Key Learnings for Video Gamer Makers in 2008
This year was a great year for video games. Lots of big titles came out, Apple's iTunes appstore has been established and is pretty successful, and the mobile/handheld game industry continues to thrive.
Here are the things I learned this year and anyone who is in the industry or wishes to be in the industry should keep these items in mind.
Having overly strict DRM will increase piracy rates: Call it an overhyped title that didn't live up to it's expectations or just call it purely the worst PR move ever, but EA's Spore topped the piracy list this year. The lesson learned here is that DRM needs to be very elegant. EA did not help matters by putting such limitations like a three install limit on Spore.
Having no DRM will increase piracy rates: On the other hand, 2dBoy's World of Goo had a 90% piracy rate. It is completely DRM free. This is absolutely heart breaking as it is an excellent unique title that is very well done. If I could just step on my soapbox a moment: Please consider purchasing this game if you pirated it. If you appreciate games like this and would like to see more, it does nothing but help encourage the developer and other potential developers to continue to create new and innovative games if you do your part.
Sequels > New IP: Gamespy's Top 10 overall list for 2008 had four original IP games compared to six sequals/expansions. In terms of sales (and review scores), games like Mirror's Edge, Tom Clancy's EndWar, Spore, No More Heroes, and Braid--though extremely innovative and introduces new game mechanics and concepts to us gamers--still lost out to games like Fable 2, FarCry 2, Fallout 3, Grand Theft Auto 4, and Call of Duty: World at War. I don't see 2009 looking any different with games like Starcraft 2, Diablo 3, and Halo 3: ODST, Resident Evil 5, Street Fight 4 competing against Halo Wars, Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X., and Velvet Assassin. Can pretty much declare 2009 a year for sequels as well.
Big Publishers still rule: There were some pretty significant independent titles that came out this year that were critically acclaimed, but from the numbers, it seems like games from big publishers still overthrew them. Going back to Gamespy's top ten list, nine of the ten overall games were made by big named publishers. Also, here are two categories for you to think about. In the XBLA world, Braid and Castle Crashers lost out to Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo HD Remix and Mega Man 9 by Capcom. In the iPhone World, Fieldrunners was unseated by Sim City (EA Mobile) and Aurora Feint 2: The Arena has not gained any traction with a ton of Gameloft (A Ubisoft mobile division) titles packing the charts.
Keeping it simple wins: The Nintendo Wii still continues to dominate console sales and for the most part houses fairly simple games for consumption. On the PS3 front, LittleBigPlanet cleaned up house with it's attractive create-your-own-levels concept, wrapped in what can be summarized as a semi-2d jumping puzzle platformer game in its simplest form. Also, 2008 saw XBLA/PSN (and iTunes) really showing the world that gamers don't mind buying games that aren't AAA titles. All of these markets have cheap, simple games that draw a significant amount of sales while having short development cycles and cheaper development costs.
Digital Distribution is here to stay: iTunes, XBLA, PSN, and Steam all gained significant momentum this year. I won't mention all the titles since I have already in the bullets above, but the most encouraging point to note is that EA finally joined Steam. Even though EA was already doing digital distribution and other companies are also selling full game downloads, this move just shows an acknowledgment that gamers are willing to go digital if it's all centralized in one place. Now if only Stardock would give up on Impulse and join Steam as well, PC gaming would seriously have a chance against the consoles.
Here are the things I learned this year and anyone who is in the industry or wishes to be in the industry should keep these items in mind.
Having overly strict DRM will increase piracy rates: Call it an overhyped title that didn't live up to it's expectations or just call it purely the worst PR move ever, but EA's Spore topped the piracy list this year. The lesson learned here is that DRM needs to be very elegant. EA did not help matters by putting such limitations like a three install limit on Spore.
Having no DRM will increase piracy rates: On the other hand, 2dBoy's World of Goo had a 90% piracy rate. It is completely DRM free. This is absolutely heart breaking as it is an excellent unique title that is very well done. If I could just step on my soapbox a moment: Please consider purchasing this game if you pirated it. If you appreciate games like this and would like to see more, it does nothing but help encourage the developer and other potential developers to continue to create new and innovative games if you do your part.
Sequels > New IP: Gamespy's Top 10 overall list for 2008 had four original IP games compared to six sequals/expansions. In terms of sales (and review scores), games like Mirror's Edge, Tom Clancy's EndWar, Spore, No More Heroes, and Braid--though extremely innovative and introduces new game mechanics and concepts to us gamers--still lost out to games like Fable 2, FarCry 2, Fallout 3, Grand Theft Auto 4, and Call of Duty: World at War. I don't see 2009 looking any different with games like Starcraft 2, Diablo 3, and Halo 3: ODST, Resident Evil 5, Street Fight 4 competing against Halo Wars, Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X., and Velvet Assassin. Can pretty much declare 2009 a year for sequels as well.
Big Publishers still rule: There were some pretty significant independent titles that came out this year that were critically acclaimed, but from the numbers, it seems like games from big publishers still overthrew them. Going back to Gamespy's top ten list, nine of the ten overall games were made by big named publishers. Also, here are two categories for you to think about. In the XBLA world, Braid and Castle Crashers lost out to Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo HD Remix and Mega Man 9 by Capcom. In the iPhone World, Fieldrunners was unseated by Sim City (EA Mobile) and Aurora Feint 2: The Arena has not gained any traction with a ton of Gameloft (A Ubisoft mobile division) titles packing the charts.
Keeping it simple wins: The Nintendo Wii still continues to dominate console sales and for the most part houses fairly simple games for consumption. On the PS3 front, LittleBigPlanet cleaned up house with it's attractive create-your-own-levels concept, wrapped in what can be summarized as a semi-2d jumping puzzle platformer game in its simplest form. Also, 2008 saw XBLA/PSN (and iTunes) really showing the world that gamers don't mind buying games that aren't AAA titles. All of these markets have cheap, simple games that draw a significant amount of sales while having short development cycles and cheaper development costs.
Digital Distribution is here to stay: iTunes, XBLA, PSN, and Steam all gained significant momentum this year. I won't mention all the titles since I have already in the bullets above, but the most encouraging point to note is that EA finally joined Steam. Even though EA was already doing digital distribution and other companies are also selling full game downloads, this move just shows an acknowledgment that gamers are willing to go digital if it's all centralized in one place. Now if only Stardock would give up on Impulse and join Steam as well, PC gaming would seriously have a chance against the consoles.
Labels: games, learning, publishers, video games
posted by Allen M @ 12/31/2008 04:56:00 AM
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