10 May 2009 – 9:44 am
A friend at Coutts bank mentioned an independent gaming company called CyberSports a few times over the last few months. Knowing my interest and experience in the sector he was keen to get me to their product demonstration.
Venturing down to the meet CyberSports at London´s Hospital Club proved an evening well spent.
I really got the Football Superstars concept, even if the controls were looking a little clunky and some of the investors in the room were less understanding of the technological challenge. Linking up several players worldwide on a real time basis, while explaining to a largely non-gaming crowd what was happening.
Football Superstars is played live over the Internet, and replicates the whole of a professional footballer´s life.
Playing well earns money which can then be spent on bling, Range Rovers, gym membership, night clubs and bars. Just like in Manchester, Liverpool, or, Milan. Except this euro-pastiche City, takes a bit of Barcelona, Warsaw and maybe Paris in its generic 3D graphics. The end result is rather like downtown New York, not a location known for its football affiliations.
A while back I worked on some of the big football titles. The blockbusters.
But what I really like about Football Superstars is, unlike my previous projects, the online game takes the whole football experience as a full package.
The marketing looks good, and I particularly liked the life size imagery used on the day. Contrasting La Liga and The Red Lion Sundays. The caption being, a game of two lives. It works very well.
Revenue currently comes from advertising, sponsorship and player micro payments. Although a player subscription model is always an option too. The two current sponsors are Puma and Reebok, their football boots being available for purchase in the game and boasting their own real world characteristics.
One very avant garde development we spoke about over drinks, was the ability to do real world exercise and upload this to a game avatar. The iPhone seems the obvious device right now to act as the data collector and intermediary.
Overall, I think the concept and delivery are really good. The openness of the game to fans is good in this day and age, where brands micro manage their users. CyberSports allows unpoliced fan sites, and in places such as Russia these have boomed.
CyberSports is aware it needs to iron out some of the problems, such as the initial software download. Which are not surprising, given the scale of the game and the complex 3D environment.
Football Superstars fills a gap, and in time should prove to be a winner.
CyberSports, thank you for my invitation.
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