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Ubisoft taps two of three Logorama filmmakers to make $8-$10 million, 20-minute prequel for this holiday season’s Future Soldier.
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GDC 2010: EA’s Kristian Segerstrale’s Social & Online Games Summit presentation advocates the unparalleled growth potential in creating connected experiences for players.
Who was there: EA augmented its casual portfolio in late 2009 by acquiring social games maker Playfish in a deal valued in excess of $275 million. As part of the Social & Online Games Summit at the 2010 Game Developers Conference today, Playfish cofounder Kristian Segerstrale delivered the track’s keynote address, a talk titled “The Relentless March Toward ‘Free.’”
What he talked about: Segerstrale began his business-focused session with the claim that the games industry is in the midst of a fundamental change, moving away from physical media and toward fully digital content. The most immediate implication of this shift, he said, is that game makers can no longer approach their product in a fire-and-forget fashion. Instead, the industry is becoming more service-oriented, where game makers continue to support their product postlaunch with patches and updated content.
The transition to a fully digital play experience also has the repercussion of affording game makers more flexibility in how they monetize their content. Namely, instead of the pay upfront model, game makers now have options such as subscription fees or free-to-play, microtransaction-supported revenue streams. As indicated by the title of his session, Segerstrale is particularly interested in the free-to-play business model.
The word “free,” he continued, has traditionally been a maligned word within the gaming industry, due to reasons that range from piracy to an assault on the viability of console software. Segerstrale sees “free” differently, of course, and he argued that the concept represents the biggest growth opportunity for the industry over the next five years. Namely, free is useful for the industry due to its unquestionable ability to attract new audiences by lowering the barrier to entry.
Segerstrale then took a look at how gaming has grown in popularity over the past 15 years, pointing out that as new consoles launch, audiences grow. The Playfish executive argued that the reason for these spurts is that each successive console generation progressively brings down the barrier to entry, by lowering costs, including more social elements, making the experience more immediate, or having the games better tie in to people’s real lives.
He then drew a parallel to the rapid growth in Internet usage, saying that online-enabled persons grew from 16 million in 1995 to 1.8 billion in 2010. The reason for this, he said, was that the Internet had become infinitely more accessible, going from the archaic BBS systems to hyper-streamlined services such as Google. Likewise, online video has exploded in the past three years, rising to 150 million in the US alone, thanks to YouTube’s ease of use.
What YouTube did for the popularity of online video, Facebook has done for online social games, Segerstrale continued. More than 200 million people play games on Facebook, and Segerstrale believes this number will only continue to grow. However, he went on to note that it isn’t just the concept of “free” that’s driving this growth, as people had been giving away games online for some time.
The true source of the growth, he believes, is that Facebook provides developers and publishers access to people’s friends. Therefore, they are able to create gaming experiences where the primary reason to play is to engage in social interaction with friends. This concept, he said, provides a far more compelling reason to play than just the solitary hero’s journey through a quest.
More importantly, he said, Facebook offers an online social platform that lets friends tell each other what they are doing with a game, while outside said game. People spread word about a game they are playing to everyone–not just their gamer friends. In turn, those who wouldn’t normally play a game are more inclined to try it out, if for no other reason than to have something to talk about with their friends.
Segerstrale also addressed the misnomer that a “free” game implies that no money is being made off of it. He noted that social gaming as an industry is expected to bring in $1 billion in 2010, a figure made all the more impressive considering that everyone is still trying to figure out how best to monetize content. He believes that even if the user base doesn’t increase, there’s still plenty of room to grow revenue.
Before turning his eyes to the future, Segerstrale noted that many of the concerns related to social gaming didn’t come to pass. Namely, blockbuster releases remained stronger than ever (he cited the success of Activision’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, in particular). He also noted that destination sites such as Yahoo Games or Pogo.com remained popular and that there is a good deal of profitability in the business.
Looking ahead, Segerstrale said that the industry will increasingly move away from the business model dictated by price multiplied by units sold. Instead, the more popular option will be what he called the lifetime value approach, where a game earns money through postrelease content.
