Could next-generation video games help sell travel?
January 11, 2008
Here's a trailer for a game called Afrika being developed for Sony's Playstation 3 games console. (Don't worry, this is going somewhere.)
What did that remind you of? Travel ad, right?
The purpose of the game, according to industry speculation, will be to explore an 'African' (read: Kenyan) landscape, interacting with and photographing animals.
So it's a safari simulator. So what?
Well, think about the power of cinema to sell destinations. If a film is seen by lots of people and makes a place look cool, tourism organisations and travel suppliers receive a boost from it.
As that Afrika trailer proves, mainstream games are capable of sexifying real-world or near-real-world destinations. (At the moment they usually don't, but that could change as new kinds of game follow families and female players into the market.)
As for getting eyeballs, Nielsen reports that video game penetration is growing fast. Indeed, PricewaterhouseCooper says revenues could soon overtake those of the music industry in the U.S.
Okay, it's just a bit of speculation for a Friday afternoon. But you see what I'm getting at. Bit more interesting than PR stunts in No Sign Of Second Life if you ask me...
Nathan Midgley, web producer
Nathan Midgley
Comments (2)
Nathan, I enjoyed reading your article, as I am quite involved in virtual tourism these days.
I did want to point out that current generation video games ARE selling travel already. STA Travel SLI opened for live sales from SL in the fall 2007. Since that time, over 25 people have sat down for travel consulations, and more than a dozen have purchased vacation packages directly from SL (as opposed to being directed to a url link).
Posted by Bob | January 12, 2008 8:23 PM
Posted on January 12, 2008 20:23
Hi Bob - thanks for your comments.
Interesting to hear you've sold some holidays in SL. But really I'm talking about the potential of big-ticket video games to make a destination appear attractive, not by deliberately marketing it but as a by-product of the story and setting - rather like e.g. the film Miss Potter did for Cumbria. Using a virtual world as a sales channel is still interesting, but it's something different.
As far as making a destination appear attractive in SL goes, the problem is that it is comletely open-world, and that world becomes more sprawling every day. You can't guarantee that users will actually come to or interact with a given part of the game environment. By comparison, something like Afrika has a very particular setting that you know its players are going to interact with.
Posted by Nathan | January 13, 2008 3:06 PM
Posted on January 13, 2008 15:06