Zombies Ate Your Business Model

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.

Following in Clint Eastwoods Footsteps...

Its amazing what you find when you're digging into your hard drive, the one I have (an external Passport one) is getting on a bit now, it only works if the cable is wrapped in a certain kind of way with an elastic band, I'm guessing that either the port or the cable is well past its sell by date.
The crazy thing is I haven't backed any of it up and it contains hundreds of photos, my Navy Seal novel(in progress) and countless other files related to my Airsoft photo books over at airsoftinfidel.com.

I digress, what I wanted to share was the pics below, these were taken back in 2007 for a game called Hour of Victory released by Midway Games. The photos were taken while shooting a TV ad for a TCM movies sponsorship, the other pics are taken fromthe games press event in Austria. The clothing was hired from Angels, a London film and TV costume hire company, we decked out three actors in the original German paratrooper winter smock outfits as worn by Clint Eastwood and  Richard Burton from the film Where Eagles Dare and real weapons of WW2 were supplied by movie and TV armourer Rob Grundy.

In addition to that we held a press event at the Hohenwefern Fortress in Austria and flew all the journo's out there, this was the actual setting for the castle that Clint and co assault to get to general Canarby in the movie. The greatest thing about the press event was that on the rear side of the castle they actual have Falconry displays with birds of prey so it really is a case of Where Eagles Dare. The fortress was used for all the courtyard shots, exterior shots of a different castle were used to give it a much more dramatic appearance.
Unfortunately Hour of Victory was a dogs dinner in terms of quality video game experience, however with the TV campaign and press event we were able to roll that turd in some glitter.

Above: The key art which was a combination of illustration and photography, the real fortress is in the background. How a sniper uses a rifle wearing mittens is anyones guess?

Above: One of the models between takes, I think the M1 Thompson we were using was jamming since the actor had to cock the slide bolt on every take.

 Above: The courtyard where the Helicopter was situated in the film Where Eagles Dare.

 Above: The real Eagles daring -Falconry and birds of prey display.

 Above: The interior press event all set up with pull up banners and Xbox consoles and monitors.

Above: The scene from the film, this shot is taken above the rounded shaped clock tower you see in the top image. The sandbags are where the chairs and tables are now.

Check out this awesome blog on the film for more photo comparisons and details here

if, like me you're  a fan of the movie Where Eagles Dare, there's a great tshirt here on Zazzle which uses the all classic line "Broadsword Calling Danny Boy" the callsign for Richard Burton when he makes the radio call.

Battlefield 4 and the Wizard of Oz

Battlefield 4 and the Wizard of Oz

There's a part in the Wizard of Oz book when Dorothy and her friends meet the Wizard of Oz, he tries to put them off. Toto accidentally tips over a screen in a corner of the throne room, revealing the Wizard to be an ordinary old man working his ass off at trying to maintain a grand illusion of something he is not.

I get the feeling that something similar happened with EA in regards to the latest release in the Battlefield series of games, Battlefield 4. I talk a lot about Battlefield on here, probably more than I should but as a massive fan of the series I feel like I've been betrayed by something I've held in very high esteem for a long time.

Its no secret that there are a lot of unhappy BF4 players at the moment currently venting gallons of venom on Battlelog, EA's dedicated Battlefield blog, what should have been EA's sensational COD killer has in effect been rather a damp squib in terms of quality and functionality. 
The pomp and splendour not to mention the Hollywood inspired trailers certainly suckered a few people into parting with cash but its release has been plagued with more bugs than David Attenborough's back garden, on top of that constant crashes for PC users weren't helped by a recent distributed denial-of-service attack (DDoS attack). The DDoS attack no doubt cultivated by a disgruntled PC Jedi who decided that if he couldn't play it as intended no-one else was either.

Gamers like KravenGod 5ptsFeatured2 are a prime example of where the brand is failing - on Joystiqs comment page to the recent news patch about the PS4 patch for the game he had this to say...

 

"I already sold my copy :( its a shame a 60 dollars game on a 400 dollars console wont work for what its intended for. I couldn't play anything but team deathmatch but that only last maybe 10 minutes before crashing."

