Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Monday, 19 May 2008 15:55
Opinion and Analysis
Page 1 of 3
AMD’s new “GAME!” badge is an attempt to outdo Intel’s famous “Intel
Inside” sticker of the 90s, but this time appealing directly to gamers
who want a top-notch system without needing to know how to build one
themselves. Will consumers follow AMD’s GAME!plan?
Thank goodness the exclamation mark isn’t trademarked by Yahoo! or AMD’s new GAME! badge might find itself playing legal games it never intended.
Seriously, even though we’re talking about playful games, AMD says its
new GAME! initiative is designed around delivering both “a simplified and enhanced PG Gaming Experience” and enabling “console-like simplicity for mainstream PCs”.
What it also means is some serious marketing speak, which on the surface all seems to make sense. Ultimately it will depend on what the consumer thinks about it, and whether a badge will persuade them, their parents or other family members to buy an AMD powered system over an Intel powered one. It also makes me wonder if Intel will follow suit, although AMD for once has struck first.
Here’s what AMD has to say about it all:
AMD discloses that there are 263 million mainstream PC gamers worldwide, which AMD wants to target through “exhilarating HD gaming experiences with full PC functionality”.
AMD says that “you don’t have to build your own system from scratch to get the raw multi-core performance and HD graphics capabilities needed to play the latest and greatest games they way they were intended—all out.”
AMD promises that GAME! labelled systems are reliable, with AMD having “tested the games, hardware, and components to make sure you get an amazing playing experience, right out of the box”, and saying that “best of all, you don’t have to know every detail about your PC to get started.”
This will appeal to anyone that isn’t a hard core gamer, as hard core gamer types have already played games – and built custom gaming rigs – for years, and know what performance is all about.
So, what else is AMD promising that GAME! will deliver? Please read on to page 2.
