Out now: Media Co’s & Interactive Entertainment Industry

Over the past year I’ve been working with David Cole from DFC Intelligence on a report that investigates all the videogame-related activity of media companies. And it’s finally available.

Considering my background in media ownership, it’s been fascinating to sort out exactly how all the giant media companies are trying to migrate their IP into game space. For example, the enormous success that Vivendi Universal is enjoying from WoW’s 10 million subscribers was hardly premeditated. In fact, it sort of fell into their lap after a string of mergers and acquisitions.

Size also does not mean insight. Despite its deep pockets, Simon & Schuster (wholly owned by Viacom) proved unable to make Eve Online a success. After developer CCP took back ownership and began digitally distributing the game, the subscriber base doubled within 12 months. The current 150,000 subs paying $15/month prove that the potential was there from the start. But these seemingly omnipotent giants clearly have their limitations.

So, because size generally does matter, we mapped out the ownership of the game properties of the major media companies and analyzed their strategies in the interactive entertainment industry. Of course, if you want to know more, you’ll have to go buy the report.