Game Makers Look To Widen Audience With New Consoles (siliconvalley.com)

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By Dean Takahashi, Mercury News Thu May 19,11:01 AM ET LOS ANGELES - The video game industry seems to be getting serious about its ambition to overtake Hollywood as a prime source of entertainment.

As all three video game giants unveil their plans for new gaming consoles, they're talking about how to expand the market. In Microsoft's case, the company wants to increase the video game market tenfold to 1 billion gamers.

But overtaking the movie business requires more than just creating cutting-edge machines, according to Doug Lowenstein, president of the Entertainment Software Association, a video game trade group. Speaking at the E3 video game trade show in Los Angeles on Tuesday, Lowenstein said the industry must expand the scope of games to appeal to the broadest group of people, not just 18- to 34-year-old males.

About 43 percent of gamers are women, according to a survey by Peter D. Hart Associates, but hard-core male gamers account for more sales.

Lowenstein said companies should make games that are shorter and more accessible to mainstream gamers. He also recommended that the industry should figure out new financing models, just as Hollywood has ways for independent films to get funded. Lastly, he said the industry should foster an image as responsible artists who don't resort to cheap gimmicks, such as loading games up with violence.

``Some of the games for the hard-core gamers are great games,'' says Lowenstein. ``But if that's all we do, we don't get a $45 billion industry. We stay at $25 billion.''

Sony's strategy to reach the masses involves delivering movie-like reality in games for its next-generation PlayStation 3, which launches next spring.

Microsoft believes it can integrate all sorts of digital entertainment into the 360 console that goes on sale in the fall. The software giant will make it easy for gamers to use their consoles as the hub of a digital lifestyle, letting players listen to music, watch movies and go online.

also will build whizbang graphics and wireless Internet access into its Revolution console, which is scheduled to make its debut next year. But the company emphasizes imaginative games more than its rivals do.

``This is a console where big ideas can prevail over big budgets,'' said Nintendo Chief Executive Satoru Iwata on Tuesday at the E3 trade show.

Indeed, while rivals emphasize their technology, Nintendo hardly revealed any technical details of its console. That's because the company doesn't believe technology should overshadow games, said Reggie Fils-Amie, executive vice president of sales and marketing at Nintendo of America.

Nintendo did announce the GameBoy Micro, an even smaller version of its GameBoy Advance handheld device.

How big will the games industry become? By 2008, PricewaterhouseCoopers estimates that it will hit $55 billion, bigger than the $33 billion music industry. But movies are still expected to be bigger.

``The machine is just a tool,'' says Nintendo's Iwata. ``The experience will come from software.''

Contact Dean Takahashi at or (408) 920-5739.

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