A Tree Falling in the Forest

Everyone in the world knows The Beatles Rock Band is out. That's the point, everyone in the world knows The Beatles: Rock Band is out. You can't swing a dead cat without hitting a piece of media about the game. I believe this single game has more media hits than the aggregate hits for all the games being released in the fourth quarter. Don't believe me? Ask your mom, or if you are a bit older, your wife if she knows about The Beatles game. Now ask if she knows Splinter Cell and Bioshock 2 slipped out of the quarter. How about Assassin's Creed 2? Is she waiting for that one? Sorry to revisit old posts , but the folks behind the game did a simple little thing no game company has ever done before. They made a good –some say great, accessible game and told people it was available - and they are not even a game company. What seems so obvious to the marketers behind two of the best known brands in the world - MTV and The Beatles - is the antithesis of game indust...

I have been a fan of Peter Moore ever since I saw him get on the stage at the 360 introduction and talk about the future of connected gaming. He ran a demo of Project Gotham and talked about a sponsored event, played by thousands and watched hundreds of thousands. It was really cool and at the time, it was unique. It didn't really play out quite along those lines, and the race never happened, but the seeds were sown. Now as head of EA Sports, arguably the strongest brand in games, he is acknowledging the wonders of market expansion. This morning I woke up to a gamedaily article quoting Peter's view of Rock Band changing game forever. "It really came home for me when we were in Munich for our global marketing meeting and we took over the Hard Rock Café for the night and had a Rock Band competition. There were a hundred of us and it was like a real rock concert. It was a blast. I stood back and I thought that this was an incredible cultural phenomenon," he said...