Game industry

1. Game industry Game Design Vishnu Kotrajaras, PhD

2. Platforms • Console- most games are sold here. • PS2: most dominant one. • 52.5 million unit shipped worldwide in 2003. • Broadband • Xbox: doing well in the U.S., but not in Japan and Europe. • 9.4 million unit shipped worldwide in 2003. • XboxLive • Although 2nd , it is rich.

3. Nintendo GameCube • Equal to Xbox in 2003. • Aimed at younger audience. • Although the market may not seem as massive as the first two, Nintendo always produce original games.

5. PC • Windows • Dominate • Players prefer strategy and simulation games. This is different from console games. • Macintosh • Second, but it’s actually only 3 – 5 % of the PC game market. • Games may not be ported to Mac unless it’s a really good game.

6. Game Boy Advance + DS • Dominate handheld market. • PSP • Yet to see if it’ll be successful. • Arcade • it will disappear because the PCs today are so good. • But still good for games with special controls- footpads, motion capture, cars to sit in, VR • Mobile phone game • Big in Japan but not successful in the U.S. • Pay-per-play • Doing well in the U.K. but not the U.S.

8. Genres • Careful, don’t let this restrict your creativity.

10. Action game • Unreal tournament • GTA • Tetris • Often overlap with other genres • GTA is also a driving/adventure. • Tetris = action+puzzle. • Zelda, Wind Waker = action adventure. • Diablo = also role playing. • Real-time + Physical.

11. Strategy games • Conquest, exploration, trade • Civilization • Settlers • Risk • Warcraft • Originally, they are turn-based. • But now most are real-time.

12. Settlers 4

13. Risk II

14. RPG • Creating and growing characters • Rich storylines • Baldur’s Gate • Dungeon Siege • NetHack • Mostly slow pace, but some are fast, like Diablo.

15. Dungeon Siege 2 Action RPG (lots of action)

16. Sports • Madden NFL • Tony Hawk Pro Skater • NBA Jam

17. Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3

18. Racing/driving • Real-world simulation • F1 Career Challenge • NASCAR Thunder • Fantasy • Carmageddon • Diddy Kong Racing

19. NASCAR Thunder 2004

20. Carmageddon

21. Simulation/Building • Focus on economy and systems of trade. • Choice must be made, if develop one thing well, other parts may fail. • Player has indirect control over the growth of simulation. (This is the challenge.) • The Sims • SimCity • RollerCoaster Tycoon • Zoo Tycoon • SimAnt

23. Flight and other simulations • Approximate real-life aircraft. • Realistic control. • Microsoft flight simulator • Spearhead

24. Adventure • Exploration, collection, puzzle solving • Myst • Today, it often combines with action • Jak and Daxter • Character do not accumulate wealth like an RPG.

25. Edutainment • Putt-Putt saves the zoo • Sierra’s Driver Education • Chutes and Lifts

26. Children • Age 2-12 • Focus on entertaining. • Mario • Aladdin Activity Center • Freddi Fish

27. Family and mass market game • Simple games • Yahoo! Games • Scrabble • Monopoly • Wheel of Fortune

28. Puzzle • Scrabble • The Incredible Machine • Super Puzzle Fighter

29. Top tools 2007 • EngineCryEngine 2, CrytekGamebryo 2.3, EmergentHero Engine, Simutronics CorporationUnreal Engine 3, EpicVision Game Engine, Trinigy GmbHBooksGame Design: From Blue Sky to Green Light, Deborah Todd, AK PetersGame Writing Handbook, Rafael Chandler, Charles River MediaGPU Gems 3, ed. Hubert Nguyen, Addison-Wesley ProfessionalSecond Person, ed. Pat Harrigan and Noah Wardrip-Fruin, MIT PressXNA Unleashed, Chad Carter, Sams

30. MiddlewareEuphoria, Natural MotionGameface Studio, AnarkHavok Complete, HavokKynapse, KynogonPathEngine SDK, PathEngineProgramming/ProductionHansoft 5.0, Hansoft ABNVIDIA PerfHUD 5, NVIDIA CorporationPerforce 2007.2, Perforce SoftwareReplayDIRECTOR, Replay SolutionsXNA Game Studio Express, Microsoft

