Byline: HERB KIM
PICTURE a typical videogamer, and what's the image that comes to mind?
An acne-ridden, teenage boy twiddling with a joystick in his bedroom, right? Think again.
I spent last week at Fortune Magazine's Brainstorm conference, watching and meeting technology superstars, including Michael Dell (founder of Dell), Jeff Bezos (founder of Amazon.com), Eric Schmidt (CEO of Google) and many others.
Stuck in the graveyard shift was Robert Kotick, the CEO of Activision, one of the world's leading videogame publishers. When the guy came on stage, though, he wasn't exactly doing his best to dispel stereotypes.
He was overweight, with poor posture, a whiny voice, and dressed like he'd climbed out of a dumpster.
Despite this, it wasn't long before he'd wowed the audience in a way few other speakers had managed.
Leading Activision's emergence as one of the industry's new leaders has been the success of Guitar Hero, a game series where you play along to music, trying to hit the right buttons at the right time on a fake guitar.
Porcelain CufflinksAccording to Activision, Guitar Hero's mission is to unleash the inner rock star in people of every language and demographic. It sounded to me like so much corporate blah-blah, but then Robert started talking numbers.
In North America alone there were 6.5 billion hours of Guitar Hero played last year, an amazing statistic.
Think about it: if Guitar Hero had been played solely by people between 16 and 35, they would've used all their leisure time playing the game.
The games have generated more than a billion dollars in North America alone, with much more to follow as they spread across the globe and bring in revenues from downloadable music and so on.
What's more, given the low cost of entertainment-per-hour on Guitar Hero, the global economic downturn plays beautifully into its hands.
I turned 41 last week, stepping sadly into my middle age. I've never been much of a gamer myself, and I certainly wouldn't have fitted into their target demographic in the past.
But at our GameHorizon Conference last month, I found myself strumming away on Guitar Hero and found it hugely addictive.
Like the Nintendo Wii Jewellery Silver Bangle and an increasing number of other games, Guitar Hero is accessible and attractive to women and older people. And while it's easy for old farts like me to make fun of gamers, the truth is that videogames are crossing the chasm from niche to mass with every passing year.
Herb Kim is CEO of Codeworks, a North East centre for digital Innovation
