Study: Wii Can Alleviate Elderly Depression, Too [Exergaming]

The benefits of the Wii and exergaming to patients in hospitals and elder-care facilities has been discussed nearly since the console’s release. Researchers in San Diego now say that Wii games can combat the onset of depression in elderly persons. A pilot study involving 19 subjects with subsyndromal depression – not full blown depression, but much more common, and more associated with functional disability and long-term hospitaliztion – found that participating in Wii games assisted with their symptoms. This is important because, while longer-term studies have shown that physical activity can abate one’s depression, fewer than five percent of older adults are actually capable of such activity. But playing the Wii, more than a third of the participants had a reduction of depressive symptoms greater than 50 percent. And many saw a significant improvement in their mental health-related quality of life and increased cognitive stimulation. Speaking as someone with a grandparent in an intensive assisted-living home, I can speak firsthand of the daily concern and empathy one feels for an elderly person who needs meaningful occupation or stimulation throughout the day, just as much as any adult 50 years their junior. When someone – especially someone with a lifelong love of learning – is cognizant but has difficulty seeing; and still curious but hard of hearing, giving them books or DVDs or CDs about even their favorite subjects isn’t as useful as much as it is a reminder of what they can’t do, and may not ever recover. The victories provided by video game alternatives may not be meaningful in a developmental or intellectual sense, but they can be something different, and something to look forward to. My grandfather politely declined to play the Wii at his retirement community, and now, haggling with him to try it might be a bridge too far. I do wish he’d tried it though. Knowing what I do of his physical and occupational therapy, it’s just as goal-oriented, physical in nature, and capable of reward. Video Games May Help Combat Depression in Older Adults [Science Daily via Game Politics ]

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Study: Wii Can Alleviate Elderly Depression, Too [Exergaming]

NPD: Online Gamers Spend on Average 8 Hours a Week Online Playing [PC]

The average number of hours spent per week on online gaming is up 10 percent, to 8 hours a week, according to the results of a study released by the NPD Group today. “While the percentage of the population that reports playing games has declined slightly, this study details other metrics which point to both stability and growth in both online and offline gaming,” said Anita Frazier, industry analyst, The NPD Group. The PC remains the most-used system for online gaming, according to the report, with 85 percent of online gamers reporting using a PC for online gaming activities. For consoles, the Xbox 360 was the top video game system used for online gaming at 48%. In contrast to 2009, when Wii was leading over PS3 by 8 percentage points, PS3 and Wii are now neck and neck, with about 30 percent of online gamers reporting that they use each system for online gaming. How much time do you think you spend online gaming? I suspect a bulk of my gameplay occurs online, if you don’t include the iPhone, which is almost all offline for me.

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NPD: Online Gamers Spend on Average 8 Hours a Week Online Playing [PC]

Disney’s Guilty Party: Family-Friendly and Fun…Really. [Impressions]

Wii owners who have suffered through countless me-too mini-game collections and lame party games often consider the term “family-friendly” the kiss of death. But Wideload Games (Stubbs the Zombie), the studio recently acquired by Disney Interactive, is aiming to erase that stigma with Disney’s Guilty Party. The new, er, family-friendly entry is a who-done-it mystery game that takes its inspiration from old school Scooby-Doo cartoons, boardgames like Clue, and even procedural crime dramas such as CSI. Supporting up to four players, Guilty Party stars a family of super sleuths. The colorful cast of investigators , from the trench coat-sporting Columbo type to the Murder She Wrote-like grandma, are packed with personality. Additionally, the game’s brimming with fun, witty, well-acted dialogue that, like a Pixar movie, can be enjoyed by young and old alike. Rounding out the cast is a long line of potential suspects, also delivering great voice work. From the snooty butler to the nervous doctor, there’s no shortage of suspicious peeps to point the finger at. Their in-game interactions are a hoot, but some nicely polished cutscenes also serve to sell the appealing style. The gameplay has you interrogating-and often accusing- key suspects. Clues like a person’s height, weight, gender, and hair length are gleaned from your investigations. And while the early cases are meant to be cracked easily, later ones involving multiple similar looking suspects, require you break out your sharpest Sherlock Holmes skills. The investigating doesn’t just involve dialog-driven interrogations though; a variety of inventive mini-games also help you uncover clues. One such challenge had me clearing dust from a desk with a few Wii remote swipes in search of hidden hints, but my favorite tasked me with keeping direct eye contact with a nervous suspect. Using the pointer and an on-screen pair of eyes, I had to match my virtual peepers with the suspect’s eyes even as she repeatedly attempted to avert my gaze. While I didn’t get to see it in action, a Wideload designer described a more difficult version of this same game where the suspect places her hands over eyes, forcing the player to honk her nose to get them to open again. As the mysteries become more complex, the areas you investigate become much larger. An early case might unfold within a multi-room mansion, and only include a handful of potential suspects; but much later in the game, armchair detectives will find themselves scouring an entire cruise ship to interview all its guests. You don’t necessarily have to tackle these more complex cases by yourself though. Sure, you can play competitively, taking turns against other clue-crackers and racing to solve the mystery before them. But I’m betting the most fun will be achieved when a group gathers to work together on a case. Whether passing a single remote around or simply listening to the advice of family and friends, Guilty Party has the potential to be at its very best when great minds come together. Supporting the title’s quirky characters and engaging gameplay is a beautiful art style. The pop-off-the-screen visuals have an almost Pixar-like appeal that layer the experience with plenty of charm and personality. While I only got to see a couple of cases solved, I look forward to cracking more, not just because the core concept is so satisfying, but because meeting new characters and exploring fresh areas is half the fun. Guilty Party really does have style to spare. In addition to individual mysteries in the main game mode, which are all tied to an overarching plot, Guilty Party boasts a customizable party mode. Here, players can create their very own mysteries down to the last detail, mixing things up from the pre-packed cases and adding tons of replay value. Not since accusing Colonel Mustard of murder with the lead pipe in the study have I had so much fun solving mysteries. If Guilty Party can sustain the engaging style and addictive gameplay I got a glimpse of, it holds the potential to make family-friendly Wii gaming fun again.

