UPDATE - the short film is called The Man from Blackwater and will air this Saturday (5/06/10) on Five USA at 11.25 p.m.
Hollywood movie director John Hillcoat (The Proposition) was hired to make a short film made from Rockstar’s new video game Red Dead Redemption. So what does “made from” mean - it means that the movie was created in game rather than animated from scratch.
Videogames + Movies = MEDIA CONVERGENCE!!!!
The short is airing on Fox this Saturday night at midnight. Since I imagine not a lot of people will be up to see it, I hope that Fox puts the film online not long after.
Here's the trailer for it:
Industry Structure - In Brief
THE GAMES INDUSTRY
Introduction
The games industry, once a niche form of interactive entertainment often dismissed as being for children or teenage boys, is now a multi-billion pound industry that rivals the film industry in terms of revenue and prestige.
Gaming was perceived as having ‘hobby culture’ (created by enthusiasts rather than big business) as recently as the 1970s so this is relatively young industry and the way it functions is constantly changing. The main reason for this is due to it being a technology led industry, and as software and hardware develops so does the framework around which games are created, sold and consumed.
Institutions
The games industry is made up of the following institutions:
Developers
Games are created by development studios comprised of software engineers, artists and programmers who write the code, create the structure and animate the game making them playable for gamers. It’s these developers that are perceived as the ‘talent’ in the industry.
Publishers
These are companies that are responsible for the marketing and distribution of the game.
Distributor
A distributor works with retailers (shops, online) to make product available for the consumers to purchase. In the games industry the Publisher usually handles the distribution.
Hardware manufacturers
While developers create software, other companies create the hardware that the games run on. In the games industry the major players are Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo who make the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Wii respectively. There are, however, many other types of hardware apart from consoles on which games can be played such as PC, phones and handhelds (DS, PSP).
Consumer
Or ‘the audience’ - anyone that buys, plays, downloads games.
Structure
Below is a basic illustration of how the videogames industry functions and the process in which games go from ‘concept to consumption’:
Developer - Publisher – Distributor – Hardware – Consumer
Introduction
The games industry, once a niche form of interactive entertainment often dismissed as being for children or teenage boys, is now a multi-billion pound industry that rivals the film industry in terms of revenue and prestige.
Gaming was perceived as having ‘hobby culture’ (created by enthusiasts rather than big business) as recently as the 1970s so this is relatively young industry and the way it functions is constantly changing. The main reason for this is due to it being a technology led industry, and as software and hardware develops so does the framework around which games are created, sold and consumed.
Institutions
The games industry is made up of the following institutions:
Developers
Games are created by development studios comprised of software engineers, artists and programmers who write the code, create the structure and animate the game making them playable for gamers. It’s these developers that are perceived as the ‘talent’ in the industry.
Publishers
These are companies that are responsible for the marketing and distribution of the game.
Distributor
A distributor works with retailers (shops, online) to make product available for the consumers to purchase. In the games industry the Publisher usually handles the distribution.
Hardware manufacturers
While developers create software, other companies create the hardware that the games run on. In the games industry the major players are Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo who make the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Wii respectively. There are, however, many other types of hardware apart from consoles on which games can be played such as PC, phones and handhelds (DS, PSP).
Consumer
Or ‘the audience’ - anyone that buys, plays, downloads games.
Structure
Below is a basic illustration of how the videogames industry functions and the process in which games go from ‘concept to consumption’:
Developer - Publisher – Distributor – Hardware – Consumer
Thursday 27 May 2010
Little Big Planet 2 - Making games not just levels
Article about the possibilities of Little Big Planet 2:
“Prepare to have your head melted,” says technical director Alex Evans as the core team members prepare to show off just what will make LBP2 a step change. And then he says the sentence that’s key to understanding what we get to see: “It’s no longer about making levels, it’s about making games.”
It's a little long but interesting to look at in terms of Consumption and the idea that we're not consumers but prosumers.
Here's another preview from IGN.
“Prepare to have your head melted,” says technical director Alex Evans as the core team members prepare to show off just what will make LBP2 a step change. And then he says the sentence that’s key to understanding what we get to see: “It’s no longer about making levels, it’s about making games.”
It's a little long but interesting to look at in terms of Consumption and the idea that we're not consumers but prosumers.
Here's another preview from IGN.
Potential Success of the Free to Play Model
Just like Zynga and Farmville other companies are beginning to make serious money out the Free to Play Model.
Monday 24 May 2010
Independent developers - two articles
Interesting article on the effect indie development and digital distribution could have on the games world.
Indie Game Developers Rise Up
Digital distribution and Microsoft's Community Games levels the game publishing field.
And another from the BBC on the return of the bedroom developer:
Indie Game Developers Rise Up
Digital distribution and Microsoft's Community Games levels the game publishing field.
And another from the BBC on the return of the bedroom developer:
Different models of games development
Different models of production
Here are few examples of other ways you can make videogames rather than just the Rockstar way. The first is a business model but brings home just how expensive it is to make games these days especially for the PS3 and 360.
The Indie game scene is really growing and represents the other extreme from GTA and any Iphone game would make a good case study.
‘Tent Pole’ business model
This is similar to the business model a lot of Hollywood studios: the idea is that the publisher releases one ‘blockbuster’ game accompanied with heavy marketing and investment. Then the money made from this game supports the development of other ‘riskier’, potentially more creative games.
For instance: Grand Theft Auto brings in a lot of money for Rockstar which allows them to invest smaller hits such as Canis Canem Edit, Manhunt and future products such as LA Noire and Agent.
Capcom use franchises like Resident Evil to pay for No More Heroes or Killer 7.
EA rely on the annual updates of Madden and FIFA to create cash for the research and development of other games. In 2008 EA spent $372million on research and development, the reason for this is that PS3 and Xbox 360 games can cost up to $30 million to make.
The problem with this is the company are gambling on that one game being a hit, and sometimes even big games don’t return the money – e.g. Spore, sold 1 million copies in its first 17 days, but the development costs were so big EA only expect to make their money back with 5 years of updates and sequels.
Hollywood model
The idea is to contract out parts of the games design (art, car physics, quality assurance etc.) to other companies in order to lower development costs. So instead of having a permanent in-house development team of 50+, developer can have a team of 10-20 piecing the work together undertaken by specialist external teams. This is like the Hollywood idea where specialists (stunt teams, Director of Photography, scriptwriters) are hired in for particular films rather than working for the studio in a full time capacity. e.g. Wideload Games developer of Stubbs the Zombie
Interview with Wideload Games chief – Alex Seropian
"My solution was to have a core team of 12 guys who come up with the concepts, design the games, and prototype them," Seropian explains. "When it comes time to do the actual production work -- that is, building the thousands and thousands of assets that go into a game -- all that is done by independent contributors, by contractors."
According to Seropian, if all the work on "Stubbs" had been done in-house, it would have required a full-time staff of 65-70. Instead, his 12 employees began 18 months ago and spent six to eight months to plan the project. Then, outside contractors took another six to eight months to build the assets. And now the internal team is filling another six months assembling it. All told, contractors accounted for about 75% of the work hours. As a result, the project cost 35% less to produce than if it had been produced entirely in-house.
