Game Companies Might Have Broad New Horizons

(MoneyWatch)  Game developers might be able to tap vast new markets-- in the B-to-B space. The expertise necessary to produce a decent game in today's competitive market could easily meet any number of corporate interests:

• Intuitive user interfaces for equipment control
• Simulation in such areas as supply chain and manufacturing
• Graphics modeling for design
• Mathematical techniques from graphics for engineering and research

It doesn't take long to draw up a list of core competencies (to get into the consulting mindset for a moment) that would be attractive to many industries. In fact, Raytheon is using approaches that would be familiar in gaming to pilot remote drones:

That's the bet Waltham (Mass.) defense electronics giant Raytheon has taken with its new Universal Control System (UCS). On display at the biennial Farnborough Air Show in Britain, this next-generation ground control system for the likes of General Atomics' Predator UAV has more in common with the Sony PlayStation 3 than with the Northrop Grumman F-14 Tomcat made famous by the classic 1980s movie Top Gun.

The company's new systems are "based on similar technology that has made products such as Microsoft's Halo and Ubisoft's Splinter Cell runaway hits."

Gaming companies could take their expertise and start knocking on the doors of defense, energy, logistics and supply chain, manufacturing, and other industries. Yes, the game vendors might have to create subsidiaries that would focus on the business models, marketing, and sales that could do the job, but why not? Such diversification might create new areas of expansion and high growth and would effectively subsidize all the development the companies already have to do, creating a higher return on the already sunk investment.

In fact, some game companies like id Software already license their "gaming" technology. An order by any other name might pay as well.