How do we let companies know we want widescreen? (1 Viewer)

[Dave F]

Ok, it's obvious to HTF'ers that widescreen options are important in videogames, but the average Joe Blow in marketing doesn't have a clue that this can be important to videogame buyers (yes, I know we are a minority, but we still buy games).
How do we let companies know that we want this? Sure we can buy games that support widescreen, but how does EA know that the widescreen option may get me to choose Madden over NFL Fever, and I'm not buying for the Madden "name"?
I'd especially like to hear from people in the industry ( BrianB, I'm looking in your direction ). We got Warner to release a widescreen Wonka, let's try do the same thing in videogames!
-Thanks
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[Richard Knight]

Getting your widescreen wishes is possible, but the path is not an easy one. The key is to establish communication with the right people, and to have the right support group.
Talking with me, for example, is almost unneccessary - its a good feature (but not mandatory) that would be great to include provided it does not break some part of the game (for example, Resident Evil would be a disaster, graphically, if there was a 16:9 mode plugged in)
Just blasting away at, say, THQ - that won't work. If you can't get a line in with one of the guys actually working on the game, you won't have any luck advancing the cause.
Get a community of people together who want to see more games with the feature. Create informative articles or websites about it. Do everything you can to keep it in the mind of those of us who toil away at these things.
...and as like just about every piece of game-industry related knowledge, my comments were vague and foreboding. *sigh*
FWIW, Widescreen will probably become a lot more prevalent now as tool for graphic enhancement - wooing focus groups, investors, and media relations is probably going to get a lot of help from 16:9 and 480p with the X-Box and Gamecube.
Its sad that technical merits aren't always the leading consideration, but its helpful to know that things are moving along regardless.
Richard