Tuesday, April 17, 2001 | 11:19 a.m.
The CD-ROM disk will be part of the EA Games brand from Westwood's parent company, Redwood City, Calif.-Electronic Arts.
Yuri's Revenge is the largest expansion pack in Westwood's history, adding to the real-time strategy game new "Allied" units, new "Soviet" units, new single-player campaigns, new multiplayer features, an hour of filmed story sequences and an entirely new side: an army led by a mysterious psychic warrior,"Yuri."
Video game makers such as Sony, Electronic Arts and Las Vegas-based Westwood Studios are viewing the Internet as the tool that will help them move game players from today's simple games to the amazingly complex, multi-player games of the future.
The Internet allows a certain niche of games called fantasy-role-playing games to become virtual worlds where players in different locations around the world can chat with each other by typing messages on the game screen, and compete or assist one another in game combat.
And it's that social interaction that is drawing more players to the games -- a game market that already consists of about 2.5 million players, analysts say. Game makers say their new offerings will be good enough to fetch subscription fees (typically $10 a month) after the initial one- or two-month trial period.
"Not only are you playing a game, you are meeting people in these virtual worlds... and establishing bonds," said Eric Wang, Westwood Studios' director of "Earth and Beyond," a game scheduled for release in winter 2002.
Forrester Research, an Internet research firm, estimates that subscription and pay-per-use revenue will generate $3.2 billion annually for the video game industry by 2005.
Players initially purchase the games on a CD-ROM for about $30 to $50 at a retail store, plug it into their PC and log onto a particular website to play the game.
"Earth and Beyond" will be available on EA.com, the website of Westwood's parent company, Redwood City, Calif.-based Electronic Arts. Westwood Studios established a strong following after the 1995 blockbuster release of "Command & Conquer," which has developed into a franchise of games that have sold 15 million games to date.
So far, Electronic Arts and Sony have led this new genre of web-based fantasy role-playing games with the 1997-release of Ultima Online and EverQuest in 1999. Microsoft's Asheron's Call is another popular role-playing game.
These games are being played by thousands of other gamers whether you log on or not. These virtual adventures are ongoing games that never end.
"These game can take years to play," Wang said. "You never die, you just get set back."
Once a gamer types in his code name and password, his character re-appears in the exact position in the game when he logged off.
"Earth and Beyond" will offer three types of virtual worlds in which gamers can participate: combat, exploration and trading (i.e.-- stock trading, negotiating treaties).
But it's not so much the game's mechanics, but the bonds that are created by gamers that make these virtual worlds exciting, said Maria Hamilton, Westwood's online community manager.
"This game is very dependent on the social interaction between players," said Hamilton, whose job entails conducting online forums with Westwood Studio game fans to learn what they want to see in a new game.
"Imagine Disneyland by yourself," Hamilton said. "It's not as fun compared to if you went with a lot of people."
Westwood Studios has shifted 20 percent of its staff of 175 to focus on developing "Earth and Beyond." Part of that staff works around the clock, creating new adventures for those exploring these virtual worlds.
And that's what keeps gamers coming back, said Mike Goodman, an industry analyst for Boston-based The Yankee Group.
"(Game-makers) update things, like the changing seasons," Goodman said. "You have snow drifts and freezing temperatures and new characters. And that's important because you've got to keep it fresh. Some of these players spend 20 hours a week playing."
Offering several options, such as exploration and day-trading, is an attempt to appeal to a wider audience and could lure couch potatoes away from watching television.
"I don't think it was a strategy to go after the TV market, but it has seemed to turn out that way," Wang said.
He notes the success of this growing niche of games is due to the player's ability to create and partially control a fantasy world.
"Interactive TV pleases a portion of people's brain as opposed to passive TV where information is fed to them," Wang said.
But some analysts say interactive TV will not kill network and cable TV because of the growth of online games.
"Passive TV appeals to another portion of the brain," said Goodman. "Consumers don't drop one behavior when they pick up another one. It's like the old argument, radio didn't kill TV, VCRs didn't kill movie theaters and the Internet is not going to kill TV."
archive