The biggest issues for me was the server freezes,crashes and game quality. A change of control system which enabled DICE to introduce commander mode for next gen and thus required a change in joypad layout didn't go down too well either. Veteran and Legacy controls are offered as alternatives to the default system in place but still change the control systems for vehicles from the triggers to the analog sticks. Another gripe is the inability to customize your soldier from the main start menu as in BF3, instead you have to burn up vital gameplay seconds to customize your player or migrate to the test range to equip your player, why you have to enter a training scenario to customize a loadout is anyone's guess.
When matches start with no sound which is absent for anywhere up to five seconds, guns spawn in with blocked up iron sights not to mention the countless server crashes.

If you are spawning in to the south East side of the Rogue Transmission map just behind the Delta objective and jump on a quad bike half of the vehicle disappears into the road.

Operation Locker suffers from severe lag when a firefight breaks out in the central section of the map to the point that its totally unplayable.

All this ranting aside it underlines the bigger problem that development teams are being pressured into delivering ambitious projects against marketing deadlines, There were 400K PS4 consoles launched day one in the UK market and 470K Xbox One consoles, add to this the need for DICE for hit day one release for next gen and supply current gen owners (its biggest market for Battlefield) a similar product you're going to need to cut corners if you can't deliver the quality. 
However,people expected a robust multiplayer system that EA's marketing division had plastered everywhere it could to anyone that would listen, the fact that BF4 sales were 68% down on last years BF3 numbers is either testament to the fact that next gen consoles have left many people undecided or they've moved on. For Battlefield to make up the shortfall it has to rely on a 70% attachment rate for BF4 on XboxOne and PS4, in my book that's a lot of pressure for a sales team trying to cut through the swathe of negativity for such a bugged product.

Sure fixes can sort a lot of those things out, some balancing and tweaking is par the course for the games industry, guns will be nerfed, servers will be balanced and the delicate massaging of player egos will continue.

For most people though I'm sure I'm not in the minority of people who expect more, who had a level of expectation where lessons should have and would've been learned long ago. EA's decision to release a Beta of BF4 only a couple of weeks prior to launch must have factored into this, DICE simply haven't had the time to sort through the issues hence the need for A 256mb patch recently (which I might add still didn't fix sound issues). Any new launch has its niggles but what we are seeing here is a complacency that as a gaming industry we'll all put up with shoddy half baked products that we can fix as we go along rather than deliver a compelling and robust player experience that supports the brand and creates a dedicated following of supporters and fans.

EA's EVP Patrick Soderlund wants to break Electronic Arts 2 year running streak of being voted the worst company in America. In a recent MCV article Soderlund mentioned that "when something like that happens, you have to sit down and ask yourselves Why people are saying these things". I'm sorry, what? - if you have no idea why people are saying things like that then clearly you are not playing your own products. You shouldn't have to sit down and wonder about it, just play and experience how utterly broken BF4 is on current gen, go on your forums, hell, go an any forum its pretty much widespread, its not just EA haters who have nothing better to do with their time, it's players who love your brands who are now putting the knife in Patrick.
Simple CRM rule - a great CRM strategy builds brand loyalty and improves your business' reputation. Satisfied customers who feel as if their needs are being met will return.

 

People aren't expecting perfect, they just want workable, they want to pay $60 for a game and get a $60 game. I used to play Battlefield3  every single night, I loved it, its only the second Xbox360 game I dropped cash on for all the DLC. After BF4 soured things I've never gone back to it, which, for me is pretty serious because I loved the balance and the group of guys I played with were a damn good laugh. I just felt I'd been let down by the sequel I simply lost the enthusiasm to put up with it anymore. The brand in my mind had lost its appeal almost overnight and I cannot be bothered with night after night of raging at the TV screen for a crashed server or latency issues and a wasted forty quid.
Even DICE Q&A has admitted on Reddit it can't cope with the testing schedule, on top of that you have EA senior management pushing for at least a weeks clearance over Call of Duty at launch. If anything BF4 needed 3 months work, it certainly required more lead time on Beta testing and it sure as hell deserves a better reaction.

