a bad case of Claw Hands (and Red Eye) right now. For those presently suffering or those contemplating lengthier gaming challenges (e.g. completion of the GT4 endurance races), a steering wheel set-up may alleviate the symptoms. Of ocurse, you could always just press the pause button. As well as Claw Hands, there is also the closely related, but less serious, Numb Thumb. Sony boasted the Dualshock 2 had 255 levels of sensitivity on every action button. Really? At the end of a day’s gaming, my thumbs couldn’t tell the difference.
BM: Bad Moods: For the sake of truth in advertising, all games should carry this warning, both the truly great games and the truly awful. It’s a self explanatory warning really. Most of us just reach for the off switch when the frustration levels become intolerable. We’re more likely to reboot, rather than put the boot into the console, but admit it - we’ve all been tempted.
Of course it may just be me. I could be vision impaired, arthritic and cranky, but I’m pretty sure it’s the games.
The article above represents the views of Jeremy Henderson and not that of PALGN, its sponsors or affiliates.
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