Microsoft, Videogames and Books -- In Harmony
20 Sep 2005, 8:30:18 am
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A few years back, Microsoft bought a gaming companythat brought along a video game series called "Perfect Dark." Now, from a book standpoint, this isn't particularly important....however, a bit of recent news related to the game and Microsoft is: Microsoft is licensing the Perfect Dark story and characters to Tor Books.
Microsoft isn't known for wasting time, money, and assets on something without profit. Granted, this might entirely be a Tor screwup, dumping money into a worthless product by banking on name recognition (it's happened before). However, Microsoft isn't one to lend the name of their product to another poor product; that damages the name-value of the game, and the book is part of the launch campaign for the newest edition of the Perfect Dark series. I suspect this choice is influenced by the Halo novelization released last year. Microsoft must be pleased with the Halo results, to try it again with a lesser-known game.
Now, videogames are often included in the list of Great Destroyers Of Reading Ability, so why would Tor and Microsoft bother with it? Everyone knows that videogamers hate reading -- they're the ones who are killing books! And -- dare I say it -- if some gamer figures out how to read, Microsoft might lose a future customer! Well, not really.
A misconception is that the people who are not reading are deliberately choosing not to read -- they, when presented with a book and a PS-2, choose one over the other. This is not always the case, and I'll bet it's a small occurrance, under 20%. Ask 10 non-book-readers why they choose not to read, and I'm certain at least eight will say it's because they haven't found anything worth reading, not because gaming takes up all their free time. The people who are playing videogames instead of reading are an untapped market.
Now, here's Tor's dilemma: give the gamers something worth reading. Gamers aren't going to tolerate some ghost-written, over-edited, sterilized and generic storyline made up of events that repeat things gamers already saw in the videogame. The videogamer market is dominated by young, imaginitive, fantasy-devouring people with disposable incomes capable of paying $70 for a videogame. Don't offend them. Give them a reason to read, and they will fit it into their time -- escapist videogaming gives gamers a way to relax; if they could carry a bit of that escapism on the train, into the breakroom at work, on the balcony, and to bed before sleep, they'll do it. Even a cynic could agree that a gamer needs something to do when they get bored with all their PSP games and their Gameboy's batteries are dead.
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