In a crazy month that saw Vietnamese games developer Dong Nguyen pull
Flappy Bird from the iOS and Android marketplaces, Cliff Belszinski proclaim
that “he’ll never publish another disc based game for the rest of his life” and
Ken Levine decide to close Irrational Games for a "small entrepreneurial endeavor at Take-Two" it’s a
wonder that the word “epiphany” isn’t trending right now.
If you had asked me to predict the next five years in video gaming five
years ago, the blank expression on my face at the time would have probably told
you all you need to know. Could anybody predict that an unfinished game with no
marketing about surviving in a Zombie infected wilderness would make the
creator a cool $5.1 Million dollars in 24 hours? More surprisingly could anyone
predict that Zombies would trend as long as they have in a market saturated
with them?
As Bob Dylan once sang, The Times, They are a changin’, to be able to
predict where gaming is going is no easy task, it’s simply moving so fast. What
I will say though is that I’ll be as
bold enough to predict that PC gaming will be bigger in the next 2 years than
it has ever been and I’ll cite RUST and DAY Z as two examples of why I say
that. I’ll even go as far as saying that console gaming as we’ve come to know
and love in all its ‘scratchy disc’ shenanigans is coming to an end and the
role of digital and direct to consumer is now the single biggest business model
that people in the games industry should learn like their life depended on it.
When the Magnavox Odyssey was launched in 1972 it was the world’s first
videogame console, it was the first home console to introduce game cards,
removable circuit boards that worked in a very similar way to how ROM
cartridges did for Atari’s consoles which followed it. For 42 years gamers have
relied on read only content on cartridge or disc to play console games, that’s
almost half a century, so it should come as no surprise to any of us that a
change is now due. I believe that perhaps one day it’s not too far-fetched to
imagine that we will establish a single format digital home console like device
that will host 100+ players in multiplayer. As for the current format holders,
perhaps both Sony and Microsoft will no longer be the separate competitors they
are today but combined in business to deliver innovative and even more cutting
edge gaming experiences that engage players on multiple levels.
It’s fair to say that we are seeing a massive shift in the current games
industry, one that removes the traditional developer / publisher relationship
that many of us have come to know. Sony and Microsoft rolled up their sleeves
to duke it out for another round of battle for the hardcore gamers willing to
drop serious cash on a disc based next gen console, the remainder of the
current gen owners are busy downloading Gigabyte heavy patches for games that
everyone expected to be ‘fit for purpose’.
Truth be told the gaming consumer has never had as much freedom and
choice as he does now. Gaming is an industry that is as volatile as it is diverse
with games now very much a part of our culture across many different devices
and formats. There are no allegiances anymore as consumers simply jump from one
format to another, one brand to another just as long as they can get their
gaming fix. The transitional shift we are seeing is in part caused by the rapid
increase in technology and digital ready mobile devices from smart phones to
tablets and additionally direct to consumer distribution networks like Steam which
are able to deliver digital only products to those willing to pay for them.
This shift is putting more creative and publishing power into the hands of the
developer than we seen in the last decade of videogames.
Publishers willing to
stay in the disc publishing model know that in order to stay the fight they also
need to create robust digital online businesses at the same time just to stay
relevant.
The bedroom coders, the YouTube video-bloggers and self-published
entrepreneurs are the new jet set, they’re the guys calling the shots in an
industry that is constantly changing and adapting to the advances in consumer
tech and lifestyle habits. However, all this comes at a price, discoverability
and over saturation are the danger areas now. While many studios are deciding to
cut out the traditional publishing relationship to go it alone many are finding
that all important link to the consumer a tricky skill set to get right.
It would be easy to assume that
Publishers are no longer relevant given the spate of indie success stories and
direct to consumer aspects we now see (Day Z) but to discredit their relevance
in putting a game in front of potential consumers is dangerous thinking. Not
all developers understand the complexity of managing player communities, media
buying, transmedia and press relationships, tasks of which publishers perform
on a day by day basis. To even attempt to put something online with little or
no social aspect to its awareness campaign is product suicide.
Longevity is key, no longer is the focus now aimed at day one numbers
at retail, now the complexities of the market are focused on how developers and
publishers can retain their audiences for months, even years. While many could
interpret this article to support a lone wolf theory that talks of developer
freedom and the notion to do as you please I should hasten to add that
collaboration is more important now than it has ever been. Developers are
extremely sensitive about their projects to the point where they become over
protective, it’s their baby, their I.P and if it doesn’t work it’s their risk.
This is perfectly natural, creativity to coin the Wikipedia meaning is “a
phenomenon whereby something new and valuable is created”, the key words here
are “phenomenon” and “valuable”. While good developers are the technical Jedi
of our industry they need to have an open mind about the marketplace and open
themselves up to talking and sharing with others, including consumers as well
as specialists in the industry that can help them realize their potential. We
don’t even need to look at an indie developer to prove this point, When Square
Enix posted its disappointing financial results for FY2013 senior executive
managing director Yosuke Matsuda decided that long development turnaround times
with little or no consumer feedback prior to launch was not a way to run a
profitable or honest business. The
publisher has now set its sights on a new business strategy designed to win the
hearts and mind of gamers and developers, it’s radically overhauled its
internal marketing teams to recruit talent within the free to play sector as it
looks to mobilize a more robust digital outlook for its brands. Additionally,
Square Enix has launched Collective, a service that Indie studios can utilize
for free for advice and promotion without the need to sign up to the publisher.
In this day and age of video-gaming it pays to have many strings to
your bow, it’s no longer good enough to be competent in one single skill if you
want to make it in the games industry. If you’re a developer aiming to market
your product directly to the consumer then it wouldn’t hurt to get a few
marketing seminars under your belt to grasp the understanding of positioning
product and the long tail aspects of retention and lifecycle management. If
this recent power shift has taught us anything new it’s that we also need to
encourage and nurture creativity before it’s even entered the market place ,
our educational curriculum is a prime example. The next generation of coders
and creators still need to find their way in an industry that takes no prisoners.
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