Industry Insider - August 2008

Piracy - the Underground (and Totally Illegal) Economy

by Eric Marlow

(Rant mode On)

Two months ago I wrote a Playground Insider article about the problems with piracy from the point of how it impacts the typical game developer. Recently I was reading an article by a local Pinoy gamer in the online magazine The Escapist. The article was entitled “Piracy and the Underground Economy”. The article was so misguided I felt compelled to respond.

In his article, the author states there is a local underground economy that supports the duplication and distribution of pirated games and without putting too much spin on it, he seems to imply this is ok and should be allowed.

Hopefully this isn’t perceived as coming from “just another foreigner who doesn’t understand how things work here”, but I’ve lived in Asia for over five years and I’ve been living in the Philippines for over 2 ½ years. I run a game studio, and I deal each day with the security of intellectual property. I think I’ve accumulated enough information and appreciation for how things work here. Without a doubt it is unfortunate that the economies of developing countries make it difficult to indulge in games as a hobby. And the author does correctly portray the relative high costs of games when compared to similar discretionary spending in the US or Europe.

What I believe though that is misguided is that it is ok to support such activities just because the cost of owning legitimate game products is out of reach for most citizens. On many occasions I have used this simple analogy: I know I am fortunate and I do make a good living. But I cannot easy afford a BMW or Mercedes Benz. Does this mean it is ok for me to go and take one off the lot? Is it ok to have groups of people out there who actively support the sale of illegal autos, just because most people can’t buy one? Just because a product exists, is it ok for me to take one even though I can’t afford it? Of course it isn’t. But yet there seems to be the sentiment that it’s ok to pirate games, software, and music just because they are too expensive.

Why is there this difference? Maybe because pirating is easier than stealing a shiny new BMW off the lot? Maybe there is less risk of the law catching up to them for pirating games? And maybe it is because “everyone is doing it” gives people the sense that the social stigma associated with piracy doesn’t apply to them?

The author of the article also lays claim that eradicating piracy in the Philippines will hurt local economies, those businesses supporting it, and the people who are employed. He also notes the loss of tax revenue that would occur if the laws were enforced. Now, I haven’t examined the accounts of these local vendors, but it’s a safe bet they aren’t fully reporting the revenue to the BIR. That would be more easily understood if they gave you an official receipt with each purchase, but most do not supply an O.R., hence that tax revenue becomes as underground as the products they sell.

Where the businesses and employees of the piracy trade are concerned, I am sorry that I cannot feel more sympathy for them, as they are doing something that is just not right and damaging to my chosen profession. Times are tough for sure, but I’d rather see them finding ways of supporting the legitimate sale of games rather than supporting an economy that derives its very essence from the income generated from sales to such customers. A sale to a customer willing to buy illegal products does nothing for the industry, and maybe the author of the article wouldn’t be the starving artist that he says he is if more people paid for his products.

Do I have any answers? Unfortunately no. The obvious approaches such as regional encoding, copy protection and the like do not work very well. Possibly games, software, and music that must be verified online is the only way to go, as it works fairly well for games like World of Warcraft and other MMOs. But there are always new countermeasures in place to circumvent the protections. The only true weapon we have to fight with right now is education and giving people a better understanding of how their actions affect the very industry they are taking from. Maybe then the stigma will be placed back on those who improperly take from the industry. Lacking solutions to the problem does not justify such a position.

(Rant Mode Off)

Industry Insider - July 2008

A Day in the Life…

by Eric Marlow

This column is all about being an Insider. The whats, wheres, whys, and hows of being a game developer. So I thought it might be interesting to give you a sense of what it might like working in a game development company. What’s it like on the INSIDE today?

First of all, please allow me this one caveat – I can only tell you so much. The nature of game development is such that we must at times not disclose certain aspects of what we are doing. This may mean we cannot talk about what products we are working on, nor can we discuss certain technical underpinnings of how we make the games. This is simply for self-protection. If we opened our big mouths too wide, our competitors may get wind of what we are doing and come up with their own products to compete with us. But eventually the veils of secrecy lift themselves, and we can talk more freely about what we are doing. Unfortunately for the next few weeks until our publisher announces the title we are working on, we can’t say much about our current project.