Cursed Mountain (Wii)
Cursed Moutain’s design and concept was created by Deep Silver Vienna but much of the assets were created by Sproing Interactive, Rabcat, Immersive Games, Perspective Studios.
Developing without a Publisher
The most common model of development had developer pitching for investment from publishers or the publisher hiring a developer for a job, but occasionally you can get developers that begin on a project without a publisher. The risk is that their game might never be released and they have to raise the capital themselves, but what it does do is give them more creative freedom and no pressure from the publisher in terms of deadlines.
E.g. Games developer Avalanche worked on Just Cause before it was picked up by Eidos.
Also there is a game in development called The Outsider from developer Frontier Developments that hasn’t got a publisher.
Independent Game development
Until recently games development was a costly business, usually requiring a developer to a have a publishing contract in order to pay for the development and the license fee required to develop for a particular console. However, now there is a growing ‘Indie Game’ market thanks to open source software, Apples App Store and Xbox Live Marketplace small teams and even individuals can create games, get them distributed and make money.
The point to make is that because of new technology, convergence and new ways of distribution we have a return to the bedroom development culture weird, wonderful, often abstract games – so it means not all games have to be GTA 4.
Developing for the PlayStation Network, Wii Ware, Xbox Live Marketplace
Each console has an online store where ‘indie games’ can be bought. However, unlike release a game for the PC, Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft have certain criteria that needs to met before they agree to distribute a game.
Aside from basic development costs, console game developers are required to pay fees to license the required Software Development Kits (SDKs) from the console manufacturer. Manufacturers often impose a strict approval process and take a percentage of the game's net profit in addition to yearly developer fees. As of this writing, to develop for Nintendo Wii, Xbox 360, or Playstation 3 requires an SDK license fee of between $2,000 and $10,000 USD, in addition to yearly developer fees and profit cuts.
Interestingly Sony have slashed the SDK cost from $10,000 to $2,000 in order to cut development costs and hopefully increased third-party productivity.
Braid
Braid was created by Jonathan Blow, taking three years and $180,000 of this own investment , to make. It was originally release for the PC and sold 55,000 copies in first week (making £530,000 in revenue).
Blow then agreed to release a version for the Xbox Live Marketplace but had reservations as Microsoft have the final say on what goes on there and have a four stage approval process:
‘Blow was critical of the Xbox Live certification process, as he believed the effort to meet all the requirements could have been better spent on polishing the game. At the same time, the certification team allowed him to retain certain aspects of his vision for the game that were otherwise contrary to the process, including giving the player immediate control of the game instead of requiring a start-up title screen.[52] Microsoft also requested that Blow include some additional hints to the player based on results of playtesting, but Blow held his ground, refusing to release the game if he was forced to add these.[21] He said he would likely not release a game again on the Xbox Live service under the same business model.’ (Wikipedia)
Developing for the iPhone
The iPhone SDK is a software development kit developed by Apple , targeted at third-party developers to develop applications for iPhone OS, released in February 2008. The SDK itself is a free download, but in order to release software, one must enroll in the iPhone Developer Program, a step requiring payment and Apple's approval. As of January 2010, cost of enrollment in the iPhone Developer Program is US$99 per year (the cost varies from country to country) for the standard program.
Developers who publish their applications on the App Store will receive 70% of sales revenue, and will not have to pay any distribution costs for the application.
Examples – Dooble Jump, released April 2009, it has had nearly 4 million downloads. Doodle Jump is the brainchild of Igor and Marko Pusenjak, two Croation brothers who released the app under the banner of their company Lima Sky.
Facebook
Zynga is a ‘casual’ games developer that specialise company develops browser-based games that work both stand-alone and as application widgets on social networking websites such as Facebook and MySpace.
This is possible as Facebook has ‘open’ technology that allows third party companies to develop software for it. Zynga’s big success is Farmville which is a simple game and has an effective business model – the game is free to download, but the items within the game cost money – but significantly, not much money. These are called micro-transactions – small on their own but once the 82.4 active Farmville users get involved you can see how the revenue builds-up.
In terms of development these are easy to create games but as they are online and ‘live’ they require a team of engineers to maintain the smooth running of it.
Inside Zynga
Here are few examples of other ways you can make videogames rather than just the Rockstar way. The first is a business model but brings home just how expensive it is to make games these days especially for the PS3 and 360.
The Indie game scene is really growing and represents the other extreme from GTA and any Iphone game would make a good case study.
‘Tent Pole’ business model
This is similar to the business model a lot of Hollywood studios: the idea is that the publisher releases one ‘blockbuster’ game accompanied with heavy marketing and investment. Then the money made from this game supports the development of other ‘riskier’, potentially more creative games.
For instance: Grand Theft Auto brings in a lot of money for Rockstar which allows them to invest smaller hits such as Canis Canem Edit, Manhunt and future products such as LA Noire and Agent.
Capcom use franchises like Resident Evil to pay for No More Heroes or Killer 7.
EA rely on the annual updates of Madden and FIFA to create cash for the research and development of other games. In 2008 EA spent $372million on research and development, the reason for this is that PS3 and Xbox 360 games can cost up to $30 million to make.
The problem with this is the company are gambling on that one game being a hit, and sometimes even big games don’t return the money – e.g. Spore, sold 1 million copies in its first 17 days, but the development costs were so big EA only expect to make their money back with 5 years of updates and sequels.
Hollywood model
The idea is to contract out parts of the games design (art, car physics, quality assurance etc.) to other companies in order to lower development costs. So instead of having a permanent in-house development team of 50+, developer can have a team of 10-20 piecing the work together undertaken by specialist external teams. This is like the Hollywood idea where specialists (stunt teams, Director of Photography, scriptwriters) are hired in for particular films rather than working for the studio in a full time capacity. e.g. Wideload Games developer of Stubbs the Zombie
Interview with Wideload Games chief – Alex Seropian
"My solution was to have a core team of 12 guys who come up with the concepts, design the games, and prototype them," Seropian explains. "When it comes time to do the actual production work -- that is, building the thousands and thousands of assets that go into a game -- all that is done by independent contributors, by contractors."
According to Seropian, if all the work on "Stubbs" had been done in-house, it would have required a full-time staff of 65-70. Instead, his 12 employees began 18 months ago and spent six to eight months to plan the project. Then, outside contractors took another six to eight months to build the assets. And now the internal team is filling another six months assembling it. All told, contractors accounted for about 75% of the work hours. As a result, the project cost 35% less to produce than if it had been produced entirely in-house.
Cursed Mountain (Wii)
Cursed Moutain’s design and concept was created by Deep Silver Vienna but much of the assets were created by Sproing Interactive, Rabcat, Immersive Games, Perspective Studios.
Developing without a Publisher
The most common model of development had developer pitching for investment from publishers or the publisher hiring a developer for a job, but occasionally you can get developers that begin on a project without a publisher. The risk is that their game might never be released and they have to raise the capital themselves, but what it does do is give them more creative freedom and no pressure from the publisher in terms of deadlines.
E.g. Games developer Avalanche worked on Just Cause before it was picked up by Eidos.
Also there is a game in development called The Outsider from developer Frontier Developments that hasn’t got a publisher.