31. Art3ds Max 9, Autodeskmodo 301, LuxologyMudbox 1.06, Autodesk/SkymatterSoftimage XSI 6.01, SoftimageZbrush 3.1, PixologicAudioFmod, Firelight Technologies Pty, Ltd.Miles Sound System, RAD Game Tools, Inc.Vivox Precision Audio, Vivox, Inc.Voice-O-Matic, Di-O-Matic, Inc.Wwise 2007.2, Audiokinetic

32. Top Publisher 2006 Ranking Game Developer magazine's October 2006 issue. • Electronic Arts (100 games a year) • Is the world’s largest independent publisher. (not part of a platform company) • In 2005, 60% of its games come from its internal development studios. • Focus heavily on licenses and sequels. • The Sims • Def Jam Vendetta • Medal of Honor • Command & Conquer

33. Year formed: 1982Headquarters: Redwood City, Calif.Studios: Criterion (Guildford, U.K.); Digital Illusions CE (London, Ont., Stockholm) EA Black Box (Vancouver); EA Canada (Burnaby, British Columbia); EA China (Shanghai); EA Los Angeles (Playa Vista, Calif.); EA Mobile; EA Montreal; EA Mythic (Fairfax, Va.); EA Japan (Roppongi, Japan); EA Redwood Shores (Redwood City, Calif.); EA Singapore; EA U.K. (Chertsey, U.K.); Maxis (Emeryville, Calif.); EA Phenomic (Leipzig, Germany); EA Tiburon (Orlando)

34. 2006  • EA’s sports titles • more impressive performance than in previous years • the Sims series and its expansions continue to generate high sales. • The company has announced an intention to focus more on original intellectual properties. • EA ended its contract with the James Bond license early, likely due to poor sales. • Licensed properties continue to be a major source of income, however, with games based on • The Godfather and • Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire • having sold millions of copies each.

35. It has its own digital distribution system for games and a system for collecting micro-transactions for in-game purchases. • It acquired Jamdat Mobile, a global publisher of mobile phone games and the largest distributor of its kind in the U.S. • Other acquisitions included • developer Hypnotix, responsible for Outlaw Golf and Outlaw Volleyball, who now reside at EA’s Tiburon studio. • German strategy-game developer Phenomic. • In February 2006, EA announced a partnership with Neowiz, a Korean publisher of online games, and • by the end of June the resulting project FIFA Online had beaten all previous records for online games in Korea. • Plus, • expanded into Asia, • new hires in its Shanghai studio • Asian localization in Singapore.

36. 2. Nintendo • Year formed: 1933Headquarters: Kyoto, JapanStudios: Intelligent Systems (Kyoto); Nintendo Entertainment Analysis and Development (Kyoto, Tokyo); Nintendo Software Technology Corp. (Redmond, Wash.); Retro Studios (Austin); Systems Research & Development (Kyoto, Osaka)

37. In the past • Rely on sequels and spin-offs. • But only use licenses for 3.5%. • 46% are produced by third party. • Mainly Japanese teams. • Pokemon, Mario, Zelda

38. 2006 • DS nearly doubled the number of releases. • Nintendogs, Brain Training, and related titles, as well as New Super Mario Bros., more than made up for its continually sliding console-game revenues. • If Wii can manage to reach an audience similar to that of the DS, Nintendo’s position near the top of our list will likely be solidified for next year. • The company continues to maintain excellent relations with third-party publishers and external developers as well. • Highest scores for producers and milestone payments out of any company via the mag’s anonymous survey.

39. 3. Activision • Year formed: 1979Headquarters: Santa Monica, Calif.Studios: Beenox (Quebec City); Infinity Ward (Encino, Calif.); Luxoflux (Santa Monica, Calif.); Neversoft (Encino, Woodland Hills, Calif.); Raven Studios (Madison, Wis.); RedOctane (Sunnyvale, Calif.); Shaba Games (San Francisco); Toys For Bob (Novato, Calif.); Treyarch (Santa Monica, Calif.); Vicarious Visions (Mountain View, Calif., Troy, N.Y.); Z-Axis (Foster City, Calif.)

