Monthly Archives: March 2008
Poker vs Blackjack
While catching up on my reading I came upon a post entitled Bluff on Pierre-Alexandre Garneau’s blog. The topic was the concept of bluffing in games with a mention of one of my favorite games of the moment, Texas Hold ‘em Poker. Now oddly I used to hate Poker, almost as much as I hated negotiating Publishing contracts. In Texas Hold ‘em Poker you can’t see all the cards the other players have in their hand. I always preferred Blackjack because you got to see the cards you were playing against.
Then one day something strange happened. I suddenly started to enjoy negotiating contracts and playing Poker, exactly because I couldn’t see all the cards. I realised that when negotiating a contract you aren’t the only person who can’t see all the cards and, just as in Poker, it’s far easier to negotiate on a set of weak cards if people can’t see them. Of course that isn’t much use to you unless you also realise that Publishers actually want developers to negotiate. Sure, the first draft contract that a publisher sends out come from the draw marker “for idiots” – but that only applies if you actually sign it. Publishers are in business to grow their business and if that means taking advantage of a developer that doesn’t know better then that is what they will do. It’s nothing personal, just business. However Publishers are also smart enough to know that their business will do better in the long run if they don’t work with too many idiots.
A developer who negotiates a better deal for themselves (better than the “idiots” contract at least) will be less likely to make stupid mistakes, hopefully more financially stable and at least stay in business long enough to finish developing their game. So, if you want to do well in the development business, better break out the cards and start practicing your Poker.
Scott Miller incubates
Video Game news site Gamedaily.com has a story up here about an apparent new IP incubator company to be founded by Scott Miller of 3DRealms and Jim Perkins, a former SVP of GT Interactive. The story is based on the brief existence of a web site (now showing just a logo) for a company called Radar Group. The story states that “Radar Group is an original IP incubator that will aim to take video game projects into cross-media properties such as films, TV shows, novels and toys.” The story goes on to quote more from the site regarding the company’s plans with “We build into our original, co-created IP the hooks to make for both a great game and a great film.”
Hmmmm now Scott Miller is obviously a smart guy and thinks this is the way to go but personally I can’t remember a “cross media” project that has been a meaningful success. By that I mean a project designed to be successful across multiple media, instead of taking a success from one media and moving it to another. It takes a lot of passion, dedication and hard work to make a great creative product, be it a film, comic, game or book. Trying to make a game, which is also suitable for a film (or vice-versa) is adding an extra level of complexity to an already difficult creative process. Designing a game to include elements because they are suitable “hooks to make for both a great game and a great film” is a quick way to dilute creative vision and make the creative process harder. In the 20 years I have been in the industry I have been pitched a multitude of cross media projects designed to be a great game/comic/film. None of them ever succeeded.
Cross media products are a bad way to make creative products…. of course as business people love the media convergence concept such a business model is are a great way to attract investment.
Polygons reaches double figures
Lively industry Networking event Never Mind the Polygons reached double figures this week as Polygons #10 took place on Thursday the 13th of March, in the Union bar at the University of Derby. The event was hosted as usual by Toby Barnes of Pixel-Labs and I was joined on the good team by George Bray, International Business Development Manager for Mumbo Jumbo. My normal sparing partner Iain Simmons (captain of the bad team) was absent this time and stepping into his shoes was Nick Burton (Rare/ MGS), partnered by Craig Albeck (Games Republic).
Both teams were once again soundly beaten in the evenings quiz/discussion section by an enthusiastic audience (in excess of 70 strong) as topics as diverse as Indie Gaming, Atari and Haircuts (you had to be there) were discussed and debated at length. Following on from the discussions the evening moved on to drink and networking as students mingled with developers from Rare, Eurocom and Monumental Games before making their way off into the night to finally head home.
NMTP #11 is scheduled for Thurs May 8th with the venue TBC (most likely Derby) so do come and join us if you are in the area.
Take-Two’s poisoned power pill.
According to a Reuters’ report here the computer games publisher Take-Two has instituted a severance plan for employees (both executive and non-executive level), which would be activated in the event of them being fired following any purchase of the company. Obviously Take-Two are a caring company with their employees best interests at heart and the fact that this “poison pill” would make the company more expensive to purchase is just a convenient bonus. The plan would give all non-executive employees the equivalent of six months salary as severance… with the executive staff getting up to 1.5 times salary and bonuses for 18 months and all at zero cost to Take-Two.