Independent Game development
Until recently games development was a costly business, usually requiring a developer to a have a publishing contract in order to pay for the development and the license fee required to develop for a particular console. However, now there is a growing ‘Indie Game’ market thanks to open source software, Apples App Store and Xbox Live Marketplace small teams and even individuals can create games, get them distributed and make money.
The point to make is that because of new technology, convergence and new ways of distribution we have a return to the bedroom development culture weird, wonderful, often abstract games – so it means not all games have to be GTA 4.
Developing for the PlayStation Network, Wii Ware, Xbox Live Marketplace
Each console has an online store where ‘indie games’ can be bought. However, unlike release a game for the PC, Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft have certain criteria that needs to met before they agree to distribute a game.
Aside from basic development costs, console game developers are required to pay fees to license the required Software Development Kits (SDKs) from the console manufacturer. Manufacturers often impose a strict approval process and take a percentage of the game's net profit in addition to yearly developer fees. As of this writing, to develop for Nintendo Wii, Xbox 360, or Playstation 3 requires an SDK license fee of between $2,000 and $10,000 USD, in addition to yearly developer fees and profit cuts.
Interestingly Sony have slashed the SDK cost from $10,000 to $2,000 in order to cut development costs and hopefully increased third-party productivity.
Braid
Braid was created by Jonathan Blow, taking three years and $180,000 of this own investment , to make. It was originally release for the PC and sold 55,000 copies in first week (making £530,000 in revenue).
Blow then agreed to release a version for the Xbox Live Marketplace but had reservations as Microsoft have the final say on what goes on there and have a four stage approval process:
‘Blow was critical of the Xbox Live certification process, as he believed the effort to meet all the requirements could have been better spent on polishing the game. At the same time, the certification team allowed him to retain certain aspects of his vision for the game that were otherwise contrary to the process, including giving the player immediate control of the game instead of requiring a start-up title screen.[52] Microsoft also requested that Blow include some additional hints to the player based on results of playtesting, but Blow held his ground, refusing to release the game if he was forced to add these.[21] He said he would likely not release a game again on the Xbox Live service under the same business model.’ (Wikipedia)
Developing for the iPhone
The iPhone SDK is a software development kit developed by Apple , targeted at third-party developers to develop applications for iPhone OS, released in February 2008. The SDK itself is a free download, but in order to release software, one must enroll in the iPhone Developer Program, a step requiring payment and Apple's approval. As of January 2010, cost of enrollment in the iPhone Developer Program is US$99 per year (the cost varies from country to country) for the standard program.
Developers who publish their applications on the App Store will receive 70% of sales revenue, and will not have to pay any distribution costs for the application.
Examples – Dooble Jump, released April 2009, it has had nearly 4 million downloads. Doodle Jump is the brainchild of Igor and Marko Pusenjak, two Croation brothers who released the app under the banner of their company Lima Sky.
Zynga is a ‘casual’ games developer that specialise company develops browser-based games that work both stand-alone and as application widgets on social networking websites such as Facebook and MySpace.
This is possible as Facebook has ‘open’ technology that allows third party companies to develop software for it. Zynga’s big success is Farmville which is a simple game and has an effective business model – the game is free to download, but the items within the game cost money – but significantly, not much money. These are called micro-transactions – small on their own but once the 82.4 active Farmville users get involved you can see how the revenue builds-up.
In terms of development these are easy to create games but as they are online and ‘live’ they require a team of engineers to maintain the smooth running of it.
Inside Zynga
The problems of big budget games development
Even though this is a year old, the points raised in this article clearly illustrate the problems that companies like Rockstar, EA and Activision face with creating games that require huge budgets.
What's Killing the Video-Game Business?
Hint: It's not the economy.
Like pretty much every industry these days, video-game publishing is in some financial trouble. Electronic Arts, the world's largest game publisher, best known for Madden and the Sims, lost $641 million in 2008's fourth quarter. Activision-Blizzard, owners of the cash cows World of Warcraft and Call of Duty, reported losses of $72 million in the fourth quarter of 2008. (They lost $194 million the quarter before that.) THQ, the third-largest publisher in the United States, and known for lucrative licenses ranging from the Ultimate Fighting Championship to Pixar, had $192 million in losses over the holidays and is laying off 24 percent of its work force.
News of development-studio closings and layoffs are being reported around the world. And while publishers focus on internal cuts, many independent developers have closed outright. Such gloom, in a normally raucous industry, has set the talking heads, bloggers, and trade press to a quick conclusion: Losses and layoffs are the direct result of an economic crisis (on the premise that "things are tough all over").
But that idea, which makes intuitive sense, is completely at odds with recent sales numbers. In reality, video games are selling better than ever. The retailer GameStop announced sales of nearly $3 billion worth of games, hardware, and accessories during the nine weeks around the 2008 holidays—22 percent more than during Christmas 2007.
According to the research firm Media Control GfK, game software accounted for more than half of global packaged entertainment sales in 2008, beating DVD sales for the first time. The firm pegs game sales at $32 billion worldwide. (The U.S. market accounts for around 45 percent of the world total.) The NPD Group, which tracks sales for the industry, also reports that game software sales were up 26 percent in 2008.
So how can publishers lose money amid such incredible sales and record growth? The answer is simple: They're spending more than they're bringing in. Game development budgets have ballooned, and publishers are reeling because they can't keep the costs under control.
Games weren't always expensive to make: In the early days, a boy with an Apple II could rule the world. While there are still scads of cheaply made games on the market, all of today's big publishers employ hundreds of professional developers per game. These projects take years to complete, as each new generation of hardware allows for unprecedented advances in graphics, sound, and everything else. The greater the complexity of the game, the larger the development team. The larger the development team, the bigger the budget.
While industry leaders anticipated that budgets would creep higher, the shift to high-definition gaming with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3 has proved to be more expensive than estimated. At a conference in the spring of 2006, then-Midway developer Cyrus Lum sounded the warning, telling his audience that game development budgets could rise as high as $15 million to $25 million for a single title—previously unheard-of averages. "We need to rethink how we're financing games," Lum concluded.
When a newspaper quoted this frightening view, Lum found himself in hot water with his employer for making such sensationalist comments. It turned out that Lum's prediction was too low: Midway would go on to spend between $40 million and $50 million developing This Is Vegas, an action title set for release in late 2009.
That figure is not unusual. Budgets for next-generation development have continued to rise steadily across the board. And while executives and technologists knew that there would be heavy initial investment costs to retool—Electronic Arts spent a record $372 million on research and development during 2008's third quarter—they expected returns on that investment, something that's so far failed to materialize.
Production difficulties and product delays continue a full 26 months after Sony's PlayStation 3 reached store shelves. When companies regularly spend $40 million to develop a title and contribute more to the marketing, they need to sell at least 2 million units to break even. While Halo 3 racked up pre-orders of 1.7 million copies, and Gears of War 2 has sold more than 3 million units, only a handful of titles each year do that well. Consider that Will Wright's Spore, which sold 1 million copies in its first 17 days, was supposed to be a big hit for Electronic Arts; but the development cost was so high that that internal estimates now say it will take five years—and a bunch of sequels and expansions—for the company to recoup its initial costs.
Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto IV, released last May, is the prime example of a blockbuster game. GTA IV sold 6 million copies during its first week, bringing in $500 million. True to form, it cost Rockstar $100 million to produce, 1,000 people worked on the project, and it took three-and-a-half years to complete. Six months later, sales began to founder—a major setback to a publisher that bet the farm on the title and predicted sales throughout 2009.
Despite GTA's declining returns, the initial sales numbers were so compelling that other companies are desperate to follow suit. During Electronic Arts' last quarterly call, CEO John Riccitiello explained that the company would be pursuing blockbuster hits as a primary revenue source. Perennially successful sports franchises like Madden—titles that always come out on time and on budget because the company's bottom line depends on it—have given EA a bit more wiggle room than its competitors. Riccitiello has decided to use that wiggle room to craft expensive games of exceptional quality, products that don't ship until they're deemed perfect.
The industry has long discussed going with this "Hollywood model," in which a few games/movies turn a profit, those hits more than covering the other losses. The analogy between the Hollywood blockbuster model and the games business falls apart, however, because of the huge difference in overhead costs. Electronic Arts steadily employs 7,400 developers. The industry standard is a $10,000 man-month, meaning the company burns through more than $74 million for development each month. The big Hollywood studios, by contrast, make movies by giving money to temporary production companies, which then hire temporary crews with one-project contracts. The temporary entity will make the film from start to finish. And once production is complete, the studio receives a finished product that it can distribute to theaters—without the continued overhead expenses that game publishers often face.
Companies like EA and Activision are two kinds of businesses at once, making games themselves while publishing the work of other developers. It was a natural evolution: Publishers built distribution and marketing networks for themselves, grew successful, and found that they could use that same pipeline to sell somebody else's games. Though publishers rake in more profits when they own the titles they're releasing, working with outside firms enables them to put out more games.
Of the 48 titles EA released last quarter, eight were from other developers—mostly in the Rock Band series—while 40 were developed internally. If a publisher is looking to do blockbusters, that figure needs to be reversed. Using an external production company means you don't have to bear the burden of overhead, and when the game inevitably slips and needs more time, it isn't a problem for the publicly traded publisher needing to meet a quarterly window. But, perversely, EA's Riccitiello has said the company plans to cut the number of titles it's developing, hoping that releasing fewer games with even more effort will generate more blockbusters. That means costs will rise above the $40 million mark, an extraordinary gamble.
It's unrealistic for a company that employs many thousands of developers to abandon internal production immediately. In the short term, Electronic Arts should consider copying the old Hollywood "studio system." During the Great Depression, a movie could be made in two weeks—and people would go to see a new movie each week. EA could make games that cost less. How? Change the scale and scope of the world. Make the story shorter. Use lower-quality graphics. Recycle proven tools and technology.
Consider the case of Portal. The first-person puzzle game began as a student project before it was scooped up by Valve Software. Valve polished the game up and took it to EA, which distributed the game at retail as part of its "Orange Box" collection. As of two months ago, they'd sold 3 million copies. Electronic Arts, though, doesn't seem to have absorbed the lesson of this success story. EA doesn't need to find its own Grand Theft Auto—it needs to let 1,000 Portals bloom.
What's Killing the Video-Game Business?
Hint: It's not the economy.
Like pretty much every industry these days, video-game publishing is in some financial trouble. Electronic Arts, the world's largest game publisher, best known for Madden and the Sims, lost $641 million in 2008's fourth quarter. Activision-Blizzard, owners of the cash cows World of Warcraft and Call of Duty, reported losses of $72 million in the fourth quarter of 2008. (They lost $194 million the quarter before that.) THQ, the third-largest publisher in the United States, and known for lucrative licenses ranging from the Ultimate Fighting Championship to Pixar, had $192 million in losses over the holidays and is laying off 24 percent of its work force.
News of development-studio closings and layoffs are being reported around the world. And while publishers focus on internal cuts, many independent developers have closed outright. Such gloom, in a normally raucous industry, has set the talking heads, bloggers, and trade press to a quick conclusion: Losses and layoffs are the direct result of an economic crisis (on the premise that "things are tough all over").
But that idea, which makes intuitive sense, is completely at odds with recent sales numbers. In reality, video games are selling better than ever. The retailer GameStop announced sales of nearly $3 billion worth of games, hardware, and accessories during the nine weeks around the 2008 holidays—22 percent more than during Christmas 2007.
According to the research firm Media Control GfK, game software accounted for more than half of global packaged entertainment sales in 2008, beating DVD sales for the first time. The firm pegs game sales at $32 billion worldwide. (The U.S. market accounts for around 45 percent of the world total.) The NPD Group, which tracks sales for the industry, also reports that game software sales were up 26 percent in 2008.
So how can publishers lose money amid such incredible sales and record growth? The answer is simple: They're spending more than they're bringing in. Game development budgets have ballooned, and publishers are reeling because they can't keep the costs under control.
Games weren't always expensive to make: In the early days, a boy with an Apple II could rule the world. While there are still scads of cheaply made games on the market, all of today's big publishers employ hundreds of professional developers per game. These projects take years to complete, as each new generation of hardware allows for unprecedented advances in graphics, sound, and everything else. The greater the complexity of the game, the larger the development team. The larger the development team, the bigger the budget.
While industry leaders anticipated that budgets would creep higher, the shift to high-definition gaming with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3 has proved to be more expensive than estimated. At a conference in the spring of 2006, then-Midway developer Cyrus Lum sounded the warning, telling his audience that game development budgets could rise as high as $15 million to $25 million for a single title—previously unheard-of averages. "We need to rethink how we're financing games," Lum concluded.
When a newspaper quoted this frightening view, Lum found himself in hot water with his employer for making such sensationalist comments. It turned out that Lum's prediction was too low: Midway would go on to spend between $40 million and $50 million developing This Is Vegas, an action title set for release in late 2009.
That figure is not unusual. Budgets for next-generation development have continued to rise steadily across the board. And while executives and technologists knew that there would be heavy initial investment costs to retool—Electronic Arts spent a record $372 million on research and development during 2008's third quarter—they expected returns on that investment, something that's so far failed to materialize.
Production difficulties and product delays continue a full 26 months after Sony's PlayStation 3 reached store shelves. When companies regularly spend $40 million to develop a title and contribute more to the marketing, they need to sell at least 2 million units to break even. While Halo 3 racked up pre-orders of 1.7 million copies, and Gears of War 2 has sold more than 3 million units, only a handful of titles each year do that well. Consider that Will Wright's Spore, which sold 1 million copies in its first 17 days, was supposed to be a big hit for Electronic Arts; but the development cost was so high that that internal estimates now say it will take five years—and a bunch of sequels and expansions—for the company to recoup its initial costs.
Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto IV, released last May, is the prime example of a blockbuster game. GTA IV sold 6 million copies during its first week, bringing in $500 million. True to form, it cost Rockstar $100 million to produce, 1,000 people worked on the project, and it took three-and-a-half years to complete. Six months later, sales began to founder—a major setback to a publisher that bet the farm on the title and predicted sales throughout 2009.