To truly take advantage of the lifetime value model, he said that game makers can no longer ship shoddy products that are marketed well. (In fact, on any platform, he argued, publishers will no longer be able to deliver poor quality, due to increased communication between gamers. Second, developers must make their wares multiplatform so that they can be consumed on as many devices as possible.
Third, game makers need to understand how to iterate on their products after they are released based on usage data and other metrics. Lastly, he believes there will be a growth in owned franchises in social gaming. Currently, this isn’t the case, he said, before noting that consumers simply prefer the security of products they recognize and liked previously.
As for likely industry trends, Segerstrale believes that social networks will be more defined by established brands and franchises. He also believes there will be a good deal of consolidation within the social games sector, as creators are gobbled up by console game publishers or combine with one another. Thirdly, he said the term “social games” will likely become outmoded, because social features are becoming such an integral part of all interactive software experiences. Lastly, he thinks that there will be a boom of innovation and growth, as social gamers begin demanding deeper, more-immersive gameplay experiences.
Quote: “Saying I develop a social game will be like saying I have an electronic television at home.”–Kristian Segerstrale on how the industry will view social gaming in the next three to five years.
Takeaway: Segerstrale believes that social gaming is an inevitable evolution for the gaming industry. This development is profoundly positive for the gaming industry because of the ways in which it lowers the barrier to entry for new gamers, who may eventually go on to support the gaming industry. Also, more than just giving games away for free, it’s creating an environment conducive to fostering social experiences that will fuel growth.
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GDC 2010: COO John Schappert says digital revenue will still be tied to shiny discs for years to come, expresses regret that Modern Warfare 2 developers will be spending time making court cases instead of games.
Who was there: John Schappert, chief operating officer of Electronic Arts, took part in a half-hour “Mythbusting Fireside Chat” with Los Angeles Times writer Alex Pham. The executive was expected to talk about the industry’s migration to digital distribution, the ultimate fate of retail game sales, and how social media and other recent trends will influence that evolution.
What they talked about: Alex Pham began the talk by recapping a bit of Schappert’s history, back when he was a lead programmer for Visual Concepts working on an EA Madden game and FIFA Soccer. Things quickly turned toward the future, as Pham asked if there were any prospects at all for disc-based games with the advent of digital distribution.
Schappert called it a misnomer that retail discs would be done away with in the short term. He acknowledged that there’s a huge opportunity in digital distribution but pointed out that no matter how successful the current wave of add-ons and downloadable content may be, those business transactions still start with a retail sale of a physical disc. Even when most of the industry’s revenue is drawn from digital distribution, Schappert said he still expects the majority of that money to have been spent on extending and adapting a standard retail game.
Schappert said EA has seen consumers buying fewer games of late. Sales of the top 10 games are representing an increasing amount of the industry’s total take. He added that if a publisher doesn’t have a game in the top 30–and arguably, the top 20–then that company isn’t making money. Hit games are bigger than ever, he said, and they’re selling for longer thanks to downloadable map packs and other add-ons. While Schappert stood by the “shiny disc business,” he emphasized that the model has changed, saying the days of “ship it and forget it” are behind the industry.
EA’s faith in retail games doesn’t mean the company is shying away from downloadable titles. Beyond its own efforts, the company has begun teaming with independent developers on digitally distributed titles through its EA Partners program. “It’s easier than ever to be your own self-publisher,” Schappert said, before adding, “It’s harder than ever to stand out.”
Schappert also touted another EA development, the recent acquisition of Playfish. When asked if the company aimed to use the company to further EA’s existing brands or launch new ones, the executive said gamers would likely see the developer produce both. Pham asked if classic arcade titles were among those being considered, and while Schappert evaded the question, he did say it was an area EA was looking at.
When pressed about whether social gaming is a bubble waiting to pop, Schappert explained that any bubble perception was due to a combination of the space being the “hot” thing right now and having low barriers to entry. As a result, he expects some social entities to emerge healthy, but he won’t be surprised to see others go under.
