Video Gaming Gets Moving

A new motion controller from New York-based Sony Computer Entertainment America called PlayStation Move for the PS3 system and the new Kinect sensor from Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft Corp. for X-Box 360 were among the most impactful additions to the video game category last year. (Both launched in the second half of 2010.)The accessories helped spur a spike in game sales for 2011, building upon the social/family gaming first made popular by the release of Nintendo's Wii console in 2006. Combined, the latest launches are calling for more space at retail just as retailers are eager to give it.The in-store marketing evolution from social gaming to motion gaming has been nearly seamless, according to Joby Hirschfeld, director, creative services, channel marketing and events at Sony Computer Entertainment America. "Social gaming brought us into a larger footprint as far as space and interactivity that was on a larger scale," he says. "It wasn't just a person standing looking at a screen, it was a person playing with several people around them. With motion gaming, it's the same situation. You need a space around that area where the person's going to play and you want them to have an experience, but you also want other people to come around and watch them play the game."In 2010, Target redesigned its video game areas in stores. According to corporate spokesperson Kristy Welker, the remodeling included 30% more space, kiosks to inform shoppers, trial stations, games organized by genre and platform, and tethered game boxes for shoppers to read without calling for a store associate to retrieve the game.The kiosks, or learning centers, and trial/demo stations were placed in 70% of the stores. Kiosks feature 40-inch, high-definition touchscreens from which shoppers can page a store associate for assistance, read reviews, learn about game features, and sort by ESRB (Entertainment Software Rating Board) ratings. The trial stations are for Microsoft's Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Wii consoles. "Video games are an increasing source of family entertainment," Welker says, "and we've made it a priority to provide quality products that appeal to the entire family."Bringing People TogetherSteve Carlin, senior director of retail planning and marketing for game manufacturer Ubisoft, San Francisco, says social/family gaming is setting the tone for today's marketing activity. Nintendo's "Wii Fit Plus" and Ubisoft's "Just Dance 2" were Nos. 6 and 7 on the list of top-selling games of 2010. Ubisoft was the top third-party developer for Kinect, and its "Michael Jackson: The Experience" game for Wii was one of the top-sellers in December 2010. (It is releasing the same game for Kinect this month.)Carlin says young girls are becoming more important, as "Just Dance 2" was the top-selling game in November 2010. "For the dance games, girls are a key demographic in pushing this segment of the video game market," he says. "First, girls ages 6 to 17 say that dancing is their favorite activity above all others. Second, five of the top 10 TV shows that girls watch, excluding major sporting events like the Super Bowl, are performance-based shows, like 'Glee,' 'Dancing with the Stars,' and 'American Idol.' Third, teens have tremendous spending power."When you combine these three factors with the fact that mom really likes the games, you have a genre that explodes as this one has of late," says Carlin. "Mainstream teen girls had largely been left out of the video game space previously, but now with titles that correlate well with their interests and hobbies, they have engaged in the category in a way that they had not done so in the past."Sony is differentiating Move from Kinect by appealing to hardcore action gamers as well as family players; the next editions of the popular franchises "SOCOM" and "Killzone" will be Move-compatible. Already-released titles such as "LittleBigPlanet2" will get patches to become compatible.While action, role-playing, fantasy and shooter games generate headlines with graphic content and blockbuster sales, manufacturers and game publishers seem to be of one message as 2011 begins: a family that plays together is great for the industry."It's about how it really brings people together, the traditional game night, bringing that back to the family," Danell Loftin Arvberger, Microsoft's group manager for worldwide visual merchandising, says of Kinect. And, "It's great to see that [retailers are] making an investment because they can see how important gaming is becoming to the family, and that's why we talk about totally transforming family game night."Says Carlin of the growing dance genre: "Primarily it speaks to a casual gaming audience in a family-friendly way.""There are opportunities to have someone pop in a game, and there are four family members behind them watching it," says Hirschfeld. "I kind of liken it to board gaming of the new century."It gives marketers just one more demographic to consider: kids, teens, tech-savvy adults, gift-givers — be it grandparents, parents, uncles or aunts — and