Firms take aim at gamers

The games industry revealed plans at the ECTS show last week to release more than 1,000 games by Christmas, as worldwide sales for the sector rapidly approaches the $15 billion mark.

Eidos showed off Tombraider III, which is due for release in November.

Sony, riding high after cutting prices on its consoles and peripherals (see PC Dealer, 9 September), was particularly pushing Tekken III.

Nintendo, which will launch its colour gameboy in November, also used the show to respond to Sony, cutting prices on its games to #39.99 and controllers to #19.99.

The price cuts are a likely prelude to a console price cut before Christmas, according to Nick Gibson, analyst at Durlacher Research.

Hans Stahler, marketing manager at Nintendo Europe, admitted the company had managed to release only one big title in the first six months of the year. 'We are not 100 per cent satisfied with our performance. We didn't have as many software products as we hoped for,' he said.

Stahler added: 'It is set to change as a total of more than 30 new N64 games are released in the second part of 1998.'

Sega was conspicuous by its lack of a stand, and even more by the lack of any demos from the company's next-generation console, the Dreamcast.

Some attendees commented that it was typical of the Japanese giant to neglect the European showpiece exhibition.

Gibson commented: 'It has been a good show, particularly for Europe. There has been a bit of a European renaissance in the gaming industry. You can see a high level of quality, and that there is a lot of money floating around - especially judging by the parties.'

Analysts at Datamonitor have estimated that the European games market will be worth $6.2 billion by the year 2002.