As I write this article there is a lot of activity going on in our office. We are nearing completion of our first home consumer game. All I can say is that it is a next gen platform game, and it will be the first time such a product has been developed in the Philippines. It’s a very exciting time for local game development!

It’s possible that most of you who read this article have a basic understanding of what it takes to make a game. A game is nothing but programming and art, wrapped with creativity and inspiration. But as they say the “devil is in the details”, and right now as we near completion of our product we must make sure that everything is working as it was intended. Testing the game is taking priority right now. All aspects of the game must be examined – not only to see if the game works correctly, but to make sure that any recent changes have not adversely affected the game. We must test the bounds of the game, including playing the game literary for hours at a time. Sometimes when software runs over a long period of time, “leaks” may occur as the software accesses the system’s memory, and these leaks tend to clog up the works. Obviously we can’t let this happen.

One aspect of game development you may not realize is modifying the software so it can be run in different countries. This processes we call “localization” – meaning we change the software to meet the local cultural, language, and regulation body requirements. Mostly this involves the translation of the on-screen user interfaces and dialog into the country’s native language, but there is more to it than that. Right now we are changing the included English into French and Spanish. Other language will follow. If you have ever noticed how much written language is in a typical game, you will know this is not a trivial task. There will be NTSC as well as PAL versions of the game too.

One practical aspect of running a game company is that you have to plan around the project transitions. This means that as one project comes to a close, there may be another one that must be started. Because the entire staff may not start the next project at the same time (some pre-production and design work must begin before programming and 3D models can be developed) this is a good time to allow some of your staff to hone their skills. Right now we have a number of team members spending their day doing research and test projects. Game development as an industry is constantly changing, and without knowledge of the newest techniques we may fall behind. This is also a good opportunity for us to create some “demos” – example art and programming we can show others during the marketing phase of our studio.

Oh, and as I finish this article it’s lunchtime, and many of the employees are playing DOTA. Well, we are a game company after all…

Industry Insider - June 2008

How Piracy Hurts YOU, the Customer

by Eric Marlow

Ouch!

When I think about the direct implications of piracy on the end customer, all I can say is “ouch”. There are so many issues with regard to the issue of piracy, it’s tough to find a place to begin the discussion. Certainly there have been hundreds of articles that decry piracy and the effect on the game industry. And those who know me know this is something I speak against repeatedly.

In a recent interview with consumer website PC Play, Crytek president Cevat Yerli (the company behind the Far Cry and Crysis games) recently said the company will no long be making exclusive games on the PC platform.

“We are suffering currently from the huge piracy that is encompassing Crysis,” said Yerli. “We seem to lead the charts in piracy by a large margin, a chart leading that is not desirable. I believe that’s the core problem of PC gaming, piracy. To the degree PC gamers that pirate games inherently destroy the platform. Similar games on consoles sell factors of 4-5 more,” he added. “It was a big lesson for us and I believe we won’t have PC exclusives as we did with Crysis in the future. We are going to support PC, but not exclusively anymore.”

Ouch!

It can be argued that the game Crysis suffered from other faults and that piracy wasn’t the only reason for lower-than-expected sales. But clearly piracy is an issue in gaming, and it is something that must be dealt with.

Some companies are trying to deal with piracy actively. EA will be introducing the SecuROM system for its upcoming PC titles Spore and Mass Effect. But in a show of consumer disdain for this method, the gaming “community” rose up and made their feelings known. EA has since backed off their plan to require SecuROM activation every 10 days, and will now require it only at installation. SecuROM as you might recall is the copyright protection scheme that caused so much consternation during the Bioshock release.

Recently Titan Quest developer Iron Lore announced it was shutting its doors and ceasing development operations due to a lack of funding. THQ’s Creative Director Michael Fitch placed the blame squarely on piracy. Said Fitch, "If 90% of your audience is stealing your game, even if you got a little bit more, say 10% of that audience to change their ways and pony up, what's the difference in income? Just about double. That's right, double. That's easily the difference between commercial failure and success... if even a tiny fraction of the people who pirated the game had actually spent some $^^&#(#@! money for their 40+ hours of entertainment, things could have been very different today."