40. In the past • License + sequels • Original ideas are only 14% • 69% of its output are for console. • 22% are handheld. • 9% for PC. • Return to castle Wolfenstein • Tony Hawk • Spider-man • Quake III Arena

41. 2006 • Call of Duty 2 and Call of Duty: Big Red One sold extremely well. • Activision’s release count declined over 2005, but a higher average review score and favorable developer survey ratings helped the EA rival maintain its footing. • The company struck agreements that gave it licenses to produce games based on the • Spider-Man and Transformers movies, • four additional new Dreamworks pictures, • Mattel’s Barbie toy line, and • the potentially lucrative James Bond franchise, taken over from EA. • Guitar Hero’s brisk sales led Activision to purchase the game’s publisher RedOctane in May. • As of this writing, the company faces two separate lawsuits: • one over its labor practices and • another over allegedly backdated stock options. • At the same time, the company has tightened its belt for the generational transition by reducing its workforce by seven percent back in February.

42. 4. Sony Computet Entertainment • Year formed: 1993Headquarters: TokyoStudios: Bend, Ore.; Cambridge, U.K.; Contrail (Tokyo); Foster City, Calif.; Guerrilla Games (Amsterdam); Incognito Entertainment (Salt Lake City); Insomniac (Burbank, Calif); Liverpool, U.K.; London; Polyphony Digital (Tokyo); San Diego; Naughty Dog (Santa Monica, Calif.); Seoul; SN Systems (Bristol, U.K.); Tokyo; Zener Works (Tokyo)

43. In the past • 44 games a year • Ps2 games • 45% of its games are made by external developers. • Action, sports, and racing make up 54% of their output. • Sony invests in original ideas (opposite to EA) 50% of its games in a year are new intellectual properties. • SOCOM • Gran Turismo

44. 2006 • first-party software sales for the platform fell off. • First-party PSP software sales buoyed Sony though, and allowed it to hold steady in terms of revenue. • A slightly higher average review score — to which Shadow of the Colossus’s shining critical reception contributed — doubtless helped the company’s standing. • Guerrilla Games has proved to be a valuable asset to Sony’s first-party portfolio, • with Killzone games on the way for PSP and PlayStation 3

45. 5. Take-Two Interactive • Year formed: 1993Headquarters: New YorkStudios: Cat Daddy Games (Bellevue, Wash.); Firaxis Games (Hunt Valley, Md.) Irrational Games (Quincy, Mass.; Canberra, Australia); Kush Games (Camarillo, Calif.); Rockstar Leeds (Leeds, U.K.); Rockstar North (Edinburgh); Rockstar San Diego; Rockstar Toronto; Rockstar Vancouver; Rockstar Vienna; Venom Games (Newcastle, U.K.); Visual Concepts (San Rafael, Calif.)

46. In the past • (25 games a year) • 80% of its games are from external developers • But the internal team has GTA. • Action + sport • Aggressive + original • 41% new idea • 50% sequels • 10% licenses • Max Payne • Railroad Tycoon 2

47. 2006 • The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, co-published with Bethesda, broke sales records for Xbox 360 games and was no slouch in the PC format either. • Civilization IV also performed well. • The PSP release of Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories proved to be one of the top-selling titles on the platformใ • Unsurprisingly, the now $20 Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas continued to contribute to the company’s revenues. • Take-Two acquired Irrational Games in January as a result of a relationship the two companies formed around Irrational’s upcoming release Bioshock. • Nabbing this team will likely result in even more high quality, original IPs for the publisher.

48. 6. Microsoft Game Studios • Year formed: 1975Headquarters: Redmond, Wash.Studios: Bungie Studios (Redmond, Wash.); Ensemble Studios (Dallas); FASA (Redmond, Wash.); Lionhead Studios (Guildford, U.K.); Microsoft Game Studios Japan (Tokyo); Rare (Twycross, U.K.)

49. In the past • 55% for console. • Focus on original concepts (58%). • 64% made externally. • Halo • Age of Empires

50. 2006 • The lack of a release as popular as the company’s Halo series for Xbox has caused the publisher to drop three spots in our ranking. • The stable of studios holds much promise for its home platform, however, with Halo 3 on the way. • A pledge of support from Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi and his studio Mistwalker. • With a lower console price point than Sony, Microsoft has some real opportunities to move forward in the coming generation. • On the PC side, Age of Empires III has consistently cleaned up the charts since its October release, reaching platinum status and becoming the fastest selling entry in the long-running series. • Windows Vista-only Halo 2 will make for interesting results next year.