Gaming Goes Global, as Road Trip Shows

BUDAPEST--Anyone who questions the magnitude of the $40 billion videogame industry needs only to hop on a plane and head anywhere in the world. I've spent the past week traveling from Frankfurt, Germany to Budapest, Hungary to Cologne, Germany to Aachen, Germany to Muenster, Germany and back to Frankfurt for a flight home.

Every city I was in had either a game development studio or publisher or some type of game tie-in. The whole week was part of an international press tour for CDV Software's new Xbox 360 and PC game, Sacred 2. (CDV has it's US headquarters in Cary, NC but it's global headquarters are in Frankfurt.) There were journalists from game magazines in Spain, Greece, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Hungary and the U.S. on this tour.

In Budapest, we visited 3D Brigade, the company that worked with publisher Ascaron Entertainment on Sacred 2. During the presentation for the game, they showed a demo of Epic Games' Unreal Engine 3. Later, they told me they're working on two UE3 games for two big publishers.

It truly is a small world. During lunch that day at a traditional Hungarian restaurant, which had the largest servings of Weinerschnitzel I've ever seen, the Coke bottles all had a contest with a chance to win a Wii.

While interviewing the German metal band, Blind Guardian in Budapest--they provided the soundtrack for Sacred 2--three of the four members talked about how much they love to play videogames, including Sacred.

In Aachen, at the Novatel hotel, there was a huge poster for the kids' corner that had an Xbox 360 and Microsoft's Rare-developed Samba de Amigo game on the TV. That day we also visited developer Ascaron's Studio 2, which is developing the Sacred 2 fantasy role-playing game. And in Muenster, videogames play a key role in the huge Role Playing Convention, which has over 25,000 gamers (both board and video) gathering in costume to game and fight with swords and armor. (Think a German version of Gen Con.) On the train to Muenster today, a 20-something couple shared a Nintendo DS game of Brain Age to pass the time.

Videogames truly are a global phenomenon. And each country or territory is different based on the culture. For example, Gears of War was never released in Germany because it was deemed too violent. It became a best-seller anyway because consumers went to Austria and bought it. In Germany, there are strict violence rules which require game companies to change blood from red to green and tone down violence. At the same time, nudity and sex in games is permitted. It's like the opposite of the U.S.

As I walked through the old-town streets of Aachen, casinos had both games of skill and videogames sitting in the doorways. Here at the developer Studio 2, there are classic videogame arcade machines for Asteroids, Gauntlet (one of my favorite when I was a kid) and Terminator 2: Judgement Day. Videogames are everywhere.

And it's cool to be able to explore new cultures and new countries all in the pursuit of reporting about new games.