Games Industry

1. Games Industry AG1060A: Game Professional Awareness AG1063A: Games Industry Awareness AG1160A: The Games Marketplace Dr Iain Donald i.donald@abertay.ac.uk

2. Today • Current State of the Games Industry • Innovation in Computer Games • Game Development Process Trends • Current Industry Trends/Concerns • Industry Maturity?

3. Admin

4. Next Week • No Lectures • No Tutorials • Tutorials will start again a week on Monday • Week Beginning 17th October

5. Exams • Provisional timetable is being worked out. • All exams will have 5 mins reading time. • All exams will have 2 hours writing time • Open Note

6. Questions

7. Innovation

8. Exercise • What is the most innovative video game you have played this year..? • Why..?

9. Top News This Week Study: UK games industry struggling to find staff http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2011-10-05-study-uk-games-industry-struggling-to-find-staff Richest fifth 'take 97% of all iOS game revenue' http://www.develop-online.net/news/38761/Richest-fifth-take-97-of-all-mobile-game-revenue FIFA 12 enjoys record-smashing global launch http://www.next-gen.biz/news/fifa-12-enjoys-record-smashing-global-launch

10. Rage Reviews • Critical Reception: id Software's Rage http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/37689/Critical_Reception_id_Softwares_Rage.php • id Software's post-apocalyptic shooter Rage, which reviewers describe as "a nice change of pace in a market filled with 'follow me' and pop-and-fire shooters.“ • On Metacritic 83

11. What is Innovation? • According to the Oxford English Dictionary, innovation is: Pronunciation:/ɪnəˈveɪʃ(ə)n/ noun • [mass noun] the action or process of innovating • [count noun] a new method, idea, product, etc.:technological innovations designed to save energy

13. EA 2007 • Talk of an EA takeover of Ubisoft “[EA has] a culture which is risk-averse, and which completely fails to nurture new, innovative ideas.” “EA's vast success in the last ten years has been built on yearly updated franchises in which innovation crawls along at a snail's pace, drip-fed into the product from year to year.” http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/french-connection-not-ok-b

14. EA 2007 “Our mission is to consistently make EA SPORTS games not only the most authentic, but also the most innovative games on the market. “It’s in the game” is not just a tagline; it’s the North Star we follow when we create our games.” Peter Moore - December 2007

15. FIFA 2011 “CONVINCE your friends that you are playing FIFA 11 by playing FIFA 10” Viz Top Tips

17. FIFA09 “For FIFA 09 we have listened carefully to gamers feedback, as we always try to do, and included this gameplay feedback into FIFA 09. As mentioned prior, authenticity is key but for us it is also extremely important to be very innovative and creative.” John Dongelman, EA Sports Senior Marketing Manager http://www.vg247.com/2008/10/03/interview-ea-sports-marketing-boss-talks-fifa-09/

19. FIFA10 “There’s no denying FIFA 10 is the best football game ever and the innovations we have brought to the genre over the years have helped get us to where we are now” Trevor Uzice, EA Sports Marketing Manager http://www.mcvuk.com/news/37354/FIFA-10-passes-2m-mark-in-the-UK

21. FIFA11 “...critics are praising FIFA 11 as being one of the most authentic and innovative titles ever, and fans are connecting and competing with other gamers around the world and have logged a record number of online connected game sessions.” Peter Moore, EA Sports, President http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20101004007382/en/EA-SPORTS-FIFA-11-Shatters-Records-Landmark

23. FIFA12 “Revolutionary gameplay innovations make FIFA 12 deeper and more engaging. All-new Precision Dribbling creates a higher fidelity of touch on the ball…” http://easf.www.easports.com/uk/football/news/fifa12-pc-02

24. FIFA 2012 EA SPORTS make FIFA 12 ultra realistic by getting Andy Gray to tell my wife to 'get the tea on' if she tries to play the game…. TwopTwips

25. Innovation? • Or incremental improvements? • Is innovation curtailed by the yearly release schedule? • Does an innovative feature require more development time than the 12 month release window allows? • And how long would it take to develop?