Its funny, but when I play a Free to Play game that cost me absolutely nothing I have none of these issues, yet when I pay for the privilege I get no end of crap. I figured out that there's actually a reason for that, when games are free they rely on retention more than anything else, retaining players is crucial to the free to play business model so the player experience has to be excellent and nothing less. For a paid title you've already committed your cash at the till, you're in, the hook is already there until you've got the shrink wrap off at home, the money is in the account. It almost feels like there's a level of complacency with the consumer where the focus is on the pre-sell and the sale and the consumer takes second place beyond that because by the time you've put that disc into your console nobody cares what you think.

EA has a problem with its brand image it needs to fix, essentially that can only be achieved by improving the quality of the core product. Games are a competitive industry and $100 Million dollar investments, so surely that level of investment means getting it right sooner than later.
EA needs to stop dicking around trying to dethrone COD and beat release dates at the expense of product quality, unless of course it wants to continue being something it is not.

But then again, as Dorothy said "We're not in Kansas anymore".








 

5 Coffee Table Books you Must Own

My collection of coffee table books is steadily growing despite the fact I have absolutely zero room for them with the added problem in that I don't actually own a coffee table to proudly display them on. In fact my wife will let out an audible groan when she see's my mouse hovering over the "add to basket" icon when I'm on Amazon. What is a coffee table book? I hear you ask, well read on and I shall inform.

#1 THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK: The Definitive Story behind the Film

My latest and greatest book purchase I've had my eye on for a while but resisted buying it due to the fact its original list price was originally around the fifty pounds mark but some spare cash and a price reduction on Amazon were two forces that combined forces nicely.
If like me you were born in the early 70's chances are you sucumbed to the Star Wars craze and even today can't resist using empty coffee mugs to talk into to perfect your party piece "No Luke I am your Father" phrase to impress the kids (okay so that's just me then). The Making of The Empire Strikes Back: The Definitive Story Behind the Film By J.W Rinzler is by far the most in depth book I've seen on the Star Wars Trilogy, Empire being my favourite of the original trilogy of films this packs a real wallop at 372 pages with some stunning content, the cover even depicts Luke and Vader in the sabre duel and clearly shows both light sabres with no visual effect.
The book is packed with some outstanding Star Wars photography and great insights on filming both on sound stages and on location, in particular are highlights of the perils of shooting in Norway for the Imperial AT AT attack on Echo base sequence (the temperature in Norway was so cold that if crew touched the cameras without wearing gloves bare skin from fingers would stick to the metal parts of frozen cameras and therefore needed to be sliced off with razor blades). The book also touches on the sometimes highly tense relationships between actors and director Irvin Kershner and the constant visits on set by banks and financiers worried about the over budget production and often problematic shoot.
I love the fact you can dive into this book anywhere and on any page find a Star Wars laden treasure trove of stories and behind the scenes images and anecdotes you probably have never seen before. There's a great story of Vaders comical entry to Echo base which didn't quite come off as planned, the ditched Wampa - Stormtrooper attack that never made the cut (with photos!) and its rammed with model makers,set pics and some great candid shots of the stars on set. Empire Strikes Back sealed its fate as probably the darkest and most standout of the 3 films but this book is testament to the raw talent and hard work that went into the film to give us the masterpiece we know and love today. Amazon currently have this listed at twenty Eight pounds, an absolute bargain for a tome as hefty and detailed at this. The Empire Strikes Back: The Definitive Story Behind the Film.

