Profile each of the main sectors within the industry:
Developers
Publishers
Console Manufacturers/First Party Publishers
Distribution and Retail
Outsourcing Companies
Press and Media
Each sector has an influence on the type of games that are produced.
You are aiming to comprehensively explain organisational structures in the games industry with reference to elucidated examples. You should be using subject terminology consistently and correctly.
What is a Developer?
Game developers, more specifically known as Video Game Designers/Developers, are software developers and engineers who create video games. They are the people who actually make the mechanics of the game work and are the people who are behind the scenes designing the game to make it play as smoothly as possible - that would be the coding and programming side of being a Games Designer, however they could also be making the story and the concept of the game. It is essential to have various aspects of a game and different people to fulfill them as it means the game can reach a higher potential as one person is not drained to complete everything meaning the game would not be as good, for example; they may be really good at programming but not so good at drawing and the concept of the game so it would run really well and fell good to play but not look good which cancels out the impressive game mechanics by not looking professional. The exact definition according to Wikipedia is, "A video game developer is a software developer that specializes in video game development – the process and related disciplines of creating video games. A game developer can range from one person who undertakes all tasks to a large business with employee responsibilities split between individual disciplines, such as programming, design, art, testing, etc. Most game development companies have video game publisher financial and usually marketing support. Self-funded developers are known as independent or indie developers and usually make indie games" There are countless examples of Video Game Developers however for this example, Mojang will be used. Mojang was co-founded in May 2009 by Markus Persson, Jakob Porser and Carl Manneh. They have created several games, such as; Cobalt, Scrolls, they may sound like familiar titles however one in particular is Minecraft, this game has been such an influence to many people as there have been numerous remakes of it, such as; Cube world, Maniac Digger, UberBlox and many more. This is extremely important as it shows the power that one game can have, this one game (Minecraft) has inspires multiple people to use their own ideas and inspiration from Minecraft to make their own game, it has made the genre of Sandbox much popular due to the rise in very similar titles. In addition it is also extremely important to mention that there were versions of games similar to Minecraft around/existing before the creation of Minecraft, these include; Voxlap, Blockland and Infiniminer - what is key to mention here is that Infiniminer was what Notch (Markus Persson) took inspiration from to make Minecraft, which shows how essential it is to use the ideas of other to make your game better, if somebody has game mechanics or a style of game similar to what you want to do then it is always good to try and use that style to make your game better. The remakes of Minecraft show how people thought they could make a Minecraft style game but with their own twist - proving how much of an impact it had on the game industry.Bibliography:
S, 2016 (2003) Game developer: Job description, duties and requirements. Available at: http://study.com/articles/Game_Developer_Job_Description_Duties_and_Requirements.html (Accessed: 23 September 2016).
Video game developer (2016) in Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_developer (Accessed: 23 September 2016).
Mojang (2016) in Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mojang (Accessed: 23 September 2016).deleted (2011) Complete list of Minecraft clones! • /r/Minecraft. Available at: https://www.reddit.com/r/Minecraft/comments/lx5g3/complete_list_of_minecraft_clones/ (Accessed: 23 September 2016).
What is a Publisher?
A Publisher is a person or a company who promotes a certain product, the exact definition on Wikipedia is, "A video game publisher is a company that publishes video games that they have either developed internally or have had developed by a video game developer. As with book publishers or publishers of DVD movies, video game publishers are responsible for their product's manufacturing and marketing, including market research and all aspects of advertising". Sometimes the Publisher of a game can be the same company who developed the game, this therefore means that when they are publishing the game, they do not need to do what another company wants them to do to promote the game, an example scenario would be if there was two companies, Company 1 made and developed the game, Company 2 are publishing and promoting the game. In order for Company 2 to publicize the game more effectively they may put things into trailers etc. that will have no part in the actual game what so ever - this is know as misleading advertisement as it has given the people/consumers a false prospect so are therefore buying a game for something that does not exist - That is not a common scenario as the majority of the time, the publishers promote the game as it will be when it will be released. There are many examples of publishers; there are Major Publishers and Mid-size Publishers. Examples of Major Publishers; Sony Computer Entertainment, Tencent, Microsoft Game Studios, Nintendo, Activision Blizzard, EA (Electronic Arts), Bandai Namco Games, King Digital Entertainment, Nexon, Ubisoft. Examples of Mid-size Publishers; Telltale Games, Capcom, Sega, Deep Silver. There are a variety of examples of really good publishers but can often do bad things. Activision ticks all of the boxes in this situation because although they are a great publisher they are notorious for In-Game-Purchases/DLC. For example in Call of Duty: Black Ops 3, they have a supply drop system, which is essentially like a gift basket