26. FIFA - Metacritic • Scores on the doors...Xbox 360 only • FIFA 07 - 73 • FIFA 08 - 82 • FIFA 09 - 87 • FIFA 10 - 90 • FIFA 11 - 88 • FIFA 12 - 90

27. Mirror’s Edge

28. Reviews • Mirror’s Edge divided opinion – • See Keith Stuart from the Guardian “Do game reviewers really understand innovation? Or are we undervaluing it entirely?” http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/gamesblog/2008/nov/14/gameculture-playstation1 • and reaction to that article...

29. Reaction • I don’t think Mirror’s Edge is as stunningly innovative as claimed... First person perspective, running away from enemies, avoiding direct combat, quick time events, the colour blue: all of these things have been done before.” John Kershaw http://nukezilla.com/2008/11/15/guardian-mirrors-edge-is-just-too-innovative-for-reviewers/

30. Dead Space

31. Reviews • Yahtzee’s Zero Punctuation review http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/333-Dead-Space • “Dead Space seems to be hypercompetent and slick. But what it doesn’t seem to be is innovative.” http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2008/11/07/dead-space-dead-in-the-water/

32. Metacritic & Sales • Mirrors Edge – Xbox 360 - 79 • Dead Space – Xbox 360 – 89 “While we saw significant improvement in the overall quality of our key products this year, we are disappointed that our holiday slate is not meeting our sales expectations” http://www.bit-tech.net/news/gaming/2008/12/10/ea-is-disappointed-with-2008-sales/1

33. Reaction • February 2009 - EA boss John Riccitiello • recession may not be a totally bad thing and may actually have several benefits for gamers and the market at large • there'll be less rubbish on shelves for gamers “A lot of the riff-raff is going to go bankrupt” • So is EA now pushing innovation? Or not?

34. Why is it important? • Sales? • Perceptions • Publisher • Developer • Public/Consumer • Government

35. Is Innovation Dead? • Some critics proclaim it so: • David Wong, Senior Editor, Cracked.com • “[E3 2010] will more likely be remembered as the precise moment video gaming as we know it died a tragic and embarrassing death.”http://www.cracked.com/article_18608_the-day-gaming-industry-died-impressions-from-e3-2010.html

36. Is it true? • Yes…publishers are risk adverse • sequels and derivative titles dominate the charts • increasing costs will mean this trend continues • No…you only have to look at new platforms • the rise of indie games • the way we want our entertainment is changing • the way we pay for our entertainment is changing • on demand + anywhere = convergence

37. What is Innovative? • Games • Minecraft? • Cloud/fl0w/Flower/Journey? • Medal of Honor ? • Six Days in Fallujah? • Warco? • Can it be something really simple just done very well? • Facebook • Twitter

38. Minecraft

39. ThatGameCompany http://thatgamecompany.com/ Student Game: Cloud (PC) Commercial Games: fl0w (PS3/PC) Flower (PS3) The Journey (PS3)

40. Cloud

41. Six Days in Fallujah • Developer: Atomic Games, …a third-person tactical shooter • Criticism “considering the enormous loss of life in the Iraq War, glorifying it in a video game demonstrates very poor judgement and bad taste...”

42. Six Days in Fallujah “The words I would use to describe the game—first of all, it's compelling. And another word I use—insight. There are things that you can do in video games that you cannot do in other forms of media. And a lot of that has to do with presenting players with the dilemmas that the Marines saw in Fallujah and then giving them the choice of how to handle that dilemma.” Peter Tamte, Atomic Games President

43. Warco Journalist Aims to Create War Reporting Simulator http://www.innovationnewsdaily.com/warco-video-game-war-journalism-2288/

44. What is Innovative? • Genres • Interactive Documentary • Serious Games • Others…maybe you have one in your head… • …maybe you’ll work on a genre-defining title? …the illegitimate child of • Rhythm + Action-Adventure +Platform + MMO + Angry Birds? • …and using a freemium model

45. Interactive Documentary

46. JFK Reloaded

47. Serious Games What? SG involve the use of games technologies and methodologies for: e-Learning, Simulation, Team building, Collaboration, Social Networking, Opinion shaping for defense, education, scientific exploration, health care, emergency management, city planning, engineering, religion, and politics.

48. Accepted that… A serious game is a game designed for a primary purpose other than pure entertainment.

50. Innovation Growth Areas • Technology – 3DS, Kinect, 3DTV • Business Models – cover in next lecture • Business Processes – a little later today • What else?