now, family. As motion-control pairs with fitness and dance games, Hirschfeld says, "It doesn't mean that just because mom's buying that she's buying for the kids."Kiosks and DemosArvberger says kiosks and demos are at the heart of any new retail presence, especially with new hardware. Microsoft has more than 30,000 kiosks worldwide, and those with touchscreens allow the user to interrupt looping videos for more information.Arvberger envisions a future, not far off, when most or all serious video-game retail partners are wired for downloadable/uploadable content, so in-store messages can be freshened with ease and speed. She also can't wait for smartphones to have more of an impact with downloadable content. "We're not there yet," she says, "but that's where it's trending."Microsoft's kiosks do not have the cameras necessary to double as Kinect demo stations, Arvberger says, so secondary locations are necessary. For demos of new hardware, manufacturers turn into store-associate trainers. The Kinect, especially, with no controller, is innovative and demands assisted sales, because as Arvberger says, "We'd rather have no demo than have a poor demo experience."Arvberger says digital signage serves another purpose: turning down the "noise" of excessive P-O-P in a confined area. "We've been hearing it for years, about decreasing the clutter," she says. "We're making sure whatever message we're sending in our traditional P-O-P is also being leveraged in our digital signage as well. We're just making sure we're telling a 'Kinected' story through all of our vehicles, the leverage that we pull, whether it's online or in-store or within our demos. Then, also, our [retail partners] are talking the talk as well."Downloadable ContentDigital downloading accounts for a growing fraction of content sales, but it is the downloading of movies and music that Hirschfeld says has opened possibilities for video games in stores. Less space for music and movies — usually adjacent to video game areas — means an easy annexing for video games."We've invested heavily in having more interactive experiences at retail," Hirschfeld says. "That was really generated from the social gaming spike, where people wanted to play with a guitar, they wanted to play drums, they wanted to interact on a different level. When social gaming came around that gave the opportunity for larger SKUs; the shrink issue wasn't as apparent to retailers, so product was placed on the floor. We wound up getting additional space that wasn't glass, and we needed it to have those larger SKUs. That allowed the video game category to grow at retail."GameStop has unveiled its "store of the future," replete with more room for demos and kiosks that shoppers can access with a loyalty card. Once admitted to the system, shoppers can scan game boxes to add to wish lists, and call up purchase histories. Controversial, at least in the gaming world, is that shoppers can purchase downloadable content for PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360, for the same price as buying from their systems at home. Shoppers get a receipt they can redeem at home — the difference is they will get reward points for buying the downloadable content at GameStop.GameStop's hope is that, like the exclusive content it gets from publishers, reward points for downloadable content will help keep GameStop in brick and mortar and not go the way of video and music stores so gutted by access online and through game systems.Store Associates MatterUbisoft's Carlin says well-educated store associates can help not only with shoppers new to games or consoles but also veterans — those who research online and usually know what they want when they enter a store. "When that hardcore gamer comes into the store, they may ask the associates what games are coming and what will be good," he says. "Ideally, we've been able to educate the store associates with our in-store messaging to help make them advocates for our games. Our in-store marketing has always meant to be in addition to, not instead of, our main consumer messaging, so in this instance, we would want to reinforce the messaging they've been getting from other sources, like online, print, TV, etc."Hirschfeld says that in one chain, the stores that had Sony's assisted-selling program during the holidays saw an 80% lift in hardware sales compared to similar stores within the chain that did not have assisted selling. When all is said and done, nothing beats a conversation with a human."It could be the flavor of the month as far as consoles, but [associates] also have to be educated on peripherals, and how we connect peripherals through hardware sales," Hirschfeld says. "It's truly about making a market basket. When you qualify the sale of a piece of hardware, you want peripherals to go out with it as well as software — that's where you get profitable margin for that retailer, and you create that loyal repeat visit. One of the most interesting things with video games is an opportunity to create loyalty and a repeat purchase."

Video Gaming Gets Moving

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