Despite GTA's declining returns, the initial sales numbers were so compelling that other companies are desperate to follow suit. During Electronic Arts' last quarterly call, CEO John Riccitiello explained that the company would be pursuing blockbuster hits as a primary revenue source. Perennially successful sports franchises like Madden—titles that always come out on time and on budget because the company's bottom line depends on it—have given EA a bit more wiggle room than its competitors. Riccitiello has decided to use that wiggle room to craft expensive games of exceptional quality, products that don't ship until they're deemed perfect.
The industry has long discussed going with this "Hollywood model," in which a few games/movies turn a profit, those hits more than covering the other losses. The analogy between the Hollywood blockbuster model and the games business falls apart, however, because of the huge difference in overhead costs. Electronic Arts steadily employs 7,400 developers. The industry standard is a $10,000 man-month, meaning the company burns through more than $74 million for development each month. The big Hollywood studios, by contrast, make movies by giving money to temporary production companies, which then hire temporary crews with one-project contracts. The temporary entity will make the film from start to finish. And once production is complete, the studio receives a finished product that it can distribute to theaters—without the continued overhead expenses that game publishers often face.
Companies like EA and Activision are two kinds of businesses at once, making games themselves while publishing the work of other developers. It was a natural evolution: Publishers built distribution and marketing networks for themselves, grew successful, and found that they could use that same pipeline to sell somebody else's games. Though publishers rake in more profits when they own the titles they're releasing, working with outside firms enables them to put out more games.
Of the 48 titles EA released last quarter, eight were from other developers—mostly in the Rock Band series—while 40 were developed internally. If a publisher is looking to do blockbusters, that figure needs to be reversed. Using an external production company means you don't have to bear the burden of overhead, and when the game inevitably slips and needs more time, it isn't a problem for the publicly traded publisher needing to meet a quarterly window. But, perversely, EA's Riccitiello has said the company plans to cut the number of titles it's developing, hoping that releasing fewer games with even more effort will generate more blockbusters. That means costs will rise above the $40 million mark, an extraordinary gamble.
It's unrealistic for a company that employs many thousands of developers to abandon internal production immediately. In the short term, Electronic Arts should consider copying the old Hollywood "studio system." During the Great Depression, a movie could be made in two weeks—and people would go to see a new movie each week. EA could make games that cost less. How? Change the scale and scope of the world. Make the story shorter. Use lower-quality graphics. Recycle proven tools and technology.
Consider the case of Portal. The first-person puzzle game began as a student project before it was scooped up by Valve Software. Valve polished the game up and took it to EA, which distributed the game at retail as part of its "Orange Box" collection. As of two months ago, they'd sold 3 million copies. Electronic Arts, though, doesn't seem to have absorbed the lesson of this success story. EA doesn't need to find its own Grand Theft Auto—it needs to let 1,000 Portals bloom.
Saturday 22 May 2010
Interview with Rockstar developer - Red Dead Redemption
From the BBC:
If you believe the hype, one of the biggest video games out this year is hitting shelves across the UK this weekend.
Red Dead Redemption is the latest release from video game pioneers Rockstar, the people behind the Grand Theft Auto and Manhunt series.
This new open world game has already topped pre-order charts and follows an ex-outlaw making his way through the American Wild West.
We put some of your questions (as well as some of our own) to Lazlow, one of the game's developers and the radio DJ featured in the GTA games. Here's what he had to say.
___________________________________________________________
Nadine Coyle: How did you get into the gaming industry and where did it happen?
I got into the video game industry by slacking off, I met one of the founders of Rockstar games on the beach whilst surfing and we started doing some fake radio shows and fake DJ banter for GTA III. The game did quite well so we went on to work on other games too.
Gary Speer: How much time and work is involved in making one of your games?
It is more work than I can actually describe. The studios work very hard for many years on the code and the graphics. On RDR they've done about five years' work. It takes a long time to make a video game from the first idea to inception, to design the motion capture, to writing all the scripts. Each of our open world games has up to 1000 characters walking around and you need to make personalities, names and pages of dialogue for all those people.
Dan Whitworth, Newsbeat technology reporter: How does it feel when you release one of these games after so much work?
Bonnie MacFarlane character RDR is set in the Wild West and took about five years to produce
It's an amazing high. You're also very sensitive to any criticism about it because you've worked so hard on it. But I think the real emotional feeling is taking the disc home and playing it and when you finally complete that final mission I get misty eyed. It's like 'Wow, this thing is finally coming to a close' - this thing my friends and I have worked on for years.
Heather Prue: How do you feel about accusations that games such as yours are responsible for more violence among young people?
Our games are not designed for young people. If you're a parent and buy one of our games for your child you're a terrible parent. We design games for adults because we're adults. There's a lot of kids games out there that we're not interested in playing. Just like you enjoy watching movies and TV shows with adult themes and language and violence that's the kind of thing we seek to produce.
Bawn Trouble: How do you get round the certifiers?
The ratings board are pretty straightforward. In our games, with the GTA series, we do a lot of satire. With the Red Dead game we tried to make it feel like a really gritty western. But there's not a lot of pushback from the ratings board. It's not like we're creating anything that's really sensationalist or titillating.
Scott Fulton: Why do you think so many people love your games?
Fortunately the same team that created GTA III is the same team that's behind Red Dead Redemption. I think it's the attention to detail and I think it's the founders of Rockstar, Dan and Sam Houser, having such a great vision.
Jack Thompson/Robin Gaden: Is there going to be a GTA set in modern London or the UK in the next ten years?
We always get asked these questions about bringing GTA to someone's home town. The talk about future games, well they won't even tell me because I tend to have pints and hang out with journalists and shoot my mouth off so they keep that stuff secret.
Joanne Hutchinson: Do you think the video game industry has become too politically correct, affecting where you can go with new games?
I think that Rockstar has pushed a lot of boundaries to be able to make the art that that we believe we should be able to make. If you tell a gritty crime drama with violence and profanity and call it The Sopranos you're handed a load of awards to put up on the shelf. You do the same and call it a video game and you'll have certain organisations up in arms. I think ever since GTA IV came out and there were such rave reviews by major publications saying that this is actually art the restrictions about being politically correct have largely fallen away.
William Hobson: How much of the character Lazlow in the GTA series is based on you and your life?
'Irish' character Lazlow thinks it's got easier to make less 'politically correct' games
Haha! How much am I a depressed, balding, divorced mess? Sometimes. No, only kidding! The character of Lazlow in the games is written by Dan Houser and I, so he always puts in some nasty things about me, in my personality and the script. I would say it's probably 60 to 100% accurate!
Gary Speer: Did the success of the open world design on GTA affect your work on RDR?
We felt open world lends so much to a video game. A lot of times you'll play some games that are very restricted when you're just guided through a level. But once we broke some new ground in GTA IV we had a whole new bunch of ideas like what if instead of a city you had a prairie and mountains and Mexico and all these amazing places you could go explore.
Colin Mackie: What's better, PS3 or Xbox?
I myself prefer the Xbox because of Xbox Live. But I own both and I'm not going to get sucked into the console wars. I think the best thing to do is sell blood until you can afford to buy both! I own a Mac and a PC for the same reason. They're two different tools that do different things.