The plan is part of Take-Two’s attempt to avoid being gobbled up by the ever hungry Electronic Arts (EA) following the latter’s February 25th announcement of a $2 Billion bid for the Grand Theft Auto publisher. Further steps include an attempt to bolster share-holder confidence (and push up the share price) by publicising the companies successes, with an announcement of historical sales to date for a host of Take-Two’s top titles (see gi.biz story).
Of course no corporate take over these days would be complete without a few stockholders suing someone or other. Regardless of how the takeover plays out someone somewhere is bound to think they haven’t earned as much as they should from their shares and sue someone…. anyone… in an attempt to get more. This is more fun than any soap currently showing on TV so we can only hope it will make it to a second season.
Game Industry Links ++
Veteran games marketing man Bruce Everiss has posted a fairly exhaustive list of Game Development related web sites. Below is Bruce’s original list (which he has kindly given permission for anyone to repost) plus some additional sites I use on a regular basis. Please share and enjoy.
Here I will list a whole pile of websites that are useful to the game industry professional. Some I have mentioned before, but putting them all in one place is pretty convenient. This is information overload.
N4G is a game news aggregator. The stories can be submitted by anyone but are vetted for relevance, commented on and scored for popularity. This gives an excellent news snapshot with the added advantage of measuring the level of public interest.
MCV is the website of the British video game trade newspaper. Lots of information relevant to everyone in the trade. They will send you a daily digest.
Gameindustry.biz is the online only competitor to MCV. They will send you a daily newsletter.
Gamerankings, like the title says, is an amazing compendium of game information centred around their reviews. An essential tool.
Metacritic is a more sophisticated game ranking with the individual scores weighted according to their credibility.
VG Chartz, lots of useful guestimated facts and figures. The site is dragged down by a puerile fanboy forum.
Some great development blogs. Find out what the people who actually make the games have to say. This is the gold standard for informed industry comment.
ELSPA is the main UK trade industry organisation. Their main concern is political lobbying which is why the UK government is so good towards the game industry.
How to get lots of money given to you for moving your video game business to Quebec. This site is much visited by European companies!!
Popurls is a metasite of metasites so gives you a breathtaking overview of the internet on one page. So informative that it is addictive.
Geekipedia is Wired magazines’ brilliant guide to our technology age. Essential education for many.
Develop, the online site for the game development community magazine.
- Improving Game Marketing: The Game Purchase Process From A Consumer’s Point Of View. An interesting paper.
Some incredibly incisive commentary on game marketing and game quality.
David Perry’s game industry map gives a geographical perspective to the whole industry.
MMOGCHART is the standard industry reference for what is happening in the MMO world.
The Chaos Engine, the private forum for game industry development professionals. Absolutely essential reading if you want to know what is going on.
Videogame journos network. Does exactly what the name says.
SoftPressRelease.com. Blast your press release out to the waiting press at low cost.
A good list of game developers and publishers with links to their websites and product lists.
There is enough information there for even the keenest budding game industry professional. Please add any great industry sites you may know using comments. Bloggers and journalists feel free to copy this anywhere you want.
My additional sites include
- Game Developer Magazine US based magazine focusing on game development.
- Gamedev.net a website dedicated to game development with an excellent forum.
- Indiegamer forums A great place to discuss issues relating to indie game dev/publishing.
- TIGA UK game developers trade body.
- ANGILS For those interested in serious games.
Holocaust game shocker? … no New York Times are rubbish so no shock there then.
The New York Times web site media section posted a story (nytimes story) yesterday about Holocaust themed game Imagination Is the Only Escape, claiming that there had been disgust following the announcement of the game and that the game would not be coming to shop shelves in the USA as Nintendo of America had stated that “At this time, there are no plans for this game to be released for any Nintendo platforms in North America.”
The clear implication in the story is that there has been widespread criticism and that Nintendo won’t be allowing the game on their systems. The truth (a depressingly alien concept to many in the media) is nothing of the sort. What Nintendo actually meant was that the product isn’t on any release schedule yet. Hardly surprising for the simple reason that it isn’t far enough into development by the UK developer/publisher Alten8 (www.alten8.com).
With depressing predictability the story was then picked up by other sites such such as Videogaming247 (incorrect story) but posted with the even more misleading title “Nintendo refuses to release Holocaust DS game in US“. Thankfully Eurogamer (Eurogamer story) checked with Alten8 who confirmed that Nintendo were in no way blocking the release of the game. In a statement to Eurogamer they stated stated “Imagination is the Only Escape is only in its early stages. No one has blocked it, and it has no definitive time scale for release.”
So, no one has banned anything or even made anything yet for that matter… guess I’ll post a review of the game tomorrow then.