“It’s the place to be right now, but we’ll see what happens tomorrow,” Schappert said of social gaming.
When asked about innovation and whether or not it’s the place for big publishers to be, Schappert pointed to Dragon Age: Origins, Mass Effect, and Battlefield: Bad Company. Dead Space and Mirror’s Edge were also name-dropped as Schappert touted the publisher’s track record with its own original products and ran down some of EA Partners’ success stories.
Pham brought up the recent Infinity Ward-Activision flap and asked if EA is a good publisher (“mothership” was the word she used, referencing a Bobby Kotick presentation from last month’s DICE Summit) for developers to team with.
“Maybe you don’t pick motherships that like to litigate that much, or have a legal team that is a revenue-generating team,” Schappert said, drawing a wave of laughter from the crowd.
Joking aside, Schappert said he was disappointed with the situation, calling former Infinity Ward heads Jason West and Vince Zampella two of the best creative people in the industry. He also singled out Modern Warfare 2 as a great game.
“To think that they’re going to be spending their time dealing with lawyers instead of making games is a loss,” Schappert said.
Quote/Takeaway: “At the end of the day, online is great. It’s a nice evolution of our space. But it does all start with a shiny disc.”
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Ambitious HD game-streaming service to debut on PC, Mac during E3, micro-consoles to follow; will cost $15/month; 1080p, 60fps service coming 2011.
One year after it was unveiled at the 2009 Game Developers Conference, OnLive finally has a launch date. Company CEO Steve Perlman announced today at his keynote address at the GamesBeat mini-conference at GDC 2010 that OnLive will go live on June 17. The service will initially be available as an application for the Windows and Mac operating systems, with a micro-console that can be attached directly to HDTVs to arrive later on in the year.
OnLive’s launch will be limited to the contiguous lower 48 United States and will cost $14.95 per month. According to the
OnLive Blog, the first 25,000 thousand people to sign up will have the service fee waived for three months. (To apply, sign up on the
official OnLive site.) Multi-month pricing and other promotions will be announced prior to the service’s debut.
OnLive’s monthly fee does not include the purchase price of games themselves, which can be rented or bought from publishers directly at a lower-than-retail price. Publishers supporting the service with PC titles include Electronic Arts, Take-Two, THQ, Ubisoft, Epic, Atari, Codemasters, and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. At the DICE Summit last month, Perlman demonstrated both Crysis and Unreal Tournament 3 running on the service with minimal lag.
The June launch will only be the start of the OnLive rollout. The service will offer 1080p high-definition gaming at 60 frames per second starting in 2011. An international launch is also planned for an undetermined date.
For those unfamiliar with OnLive, the service aims to offer lag-free PC gaming via the Web. The company claims that since the heavy lifting of graphics processing will be done on the service’s servers, it will offer high-definition gaming on any PC or Mac, regardless of graphics card or CPU speed.
The addition of the micro-console will also allow the service to be streamed directly onto televisions, without the need for a standard game console. Perlman sees this as a positive because OnLive games will not be tied to increasingly antiquated consoles. He promised that the OnLive servers would receive graphical upgrades every six months in order to provide the latest PC graphics.
For a detailed look at OnLive in action, read
GameSpot’s coverage of Perlman’s DICE presentation or watch the OnLive announcement video below.
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Study finds worldwide retail, downloadable, and advertising revenues for computer games up 3 percent; retail now less than 20% of PC market.
Last year was a rough one for the gaming industry as a whole, with market research firm The NPD Group finding that the US retail sector’s total gaming revenues for 2009 slipped 8 percent year-over-year. Despite that, the PC Gaming Alliance today is saying that its own corner of the market not only weathered the storm but managed to grow in the process.
The trade group today–whose stated mission is “to develop and promote solutions that drive the PC gaming industry forward”–released a report prepared by DFC Intelligence that found worldwide PC gaming software revenues were up 3 percent for the year to $13.1 billion. Besides retail, that includes downloadable sales, subscription and microtransaction fees, and online advertising, none of which is included in the NPD numbers.