Dan Whitworth, Newsbeat technology reporter: What are your hopes for RDR?
I hope that for the people that do pick it up that it evokes an emotional response. That people will feel they're part of our world and that they'll become immersed in the time period. We did so much research into everything. What the guns of the time looked like, what the clothes looked like, what the interiors in the game are like. Those interiors were all specifically researched by our people in great detail, so I hope they'll love it and that it'll put a smile on their face.
Gary Maeslan: Can I have a job?
Yes. Yes you can, because we're hiring like mad whilst so many other industries are firing. If you go to the Rockstar Games website you can click on jobs. But I have several tips for people looking for jobs in the gaming industry. Put your gamer score on your CV, not what your grades in school are. Also, don't write cover letters that are 18 pages long. Give me bullet points.
If you believe the hype, one of the biggest video games out this year is hitting shelves across the UK this weekend.
Red Dead Redemption is the latest release from video game pioneers Rockstar, the people behind the Grand Theft Auto and Manhunt series.
This new open world game has already topped pre-order charts and follows an ex-outlaw making his way through the American Wild West.
We put some of your questions (as well as some of our own) to Lazlow, one of the game's developers and the radio DJ featured in the GTA games. Here's what he had to say.
___________________________________________________________
Nadine Coyle: How did you get into the gaming industry and where did it happen?
I got into the video game industry by slacking off, I met one of the founders of Rockstar games on the beach whilst surfing and we started doing some fake radio shows and fake DJ banter for GTA III. The game did quite well so we went on to work on other games too.
Gary Speer: How much time and work is involved in making one of your games?
It is more work than I can actually describe. The studios work very hard for many years on the code and the graphics. On RDR they've done about five years' work. It takes a long time to make a video game from the first idea to inception, to design the motion capture, to writing all the scripts. Each of our open world games has up to 1000 characters walking around and you need to make personalities, names and pages of dialogue for all those people.
Dan Whitworth, Newsbeat technology reporter: How does it feel when you release one of these games after so much work?
Bonnie MacFarlane character RDR is set in the Wild West and took about five years to produce
It's an amazing high. You're also very sensitive to any criticism about it because you've worked so hard on it. But I think the real emotional feeling is taking the disc home and playing it and when you finally complete that final mission I get misty eyed. It's like 'Wow, this thing is finally coming to a close' - this thing my friends and I have worked on for years.
Heather Prue: How do you feel about accusations that games such as yours are responsible for more violence among young people?
Our games are not designed for young people. If you're a parent and buy one of our games for your child you're a terrible parent. We design games for adults because we're adults. There's a lot of kids games out there that we're not interested in playing. Just like you enjoy watching movies and TV shows with adult themes and language and violence that's the kind of thing we seek to produce.
Bawn Trouble: How do you get round the certifiers?
The ratings board are pretty straightforward. In our games, with the GTA series, we do a lot of satire. With the Red Dead game we tried to make it feel like a really gritty western. But there's not a lot of pushback from the ratings board. It's not like we're creating anything that's really sensationalist or titillating.
Scott Fulton: Why do you think so many people love your games?
Fortunately the same team that created GTA III is the same team that's behind Red Dead Redemption. I think it's the attention to detail and I think it's the founders of Rockstar, Dan and Sam Houser, having such a great vision.
Jack Thompson/Robin Gaden: Is there going to be a GTA set in modern London or the UK in the next ten years?
We always get asked these questions about bringing GTA to someone's home town. The talk about future games, well they won't even tell me because I tend to have pints and hang out with journalists and shoot my mouth off so they keep that stuff secret.
Joanne Hutchinson: Do you think the video game industry has become too politically correct, affecting where you can go with new games?
I think that Rockstar has pushed a lot of boundaries to be able to make the art that that we believe we should be able to make. If you tell a gritty crime drama with violence and profanity and call it The Sopranos you're handed a load of awards to put up on the shelf. You do the same and call it a video game and you'll have certain organisations up in arms. I think ever since GTA IV came out and there were such rave reviews by major publications saying that this is actually art the restrictions about being politically correct have largely fallen away.
William Hobson: How much of the character Lazlow in the GTA series is based on you and your life?
'Irish' character Lazlow thinks it's got easier to make less 'politically correct' games
Haha! How much am I a depressed, balding, divorced mess? Sometimes. No, only kidding! The character of Lazlow in the games is written by Dan Houser and I, so he always puts in some nasty things about me, in my personality and the script. I would say it's probably 60 to 100% accurate!
Gary Speer: Did the success of the open world design on GTA affect your work on RDR?
We felt open world lends so much to a video game. A lot of times you'll play some games that are very restricted when you're just guided through a level. But once we broke some new ground in GTA IV we had a whole new bunch of ideas like what if instead of a city you had a prairie and mountains and Mexico and all these amazing places you could go explore.
Colin Mackie: What's better, PS3 or Xbox?
I myself prefer the Xbox because of Xbox Live. But I own both and I'm not going to get sucked into the console wars. I think the best thing to do is sell blood until you can afford to buy both! I own a Mac and a PC for the same reason. They're two different tools that do different things.
Dan Whitworth, Newsbeat technology reporter: What are your hopes for RDR?
I hope that for the people that do pick it up that it evokes an emotional response. That people will feel they're part of our world and that they'll become immersed in the time period. We did so much research into everything. What the guns of the time looked like, what the clothes looked like, what the interiors in the game are like. Those interiors were all specifically researched by our people in great detail, so I hope they'll love it and that it'll put a smile on their face.
Gary Maeslan: Can I have a job?
Yes. Yes you can, because we're hiring like mad whilst so many other industries are firing. If you go to the Rockstar Games website you can click on jobs. But I have several tips for people looking for jobs in the gaming industry. Put your gamer score on your CV, not what your grades in school are. Also, don't write cover letters that are 18 pages long. Give me bullet points.
Thursday 13 May 2010
The Economics of Game Publishing
This is an interesting article but be aware that it was written in 2006 - since then their has been a boom independent games development, so there is an alternative model to making games.
Once upon a time, not really all that long ago, it was fairly common for a game to be concepted, designed and developed by an individual or a small group of individuals with little to no budget to speak of. However, this has all changed thanks to the ever-increasing power of the newer generation of consoles that have more computing power, memory and disc space for developers to use, as well as the greater need to spend more money on marketing and getting licenses for these games to help ensure the titles sell to make it all worth a publisher's effort. Games cost a lot of money to make and, now more than ever, they need to sell as many copies as possible to help recoup the costs of publishing it. In this article, we'll give you an inside look at where all the money goes when trying to get a game from a concept to one that you're playing at home.
Development
The most important component, however not necessarily the most costly, of publishing a game is the handling of its development. According to a non-scientific poll of publishers, the costs of developing games for the next-generation of consoles such as Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3 is estimated to be roughly $10 million as compared to $3-$5 million for the Xbox, PlayStation 2 and GameCube.
A large portion of this cost goes to paying the talent that's making the games - the programmers, artists, musicians, designers, producers, and testers. And with the size of teams required to make games for the newer consoles doubling when compared to the previous generation, particularly with the number of modelers, animators, and other artists now needed, you can see why the cost of development keeps making significant jumps for each subsequent new generation of consoles.
