Hispanics make up a considerable portion of the population in the United States, especially the further south you get. And, according to GameStop COO Paul Raines, they're buying videogames. Raines attributed a large portion of GameStop's explosive sales growth in recent years to Hispanic customers and noted that the chain's highest performing stores lie closest to the border with Mexico, causing the company to consider retail expansion into that country.
If the demographic is making such a significant impact on the industry, why aren't more games being marketed towards it? Well, Raines thinks that may be about to change, and he has even gone so far as to have conversations with big publishers such as Activision about creating games specifically for the market. He's hoping that a successful release of DJ Hero could mean a start in that direction coming from a music game based around a Latin music superstar, such as Shakira.
Sounds like a positive thing to me. Anything that makes games appeal to more people in more places is good for all of us.
Conrad Zimmerman is Destructoid's News Editor and home to the busiest mustache in the gaming press. An amateur historian and pop culture fanatic, Conrad possesses a nearly limitless wealth of videogame factoids and a passion for the power of games to teach, inspire and entertain. He enjoys reading, writing and turning things which should be fun into work.
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Contest:
8:00 AM on 07.22.2009
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OK guys I think I've figured out this whole "race card" thing. I'll just leave this here.
If it means to have more hispanic main characters; then sure... why not. But I don't know why they have to consider games to be specifically focus on one culture or race. What is "a game made for black people", or asians? And what does that means? More mexican voiceovers? More cuban stereotypes? More brazilian jungle stages? Then... thanks, but no.
That should be beneficial to their demographic.
When I worked in gaming retail we did see a lot of Hispanic customers, but then, my town has a large Hispanic community. I remember there were a lot of SNK fans among them - King of Fighters and Metal Slug were always popular.
The game was called Total Overdose, and it was pretty decent - like if GTA and Tony Hawk had a baby, and they gave it to Robert Rodriguez to raise.
fix'd that for you.
Seriously though, how much more marketing does this need? I swear people just say things to sound smart, when in reality, the things the say are ridiculous. I don't really see many games being "marketed" to specific groups, except when it comes to boys and girls games. (i.e. hey boys, you'll love the new 'Babiez Fashion Plus for Girls').
I'm pretty sure I've fought more hispanic folks in the fighting games I play than any other race.
But that's not the point. the point is What the FUCK gamestop?!??!? You are already a billion dollar company that makes a living from stealing money from people and game company's. Why any company would want YOUR input on anything is beyond me.
Or you could... I don't know... market the game to all demgoraphics, instead of singling out a specific group because somewhere in that lala land brain of his, profiling sounds like the right thing to do.
As mentioned above, "Homie Rollerz" is the type of garbage we get when someone tries to make a quick buck off of "us". The game was just a cash-in on his already-offensive, borderline racist(I'm kinda hard to offend, but I can see the offense to others) toy line of the same name.
Also, cocks.
Did you guys know that Volkswagon uses him as a spokesperson in Latin American car commercials? Simply Awesome...
I can tell you why they probably don't focus more:
Because many hispanic countries in South America pirate games freely.
I lived in the Dominican Republic for 2 years. Dominicans love video games and is very popular among the younger generation (especially when you consider how poor parts of the country are). However, pretty much every single store sells pirated games and systems that have been modified to play pirated games openly. I'm not sure if it is technically legal or not, but if it is illegal then there is no law enforcement because even the big shops down there do it.
With how much the video game industry is against pirated copies, that's probably the main reason they don't focus more on hispanics since pirating is prevelant in other South American countries.
I mean I'm Indian and all we got's Dhalsim. That's not even a real Indian name!(much like Zangief)
Nobody wants to see racially themed games so much as their people and countries actually featured in a game. e.g I would be happy to see Indian characters and stages in KOF. Fun fact: KOF and neo-geo were pretty big in India in the 90s; random store owners had consoles for kids to play games in New Delhi as my one cousin tells me.
I think it boils down to the lack of Hispanic developers. Total Overdose and Chili Con Carnage were fun games, even if they were niche titles aimed at the ridiculousness of our spicy culture.
But all this is besides the point. All Gamestop is saying is, "Hey we make a lot of money in this area... Let's build more stores so we can make more money there!" What we're looking at is Starbucks mentality with quotes taken to "make" news. I live in a city where there are 3 Gamestops in a 2 block radius and most of the customers are either African American or Hispanic.
I'm off to find a copyright lawyer.
WTF are you talking about? I'm from Mexico and "TU ERES EN LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS. HABLAS INGLES."
doesn't make any sense.
I hate all this "politic/racist sh*t. People please, don't forget that videogames are about fun, not about politic conflict.
It's not about "racial focus" it's a "cultural focus", which is much different. And whether people agree with it or not, there is an undeniable amount of proof that shows you must understand the culture that you want to sell your product in and adjust your strategy, product, marketing, packaging, etc, as need be to fit that market. There are a lot of people that get paid a lot of money to figure out that very topic for global companies.
Its called: Bleach.
That's not racist. It's a stupid joke. Note that my Spanish statement is very poorly spoken, because I'm from the USA, where English is our primary language.
If I wanted to be racist, I'd say something like this:
Why isn't GTA popular in Mexico?
Because any Mexican that knows how to hotwire a car or run from the cops is already in the United States.
Grim Fandango 2 anyone?
^^ YES!!!
Sorry bout that =). But I think it would be good to include more spanish speakers in video games as long as we don't go overboard. More spanish characters yes, but we don't need a 'Life In Mexico' sim game. I thought games were doing their part (well at least nintendo) when the back of game boxes started also reading in spanish. It's actually pretty unnessicary, because I dont think anyone was gonna remark about how the back of Smash Brothers only came in english. But good to see them thinking.
I mean, If you look for inFAMOUS here (in COlombia) on a Sony Style or any shop, they list that game for US$ 110, that's just insane. Average Original game for 360 is about US$ 75, MINIMUM.
Besides, until some couple months ago, if you enter Xbox Live from here, you get brick, just for log in. They fixed already that but still.
It's very common that ALL ps3 gamers here have an US account for PSN, what kills is that there is no way to buy stuff, you must order a psn card from the US, credit cards are not allowed.
Recently Sony said that they will work on South America market, but I'm still waiting for something significant.
Btw, Wiis are popular here, but that is thanks to piracy.
Next karaoke thing we go to with tactix you'll sing shakira with him :)