According to THQ’s numbers, the USA market has roughly a 70-85% piracy rate, and those percentages go even higher in Europe and Japan. The actual piracy figure varies widely according to which study you wish to recognize, but the common thread is that the MAJORITY of people playing the game didn’t legitimately purchase the game.

Ouch!

Let’s look at things in real terms as it affects you the customer, and I will do so as it relates to the primary maker of the products – the game developer. A typical game developer deal may yield around $2 USD per sold copy in revenues for that developer. Depending on the game, it may conservatively sell between 200,000 and 500,000 for a decent “hit”. So in real terms that could be between $400,000-$1,000,000 depending on the deal the developer is able to obtain and the success of the product in the market.

So let’s crunch a few numbers. And for the purposes of our analysis let’s assume a very conservative piracy rate of only 50%. If a product only sells 100,000 units and they were due $2 per copy, that would mean $200,000 that is due to the developer that they will never see. Depending on the size of the studio, this could be between four and six months of operations cost here in the Philippines. That 4-6 months of costs would then be used to support the development of the next game, or more practically be used to maintain the studio until the next product’s revenues start to come in. Where my own studio is concerned, that is the livelihood of 20 people who have dedicated themselves to making great interactive entertainment products. Take that away from them, and you are not only keeping them from producing great products for you the customer, but you are putting them out of work too!
There are real effects to real people when people pirate games. You are not just sticking it to the “big bad publishers”, but you are also penalizing your friends and next door neighbors too. So don’t think for a second that this won’t impact you – it already has.

Ouch!

Industry Insider - May 2008

So You Want to Make Games for a Living (Part II)? Prepare!
by Eric Marlow

In last month’s Insider article I talked about how to land a game industry job interview through a properly planned application process. This month I want to touch on what you need to bring to the table to be seriously considered during the interview– your SKILLZ J Simply put, you must prepare yourself for the unique demands of this industry.

How can you prepare yourself? If you are still in school, check out your university's curriculum regarding game development. Several local schools have a few game development courses, and many more are contemplating adding them. If you are a student looking to join classes, make it known to your faculty that you want game development programs available to you.

Take as many of these courses as possible. Learn all that you can about game development, and try to concentrate in a particular area.

If you are a programmer, then become good with an area that games typically use: graphics, sound, networking, AI, physics, etc. Where tools are concerned, programmers should learn and become at least intermediate level with C++. APIs such as DirectX or OpenGL are helpful. Knowing how game engines work - typical construction, threads, modules, and sub-systems - is of great benefit. Also understanding network programming, TCP/IP and UDP, and client/server relationships are a bonus.

If you are an artist, then learn all you can about making characters, organic and non-organic models, environments, and of course animation. There are three tools of the trade: Photoshop, Autodesk 3DMax and Maya. Some companies may tend to focus on Photoshop, plus either Max or Maya. But don't be left out - learn them both! For artists, other package knowledge helps: Mudbox, Zbrush, NewTek’s Lighwave, and XSI SoftImage are good.

While in school, look for opportunities to join clubs with people who have a similar interest. Look for available internship programs. Make your senior project about your game interests.

In last month’s Insider, I talked about PASSON. To demonstrate PASSION, one must be motivated enough to overcome the lack of traditional educational programs. This means getting smart about game development on your own. Look for Internet resources - blogs, forums, and other groups of similar interest. Learn all you can, and participate in 'net community projects. Examine freeware engines and seek to build games on your own time. Nothing speaks more highly about your passion that doing something that other people might not attempt. Make some games of your design. Develop a portfolio of games, images, and animations that would be what game companies are seeking.

If you aren't a programmer or artist, but would rather design games, there is no greater experience that making levels of games you've played. Find the SDKs, level editors, or modding tools, and create a portfolio of new worlds, gameplay, and interesting concepts. You must be creative and have the ability to "think outside the box". You must know games inside and out: what genres exist, industry issues, current trends. You must also understand the differences in designing games for each type of platform: handheld, PC, console, and arcade.

Game designers must also be good writers. Much of your day will be in creating game design documents. This also includes scripts, stories, and concept "pitches". You must be able to communicate abstract ideas, formulas, and you must have an artistic eye.