In cases where the game is being developed by an outside company for a publisher, the publisher typically advances the development costs to the developer in the form of milestone payments that are paid at various predetermined stages of the game's development. Additionally, the publisher will also have to pay the developer royalties for the game based on a percentage of the net sales revenue of the game after deductions, such as taxes, shipping, insurance, and returns. This royalty percentage varies greatly within the industry and deals will often include step ups in rates based on hitting certain sales goals or milestones. Based on our independent research, the typical royalty is anywhere from 10% to 20%.
Because of this and the need to try and cut costs wherever possible, larger publishers have started to buy up a lot of the smaller development studios so that the games can essentially be made in-house and the paying of royalties is no longer needed. Publishing label deals are also made where the publisher and developer actually split some of the costs of development and marketing of the game.
Licensing
The next area where money is spent in publishing a game is with licensing - both licensing the game to be released on a console and the licensing of intellectual properties for use in the game.
The first, console licensing, is a step that can't be avoided when publishing games on videogame consoles such as the Xbox 360, PS3, Revolution, and so on. In order to release a game on any of these videogame consoles, the publisher must pay a royalty to the manufacture, whether Microsoft, Sony, or Nintendo, for distributing a game on their system.
And as part of the deal, the game must also meet with all of the strict quality standards and guidelines as set by the manufacturer for it to be approved and released. The exact licensing fee varies based on the manufacturer, as well as any deals they may give a publisher, but it can generally be anywhere from $3 to $10 per unit.
Games published by any of the big three console makes obviously don't accrue this licensing fee, so that's why they're often able to release their games at a slightly lower cost than 3rd party publishers.
The other form of licensing has to do with the purchasing of or paying for the right to use intellectual properties such as stories, characters, music, personalities, or products in the game. This includes things such as paying the NBA for the right to use its official teams and logs in games like 2K Sports' NBA 2K6 and EA Sports' NBA Live 2006, as well as Activision paying Tony Hawk for the exclusive right to use his name and likeness in the Tony Hawk games and paying royalties to any of the music artists for using their songs in the game.
With companies needing games to sell more copies than ever before, thanks to the increased costs of developing them and the fact that the base price for games still remains relatively unchanged from 5 or even 10 years ago, many see the instant name recognition that they get by licensing a well-know intellectual property such as James Bond, The Lord of the Rings, The Matrix, or X-Men, as a safe way to help guarantee some sales.
All that said, with the owners of these properties knowing their importance, it's becoming even more expensive to obtain their exclusive rights so there's still plenty of reasons for companies to try and create their own characters and properties and hope to they become household names.
Marketing
Often the most expensive aspect of game publishing comes in the form of marketing the game. This process happens all throughout the development process and often lasts after the game is shipped. It includes all the buying of advertising in the form of banner ads and promotions online, television commercials, local radio commercials, magazine print ads and pullouts, and in-store promotions, displays and advertisements.
The costs of doing all this is extremely high and it's quite common for a game's marketing budget to equal or even double the actual cost of making the game. Obviously, the most costly of these is the television advertisements, but it's also regarded as the most effective at getting your game in the minds of the mass market public.
Distribution
The final cost of publishing a game that we'll delve into is the distribution of the game, and that's the process of getting the game sold to wholesalers and then to retailers where you'll then have a chance to buy it. Wholesalers typically pay around $30 per game and with the costs of getting the goods to the wholesalers, any co-op advertising or marketing, and return of good contingencies being roughly $14 per game, the publisher is going to typically get $16 for every unit sold. The key part of this arrangement, however, is for the publisher to have really good relationships with the wholesalers and retailers because space is limited and unless a company's relationship is good, the wholesaler or retailers won't want to buy-in as many units, which means the sell-through can't be as good. A lot of time, money and effort is put into making sure publishers are in good with these distributors, however the bottom line is often that if your game sells they'll want to buy it. Or, if at least one of your games sells really well, then they'll want to buy or be forced to buy others.
Wednesday 12 May 2010
How Games Companies are making their money
Games Overtake Music Sales For Subs-Happy Vivendi
French media conglomerate Vivendi (EPA: VIV) saw Q1 revenue up six percent to €6.9 billion compared with last year - and it’s easy to see why.Vivendi told analysts last month it’s putting a “growing focus on subscriptions”, which have grown to comprise more than three quarters of the group’s income. That’s exactly what latest earnings show, as EBITA rose 14.7 percent to €1.6 billion…
—Activision-Blizzard: Sales “significantly better than expected” - up 29.3 percent to €945 million - thanks to still-rocketing Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and World Of Warcraft income. Downloadable content for the CoD title broke Xbox Live records and WoW has over 11.5 million paying monthly subs.
—Universal Music Group: A different story - sales down 13.4 percent to €899 million on fewer big releases in Europe and Asia plus declining CD sales (poor excuse - UMG houses big-name Lady Gaga and Black Eyed Peas). Like WMG, digital income is growing everywhere except North America, but, across the company, even fell 1.7 percent on diminishing ringtone sales.
—SFR: Vivendi’s biggest earner, the French telco’s revenue grew 1.9 percent to €3.08 billion, even after the impact of European Commission-imposed wholesale price cuts that has affected other operators. Broadband internet revenue up five percent.
—Canal+: The French pay-TV broadcaster sees revenues up 2.3 percent to €1.45 billion after adding a net 315,000 subscribers and slightly reducing digital channels customer churn.
Vivendi says it received a €122 million dividend for its NBC Universal (NYSE: GE) JV equity holding during the quarter, but the income it takes from the JV slimmed from €26 million to €15 million during this quarter.
Tuesday 11 May 2010
Learning through games
'Trafalgar Origins' takes teens to sea
Channel 4 Education's latest interactive project is a compelling sea battle sim, with a few tales to tell of the Napoleonic era...
Channel 4 Education's latest interactive project is a compelling sea battle sim, with a few tales to tell of the Napoleonic era...
How do you get teenagers interested in the Napoleonic wars? Short of casting Robert Pattinson in an adaptation of War and Peace, or running a seafaring reality TV series entitled Celebrities with Scurvy, most commissioning editors would probably be stumped.
But earlier this month Channel 4 Education launched a free browser-based game entitled Trafalgar Origins, a beautifully designed Napoleonic sea battle sim, with crisp overhead visuals, thudding sound effects and plenty of palatable historical detail. It's been created by Preloaded, a developer that specialises in interactive educational projects for TV series' as well as galleries and museums. Another of their Channel 4 projects, 1066, has been played 16 million times online since its debut last year.
Trafalgar Origins, then, provides a series of missions in which you guide your nineteenth century frigate against aggressive enemy vessels. Plundering sinking craft earns loot which can be invested in better crew members who will improve your ship's attacking and defensive stats. There's also a range of weapons to call on including round shot, chain shot and powder barrels, which can be dropped into the sea and employed as rudimentary mines.
I only meant to play for a few minutes last night, but ended up spending two hours sailing through the tutorial missions, then tackling the historical encounters, each based on genuine face-offs between the English, French and Spanish navies. There's also a multiplayer mode, in which groups of up to five users can indulge in oceanic deathmatches. And naturally, Preloaded has implemented Facebook Connect, so players can post their achievements, compare stats with friends and set-up multiplayer sessions via the social networking site. (Preloaded creative director Phil Stuart, has written an interesting blog post entitled 'socialising Trafalgar Origins', which looks into the process of providing Face Book connect support.)