Despite pointing to overall growth, the report did find that some aspects of the industry suffered last year. Specifically, “high-end” subscription revenues ($10 a month or more) were down, blamed on a combination of fewer major releases using the scheme and more players cancelling their accounts to older games.
Boxed retail revenues took the biggest hit, as the traditional distribution method now accounts for less then 20 percent of total PC game software revenues. In North America and Europe, the PC Gaming Alliance found that retail game sales were generally down between 10-15 percent for the year.
The report also found consumers growing more comfortable with the notion of buying their games online. More than 70 percent of North American and European players surveyed said they had purchased a game online, with 50 percent having purchased a virtual item in a game.
The PC Gaming Alliance boasts a number of heavy hitters in the sector, including Microsoft, Intel, AMD, Nvidia, Epic Games, and Capcom. Last year was a busy one for the group, as it saw the departure of Activision Blizzard but welcomed eight other partners, including Gas Powered Games and GameStop.
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One day after JPRG’s Western launch, Square Enix announces shipment milestone; Final Fantasy series stands at 96 million units shipped life-to-date; SF launch event video inside.
Nearly five years after it was first teased at 2005 Electronic Entertainment Expo, Final Fantasy XIII finally launched in the US and Europe yesterday. And though the final day-one sales numbers have yet to be tallied, Square Enix wasn’t shy about announcing the role-playing game has shipped 5 million units worldwide to date. The number is already 1 million units shy of the 6 million-unit lifetime sales estimate the publisher offered last September.
The global total includes shipments of the game in Japan, where FFXIII launched on December 17 exclusively for the PlayStation 3. There, the game sold 1 million units its first day on the market. In the West, Final Fantasy XIII is available for both the PS3 and the Xbox 360, as first revealed at E3 2008. The company did not break down how many units the game shipped on either platform.
Final Fantasy XIII’s 5-million unit haul now brings global shipments of all Final Fantasy games to 96 million units. The series debuted in 1987 with Final Fantasy for the NES, known as the Famicom in Japan. Since then, it has been featured prominently on a variety of systems, although Final Fantasy XIII is the first major installment to debut on multiple platforms at the same time.
For more on Final Fantasy XIII, check out
GameSpot’s video review of the game. For a look a Square Enix’s launch party from San Francisco, peruse the video below.
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Third track pack for Activision’s rhythm game will feature three mash-ups of six songs from the hip-hop impresarios, including “Without Me” vs. “Encore” and “Can I Get A…” vs. “Lose Yourself.”
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First PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 outing for the UK publisher’s take on the pinnacle of motorsport confirmed for an autumn release.
While Formula One fans don’t have long to wait until the cars roll onto the grid for the first race of the 2010 season in Bahrain, they will have a little longer to wait for the championship’s official game. Today, Codemasters confirmed that the 2010 iteration of its nascent Formula One franchise will arrive for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC in September. This marks the first outing for the publisher’s F1 games on high-definition platforms after the commercial success of the PSP and Wii F1 2009 games last year.
F1 2010 is based on the publisher’s Ego engine, which was also behind previous hit racing games Race Driver: Grid and Colin McRae Dirt 2, and is being developed at Codemasters Studios Birmingham. It will be the first official Formula One game on the PC platform for eight years and the first-ever official F1 game to appear on the Xbox 360.
The game will feature all the drivers, teams, cars and tracks from the 2010 Formula One season, re-created with the help of “unprecedented access to Formula One teams and drivers.” The Ego engine has been further developed for F1 2010, according to the publisher, “to accurately re-create the unique aerodynamics and handling” of Formula One cars.
F1 2010 will feature a variety of modes, including an “innovative” Career mode, as well as Time Trials, Championship, and Grand Prix options, although details of these modes have not yet been made public. The publisher has also promised a “highly advanced damage model, fully dynamic weather system, and extensive competitive multiplayer options.”
More on the game is expected in the coming weeks, so keep it tuned to GameSpot for more news and previews as they emerge.
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Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (PC)
Bad Company 2
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