Positions such as Producer are typically experienced positions, and rarely will companies hire someone into such a position without some kind of previous and relevant job-related experience.

Have you thought about getting smart about the industry before attempting your career search? Check out gamasutra.com, gameindustry.biz, and the dozens of other sites that talk about the industry issues.

Just because you are not a graduating game development student doesn't mean that you don't have a shot. I would love to see more experienced programmers and artists apply for our jobs, but just because you have been doing generic IT or architectural/media art doesn't mean you are immediately a good fit. Make yourself smart and build a game-specific portfolio. Only after you have demonstrated your passion will a company consider you for a career change.

This information and much more can also be found at my industry blog http://snacko.blogspot.com/.

Industry Insider - GDC 2008

The 2008 Game Developers Conference
by Eric Marlow

Those of you who follow The Insider know that my take on games comes from an industry perspective. And no greater perspective these days can be gained than by taking part in the once-a-year Game Developers Conference, this year held February 18-22 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. All attendance records were broken with well over 18,000 industry professionals attending the week-long conference.

For those of you excited about the process of game development, this is the conference for you. With over 400 sessions covering everything from graphics how-tos, vendor overviews, mobile gaming, and dozens of post-mortems, the opportunity to learn about the craft of game development is second- to-none.

Of course such learning doesn’t come cheap. A typical week-long conference pass is in excess of $1500, and that doesn’t include airfare, hotel, and meals while there. It’s easy to spend close to $3000, which is quite expensive by most comparisons for a conference. Unfortunately this means unless you just won the lottery, you’ll probably only get to go on your company’s dime – assuming you already work for a game company.

So for those lucky enough to go, what exactly was GDC like? The conference is broken up into two main sections: 1) the “expo” halls, which contain all the vendor booths, a career pavilion, and independent game competitions, and 2) the “sessions”, which in effect are the lectures and round-table discussion about the issues game developers face.

One of the first things I noticed about this year’s conference was its energy. I’ve attended GDCs in the past, and I have been to a number of E3s (Electronic Entertainment Expos) as well for comparison. This year I felt a palpable sense of excitement. But be forewarned, unlike the old E3, the GDC isn’t the place if you are interested in checking out the latest demos of forthcoming games. GDC is all about the process, not about what games will be out by Christmas.

The expo halls are where GDC gets its energy - loud music, bright lights, and of course a plethora of booth babes greet the expo walker. This part of the conference is where the vendors show off their wares. Motion capture devices, animation plug-ins, quality assurance tools and services, and of course all the big boys such as Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo showing off their latest technologies. Lots of cool stuff to look over and it can easily take you two days to walk through and see it all if you wish to check it out in detail.

It’s easy to ask “so what was new this year”, but that question is difficult to answer. Many vendors just show updated versions of their tools and technologies. Revolutionary products in any industry are hard to come by. Some products are quite innovative though. While I’ve seen other similar products it in the past, mind control of games (think the device Obi-Wan wears in his Jedi Starfighter) is a reality and becoming much more practical. The device is made by OCZ and is called the Neural Impulse Actuator. And it doesn’t look lame when you wear it! Add to my watch-list WiiWare (downloadable games for the Wii) which looks to be a hit on that platform, and it will be a big door opener for the small indie developer too.

But the sessions though are where the rubber meets the road. Just about every topic under the sun is addressed: game audio, business/management, game design, programming, visual arts, and mobile are the major headings. I attended a number of sessions including a presentation of Nintendo Deputy GM Takao Sawano on the development process and potential developer paths for the forthcoming Wii Fit, and a session offered by Simon Pressey and Mac Walters, both of which from Bioware and worked on Mass Effect on the topic of dialog production. Mundane as sound and dialog might sound, I’ve worked on games that had over 35,000 voice fragments, and making sure you not only keep track of them all, but keep them consistent is a logistical nightmare.

There are so many excellent presentations it’s difficult to mention them all here. For those of you interested in learning about game development, one of my biggest pieces of advice is to visit http://www.gdconf.com/. As has been the case in the past, a few weeks after the conference they post for free all of the session’s presentation materials. While sometimes difficult to understand without being there, many times these presentations provide valuable knowledge and long lasting insights. I’ve made it a habit these last few years to dump all the sessions and keep them for reference – whether or not I attended the lecture.