The game is designed to tie in with Channel 4's 'Bloody Foreigners' season, which kicks off in June and features a series of documentaries about the role of non-British nationals in the advancement of Britain as a world power (for example, a significant number of ex-slaves and foreign convicts were press-ganged into the British navy). And with 3.2 million missions already played, there are plenty of gamers already picking up interesting trivia about life in the Victorian navy; possibly more than you'd get from Celebrities with Scurvy...
Anyway, give it a go and see what you think. The boat handling takes a while to get used to, but it's fun to work out the best angles of attack, and to start using the anchor for aquatic 'handbrake turns'. A guided missile would come in handy, though. They had those in 1806, didn't they?
But earlier this month Channel 4 Education launched a free browser-based game entitled Trafalgar Origins, a beautifully designed Napoleonic sea battle sim, with crisp overhead visuals, thudding sound effects and plenty of palatable historical detail. It's been created by Preloaded, a developer that specialises in interactive educational projects for TV series' as well as galleries and museums. Another of their Channel 4 projects, 1066, has been played 16 million times online since its debut last year.
Trafalgar Origins, then, provides a series of missions in which you guide your nineteenth century frigate against aggressive enemy vessels. Plundering sinking craft earns loot which can be invested in better crew members who will improve your ship's attacking and defensive stats. There's also a range of weapons to call on including round shot, chain shot and powder barrels, which can be dropped into the sea and employed as rudimentary mines.
I only meant to play for a few minutes last night, but ended up spending two hours sailing through the tutorial missions, then tackling the historical encounters, each based on genuine face-offs between the English, French and Spanish navies. There's also a multiplayer mode, in which groups of up to five users can indulge in oceanic deathmatches. And naturally, Preloaded has implemented Facebook Connect, so players can post their achievements, compare stats with friends and set-up multiplayer sessions via the social networking site. (Preloaded creative director Phil Stuart, has written an interesting blog post entitled 'socialising Trafalgar Origins', which looks into the process of providing Face Book connect support.)
The game is designed to tie in with Channel 4's 'Bloody Foreigners' season, which kicks off in June and features a series of documentaries about the role of non-British nationals in the advancement of Britain as a world power (for example, a significant number of ex-slaves and foreign convicts were press-ganged into the British navy). And with 3.2 million missions already played, there are plenty of gamers already picking up interesting trivia about life in the Victorian navy; possibly more than you'd get from Celebrities with Scurvy...
Anyway, give it a go and see what you think. The boat handling takes a while to get used to, but it's fun to work out the best angles of attack, and to start using the anchor for aquatic 'handbrake turns'. A guided missile would come in handy, though. They had those in 1806, didn't they?
On demand film and TV streaming service Blinkbox is to be made available on PS3.
Launched in April 2008, the service plays home to over 5,000 movies and TV shows from content partners including Warner Bros, Universal, Paramount, 20th Century Fox, Sony Pictures, BBC Worldwide and Aardman.
Blinkbox has designed a platform specifically for the PS3's internet browser and has optimised its service for the console's controller, according to the Associated Press.
Content can be rented or purchased to own, and is automatically resized by Blinkbox’s webpage for the best fit on any TV screen. While some content is freely available, paid TV show rental prices begin at 39p, with films starting at 99p.
"The PS3 is the first of a number of devices to which we will be bringing Blinkbox, enabling customers to use our service on their TVs for instant streaming of new blockbuster movies - available on the same day as their release on DVD - as well as a growing library of free ad-supported titles," said Blinkbox CEO Michael Comish.
"As a console owner myself, I knew that fellow gamers wanted access to the very largest selection of movies for instant viewing, and did not want to lose valuable hard-drive space or have to wait for their downloads. Blinkbox brings the movie and gaming worlds together, now we just need someone to make a good movie of a game."
Monday 10 May 2010
Gaming Review Events
Have a read here at how games publishers attempt to massage review scores by holding 'review events' for the press in 5 star hotels and exotic resorts.
Review scores are very important not just for readers of that specific magazine/website but also because all the scores are then fed in sites such as Metacritic, that produce an average score that many investors/retailers see as the definitive rating.
Review scores are very important not just for readers of that specific magazine/website but also because all the scores are then fed in sites such as Metacritic, that produce an average score that many investors/retailers see as the definitive rating.
Distribution & Exchange - Online Gaming
Miyamoto: Nintendo Could Charge For Online Gaming
Shigeru Miyamoto has said that Nintendo needs to decide whether to stick with its free online gaming service or introduce a paid subscription model.
Online-compatible Wii and DS titles are currently free to play using Nintendo’s Wi-Fi Connection service, but in a recent interview Miyamoto suggested this could change.
“… Probably the other thing that we are desperate to realise is the core [online] business structure,” Nintendo’s Entertainment Analysis and Development boss told us. “Do we need to demand customers pay monthly fees to enjoy online activities? Or give an online subscription that is free of charge, but then offer something extra for people that pay, so that they get some extra value? With these core business strategies I think we are less active than we should be.”
Despite this admission, Miyamoto rejected the suggestion that Nintendo has only taken small steps in the online space.
“To be honest, I think it’s rather unfair whenever I hear such comments – that Nintendo isn’t proactive when it comes to its online strategy. The fact of the matter is that we always want all Wii consoles to be connected online, all the time, so Nintendo has never been less than proactive in that kind of endeavour,” he said.
“It is true, though, that Nintendo hasn’t been very proactive in developing such online activities as an MMOG. But when it comes to our endeavours that try to take advantage of internet technology, where we can provide our customers with more fun and entertainment, then I think we can say we have been very, very proactive and well-received. And that attitude won’t be changed at all in the future.”
Shigeru Miyamoto has said that Nintendo needs to decide whether to stick with its free online gaming service or introduce a paid subscription model.
Online-compatible Wii and DS titles are currently free to play using Nintendo’s Wi-Fi Connection service, but in a recent interview Miyamoto suggested this could change.
“… Probably the other thing that we are desperate to realise is the core [online] business structure,” Nintendo’s Entertainment Analysis and Development boss told us. “Do we need to demand customers pay monthly fees to enjoy online activities? Or give an online subscription that is free of charge, but then offer something extra for people that pay, so that they get some extra value? With these core business strategies I think we are less active than we should be.”
Despite this admission, Miyamoto rejected the suggestion that Nintendo has only taken small steps in the online space.
“To be honest, I think it’s rather unfair whenever I hear such comments – that Nintendo isn’t proactive when it comes to its online strategy. The fact of the matter is that we always want all Wii consoles to be connected online, all the time, so Nintendo has never been less than proactive in that kind of endeavour,” he said.
“It is true, though, that Nintendo hasn’t been very proactive in developing such online activities as an MMOG. But when it comes to our endeavours that try to take advantage of internet technology, where we can provide our customers with more fun and entertainment, then I think we can say we have been very, very proactive and well-received. And that attitude won’t be changed at all in the future.”