Currently Viewing Posts Tagged iPad

Angry Birds, Mobile and the Evolution of Portable Gaming

For a long time, video games existed on the outskirts of acceptable pop culture. First, with the NES and Genesis, games were considered as something just for kids: simple, colorful, dumb entertainment. Then, with the introduction of the PlayStation, things started to change. Games were growing with gamers, featuring more complex stories, realistic sports titles, […]

For a long time, video games existed on the outskirts of acceptable pop culture. First, with the NES and Genesis, games were considered as something just for kids: simple, colorful, dumb entertainment. Then, with the introduction of the PlayStation, things started to change. Games were growing with gamers, featuring more complex stories, realistic sports titles, and the market was getting bigger and bigger. But there was still one major issue facing video games: it was mostly dudes playing. But in 2006, Nintendo destroyed gaming’s biggest barriers – complicated controls and the negative perception that video games are a solitary experience only to be enjoyed by guys in basements – with the Wii. Using motion controls and packaged with the all-ages co-op romp, Wii Sports, the Wii made it safe for women, parents, grandparents, and pretty much anyone to play video games. But maybe even more impactful than the Wii in gaming’s evolution and acceptance is something no one saw coming: mobile touch phones and their killer gaming app, Angry Birds.

For those still somehow unaware of what Angry Birds is, here are the basics: it’s a physics puzzle game, in which the player, through use of the touch screen, launches birds via a slingshot at the increasingly complex fortresses protecting green pigs who’ve stolen the birds’ eggs. It’s up to the player to figure out the right angle, speed and arch at which to launch the birds in order to destroy the fortresses and egg-poaching pigs. It’s funny, it’s fun, and the numbers are mind-boggling. According to Electronic Gaming Monthly, Angry Birds has sold over 30 million units for the iPhone alone, over 100 millon across all platforms, and earns 200 million user minutes each day. And it’s not just guys playing. It’s hard to find anyone with a smart phone, no matter his or her age, without it. But why did Angry Birds reach this level of success where others – including gaming’s biggest developers – failed, and what does it mean for the future of gaming?

Like all other video games that have seen crossover success, such as Tetris, Pac-Man and the aforementioned Wii Sports, Angry Birds nails the essentials: simple premise and simple yet intuitive controls. (To give credit where it’s due, Nintendo saw the value in touch screen controls early with the 2004 release of the Nintendo DS, and with titles like Brain Age, they did try and make games that appealed to a broader demographic, but never really saw this level of buzz.) There’s also the magic price point (Angry Birds has a starting price of just .99 cents). But perhaps the biggest key to its success is platform. The iPhone and other mobile devices have turned out to be Trojan Horse video game machines. Even with all the barriers Nintendo broke down with the Wii, there are still millions of people who have no interest in gaming or would ever dream of buying a video game system. Yet everyone needs a phone, and most non to casual gamers ended up buying a powerful gaming device with the iPhone, Android, and other touch phones, and they didn’t even realize it.

Now, the pressure is on Nintendo and Sony, video game’s two main players in the portable gaming business, to try and compete with this new gaming form and platform. Sony has already announced that their next PlayStation Portable (PSP) will be available with phone functionality. But will its traditional style of games find Angry Birds-level success, and will shorter, more casual games, be accepted on something branded “PlayStation?” Nintendo just released the 3DS, a true wonder of technology, which offers a 3D viewing experience without the use of glasses. Nintendo has taken steps towards iPhone-like functionality; the 3DS features Netflix streaming (in 3D!), maintains the original DS’s touch functionality, and will have access to an app store. But it’s still being branded as a gaming device, and Nintendo does not want to get involved in the phone business. “We have no desire to get into telephony,” Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime told CNN. “We believe that we will earn our way into someone’s pocket without having to offer that (phone capability) as an additional factor.” The 3DS has been successful since its late March launch; indeed, Nintendo sold more launch day 3DS units than any of its previous handhelds. But games are still $40, generally more complex than popular mobile games like Angry Birds, and they’re still physical media. Fils-Aime defends against this criticism, and told Game Trailers TV, “Angry Birds is a great piece of experience but that is one compared to thousands of other pieces of content that, for one or two dollars, I think actually create a mentality for the consumer that a piece of gaming content should only be two dollars.”

