I was shopping last weekend for a gift for my twins to take to their friends’ party, and I entered my local specialty retail store without a preconceived notion of what I was going to get, but with a definite price range in mind. As my kids suggested various items to me, I evaluated it against my predetermined price range. Too often, my response to their suggestion was, “No, honey, that’s above my price range,” but eventually we settled on the perfect gift for the boy that they thought he’d enjoy, while also sticking to my budget.
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The highly anticipated video game industry sales results for September have now been delivered, and many who were expecting a bigger increase over last year’s results, were underwhelmed by the numbers. The industry did return to positive territory after six consecutive months of posting declines, but the increase was a modest 1 percent.
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As I sat down at my desk one morning last week and scanned industry news along with items posted on Facebook and Twitter, I ran across something really interesting that one of my Twitter followers posted. “Barbie Premieres Her First Music and Dance Video” read the headline and of course there was a handy link to the video. The video itself is a lot of fun, but its bigger purpose is to promote a new line of fashion dolls being introduced for this holiday season by Mattel. The following morning I came across a posting on KidScreen that highlighted how Disney is also using YouTube as part of its launch campaign for the new line of Toy Story toys tied to the re-release of the first two movies in 3-D.
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We frequently meet with clients to take a look at changes in the industry and consumer behavior, and provide analysis and insights into how the changes will impact things to come. This spring, it was clear that last year was one of the most transformative years in the video games industry: audience expansion, the accelerating adoption of digital distribution, increases in mobile and social gaming, and the influence of the Wii were all topics on the minds of industry followers. But I get a little uneasy when I see how all these factors are influencing the plethora of free game options available, and while it’s great to have more ways to expose gaming to a broader audience, the industry struggles with how to best monetize that gaming activity.
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Just last weekend, my 11-year old son had a bunch of his buddies over on Saturday night to hang out and play video games, watch movies, shoot hoops, and engage in an epic Nerf gun battle. A few of the boys’ mom’s hung out with me and we enjoyed an evening sipping wine and exchanging gossip. After a couple hours of complete mayhem, we wanted to settle the boys down so I went to the cupboard and picked out a movie - initially it was hard to pick one I thought they all would like and then my eyes spied one of my all-time favorite movies: “Big.” As I announced to the group, “Okay, I’m putting on “Big,” several of the mom’s chimed in, “Oh I love that movie.”
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Many of us in the video games industry eagerly await E3 next week in Los Angeles. As we’ve been busily working on our meeting schedules, invariably the conversation turns to, “What do you think will be the big announcements coming out of E3?”
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Kids. I spend a lot of time thinking about them. Not only do I have four of my own under the age of 12, but the two industries I cover count kids as a primary target audience: 33% of video game industry dollar sales since May ‘08 have been spent against kids ages 14 and under while this same group comprised 82% of 2008 toy industry dollar sales. With both of these industries representing approximately $22 billion in annual sales; that’s a lot of spending influenced by kids across those two industries alone.
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When I least expected it, BAM! Something hit me over the head like the proverbial ton of bricks. I was sitting at a conference in January listening to a panel discussion on kids and their use of the Internet. As usual, Internet safety concerns came up time and time again. Amongst the largely PC panelists, one more outspoken gentleman was talking about what kids were really doing on the Internet, and the pains they take to hide these things from their parents, especially their mothers. While moms rule the household and largely set the rules and cultural agendas, dads will tell great stories about the things they got away with when THEY were kids, and most likely rebel against mom’s household rules themselves. And that’s when it hit me - I am totally un-cool.
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Toys | Anita Frazier, Entertainment Industry Analyst Toys & Video Games | 
November 16, 2009 11:26 am | 
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