that does not give you nice gifts, the chance of you getting a good item in them is 2.4%, that is a considerably low percentage. Also, if you are a season pass holder, it means nothing, you do not get weapons, guns, camouflages for free, you have to buy supply drops too which is extremely bad practice from Activision which has caused some distress with people as it is ludicrous that the rates are so low. Some people argue in favour of Activision however, despite how preposterous the supply drop system is - people argue that there are cryptokeys, this is like an in game currency that you are able to spend on supply drop and other various things but even still the rate at which you receive them is incongruous. Another argument is that you do not need to buy them, Activision does not force anybody to buy the supply drops so if anybody becomes distraught at the lack of profit they made from the supply drops then it is no-one but their own fault for spending the amount of money they did. In contrast to this is Electronic Arts, they have a similar idea with their FIFA and various other game 'Packs' in which you can buy with 'Fifa Points' or 'Coins', both are easily accessible as to earn coins you can sell players and play games and Fifa Points you can buy them however the price is not as atrocious as Call of Duty. In these packs you are not guaranteed a good player but people still buy them and often spend a lot of money trying to get that desired 'Ronaldo' or 'Messi' player card but very rarely does it happen. Nonetheless people do not complain that they do not get a bad player as it is very easy to get the coins back as there are a considerable amount of ways to get them back, which is completely different to Call of Duty, this is the sole reason why a lot of Call of Duty players dislike Activision. This therefore has a negative impact on the industry as it makes people think that all publishers who have In-Game-Purchases/DLC are just trying to steal your money due to the bad reputation that has been given to Activision, which is very often not the case as the publishers just want to bring more variation and variety to the game as they do not make it Pay-To-Win.
Bibliography:Activision (2016) in Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Activision (Accessed: 24 September 2016).
Video game publisher (2016) in Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_publisher (Accessed: 23 September 2016).deleted (2016) Corrected rare supply drop statistical analysis • /r/blackops3. Available at: https://www.reddit.com/r/blackops3/comments/4bzfqb/corrected_rare_supply_drop_statistical_analysis/ (Accessed: 24 September 2016).
What is a Console Manufacturer/First Party Publisher?
Wikipedia states that a First Party Developer is, "A console manufacturer, also known as a first-party video game publisher, is a company that manufactures and distributes video game consoles in addition to permitting third-party publishers to produce games for its platform in return to licensing fees". A First Party Publisher are the people who actual make the consoles, this is because they are the ultimate publishers, they get to choose what games are approved and even decide what games get more publicity, for example; 'No Man's Sky', a title that was exclusive for the PlayStation 4 received a lot of publicity from Sony (The makers of the PlayStation 4), they developers of No Man's Sky (Hello Games), also received a lot of financial backing to help produce and develop the game. This is an example of First Party Publishing as Sony chose to put the game in the spotlight and raise awareness about the game that was exclusive for their platform. The Console Manufacturers also have the power to make new things for their consoles, for example; the Kinect, this was a real turning point in the games industry as it meant that new games could be created as there was a new way of playing games. There are many examples of different Console Manufacturers, these include; Microsoft with their Xbox One, Apple with their iDevices running iOS - the Smartphone industry has risen a considerable amount in recent years as more and more games are being developed for them. The Smartphone industry is growing at an astonishing rate and that is partially because of the how Apple and other Smartphone companies feature games making them more popular, this is done by the featured section on the App Store which gives the users a highlight reel of games that should be tried. A game that definitely needs to be mentioned for the Smartphone is Pokemon GO, that game has been a huge inspiration to the gaming world both because it is on the Smartphone and there are not as many games in that area but also because it has brought a new way to play games - traditionally gamers would sit in their chair/coach and play on their console/PC all day, but now because of Pokemon GO, people are going travelling around the area that they live in and are trying to catch different types of Pokemon. Just the concept of gaming outside of your house is extraordinary but it is revolutionary as it now means more people will try and follow in Niantic Inc's footsteps to produce more games that use the same idea of moving out of your comfort zone to excel in a game. For example; there is a game called Ingress, this game was also developed by Niantic Inc. (the same people who made Pokemon GO) and use similar game mechanics - the game uses your phones GPS location and the objective of the game is to hack different portals and build them up after you have chosen a team to fight on the other side of the portal - you must travel to different locations in the real world to actually hack the portals to claim them for your own team. However, this game was already released before Pokemon GO was, this shows how the First Party Publishers can make a game more popular as Ingress is a good game but it has not had the success and publicity that Pokemon GO had showing that it is key to remember the featured section on the App Store and Play Store brought the game tonnes of revenue (Pokemon GO), displaying the power that First Party Publishers have on the Gaming Industry.