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Disney’s Guilty Party: Family-Friendly and Fun…Really. [Impressions]

Nielsen: Games Account for 5 Percent of U.S. Entertainment Budgets [Study]

Across all U.S. households, video games account for 4.9 percent of monthly entertainment spending – to 2.8 percent for CDs and mp3s – according to recent Nielsen research. Among households that are active game buyers, the figure is 9.3 percent. It’s important to note this is not a whole-dollar measurement – it does not mean Americans spend more on games than music. But it does indicate consumer preference, based on how they perceive the allocations of their money. Game-buying households – defined as those spending more than $1 a month on game-related content – comprise 24 percent of U.S. households. Their habits “paint a picture of valuable, tech-savvy entertainment consumers,” Nielsen writes. They’re more likely to buy DVD/Blu-ray movies, video-on-demand, go to movies, sports and other live events. Interestingly, these choices “come at the expense of more established media options like basic cable and print media.” If you’re wondering what the leading entertainment budget categories were, a general category of “participating in activities such as dining out, shopping, going to a museum” led overall with 24.8 percent of a family’s spending. Regular television packages, such as basic cable, came in second at 17.9 percent. Video Games Score 5% of U.S. Household Entertainment Budget [Nielsen. Graphic by Nielsen.]

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Nielsen: Games Account for 5 Percent of U.S. Entertainment Budgets [Study]

ESA Estimates Nearly 10 Million Games Illegally Downloaded in December [Esa]

Research focusing on 200 specific titles showed 9.78 million illegal copies of video games were downloaded worldwide in the month of December, according to the Entertainment Software Association. The ESA expects the number is actually much higher as the study, conducted in partnership with the International Intellectual Property Alliance, focused only on those 200 popular games and the most popular filesharing platforms in use. One upshot of the report was its request that the United States Trade Representative to list 35 countries – including Mexico, Canada and Brazil – on a “priority watch list,” alleging those nations’ inadequate response to regional piracy problems. That could conceivably lead to trade sanctions but that’s a lot of dots to connect. The countries with the highest number of unauthorized downloads were Italy (20.3 percent of the total) Spain (12.5 percent), France (7.5 percent) and China (5.7 percent.) The report “demonstrates a strong correlation between countries that lack sufficient protections for technological protection measures and countries where online piracy levels for entertainment software are high,” the ESA said in a statement. ESA Estimates 10 Million Pirate Games Downloaded In December [GamesIndustry.biz]

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ESA Estimates Nearly 10 Million Games Illegally Downloaded in December [Esa]

Poll: 80 Percent of Teens Have Game Console [Study]

A new poll by the Pew Research Center – you should know them, they’re like the NPR of polls and stuff – finds that 80 percent of American kids between ages 12 and 17 have a game console, and more than half have a handheld. The findings were reported Wednesday by the center’s Internet & American Life Project. Although boys were more likely to own or have access to a console in their home (89 percent) girls also clocked in at 70 percent ownership. DSes and PSPs garnered a majority of teen ownership but saw their greatest strength among younger demographics. Pew said 66 percent of kids 12 and 13 had a handheld, compared to 44 percent of those 14 to 17. Broken down by gender, handheld ownership was 56 percent boys, 47 percent girls. The survey was based on telephone interviews with 800 teens from June to September 2009. Most Younger Net Users Get There Wirelessly [MSNBC]

