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Computer Game Lets Players Ski Like Olympians

Posted on: Saturday, 18 February 2006, 00:00 CST

By Anne Krishnan, The News & Observer, Raleigh, N.C.

Feb. 18--Fans who haven't gotten enough of Bode Miller during the Olympics may soon be able to see the slopes through his eyes.

Merscom, a Chapel Hill company, will offer the experience by publishing "Bode Miller Alpine Skiing." The computer game lets players take on Miller's persona to compete in downhill, slalom, giant slalom and super-G events.

The tiny company -- which has introduced just a handful of games for the U.S. retail market but played a role in hundreds internationally -- is part of the latest evolution of Octagon Entertainment, its sister company and office mate.

Merscom and Octagon have fewer than a dozen employees between them, but after 13 years in the video-game business, they're starting to work with clients such as Cartoon Network and retail outlets including Wal-Mart and Best Buy.

The global video-game market is expected to more than double, to $54.6 billion in 2009, according to a 2005 report by PricewaterhouseCoopers. The local video-game sector is expanding, as well.

"It flies under the radar, but there's a nice little game industry in the Triangle," said Dana Cowley, who heads up Merscom's publishing operation and helped found the North Carolina chapter of the International Game Developers Association.

Among its members are about two dozen firms from Chapel Hill to Fuquay-Varina, including companies that develop games, sell tools for video-game developers and translate video games to sell them in other countries.

"Bode Miller" has been successful in Germany for several years, and Merscom has the rights to sell the PC version in North America. The game features 32 slopes in 18 real-life locations. Depending on the mode, players can alter the weather, the snow conditions and even the wax on their skis, or they can jump right in and start competing.

The game's inspiration didn't have a golden experience in the first week of the Winter Olympics. Miller finished fifth in the downhill and was disqualified from the combined event. Today, he'll compete in the super-G.

A gold medal would be good for Miller, the United States and Merscom's sales, but Cowley said the game's success doesn't depend on Miller's performance in the Olympics.

"Either way, he's a successful athlete and he still has a World Cup championship under his belt," she said. "I think it'll sell well because it's just an awesome game."

Merscom had hoped that the game would hit store shelves last month, in time for the Olympics, but it couldn't meet an aggressive time line for testing the game and securing retail outlets.

Merscom's games have typically sold in specialty stores such as EB Games, GameStop and CompUSA, but "Bode Miller" is on its way to Wal-Mart shelves in Canada and will be in Best Buy stores in the United States within the next two weeks. Cowley expects Merscom's distributor to secure other major retailers for the $19.99 game.

Retail outlets make all the difference in the sales of a game, she said. While the company has sold more than 10,000 units of its popular "Terrorist Takedown" in stores such as CompUSA and Fry's Electronics since late 2004, in less than a month it has already supplied Wal-Mart with 10,000 units of its latest game, "Trainz Railroad Simulator 2006."

"There's no comparison," she said. "It's been really exciting."

The company is advertising "Bode Miller" on Google and Yahoo! searches, as well as on targeted Web logs. Gamers who pre-order on Merscom's Web site get a free game. It expects the game's sales to be on par with "Trainz," but it foresees less tangible benefits from the product, as well.

"It's definitely going to raise our profile as a publisher. It's a very high-quality game," Cowley said. "We've had great interest from the gaming community, and we expect this to certainly be of great value to our portfolio."

Lloyd Melnick and Kirk Owen founded Octagon Entertainment in 1993 to represent game developers negotiating with publishers about financing, licensing and distribution. As Octagon began to move more into providing services for publishers, it spun off Merscom in 1999 to continue the licensing business and capitalize on its broad base of development and publishing contacts. Merscom now licenses and publishes games in the United States and sells the rights to other companies that publish them abroad.

Merscom put several games on the retail market in fall 2004, including "Terrorist Takedown," but was disappointed by the results. The company retooled in 2005 and plans to introduce at least six games this year.

Meanwhile, Octagon shifted its business toward providing game development services. The company helps clients such as Cartoon Network and The Game Factory develop games based on popular shows and characters such as Puffy AmiYumi and Garfield. Octagon helps its clients find game developers with the right skills and experience, then handles everything from drawing up design plans to dealing with game-console manufacturers.

In 2005, the company finished its evolution into two current business models and the publishing business took off, particularly in the international market, Melnick said. "All the things we've been building toward, we finally got there last year," he said.

Octagon generated about $7 million in revenue in 2005, a 94 percent increase over 2004. He said it's been profitable for the past nine years.

Over the next few years, Melnick plans to expand the business while more fully integrating its two branches. The publishing arm can help Octagon's game development clients publish in the United States and overseas, while the game development arm can add new content to games Merscom is publishing, Melnick said.

The companies will hire two new employees in the next few weeks and expect to add several part-time game testers.

While Octagon has several competitors, including THQ and Activision, both of California, its advantage is its international focus, Melnick said. The company generates about 75 percent of its revenue overseas.

The global scope has been a focus for the company since the beginning, when Melnick and Owen met in the international business club at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business. Melnick has worked or studied in Ireland, Denmark, Austria, the Netherlands and Lithuania, and worked as an economist in international trade for three years. Owen worked in Costa Rica, Mexico and Germany.

Asia and the region including Europe, the Middle East and Africa are expected to be the fastest-growing markets for video games over the next several years.

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Source: The News & Observer

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