Bibliography:Console manufacturer (2016) in Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Console_manufacturer (Accessed: 23 September 2016).
(No Date) Available at: https://thinkgaming.com/app-sales-data/ (Accessed: 24 September 2016).Ashish (2016) 10 best augmented reality games like Pokemon GO. Available at: http://www.mobipicker.com/games-like-pokemon-go/ (Accessed: 24 September 2016).
What is Distribution and Retail?
What is Distribution and Retail, you may ask? Well, Distribution and Retail is simply how and where the game is sold. A great way to explain this topic is how we buy our games, typically in today's world, we buy digitally as it is much more accessible to buy our games that way and also saves time, we no longer have to stand in lines and wait to buy a hard-disc that can be broken very easily and damaged without even meaning to do so, all you need to do is misplace the disc once and you have to pay another £40.00 just to get the game again - this is why buying digitally is revolutionary as we have all of out games in one area that are unable to be broken or damaged. There are plenty of examples of where we can buy our games; GAME, HMV, Xbox Marketplace, Play.com, Amazon, Games Station, Playstation Store, iTunes, Steam, Smartphone App Store, eBay. The old method of distribution as already mentioned is going to a physical store - these stores are completely reliant that the manufacturers make and pack the games in their cases so they can be sold on shelves. There are negatives and positives to take from going to a physical store, for example; you can buy the disk which is portable and can be taken anywhere whereas if you bought the game digitally it is only limited to a certain account or device that cannot be used anywhere else, so you would not be able to take your brand new game to your friends to play. However, buying hard-discs are extremely spacious and require rooms to store them, this is where the digital stores come in handy as they allow for space to be saved in one area - this therefore means that they are easily accessible when you want to play a game. At certain stores, they have deals and discounts, for example; if you buy at a store, you will receive a free voucher for an in-game weapon of your choice. For the release of Fifa 17, GAME decided that if you buy Fifa 17 then you would receive a code for a free subscription to NOW TV, this could make people want to buy the game more due to the bonus add-on that you would receive. This however is not the case at Steam and other digital marketplaces as you do not receive those bonuses, this could make people buy the hard-disc instead of the digital copy. In hindsight, there are websites on the internet such as G2A and MMOGA - they have sales for games meaning you can buy them for much cheaper than they usually would be, this means people tend to buy digitally as they can get the games for a much lower price - this could also allow for the person to buy another game or buy In-Game-Items to better their experience. On G2A, they sell Battlefield 4 for just under £7.00, this is extremely useful for people who do not want to spend an excessive amount of money - when the game was first released it was around the £40.00 mark and if you were to buy the game in stores now it would probably cost around £20.00 so it saves you a lot of money. The way we buy games is changing the gaming industry a lot, it is revolutionary and also much better. This is because it saves space and time. People can now have a cloud storage of all of their games in one place and do not need to eject the disc out of the console etc to put in another game, all is required now is that you close the application and find the game you want to play on your Steam Library etc. In time, it may become the new thing to buy digital games and buying an actual copy of the game could be a thing of the past.
Bibliography:cigdemkalem (2011) NBickelmann. Available at: http://www.slideshare.net/cigdemkalem/video-games-distribution-and-marketing (Accessed: 29 September 2016).
G2A (2016) Battlefield 4 – buy origin CD-Key (global). Available at: https://www.g2a.com/battlefield-4-ea-origin-cd-key-global.html (Accessed: 29 September 2016).
What is Outsourcing Companies?
Outsourcing Companies are basically people who work on a part of a game or film etc for another company, for example; a Games Developer is making a game but is unable to create the music/soundtracks for the game and needs somebody to create them. They would then outsource this to somebody so they could create the soundtrack for them, it is so much cheaper to outsource the job to somebody who knows how to make the music rather than have your own studio with employees as it costs a lot of money to not only pay them but also run the studio efficiently. The definition for outsourcing in Wikipedia is, "Outsourcing is a practice used by different companies to reduce costs by transferring portions of work to outside suppliers rather than completing it internally. Outsourcing is an effective cost-saving strategy when used properly. It is sometimes more affordable to purchase a good from companies with than it is to produce the good internally". Countless people work as Outsourcing Companies not many stand out from the rest, Virtuos however are a really big Outsourcing company as they have worked on many big games. For example; they have worked on Uncharted 4: A Thief's End, Captain America: Civil War, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided and many other big game and film titles. Whilst Virtuos were working on Uncharted, they provided clothing for more than 30 characters including the main combatant Drake as well as the countless vehicles and the environment. This is a very essential part of the game. As the developers at Naughty Dog will not have a studio that specialises in the creating of the environment etc so that is where they will ask companies such as Virtuos to help create the environment and the vehicles instead of having their own studio as it is much cheaper to do so and can sometimes be better as the end product looks of a higher standard. As Virtuos say themselves, they specialise in 3D art and software development for games hence why Naughty Dog contacted them to help with the art work for the final Uncharted. The work that Virtuos did in the Deus Ex: Mankind Divided was astonishing, Virtuos provided modeling for more than 30 key characters. In addition the Virtuos team in Vietnam worked on more than 200 hours of mocap animation and produced hundreds of animation cycles for the AAA game. Deus Ex: Mankind Divided takes place in 2029, and mechanically augmented humans have now been deemed outcasts. Living a life of complete and total segregation from the rest of society, covert operative Adam Jensen is forced to operate in a world that has grown to despise his kind. Armed with a new arsenal of state-of-the-art weapons and augmentations, he must choose the right approach (and who to trust), in order to unravel a vast worldwide conspiracy. This goes to show how the industry is changing for the better as, more people/companies are working together on a project to make better game/movie etc. The more people who are specialised in a certain field, the more professional the game is going to look and play as one company is not rushing to get all aspects of a game finished and can focus on one small part of the film/game to make it feel as good as possible, for example; a company can be working on the 3D modeling whilst one works on the programming so they can go into more depth and spend as much time possible instead of only working on areas for short/brief periods of time.
