Cyan Explores New Artistic Mediums

Unless Cyan Inc. decides to head off in new technological directions, the company has the resources it needs to fund its growth.

“If we want to stick with CD-ROM, and grow our company in that area,” says Rand Miller, “we’ve got plenty of capital to do it. There’s no doubt about it. We’ve become a major player in that arena.

“Where the question comes in is when you talk about whole new areas other than CD-ROM. New experimental areas like on-line entertainment, or, I don’t know, pick them out of the air.”

The issue of where the computer game industry is headed is one that Cyan and everyone else is trying to sort out.

“That’s a question for the whole industry,” says Scott W. McAdams, a software industry analyst for Ragen MacKenzie of Seattle. “And nobody knows the answer.”

CD-ROM stands for Compact Disc-Read Only Material. The technology transfers data stored on compact discs to personal computers. To use the technology, you need a computer equipped with a CD-ROM drive.

Cartridge-based games, on the other hand, require much less expensive platforms that attach to TV sets to drive the games.

Cartridge games were not a realistic option for the Millers when they developed Myst, because the 8 bit and 16 bit cartridges could not store enough data to pull off the game’s remarkable audio and visual effects.

That may not be true in the future. Sony and Sega are both coming out with 32-bit games, based on CD-ROM technology, and Nintendo is working on a 64-bit cartridge platform.

So where is the industry headed?

Lew Alton, managing partner of San Francisco based L.H. Alton Co., says, “Clearly the industry is headed to personal computer based CD-ROM.”

McAdams sees a doubling of the personal computer multimedia market (CD-ROM) every year through 1996.

The problem is that even that kind of growth leaves CD-ROM with a vastly smaller market than the dedicated game market, dominated by Nintendo, Sony and Sega.

Myst set sales records for CD-ROM with 1 million copies sold earlier this spring. Those same numbers would represent only a modest hit in the dedicated game market.

But, McAdams points out, Myst is not the kind of action-packed, kill-or-be-killed game that appeals to the Nintendo crowd.

“That market is different than the personal computer market,” he says. “Myst is much more cerebral.”

In the long run, McAdams believes the PC multimedia market will win out. Nintendo sets can only play games. Even though personal computers and CD-ROM drives are much more expensive, game-playing is only a small part of what they can do.

But the Millers are thinking beyond the CD-ROM-cartridge debate. They are intrigued by the emerging possibilities of on-line entertainment. In this concept, a central computer would store the games. The player would access the games for his or her personal computer through a modem, and pay a subscription fee for use of the service.

But the technology barriers are significant.

“You need faster data,” says Miller. “Right now, phone lines are not anywhere fast enough to do what we want to do.”

Ultimately, that issue will dictate the direction Cyan takes. Whatever medium has the power to best achieve the realistic effects the Millers want will be the one they pursue.

“We have to be careful not to jump out of our niche,” Miller says. “Our niche is building these realistic worlds. If a new medium has enough power to do that, we’ll look at it. If not, it will go onto a back burner somewhere.”

, DataTimes