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Poll: 80 Percent of Teens Have Game Console [Study]

Study: Brain Size And Gaming Ability Related [Science]

How good you are at video games could be related to the size of certain parts of your brain, researchers suggest. Beyond gaming, the research also suggests differences in learning rates. In the latest issue of everyone’s favorite brain journal Cerebral Cortex, a new study from University of Illinois, the University of Pittsburgh and Massachusetts Institute of Technology had 39 adults (29 women, 10 men) play two versions of a specially developed game with different purposes. On version had them achieve a single goal, the BBC reports, while the other version was related to shifting priorities. According to the MRI scans, those with larger nucleus accumbens, part of the brain’s “reward center”, did better in the first few hours. However, the players who ultimately did the best on the game with shifting priorities were those with larger sections on the caudate and putamen, which is the deep center of the brain. The researchers’ findings point to the ability to predict the difference in performance by measuring volume of the brain. This doesn’t mean you are stuck with the piddly peanut brain you were born with! “It has been shown that some parts of the brain are fairly plastic — they can change and develop,” says Prof Arthur Kramer of the University of Illinois. “The more we learn about these structures and function the more we can understand the circuits that promote memory and learning. That can have educational benefits but also implications for an ageing population where dementia is an issue.” It’s not how big your brain is, but how you use it, and all that jazz. Bigger doesn’t necessarily mean better. In the animal kingdom, not all creatures will large brains are intelligent. Humans, for example, have bigger brains than cows. And cows are dumb. Moo. BBC News – Video game success may be in the mind, study finds [BCC]

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Study: Brain Size And Gaming Ability Related [Science]

Word Of Mouth Sells The Most Video Games [Survey Says]

Video game publishers might rethink their marketing budgets when they see the results of the latest study from Waggener Edstrom Worldwide, which indicate that friends are three times as likely to influence a game purchase than traditional advertising. “Have you played (insert game here)?” It’s a question most of us have asked when considering a video game purchase, and the answers given are often more influential than marketing campaigns that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. A study released today by study released today by global integrated communications agency Waggener Edstrom Worldwide, Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism at the University of Southern California, and Harris Interactive. Industry trade groups, surveyed 507 adult gamers between June 6th to July 27th of this year, finding that 33% of those who had purchased a game within the six months prior to the study cited word of mouth from family and friends as the biggest influence on their purchase. More powerful than friends are a subset being called “Influence Multipliers,” friends who are more connected to other gamers, therefor having a much larger say in what other players play. Of the 507 surveyed, 21% were identified as “Influence Multipliers” “Compared to all video gamers, Influence Multipliers are a hyper influential subset of friends who are also far more connected to other gamers,” said Dan Gallagher, senior vice president, Insight & Analytics at Waggener Edstrom Worldwide. “As a result, Influence Multipliers have an outsized network influence effect on their gaming colleagues. By targeting the media channels that Influence Multipliers rely on, marketers can optimize their marketing spending.” Gallagher’s advice here is something that politicians have been using for ages. You don’t have to influence everyone – just the ones who influence everyone else. Words to market by. The remainder of the chart shows that advertising and promotions accounted for a mere 11% of influenced purchases, beaten by game reviews, demos, and retail presence. I’d say that actual advertising is most effective for non-gamers, with gamers being so connected these days that we don’t need advertisements to know a game is coming out. We don’t need to be made aware of a game’s existence, just its quality, and for that, we turn to each other. Group hug, everybody!

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Word Of Mouth Sells The Most Video Games [Survey Says]

Word Of Mouth Sells The Most Video Games [Survey Says]

