Posts Tagged ‘games industry’

£10 million to be invested in UK Games Industry

Tuesday, December 8th, 2009

The  trade association TIGA, representing the games industry in the United Kingdom has recently announced that the UK games industry is on the verge of receiving £10 million from government agencies. This investment will also see a £2 million earmark for a prototype fund being administered by Abertay University.

british-pound-collage.previewStemming from the Digital Britain report that was published in June 2009, the commercial potential developed at Abertay will be further enhanced by the new center of excellence in Manchester. The new facilities at MediaCity UK will allow games and creative content developers the opportunity to better understand how gamers use their prototype products. This research and development will then in turn allow gaming companies to further refine these prototypes, with the ultimate goal leading to enhanced success in the competitive marketplace.

The MediaCity UK project is supported by £1 million from the Strategic Investment Fund, with additional funding arriving via individual European Regional Development Fund initiatives in both Manchester and Scotland, as well as the North West Development Agency. The Scottish government alone is contributing close to £1 million. The total commitment to the project is estimated at £10 million.

“This is good news for the UK games industry,” says TIGA CEO, Dr. Richard Wilson. “We particularly welcome the intention to use the funding to invest in prototypes to support new Intellectual Property (IP) development. Finding sources for finance for new IP is difficult at the best of times.”

Wilson continues, “We now look forward to the Pre-Budget Report on Wednesday December 9th. A commitment by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Alistair Darling, that the Government will introduce Games Tax Relief would demonstrate that the Government is serious about supporting the UK games industry, one of the UK’s leading digital industries.”
£10 million to be invested in UK Games Industry

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Gameforge CEO Klaas Kersting declares Free-to-Play “Will Dominate Soon”

Thursday, August 20th, 2009

As we reported at the end of June, the head of one of Europe’s most important gaming destinations, Klaas Kersting delivered his keynote speech yesterday at the GDC Europe event. Titled, “Changes in the Games Industry – Free-to-play vs. Payment Models,” Kersting shared his thoughts, advice, and experience when dealing with the free-to-play business model.

gdc_europe_09As reported by Mike Rose from Gamasutra, one of Kersting’s key takeaway points was that “free-to-play will dominate [the gaming industry] soon.” Obviously, coming from Europe’s largest developer of free-to-play browser and client based MMO games in Europe, Kersting has a bit more insight than the average Joe. His reasoning and philosophy come down to experience. He readily acknowledges that full-priced retail (i.e. in the box) games are still the defacto choice for a number of publishers, but a number of problems including piracy, market competition and overcrowding, and the “one time earning” factor are forcing traditional sales methods and resulting revenue numbers to drop. Eyeballing both Ubisoft and EA, Kersting pointed out that both manufacturers have seen a 51 and 20 percent (respectively) drop in sales numbers.

Stating his antithesis to this ‘traditional’ method of distribution, Kersting states that Online distribution is really a no brainer. Making points to appeal to both producer and consumer, Kersting says that an online distribution method has “close to zero” overhead operating costs, while at the same time the consumer, “wants to get what he is looking for as easy and fast as possible.” In other words….why should I go to the store, or order via amazon, and then wait? Providing a digital distribution method quenches consumers’ gaming thirst then and there, not a few hours or days later.

Talking to his own company’s methods, Kersting says, “give the game away for free. Why not?” Once this game is given away for free, producers then have a captive audience ripe for the sale. “Then give the player an opportunity to buy something,” he says.

However, Kersting and company aren’t living between the clouds. Driving a company to the top of the free-to-play destinations has taken some clever maneuvering and some smart business. To this end, Kersting comments that, “Free is not a business model – of course price matters. But free is the beginning of other business models.”

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Gameforge CEO Klaas Kersting to deliver “Free-to-play vs. Payment Models” keynote at GDC Europe

Tuesday, June 30th, 2009

Founded in 2003 by Klaas Kersting and Alexander Rösner, German based Gameforge quickly became the de-facto destination for European free-to-play gamers.  With award winning games, both client and browser based, including OGame, Ikariam, and Metin2, Gameforge has attracted over 75 million gamers from around the globe.

Klaas KerstingMr. Kersting is expected to share his knowledge and experience with GDC Europe attendees, and will deliver a track keynote titled, “Changes in the Games Industry – Free-to-play vs. Payment Models.”  Kersting will share his thoughts and advice on the success of the free-to-play business model.  He’ll also cover the differences between gaming attitudes and cultural backgrounds when it comes to various payment models.

“Gameforge develops pioneering and groundbreaking technologies in the browser-based game sector, which is driving the whole industry,” said Frank Sliwka, Vice President European Business Development of Think Services Game Group. “GDC Europe is focused on delivering content that appeals to a global audience, while presenting content that represents and showcases the European development community. Gameforge is one of those companies that exemplifies the European spirit of innovation, and as a market leader, we anticipate a keynote that is powerful, informative and inspiring.”