Besides myself there were a number of local game company personnel who were able to attend GDC this year. Our own GDAP (Game Developers Association of the Philippines) headed by Gabby Dizon had a booth in one of the expo halls, and many of the member companies had representatives there as well. And Anino’s Peter Paul Gadi gave a lecture on the use of the Agile approach in mobile game development during the Tuesday Mobile Gaming track. It’s exciting to see that Pinoys are sitting center-stage in game development world, and I’m glad that GDC exist as a forum for the learning and sharing of knowledge. I just wish there was something we all could attend that has the depth of a GDC, but was a bit closer to home :-)

Industry Insider - April 2008

So You Want to Make Games for a Living? Compete!!
by Eric Marlow

Since coming to the Philippines two years ago, I’ve been on a mission to promote game development locally. I along with a number of my colleagues have visited local campuses, held develop competitions, and even gone to the airwaves to promote the industry. I personally have sifted through hundreds of resumes of those wishing to throw their hat into the ring and join a game company.

First off, allow me a moment to chastise some of you. You know who you are. You blindly throw your resumes at companies hoping you might get a lead. You don’t read the job ads very well, and choose to apply for positions you apparently have no interest in applying for, otherwise you would have better prepared yourself to compete.

Yes, I said “compete”. It is a competition, and I know finding good jobs is tough. But it doesn’t take much time to do well and land an interview. You just have to do a little prep work.

My hope here is to offer you a nickel’s worth of free advice to better prepare yourself is you are interested in the game industry’s career potential:

1. You must read carefully the job advertisement. The job ad will hopefully list for you the REQUIRED attributes of the position, and other skills that might be nice to have. If you don't have at least most of the required skills, you only do yourself a disservice by applying.
2. Include a cover letter! This is such an important point I will say it again - include a cover letter! Very few applicants take the time to include a cover letter. The cover letter is your one chance to overcome any objections the reviewer may gloss over when reading your resume. Without a cover letter it will be difficult to understand the full value of the candidate.
3. Make sure your cover letter is tailored to the job at-hand. Including a generic cover letter that says how hard you will work and that you wish to expand your career is not good enough. Talk briefly about your skills that are appropriate to the position, and how your past experiences will give value to the company in this role. Be specific and draw links directly from the job advertisement text. And it should be obvious, but as a gamer, tell me what games you play! Duh.
4. It helps if you have some game experience in your background before applying for game development position. This doesn't necessary mean that you have had to work for a game company before, but rather that you have taken it upon yourself to demonstrate your interest and passion for this career. Spend some time working on your portfolio or on a game demo. Show you know what you are talking about by speaking intelligently about the games the company might make. Game development is all about PASSION, and if you don't have the fire in your belly (i.e. you are just looking for a paycheck) then it's best to move along and find something else that is more suitable.
5. You would think this is obvious, but apparently it's not as obvious as it should be: if you are scheduled for an interview at say 10am, it's a good idea to be there on time. Maybe even five minutes early. DO NOT BE LATE. Sorry guys to be harsh here, but the tried-and-true in Manila doesn’t cut it - traffic is not an excuse. I know traffic in Manila is bad, but I learned pretty quickly how bad it is - most of you have been here a lifetime, so you should know to plan around it so you aren't late. Being on time tells me several things, including that you know how to set priorities and how to manage your time.

Much of this article is devoted to landing the interview. In a future article I’ll also touch on how to build the skills necessary to land that dream job. This information and much more can also be found at my blog http://snacko.blogspot.com/.

Industry Insider - March 2008

Tracking MMOs – What It Tells Us about the Industry
by Eric Marlow

A number of years ago I was doing research on Asian online games, and a friend forwarded me to an incredible website: MMOGCHART.COM Developed by Bruce Woodcock, this website and the included analysis summarizes available subscription data for world-wide Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs). I find the information so insightful that I want to pay it forward to you the reader so you can better understand some of the dynamics that are involved behind the scenes with the development and marketing of such products.

In a nutshell, the website tracks subscription growth and decline of individual MMOs, and lays them out in comparison to one another. By viewing the graphs, one can see how many subscribers there are, how your favorite game stacks up against its competition, and where it might be in its lifecycle.

