12/23/96 'I CAN'T WAIT TO GO ONLINE AND BLOW SOMETHING UP'

Return to main story

'I CAN'T WAIT TO GO ONLINE AND BLOW SOMETHING UP'

Computers were a big part of Joyce M. Wempe's professional life during her 30 years as a senior computer operator for Texas Instruments Inc. in Carrollton, Tex. Now, they are a big part of her personal life, too. Wempe, now retired, admits to spending as much as four hours a day on the Internet--sometimes logged on beyond midnight. She's busy with an experimental Web site called NetPlay, which allows Net surfers from around the world to log on and play a virtual game of cards anytime.
''It's hard to get friends together'' to play in person, says Wempe, 60. But on NetPlay, she has a clique of online friends that will happily play poker or crazy eights anytime. ''I love it,'' she says. If Internet companies, online services, software makers, and video-game console giants like Nintendo have their way, more people like Wempe will soon be playing more computer and video games, online and off.
Despite the strong in-roads PCs have made into American homes, video-game consoles, such as Sony's PlayStation, continue to sell. Sales of the video consoles and games will surpass $4.3 billion dollars this year, says Walter Miao, senior analyst for Access Media International in New York. One reason is the still-daunting technical complexity of PCs. Another reason is price. ''We're talking $200 [for a video-game system] vs. $2,000 for a PC,'' says Miao.
Nintendo's new $199 Ultra 64 console unit is one of this year's hot Christmas toys. It's disappearing from store shelves faster than Nintendo can ship it. The company is expected to sell out its production of 1 million this year. Miao predicts that Sony will sell more than twice that many of its 18-month-old PlayStations. Sega, the No.2 maker of 32-bit game systems, has stumbled slightly with its $199 Saturn. But Sega is now bundling three games with its unit, and sales should reach nearly 1 million this year, Miao says. And so far, retail sales seem to be on track. According to NPD Group Inc., a Port Washington (N.Y.) research firm that tracks retail toy sales, the U.S. market for home video-game machines will reach nearly $3.6 billion this year. That's not as high as the 1993 peak of $4.5 billion, but it's a giant step from last year's slumping sales (chart, page 68).
The PC game market is hot, too. According to PC Data, a research firm in Reston, Va., entertainment software for PCs is expected to grow to $1.2 billion--a 20% rise over last year's $1 billion. One reason is the rising importance of the Internet. According to the market research firm Jupiter Communications Co., revenues from online gaming sites such as NetPlay will amount to only about $90 million this year but could top $1.6 billion by 2000 (chart, page 68). For game makers and online companies, that's too rich a pie to ignore.
''SIZABLE NEED.'' Many game makers see online gaming as an important part of the industry's future. One of the hot online gaming companies is Total Entertainment Network (TEN), a San Francisco-based Web site. TEN allows subscribers to play against one another in a variety of PC games, including online versions of such shoot-'em-ups as id Software Inc.'s Doom. ''Our fundamental premise,'' says Jack Heinstein, TEN's president and chief executive, ''is that there is a sizable need among consumers to play online.''
That's what TEN is discovering. In the three months since its launch, it has garnered more than 14,000 subscribers who pay $14.95 per month for the privilege of virtually chasing and killing each other. Most are 18-to-34-year-old males addicted to playing such action games as Doom alone on their PCs.
Going after such die-hard gamers isn't exactly easy pickings. One of the biggest challenges for online gaming companies is a pesky technical problem called ''latency.'' Because the Net works by passing small packets of data through various routes, action games such as Doom can become a little disjointed when Net traffic is heavy and packets tend to get delayed or lost.
Another problem is that shoot-'em-ups might not entice the majority of consumers to play games on the Net, some industry insiders say. ''When people play [id's] Quake, they get shot and die,'' says Brian Moriarty, a game designer and co-founder of MPath Interactive, in Cupertino, Calif.. ''For most folks, 'death' equals 'failure.' We need interactive entertainment where you can't fail.''
MPath, which offers an online version of Quake, recently agreed with Hasbro Interactive to put versions of classic Parker Brothers board games--Monopoly, Scrabble, and Risk, among others--online. MPath is also trying to make gaming on the Internet more sociable, as if people were gathered around a Clue board on a table rather than staring alone at a PC. ''Our biggest competitor is TV,'' says Moriarty. ''We need to have something more fun and as easy to use as TV.''
TALK 'N' PLAY. MPath's Web site is one of only a few that give subscribers with multimedia PCs the ability to talk to other players during a game. Members speak into their PCs' microphones. MPath software digitizes their voices and blasts them over the Net to other parties. Players without microphones can chat by typing messages.
Tiny software maker Interactive Magic in Raleigh, N.C., has been working with Kesmai Corp. in Charleston, N.C., on the development of a promising new online game called Air Warrior II. After only six months of tests on America Online and CompuServe, the company has gathered a phenomenal following. Each night, pilot wannabes fill up multiple rooms set aside for flight sims. ''On some nights, you can't get online because we have up to 2,000 people logged on and flying,'' says J.W. Bill Stealey, chairman of Interactive Magic.
Stealey is a former Air Force pilot who never got to fly a modern combat jet but still goes by the moniker ''Wild Bill.'' He says about two-thirds of his titles will have Net access and be able to connect with each other. He has a vision of a large electronic battlefield where hundreds of players can log on and slug it out with their choice of weapons--the latest jet planes or ground-chewing battle tanks. ''We're excited about the whole thing,'' says Stealey. ''I can't wait to go online and blow something up.''
Ultimately, it's the ''content''--the quality of the games--that matters most, whether online or off. And that has game software companies, from the largest developers to the garage-shop startups, racing to crank out code for both PCs and consoles.
Electronic Arts Inc., No.2 in the game-software market, is writing games for both PCs and console systems. ''We see 20% growth year to year for both platforms,'' says Don Mattrick, senior vice-president for Electronic Arts' North American studios. Nearly half of the 63 game titles EA shipped this year were for the home-PC market. While most of its products are designed for Sony's PlayStation, the company isn't completely ignoring the online gaming realm. Next year, EA plans to introduce Ultima Online, an online role-playing game where players become medieval characters.
NetPlay's 37-year-old co-founder, Leland Ancier, who has been designing computer games since the ninth grade, is aiming for family entertainment. ''Our focus is on all family games and how to get people to interact with each other,'' he says. NetPlay hopes to ''go live'' with its card and board games by April. Meanwhile, 7th Level Inc., an educational software maker in Richardson, Tex., hopes to launch Kids World Online next year. 7th Level CEO George D. Grayson says Kids World will have music, cartoon characters, and global links so kids can correspond with E-pals around the world.
Even the geniuses at id Software are working to move beyond the blood-soaked Doom and Quake. It's one more sign that the industry is determined to capture the hearts, minds, and money of the Joyce Wempes of the world.
By Paul M. Eng in New York

Return to main story