At 272 pages Gil Elvgren: All his Glamorous American Pin-ups (25th Anniversary) this is amazing value for money, I picked up mine about a year ago for just over ten pounds so this really is one of those guilty pleasures you should invest in. American artist Edward Hopper, Pin up posters, Pulp Art from the 50's and the pin up art of Vargas has always appealed to me but its Gil Elvgrens American pin up art that seals the deal for me.
While the art of Vargas is slightly more classy with a delicate and refined touch, Gils 'Technicolor Fantasy' pin up art (to coin a phrase) has always been well rounded and fruity, its naughty stocking clad girls in various states of cheeky predicament add a touch of thrill rather than run any risk of being accused of rude soft porn and it still manages to be completely harmless but with perhaps a large dose of suggestive behaviour. Pin ups have been rooted firmly in Americana, beautiful girls with gravity defying busts, slender legs and racy underwear...and a small dog by their side thrown in for good measure. Elvgrens appreciation of the female form is well catalogued with skin tones like silk and poses that sizzle with cheeky allure right off the page. It was this type of art that was given even more precedence when young World War 2 Bomber Pilots adorned the noses of their B17' Bombers with crude pin up girl murals and decals in order to personalise and humanise their machines of war - and its looking through books on nose art (Gary Valants Vintage Nose Art book is worth checking out) that I was first introduced to this type of art. This book isn't small, its a solid tome packed to the brim of some truly beautiful pin up art and with very little white space, books like this are created by people who truly appreciate this type of art but then most books by Taschen normally are substantial in both quality and content and they do publish some of the best art books. Gil Elvgren: All his Glamorous American Pin-ups (25th Anniversary)

#3 ICONS: The DC Comics and Wildstorm Art of Jim Lee



Icons: The DC Comics and WildStorm Art of Jim Lee runs at 296 pages, this one also packs a heavyweight punch. I've been a fan of Lee's for a long while, I was first introduced to both Carl Potts and Jim Lee's style of artwork when he worked on the Punisher War Journal series for Marvel Comics in 1988. While I tend to like the gritty style of John Romitta Jr with the Punisher, it was Lees work that really popped from the page for me and I've been a fan ever since. Jim Lee's other and probably much overlooked title Deathblow gets a good look in with some great Jim Lee art but its the DC era that really gets the coverage in Icons.

Lee's incredible work on Batman:Hush shows sketches, pre inked and post inked and coloured and gives a great insight into the way he works. Superman, Justice league, 100 Bullets as well as Wonder Woman and Lees work on Wildstorm are all covered. Artwork really pops and the colour and quality of the work really cements Lee's place as one of the most important men working in comics today. The book doesn't scrimp when it comes to layout either with content covering full pages and double page layouts it features a nice cross mix of page layout roughs as well as visuals but its the colour work that really jumps out. The only downside to the book is that because its primarily a DC book Lee's Punisher work isn't present, a shame considering it was Lee's bold and highly detailed style that drove the quality of the series after he took over penciller duties from Carl Potts. Superman fans are in for a treat and both the key DC heroes Bruce and Clark get equal billing with some amazing standout artworks and studies. Batman fans will get a massive kick out of this book though and its packed with some great images and even includes the Joker artwork that Jim Lee gave to the late great actor Heath Ledger.

#4 WHISKEY TANGO FOXTROT: A Photographers Chronicle of the Iraq War



I love most types of photography but my interest kind of piques when it comes to photo-journalism, especially combat related photography. Its fair to say that the latest rumbles in the dust in Iraq and Afghanistan have offered up some incredible photo essays and journalism by war photographers both in print and online with images that educate us visually on modern conflict. Many years ago I bought an amazing book called "NAM" by photographer Tim Paige, Paige was a an English photographer embedded with US and Vietnamese troops during the Vietnam conflict and was wounded when he stepped on a landmine. It was his images and ability to overcome his wounds that created a level of respect for this kind of photographer. Combat photos portray the sheer terror and risk involved in capturing images we would otherwise not be exposed to.Whiskey Tango Foxtrot (WTF) is one such  book and is a sometimes moving chronicle of Photographer Ashley Gilbertsons work while embedded with American troops.
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot: A Photographer's Chronicle of the Iraq War is a book that covers both the deadly environment of troops in combat but also cuts deep to the bone by showing some powerful photos of the devastation and pain that armed conflict brings to communities. Content and layout wise its probably one of the better books on the market with a good balance of photography that tells a more involved story.
What I like most is that in his own words the book explains much about the images that Gilbertson was taking at the time of the photo and in some rather tragic cases portrays the last photo ever taken of a particular person while they were alive.The most gripping aspect of the book is Gilbertson's personal account and photos of troops in combat in the brutal fight to take Fallujah, Gilbertson still haunted by the traumatic death of a US Marine which could have well have been his own when a squad escorting him to take a photo of a dead insurgent inside a minaret had deadly consequences. At 260 pages this provides enough content you can dive into, as a book on combat photography it is engrossing, tragic and incredible in equal measure.
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot: A Photographer's Chronicle of the Iraq War

