- Jan 7, 2002
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To avoid the temptation of cutting class and skipping homework to play car racing games, Jiyan Karlo Cadiz left his Sony PlayStation 2 at home when he returned to Michigan State University last fall to begin his junior year.
But the 20-year-old mechanical engineering major from Rochester Hills still enjoys the nightly Gran Turismo games that are an after-dinner ritual for the guys who live on the second floor of East Akers Hall.
The use of real production cars is one of the highlights of the popular game. Cadiz usually picks the Nissan Skyline GT-R as his game car. It is no surprise that he plans to buy the redesigned GT-R when it debuts in the United States in 2006 at an expected price of $50,000.
?These games are the perfect form of advertising,? Cadiz said. ?You really get to know the product. You can pick a car, accessorize it, tune it and drive it in the game under realistic conditions. It?s better than any brochure, magazine ad or TV commercial.?
Cadiz is not alone in recognizing the power of video games to sell cars and trucks. Gamers are changing the face of vehicle showrooms, automotive design studios, auto shows and commercials. They even are beginning to influence what ends up in American dealerships.
?Gamers are part of our company folklore,? said Ian Beavis, head of marketing for Mitsubishi Motors Corp. in North America. ?When the original version of Gran Turismo came out, they put pressure on us to bring the Lancer Evo to America. We finally brought it in and today we sell 500 of those a month to a very young audience. And they are all gamers.?
Automakers are scrambling to get a foothold in this nontraditional market, which generated $10.3 billion in revenues in 2002. Sales of video games are expected to mushroom to $29 billion by 2005, according to Cambridge, Mass.-based Forrester Research, Inc.
Video games and gamers have even spawned a unique form of marketing ? called ?advergaming.?
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But the 20-year-old mechanical engineering major from Rochester Hills still enjoys the nightly Gran Turismo games that are an after-dinner ritual for the guys who live on the second floor of East Akers Hall.
The use of real production cars is one of the highlights of the popular game. Cadiz usually picks the Nissan Skyline GT-R as his game car. It is no surprise that he plans to buy the redesigned GT-R when it debuts in the United States in 2006 at an expected price of $50,000.
?These games are the perfect form of advertising,? Cadiz said. ?You really get to know the product. You can pick a car, accessorize it, tune it and drive it in the game under realistic conditions. It?s better than any brochure, magazine ad or TV commercial.?
Cadiz is not alone in recognizing the power of video games to sell cars and trucks. Gamers are changing the face of vehicle showrooms, automotive design studios, auto shows and commercials. They even are beginning to influence what ends up in American dealerships.
?Gamers are part of our company folklore,? said Ian Beavis, head of marketing for Mitsubishi Motors Corp. in North America. ?When the original version of Gran Turismo came out, they put pressure on us to bring the Lancer Evo to America. We finally brought it in and today we sell 500 of those a month to a very young audience. And they are all gamers.?
Automakers are scrambling to get a foothold in this nontraditional market, which generated $10.3 billion in revenues in 2002. Sales of video games are expected to mushroom to $29 billion by 2005, according to Cambridge, Mass.-based Forrester Research, Inc.
Video games and gamers have even spawned a unique form of marketing ? called ?advergaming.?
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