It’s quite an interesting read. Several conclusions can be drawn from this collection of data:

• All MMOs have a fairly consistent lifecycle that can be examine by parabolic curve over time; sometimes a game takes a number of years to reach its apogee; very popular games may be around for years!
• Add-ons and upgrades rarely increase the subscription base of users, they only seem to extend the product’s lifecycle.
• MMOs, with the exception of World of Warcraft, are a highly regional products; this is a topic for future Insider articles, but how games appeal to certain countries and cultures is the Holy Grail for MMOs.
• Overreliance on the Fantasy-RPG genre: with over 94% of MMOs being in this category, finding a niche in a genre that is NOT Fantasy-RPG based may hold promise to anyone contemplating a new MMO.
• Although it is highly desirable, a regional breakdown of this data isn’t easily available; companies generally do not report their subscriber information this way, though I am sure they have non-public data that shows subscriber data by country.

So this is all well-and-good, but what should the Insider do with such information? Well, for starters if you are a game designer and aspire to be the next Lord British, you can look at the information for opportunities in the marketplace. What kinds of game genres do the MMO customers play? Now go out there and play those games and check out their features: What’s good? What’s bad? What do the game magazine reviews and players say about them? What’s special or unique about the game when compared to other games? And the $64,000 question: what makes World of Warcraft so special as to accumulate over 10 million subscribers?!? Yikes!

If you consider yourself to be marketing savvy and are interested in the business side of the house, you should be asking yourself what kinds of games work, how many subscribers can be expected, and most importantly how long can I hope to hold onto my customers. Obviously the quality of the game will be the overriding factor here, and there are no formulas that can definitively state how profitable a future MMO might be. But if history is any guide there is information now at your fingertips that should give you reliable insight into subscriber peak and long-term attach rate for various MMO genres and styles. Such information will start you on your quest and get you into the right ballpark. I’m sure such data will prove helpful in building your business plan.

Industry Insider - February 2008

Human Factors – The Reason Why the Game PC is Here to Stay
by Eric Marlow

I’ve been fortunate in that I’ve had the opportunity to view technology from a variety of perspectives. Over my 25-ish-year career, I’ve done the Fortune 500 IT Strategy side, as a CIO, and now the nits and grits of game development. I’ve observed an excess of trends and prognostications. Amazingly, there are a number of things that have remained quite consistent about the personal computer and its place in the work and home.

• Human factors are something that obviously hasn't changed much over time, though it amazes me how little people pay heed to them in the design of their products. The fact remains that no matter where you are, your body has to interface with your chosen device. Where PCs are concerned, this usually means keyboards and mice. For consoles it’s a control pad. Mobile phones it’s the phone alpha-numeric keypad. Certain devices are obviously more appropriate for their environment than others.
• Some of the most popular genres of games rely on the flexibility of a keyboard or the precision of a mouse. Although attempts have been made to the contrary, First Person Shooters, Real Time Strategies, and Massively Multiplayer Online games are best served by the keyboard/mouse combination. Sports and Adventure games are great when using a console’s pad, and of course you CAN play Halo with the pad as well. The point is why downgrade the experience with something that is sub-optimal?
• Some may say that the console is converging with the PC; that the console will become the home entertainment hub where one can play DVDs, surf the ‘net, check email, and of course play games. Again, human factors come into play. While it’s quite comfortable to sit back on your family room couch with a console’s control pad, it’s much more difficult to use a keyboard and mouse without a hard flat surface to rest them on. Because popular games rely on these types of controllers and it’s uncomfortable to surf or do work for long hours on anything other than a desk, it will be tough to fully accept a home entertainment hub or game console as the only in-home computing device.
• The distance between the couch and the monitor (TV) is often times too far to engage in detailed reading of text presented via email or word processing documents. Eyestrain and the resulting back strain from poor couch-potato posture will keep these work sessions short. Large HTDVs do make it easier, but not everyone can afford these.
• Finite budgets being what they are, the home consumer, particularly in developing countries, will have a difficult time justifying purchase of home console AND a PC. The total cost of ownership for a console is just too high. Families when forced to choose will select a device that is more flexible in its ability to perform multiple tasks. That’s the PC.
• Attempts have been made to “improve” the human-to-computer interface. Voice recognition, virtual reality, motion-tracking and control – these controllers do work, but not only do they present a new set of problems, they for now are expensive and out of reach for most consumers.
• There are a number of reasons that do not have to do with human factors as to why the game PC isn’t going anywhere: the upgradable nature of the PC, Microsoft’s unwillingness to supplant the PC, game developers make their games on the PC anyway, and the fact that there are just so many more PCs in the world than game consoles.
  