Video game publishers might rethink their marketing budgets when they see the results of the latest study from Waggener Edstrom Worldwide, which indicate that friends are three times as likely to influence a game purchase than traditional advertising. “Have you played (insert game here)?” It’s a question most of us have asked when considering a video game purchase, and the answers given are often more influential than marketing campaigns that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. A study released today by study released today by global integrated communications agency Waggener Edstrom Worldwide, Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism at the University of Southern California, and Harris Interactive. Industry trade groups, surveyed 507 adult gamers between June 6th to July 27th of this year, finding that 33% of those who had purchased a game within the six months prior to the study cited word of mouth from family and friends as the biggest influence on their purchase. More powerful than friends are a subset being called “Influence Multipliers,” friends who are more connected to other gamers, therefor having a much larger say in what other players play. Of the 507 surveyed, 21% were identified as “Influence Multipliers” “Compared to all video gamers, Influence Multipliers are a hyper influential subset of friends who are also far more connected to other gamers,” said Dan Gallagher, senior vice president, Insight & Analytics at Waggener Edstrom Worldwide. “As a result, Influence Multipliers have an outsized network influence effect on their gaming colleagues. By targeting the media channels that Influence Multipliers rely on, marketers can optimize their marketing spending.” Gallagher’s advice here is something that politicians have been using for ages. You don’t have to influence everyone – just the ones who influence everyone else. Words to market by. The remainder of the chart shows that advertising and promotions accounted for a mere 11% of influenced purchases, beaten by game reviews, demos, and retail presence. I’d say that actual advertising is most effective for non-gamers, with gamers being so connected these days that we don’t need advertisements to know a game is coming out. We don’t need to be made aware of a game’s existence, just its quality, and for that, we turn to each other. Group hug, everybody!

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Word Of Mouth Sells The Most Video Games [Survey Says]

Make the thrill of owning a stable of thoroughbred race horses a reality

December 2009 London: Pqube Ltd is pleased to announce Horse Racing Manager 2 (HRM2) is on course for its PC release in November 2009. HRM2 is the new instalment of the successful horse racing series from the famous Cyanide Studios, which offers you the very best of horse racing and stable management with unrivalled realism!

According to a major new Economic Impact Study published by the Sports Business Group at Deloitte* Horse Racing is the second biggest sport in Britain after football. It generated revenues of £3.4bn with total attendances of 5.7m last year and placed Horse Racing, again, second only to football. Over 40% of racegoers are under 34 years old and racing has continued to widen its demographic appeal; for example through the inclusion of mixed entertainment like music events, online betting and it has the most TV broadcast time of any sport in Britain.

HRM2 opens up this vast world of horse racing to the PC gamer. HRM2 is a complete sports management game: Invest wisely to turn your stable into a winning machine! Choose your land, build your facilities, recruit your lads and jockeys, buy and interbreed your horses, oversee the training… Take over the reins of your stable and discover the winning enclosures at British and international race courses!

Take part in your choice of 3 race types: Flat, National Hunt and Harnessed Trot. Choose the best training routines to work out what your horses prefer and decide on the best strategy for equestrian glory. Select from the database of over 6000 horses, each with its own attributes. Then race them at the world’s most prestigious tracks and courses.

Horse Racing Manager is created for horse racing enthusiasts and casual race goers, as well sports management fans and tycoon lovers in 3 separate modes.
o For horse racing fans: the Jockey mode allows you to create your own character and take the reins in 3D races to win as many races as possible in the full race calendar.
o For betting fans: the Punter mode gives you the possibility to improve your bank balance by betting on race outcomes. And the betting complies with the UK Tote and Bookmaker formats, plus international bookmaking systems are integrated into the game.
o For management fans: the Owner mode guarantees a complete range of emotions as the player fully manages the finances, day-to-day affairs of his stable, buying/selling of bloodstock and hiring/firing of jockeys.

HRM2 can be played in solo mode or multiplayer over a LAN or the internet. Jockeys take part in a series of races with final rankings depending on total race winnings. In Betting mode all players are punters at each race and bet over a series of races. The most exciting development is the new multiplayer Owner mode, which creates a permanent on-line world with full interaction between players. Not just on the racetrack, but also in such activities as buying and selling of horses.

Horse Racing Manager 2 has a 12 PEGI age rating and will be available on DVD from December 2009, at a recommended retail price of £19.99

Recommended System Specs: Graphics: GeForce2, RAM: 256MB, Processor: 800MHz, Disk space: 1.2 GB, Operating Systems: Windows 98/SE/ME/2000/XP/Vista

– ENDS –

Further information:
For sales and distribution enquiries please contact Kevin Hutchinson: Kevin@pqube.co.uk
For further Review information and game code, partnerships, promotions and competitions please contact Rob Noble: Rob@pqube.co.uk

*Source: British Horseracing Authority’s “2009 Economic Impact of British Racing” by Deloitte.

About Pqube Ltd
Pqube Ltd provides a complete range of services for media production and publishing worldwide. Amongst Pqube Ltd’s management games is a portfolio sports sims such as International Cricket Captain, Eco Tycoon, Ports of Call and Vegas: Let’s Make It Big. Pqube Ltd’s media services include design, artwork, web services, production and distribution. www.pqube.co.uk

About Cyanide
Cyanide is a video game development studio founded in 2000. Well-known for its sports sim such as the popular Cycling Manager Series or Pro Rugby Manager Series, Cyanide is also responsible for the famous Chaos League. www.cyanide-studio.com

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