#5 SOLDIER: A Visual History of the Fighting Man



Soldier: A Visual History of the Fighting Man, this is one of those "books for boys"that you can easily lose a few hours on with a cup of coffee in your man cave, all 360 pages of it. Dorling Kindersley have a knack of producing some pretty good in depth visual guides, in this case is backed up by tons of historical fact which makes the read through educating to say the least.You could almost look at these books as the literary version of a history museum since the photographic content is done in such a way that it mirrors how museums would normally display their exhibits.Uniforms, equipment and weapons are given close up focus as the book covers the advances in technology and tools that the fighting soldier has come to rely on.
The thing I find most staggering is how far advanced weaponry has become  in the last 150 years, in the American Civil War men fired single load muskets with ball and wadding, now night vision, scopes and optics and computers are forging the battlefield of today.
Everything from the Medieval Knight at Agincourt, British Red Coats at Waterloo to the more recent conflicts such as WWII featuring the weapons and equipment of the 101st Airborne Paratrooper, US Marine in Vietnam and the SAS trooper and tactics of modern day. Visually it combines illustrations, photographs and plenty of text, in short there is a ton of information here for the military enthusiast.
This is a heavyweight coffee table book packed with images, illustrations and historic information and a perfect addition to any home library.Soldier: A Visual History of the Fighting Man is also available from Amazon.

 Got a favourite coffee table book you keep going back to?, I'd love to hear about it in the comments section below so don't be shy, jump in and get the conversation started.

Aurora Seen from the ISS in Orbit

I took a trip to Iceland in December to do some marketing work on a videogame I'm working on. I did get to sample the Icelandic attractions of things like the Geo Thermal delights of the Blue Lagoon, this was at night after a 3 hour flight from the UK and in freezing sideways rain, I never knew rain could fall sideways but the -2 windchill factor contrasted weirdly with the hot spa was an experience I'll never forget.
Of course the other thing that took some getting used to was the 5 hours of daylight. My biggest regret though is that while I was there for the entire week I never did get a glimpse of the Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis). This simply stunning phenomena is caused by the collision of energetic charged particles with atoms in the high altitude atmosphere. The green hue is caused by oxygen emissions but can also be a brown-red colour depending on the amount of energy absorbed.Nitrogen emissions give off blue or red. Auroras are associated with the solar wind, a flow of ions continuously flowing outward from the Sun. The Earth's magnetic field traps these particles, many of which travel toward the poles where they are accelerated toward Earth.

Missing this amazing light show was a huge disappointment for me as its one of those things you add to your bucket list, still, there's always things like this stunning footage taken from the ISS in orbit to keep that dream going.

Candy Colored Nightmares

Allow me to introduce you to the work of artist Dave MacDowell, a self taught artist from Virginia, satrical 'candy coloured nightmares' and paintings with an edge.Movies, Politics, Music..no media gets out alive! Judging by the 83,000 views of his Flickr paintings page he's a popular guy.

Check out his blog here
Check out his Flickr paintings page here

"Who Ya' Gunna Call?"

Battlefield 3 and 3.9 Million Grenades

The Battlefield 3 FPS launched more than 12 months ago, and its through its popularity as one of the leading military shooters on the market that it still generates more than 1 terabyte of data a day.
Publisher Electronic Arts tracks more than 50 different telemetry events associated with multiplayer combat for each player in a game pulling in some truly staggering data.
For example, the data reveals that every 15 minutes, Battlefield 3 players throw 3.9 million grenades, destroy 648,000 vehicles, and create 24 million explosions.
EA has 275 million registered users, it captures 50TBs of data per day, and it monitors 2 billion monthly game sessions. You sir, are being watched.