  For the foreseeable future, the PC is here to stay.

Industry Insider - January 2008

Welcome to “The Insider”. This column will be dedicated to those interested in getting a behind-the-scenes look at game development: what’s involved, who’s doing what, and what’s coming next. For those of you who don’t know me, I’m the General Manager for Matahari Studios. Our company is dedicated to the next generation of game development targeted at the arcade platform. You may already know our sister company Timezone, known through the Philippines (and all over Asia in fact) for its popular Family Entertainment Centers.

To kick things off, I thought I would share with you some thoughts on coming trends in 2008.

PC, including online/MMO and internet-based/casual games – 2007 proved to be a banner year for PC game development. For the foreseeable future the PC will be king of the hill in terms of cutting edge technology. Games like Crysis are pushing bounds, sometimes beyond what many people can afford. Microsoft Vista and DirectX 10 also introduced the next step in game development, with its attention to better graphics and APIs for game developers. Can PC games in 2008 surpass those in 2007? There are of course a number of good games coming out: Spore, Starcraft 2, Fallout 3, Far Cry 2, World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King to name of few. But notice that all but one are NOT original in what they are bringing to market. Reducing risk is the trap any mature industry tends to fall into. Let’s hope there are some young, upstart developers out there willing to buck the trend. Watch out for continued strong growth in the casual sector though!

Console: Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo – Nintendo has ruled recently with the release of the Wii. But shortages of both available consoles and good titles are allowing the other two to keep pace. Sony continues to have an uphill battle in dealing with the high cost of their machines, and lukewarm developer support is hurting the introduction of new products - especially exclusive products. Microsoft will keep pace, but really needs to innovate if they are to bring their platform to the next level of success.

Arcade: Sega, Nintendo, Konami, and the like, including LAI/Matahari – The arcade sector is dominated by games that promote physical interaction and “social” gaming. Who doesn’t like to hang out with their friends and get a quick-fix of House of the Dead or Slam-and-Jam basketball? Companies like Global VR will be bringing a number of new games to market, such as the ports of NASCAR, America’s Army, and Blazing Angles. TV tie-ins such as the release of Ice/Play Mechanix Deal or No Deal will no doubt be winners too. Watch out for new products developed by Matahari in 2008 as well, including the first fully-Pinoy developed arcade game!

Handhelds: Sony, Nokia, Nintendo, and others – rumors persist about Microsoft coming out with its own handheld, but so far these are just rumors. Sony and Nintendo rule this segment, though it’s unclear if any next generation platforms will be introduced in 2008. Keep watch during the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas in January. This is where all the big announcements for the year take place.

Mobile: All the mobile phone makers and dozens of 3rd party developers – it’s interesting to see guys like John Carmack from id Software view mobile games as a challenge. As he states it, it is like “retro programming”, where the developer still has to be mindful of the economy of code. Certainly there is a lot of opportunity for growth in this market, though growth has been tempered by the various competing platforms, and the high cost of game downloads. Hopefully initiatives like “direct to consumer” will help to remedy this burden.

And what does the game development industry look like in 2008, particularly for here in the Philippines? The future looks bright! Early in 2007 a number of local game companies got together and formed the Game Development Association of the Philippines, or GDAP. The purpose of this group is to promote game development, both at home and abroad. It really shows that game development in the Philippines has come of age, and those who choose to make games for a living can make a great career out of it – right here at home.

Posting of Playground Articles

Hey guys - and many of you may be aware, I am a recurring columnist with Playground Magazine here in the Philippines. I've got a number of articles I've written, and I though I would start to post them here incase you are overseas and don't have direct access to the PH newstand :-)

Enjoy,

Eric