Kersting’s keynote speech should dovetail nicely into Double Fusion’s Direct of Developer Relation’s Brian Blau is expected to talk about in-game advertising.  Blau’s talk will review the design and implementation aspects of dynamic in-game advertising placements.  He’ll also be presenting examples of the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly in respect to which ads have worked, not worked so well, and outright failed.

Both Kersting’s keynote and Blau’s session will deal with the rapidly changing state of the gaming industry.  One discussing the microtransaction position, the other the in-game advertising stance.  As we’ve seen over the past year, a number of free-to-play titles are being introduced to the market in hybrid form.  Meaning, these titles are choosing wisely, and not relying on simply one form of monetization, but diversifying and offering players subscriptions for premium content, microtransaction options, and perhaps a pre or post game advertising roll.  Both of these sessions should be of high value and interest to any gaming developers looking into the future, and realizing that the state of play is no longer what it once was.

Taking place between the 17th and 19th of August at the Cologne Congress East Center in Cologne, Germany, the GDC Europe expects over 1,500 attendees from 48 countries around the globe.  The GDC Europe is regarded as the preeminent European games developer conference.

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Microtransactions take the cake in anticipated development survey

Tuesday, March 24th, 2009

According to a survey of approximately 160 members of the games industry, as conducted by VentureBeat, microtransactions took the number one spot in the ‘most impactful’ areas of the games industry.  Smartphones took the number two spot.

Sixty six percent of respondents voted for microtransactions as THE area to watch, while sixty one percent clocked smartphones.  The VentureBeat survey broke user generated content out into it’s own category, but this area has obvious microtransaction implications, and forty three percent gave UGC top ratings.  Without surprise, the current advertising rates freefall also factors into the survey, with only twenty one percent calling IGA the hot spot, and voice recognition rounds out the top four with an eighteen percent vote.
VentureBeat lead writer Dean Takahashi comments, “The trends match closely to what is currently being funded by the venture capital community”

When speaking of platforms with the most potential, naturally, Apple’s iPhone received kudos, receiving a massive seventy four percent vote of confidence from survey responders.  Never left out of a good party, Social Networking nabbed sixty five percent of the vote, casual, web-based platforms, sixty two percent,  and home consoles rounding out the top four in this category at fifty seven percent.

This survey was conducted as part of VentureBeat’s GamesBeat event, which kicks off today in San Francisco, literally just down the street from the GDC.

“The content of GamesBeat was designed to stimulate discussion and understanding of the current and future market trends and attendees will find each of the top trends on the agenda and under discussion both on stage and in the hallways,” says Takahashi.

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Paul Thelen presents Big Fish findings on casual gamer profiles and the casual game industry

Monday, July 28th, 2008

At least week’s Casual Connect Seattle, Big Fish Chairman and CSO Paul Thelen presenting some outstanding data regarding the casual gaming market.

The outline to Mr. Thelen’s presentation reads:

The terms “Casual Games” and “Casual Gamer” are very broad terms that mean different things to virtually everyone involved in this area of the overall games industry. The complexity of defining casual games is due to the evolutionary and revolutionary changes that occur each year and the diversity of products and services, breadth of consumption methods and wide variety of business models that have emerged. In this keynote address, Paul Thelen presents the results of new study performed by Big Fish Games, in collaboration with NPD Group, of the US games industry with an emphasis on the casual gamer. The study profiles distinct casual segments of the market and the resulting business opportunities as well as comparing and contrasting these casual segments with the traditional core games market.

Some of Big Fish’s findings include:

Segmenting gamers into two buckets is misleading

Combining Casual and Core gamers, there are 14 distinct segments

This business is complex

  • 14 customer segments
  • 17 Platforms
      PC, Mac, Mobile Phone, Touch Phone, PDA , Xbox 360, XBLA, Playstation 2/3, PSP, Wii, Gameboy, DS, WiWare, IPTV, In-flight entertainment, Basic Browser, Social Networks
  • 10 business models
      Pay-per-day, Try-and-buy, Multi-game subscription to won, Multi-game subscription to rent, Advertising supported, Advergames, Micro-transaction item sales, Single game subscription, Skill game wagering, Bricks and Mortar sales

With this massive amount of data, Big Fish and NDP have clearly presented us with a picture of complexity.  14 different customer segments to contend with.  17 different platforms for you and your developers to wrangle with.  10 different business models, all having their own merits.  Getting your game off the ground and to market is complex enough.  Why not take one worry right off the list?  How are we going to monetize the game?  Simple.  If you’re heading towards the growing trend of micro transaction based, free to play games, you’ve landed in the right spot.

fatfoogoo is a full service provider and offers you a turn-key solution to operate a marketplace including payment, clearing, settlement and in-voicing; all within your game’s environment.  fatfoogoo does what we do best: monetize your game, allowing you and your team more time to focus on what’s important, the game itself.

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