David Rosen, Chairman and Chief Executive
Officer of Sega Enterprises, Inc. made some
thoughtful and pertinent comments on the
video game industry when he spoke at the
Sega/Gremlin annual Chicago distributors
meeting recently. He dealt with two
compelling issues: Are video games a fad or
a major new segment of the entertainment
industry? and: Do video games have socially
redeeming values? His well reasoned
observations make fascinating reading for
the video game industry world-wide.
Mr. Rosen referred to
the interest shown by the
media in video games . He
said:
"The tremendousl y
heightened media interest
obviously stems from
what the press calls 'The
Phenomenon' of electron-
ic video games. While the
majority of media cover-
age the past year or so
has been more inclined to
'sensationalise' the indus-
try - I now, however,
sense a change of direc-
tion.
The mectia today is
searching, and sometimes
struggling to understand
and c ommuni c a te t o
their readerships what it
is this 'Phenomenon' is all
about. There appea r to be
Leisure Play - December
two central issues:
• First, is 'The Video
Phenomenon' a hulahoop
fad, or is it truly a major
new segment of the enter-
tainment industry?
• And second, from a
social viewpoint - does
the so-called ' Video
Phenomenon' have soci-
ally redeeming values? Is
it advantageous to society
or disadvantageous to
society?
Let's for a moment
examine the first major
issue: are computer video
games a passing fad or is
our industry, as we have
said for years now, an
increasingly important
segment of the overall
entertainment industry?
Unquestionabl y, the
key to the industry' s
success has been our
continued advancement
of highly sophisticated
technologies. The amuse-
ment games industry is in
the forefront of pure and
applied microprocessor
technology -
and I
believe it is fair to say
that our industry has
made a significant contri-
bution in exposing the
long-awaited 'computer
age ' to people every-
where.
1t is
***
eminently clear
that c omputer vi de o
games a re a 'sign of the
times · - and by that I
mean the games are trul
one of the early manifes-
tations of an electronic
revolution whose techno-
logy will personally touch,
on an increasing basis, all
of our lives.
Therefore, what the
media refers to as 'The
Video Phenomenon' is in
reality an evidence of the
phenomenal acceptance
of electronic entertain-
ment in today's computer-
orientated society.
***
As the 'age of tech-
nology' unfolds before us
making deeper and
deeper inroads into the
ways we conduct our
daily lives , I cannot
envision, nor is there any
reason to believe, that
computer video games
would be a passing fad.
Quite the contrary, the
sign-posts suggest a trend
towards greater accept-
ance of present and
future models of computer
video games as 'space-
age' forms of electronic
entertainment.
But in order for the ·
industry to continue to
prosper, we must never
iose sight of the objective
of introducing new tech-
nology to the player-cus-
tomer. As an industry, we
have been enormously
successful having as we
do our roots in high
technology. Creativity in
the technical a reas goes
hand-in-hand with crea-
tivity in the design and
development of totally
new game concepts and
features - and new tech-
nology, in turn, is the
prime reason the industry
is able to maintain a high
level of sustained interest
on the part of a rapidly
growing customer player-
base.
It is this kind of thinking
which led Sega/Gremlin to
design and introduce
Space Fury incorporating
the world's first colour
vector monitor system
called Colourbeam. And
as we all know, it is very
costly as well as hopefully
rewarding to be a
pioneer.
Sega/Gremlin's new
product line-up is not the
result of haphazard game
development and licen-
sing, and what might be
called the by gosh, this
one looks like a winner R
& D approach. But rather
Sega/Gremlin's current
line-up is the result of
disciplined efforts to
rationally understand and
react to the marketplace
- and then, hopefully by
gosh.we have a winner
here."
In terms of the market-
place there appear to be
three types of players,
and probably more:
• First, the macho
player who gravitates
towards action-packed
futuristic space-theme
games;
• Second, we have the
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