Hardware Makers Woo Pro Gamers

Thanks to Wired News for their article discussing PC hardware makers, and their marketing efforts aimed at gamers. The piece suggests: "High-stakes video-game tournaments may be all the rage, but the real fights occur behind the scenes, where companies spend millions trying to get their technology directly into the hands of gamers." It goes on to point out the big competitive gaming deals: "Nvidia... ponied up $125,000 for QuakeCon, $30,000 for the Cyberathlete Professional League's Unreal Tournament competition and $350,000 for the winners of the Make Something Unreal game-design competition... AMD spent more than $300,000 on this year's QuakeCon." And the largest LAN parties are now greatly sought-after: "The closed bidding and increased competition has forced companies to pour more money into these tournaments or face losing coveted sponsorships."

Pricing

[SuDZ]

I wonder where the prices come from. I mean the difference between 30K for one tournament but 300K for another is a huge leap. I just wonder where the inflation comes from or what the extra cost went into.

SuDZ

Hmmm... why don't they.

[I(rispee_I(reme]

Concentrate on making a superior product and let word-of-mouth provide what they're paying so much money for? It's not as though gamers aren't fixated on their hardware performance already...

Re:Hmmm... why don't they.

[JVert]

Com'on you arn't excited about the professional gamer industry? Like football athletes we'll start hearing endorsements from the winners of tournaments.

Re:Hmmm... why don't they.

[shiva600]

Concentrate on making a superior product and let word-of-mouth provide what they're paying so much money for?

Try telling that to Nintendo ;)

does this really influence the hard core gamer?

[fireduck]

it seems to me the hard core gamers are going to be less influenced by who is sponsoring an event and more influenced by the latest benchmark scores. who cares if nVidia is sponsoring QuakeCon when their card is 2% slower than ATI in 3Dmark? (and, yes, i am aware of how useless benchmarks are when companies optimize their drivers for them). I can't see anyone dropping $500 on a card just cause they saw the big shiny adverts saying nVidia inside at quakecon...

On the other hand, the casual gamers really don't care as much about the high end hardware, nor are they really aware of computer gaming events or who the sponsors are.

maybe i'm wrong and people really are influenced by advertising. but it just seems that the people who are putting together their computers are savvy enough to know the benchmarks and will go with what is best...

Re:does this really influence the hard core gamer?

[Grand]

I think it is more about them giving out prizes like Video Cards. I know if I ever went to a gaming event and a bunch of people around me got 500 dollar video cards for free, I would be more inclined to buy from that company. Both ATI and NVIDIA dont need advertising since the benchmarks do that for each of them. But a company giving out free products at events shows that they actually support gamers. Especially since it seems like big LAN parties are growing in popularity lately. NVIDIA giving away fr

FPS FPS $$$

[bigman2003]

It is amazing how First Person Shooters drive the video card business.

Almost every penny I have spent on my computer in the past 3 years was so I could get more frames per second...at a higher resolution, with a faster mouse, on a better monitor...etc. etc.

Of course, everything else benefits from the speed too..but that is just secondary. I mean...how many frames does the Internet get anyway?

ATI and Quakecon

[mrpuffypants]

I would never have even considered ATI before QuakeCon 2002. Since then and their ultra-cool "chill-out booth" I've warmed up to them a lot. In fact, so much athat I'm buying a 9800Pro next week.

Also it didn't hurt that they had the #1 GPU at the time and gave a me a free shirt =]

It's not the hardcore gamers

[Violet Null]

The hardcore gamers aren't going to buy an NVidia or an ATI based on branding or some promotional material -- they'll buy it based on performance. They don't care about branding; they care about being able to go from 120 to 123 fps.

It's the casual gamers who are the target -- they're less fixated on more performance, and thus easier to sway. A casual gamer is more likely to let other considerations affect the buying decision, such as, to name a Slashdot example, whether or not NVidia or ATI are currently doing good in the "supporting linux" department.

Drop in the bucket, marketing wise...

[WoTG]

While AMD spending $300,000 at QuakeCon sounds like a lot of money, once you put these values into perspective they're not really that large. For less than the cost of a few TV advertisements on a major network during primetime, these companies get a lot of exposure to the exact demographic that is most likely to buy their gear. It's very targeted marketing, and it's probably money well spent. This is especially true for smaller companies like AMD and Nvidia - well almost everyone except a handful like I