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By Tom Boyd
Headline RSS FeedWhere's my skiing video game?
February 28, 2008 —
When Magnavox released “Alpine Skiing!” in 1979 I was four years old and, admittedly, easy to entertain.
Now I’m not, and I’m severely disappointed in skiing (and snowboarding’s) efforts to gain prominence in the $18.85 billion gaming industry.
In 1991, NASCAR came out with a video game called the Maxwell House Racing Simulator, which was implanted into actual NASCAR cars and deployed to supermarkets and county fairs all across the nation. The then-budding sport of NASCAR filled parking lots with kids and adults who wanted to play the game, and as they waited they stared, sometimes for hours, at stacks of Maxwell House coffee.
Not only did sales of Maxwell House coffee skyrocket, the creative marketing strategies of NASCAR continued to help double (yes, double) the NASCAR audience over the next decade.
This weekend I join that audience for the first time. I’m headed to Las Vegas, where Vail head honcho George Gillett’s GEM Motorsports Team will be fielding the Budweiser Car and driver Kasey Kahne, who won NASCAR’s top series in 2006.
I love skiing, and I love ski racing. I’m even a Bode Miller fan, although in my opinion the all-time greatest American skier is Daron Rahlves.
Up until a few months ago, I couldn’t have told you who Kasey Kahne was, or who drove the Budweiser car, and if you said, “Jimmie Johnson” to me I would’ve immediately thought of the Dallas Cowboy’s ex-coach, not last year’s NASCAR champion.
But marketing works. It builds excitement. It makes you feel like you’re part of something bigger. And although I’m a big ski racing fan, I find it difficult to access. I don’t encounter it in my everyday life. I don’t see it at Dave and Buster’s when I go there with my brother to have a beer and chill out before the big weekend.
On the other hand, when I play a car racing game, most of the time it’s a NASCAR car racing game. When I want to play a ski racing game, or a snowboarding game, I can’t even find one available, and even if it is, it pretty much sucks.
Where is the U.S. Ski Team on this front? Where is FIS on this front? In a sport like ski racing, which is equally as intriguing as car racing, you’d think there’d be a lot of potential.
But I don’t see a lot of potential in FIS’s ability to market skiing in the new, ever-changing, and highly digital world. Instead I picture a lot of outmoded Europeans arguing ski specifications in an ancient Alpine lodge, unaware that the future of their sport is flying past them on the internet, in video arcades, iPhones, and B2B marketing deals faster than Kasey Kahne on his way to this year’s title.
It’s fashionable these days to denigrate American Southerners for their lack of intelligence. One look at NASCAR, which has gone from a regional stock car series to the most popular motor-racing series in the world, and the largest spectator sport in the U.S.A., ought to correct that opinion.
The lack of a video game isn’t everything to the U.S. Ski Team and FIS. But it’s one thing. And, in my opinion, it’s one of many that is lacking with skiing (and snowboarding’s) PR and marketing strategies.
5 Comments on "Where's my skiing video game?"
Reid — March 1, 2008
Nothing would give me greater pleasure than hucking a 720 a la
Toby Dawson (True Local) and winning the bronze in the 2010 Olympics; and having a reset button close by if I totally stack it. Where is our skiing game?
Matt — October 11, 2008
I agree I have been looking for a skiing game for my new xbox 360 for the past few days. I love halo 3 and cabelas big game hunter on there, but I can only find a snowboarding game that might not even have skiing on it.
Tony — October 15, 2008
ACTUALLY, Bode Miller DID have a skiing game released in 2006 for PC but it was overlooked by the distributor I believe because it was/is impossible to find. There was also Johnny Mosely MADTRIX for PS2 back in 2002 (admittedly it's far-outdated now).
But, next month (Nov. 2008) has the release of the much-anticipated Shaun White snowboarding for all major consoles. It looks amazing. Open-mountain boarding, complete freedom (a la 'Skate'). So maybe if sales are good, they'll notice the winter sports industry is still alive and we want games too! SO GET OUT THERE AND BUY A COPY, or six, haha.
And maybe we should get an online petition going and have it posted on major winter sports websites...the videogame industry is all about demand. If people want it, they WILL make it...just look at how Bungie is making another Halo game (Halo: Recon) as an add-on to Halo3 after saying for 2 years that Halo3 would definitely be their last game. The public spoke, saying they wanted more, and Bungie is bringing it to them.
So buy Shaun White, and get up on your soapboxes everyone!
Gary — December 28, 2008
Snowboarding isn't skiing.
Aaron — February 12, 2009
Formula 1 is the biggest racing series in the world not NASCAR. NASCAR is tiny compared to formula 1