It’s a fair point; there are gaming experiences more in-depth and more rewarding than much of what’s available in app stores. But it may already be too late. Mobile phones have forever changed how consumers view the handheld gaming experience, from price to content. There is a huge movement centered around casual gaming both online and on mobile phones – of which Angry Birds is a posterchild – and it’s taking eyeballs and dollars away from the giants of the video game industry.

Would Don Draper Go Mad For iAds?

Don Draper meets the iPad and iAd

Fooling around with the Tron: Legacy iAd – the first iAd for Apple’s iPad – I wondered what Don Draper would make of the new advertising format. (Not a curmudgeonly 90-year-old Don Draper of today, who’d probably be more concerned with those loud teens down the block than the latest whatsit. I mean an in-his-prime, […]

Fooling around with the Tron: Legacy iAd – the first iAd for Apple’s iPad – I wondered what Don Draper would make of the new advertising format. (Not a curmudgeonly 90-year-old Don Draper of today, who’d probably be more concerned with those loud teens down the block than the latest whatsit. I mean an in-his-prime, boozing, smoking and Kodak Carousel-branding Don Draper.)

“Advertising is based on one thing,” Draper said in Mad Men’s first season.  “Happiness. And you know what happiness is? Happiness is the smell of a new car. It’s freedom from fear. It’s a billboard on the side of the road that screams reassurance that whatever you are doing is okay. You are okay.” The role of advertising in our lives and what it strives to achieve has changed since Draper’s time. The core is perhaps the same – to reach someone in a manner that speaks to them – but the idea of ads telling you you’re “okay” has evolved, as has the meaning of “happiness,” via advertising. Today, successful ads achieve a broader emotional engagement in a way that excites people honestly and intellectually. More than something material, they give you something worthwhile. So what does it mean for people seeing advertisements that they can reach out and physically manipulate, touch and interact with?

iAds are the posterchild of immersive HTML5 ads – the advertising format on all touch screen mobile devices – and this new format can revolutionize advertising altogether. iAds made their debut last year on the iPad’s smaller cousins, the iPhone and iPod Touch, with several top-shelf brands (including Nissan, Audible.com, and Campbell) making creative entries. They first appear as banners in iApps, can be clicked and activated, and then exited at any time. The hook (and innovation) is that that they’re not passive ads; users interact with them physically via the touch screen and engage with them on their own terms.

iAds and HTML5 ads can make the user a part of the advertisement like never before, and that is genuinely exciting in a, “Let’s create something no one has ever seen before and make a real connection” way. As a gamer, I think of how Nintendo’s seemingly simple innovation of user interaction changed how we relate to video games forever, stirring the imagination in new ways. I watched my friend’s 85-year-old grandfather play Wii Bowling, probably the first time he’d “bowled” in 30 years, invigorated with each strike; I smiled as my uncle played Wii Baseball, swinging the remote like he was back in Brooklyn playing stickball. They were honest moments of joy.

iAds and HTML5 ads can have the same impact on how we experience advertisements. The Tron iAd lets you spin, with a flick of the wrist, a Tron-inspired wheel that takes you to movie trailers, a map with theaters near you playing the movie (the most usable, personalized feature), soundtrack samples and more. Nissan’s iAd for the Leaf, a 100% electric car, makes use of all of the iPhone’s functionality – tapping, sliding, tilting, and even shaking – to give users a unique, in-depth experience. You can rotate the car; see inside it; watch a high-quality video ad; reserve one or compare it, dollar-by-dollar and mile-by-mile, to other cars. It’s almost an app in disguise, and it’s a delight.

So what would everyone’s favorite ad exec think of iAds? Can they tell you you’re okay and bring about happiness by today’s standards? I think Don would argue that they have more potential to accomplish this than maybe any other ad format that came before. The Nissan iAd, through the experience of exploring the car and the message of just how different and innovative the Leaf is, does tell you you’re okay. It tells you you’re taking a step into something important, social and worthwhile. That is happiness. Imagine what Draper could have done with this technology while working on the Kodak Carousel? Maybe he’d give users the chance to spin it themselves, upload their own photos instantly, and share them – and the stories behind them – with friends.

iAds and HTML5 ads represent change. “And let’s also say that change is neither good nor bad,” Draper said in the show’s third season, “it simply is. It can be greeted with terror or joy, a tantrum that says, ‘I want it the way it was,’ or a dance that says, ‘Look, something new!’” My guess is, he’d be excited by the “something new” that iAds bring: the chance to connect with people on even deeper levels than ever before.