NEWS - Friday, August 17, 2007
MTV to Invest $500 Million in Games
MTV Networks plans to invest USD 500 million in games over the next two years as part of a strategy to incorporate games development at the inception of all new programming plans. "As we take our brands narrow and deep to serve our targeted, niche audiences, we’re putting well over USD 500 million behind building our games business across all of the brands in our portfolio," MTV chairman and CEO Judy McGrath told Reuters. MTV’s parent company, Viacom, bought Atom Entertainment last year for USD 200 million. The company also purchased Harmonix, the developer of Guitar Hero, for USD 175 million in 2006. About 47 per cent of MTV Network’s audience play games, compared with 27 per cent of average Web users. The company has had initial success with Xfire, Neopets.com, and Nicktropolis, and is poised to release the highly-anticipated Rock Band in the fall. "Rock Band. Maybe it will be the next MTV...who knows?" said McGrath.Source: http://www.gamesindustry.biz
