MTV is hoping to cash into the gaming industry by investing well over $500 million over two years to expand their gaming studios and develop games based on their various TV shows — for example, Jackass: The Game is coming out later this year.
Judy McGrath, Chairman and Chief Executive of MTV, said, "As we take our brands narrow and deep to serve our targeted, niche audiences, we’re putting well over $500 million behind building our games business across all of the brands in our portfolio."
But not everyone is keen on the business idea, Michael Pachter, Wedbush Morgan financial analyst, said, "Media companies are crazy trying to bring video-game development in house. They act like anyone can do this. The fact is not everyone can."
With past investments into acquiring Guitar Hero developer Harmonix Music Systems, Xfire and GameTrailers.com, it looks like MTV is now getting into the casual games department. Case-in-point, AddictingGames.com surged in popularity in July by over 84%. Also 47% of MTV Network’s audience played casual games, so MTV is trying to cash into that market.
With Harmonix working on Rock Band, MTV is hoping to link the game into their cable networks. McGrath said, "Rock Band.’ Maybe it will be the next MTV, who knows?"