Bibliography:Investopedia.com (2003) ‘Outsourcing’, in Available at: http://www.investopedia.com/terms/o/outsourcing.asp (Accessed: 29 September 2016).
2015 (2016) Virtuos. Available at: http://www.virtuosgames.com/ (Accessed: 29 September 2016).
2015 (2016) UNCHARTED 4 RELEASES WITH 3D ART FROM VIRTUOS. Available at: http://www.virtuosgames.com/en/uncharted-4-releases-3d-art-virtuos (Accessed: 29 September 2016).2015 (2016) DEUS EX RELEASES WITH 3D ART FROM VIRTUOS. Available at: http://www.virtuosgames.com/en/deus-ex-releases-3d-art-virtuos (Accessed: 29 September 2016).
What is the Press and Media?
The Press and the Media are the people who report on games, they are the ones who can make a game look really good or really bad as they have a huge influence on their readers/viewers, if a newspaper does a bad report on a game, some readers may be put off from buying the game because of what the newspapers have said. The definition of Media on Wikipedia is, "Media (the singular form of which is medium) is the collective communication outlets or tools that are used to store and deliver information or data. It is either associated with communication media, or the specialized mass media communication businesses such as: print media and the press, photography, advertising, cinema, broadcasting (radio and television) and publishing. The definition of Press is, "Press members include journalists for newspapers, magazines, radio, Internet news sites and television. Some of these professionals work in war-torn areas and in other dangerous situations. Professionals called "anchors" work on television to provide details of newsworthy events that happen throughout the day or night". An example of the Press and Media is the Daily Mail/Mail Online, typically they have released articles that make games look bad, such as; they made an article about violent video games and how they are like the fuel to make children grow up as aggressive people. It was reported that they learn the patterns and begin to live their life using those patterns. This article was aimed towards parents, the whole aim of it was to make the parents want to ban the games for children to stop them from playing the games to reduce the chance of children being aggressive, however that would not solve the issue as banning the game will not change anything, the children will still be aggressive or not aggressive depending on how they are raised, what I mean by this is that the parents are responsible for how their child behaves, if they raise them without care then more than likely they will become aggressive etc. This is another issue of how the media tries to make a mountain out of a molehill, basically, they try to make something seem really bad by blowing it out of proportion completely. If it was the case that games make children violent and aggressive then people who have played PacMan should be crazed drug addicts running around trying eat people whilst taking small pills. That has never happened which just goes to show how the Press try to make everyone and everything look unacceptable. This is not all the time however as there are various examples of how the Media try to make games seem good, IGN are a great example of this, they give great reports/articles showing truly why a game is good and do not pick the game apart purposely looking for the negativity in a game. The Games Industry is forever changing because of the Media/Press and it is more negatively than it is positively, this is because as previously mentioned, the Media are always trying to make games look bad rather than look for the good about a game, if this continuous to happen, people will be put off buying games for them selves or other people as they feel it would be bad for their health just because of what the Media has said. The Media can be a great source to find out information about different subjects however sometimes they can be ludicrous, completely and utterly woeful sources of information regarding games overall effecting the games industry negatively - this is why the Media/Press should not always be taken literally all of the time.
Media (communication) (2016) in Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_(communication) (Accessed: 29 September 2016).Credit (2016) What is the press? Available at: https://www.reference.com/education/press-1e023bfd40378d90# (Accessed: 29 September 2016). Reilly, R. (2014) Violent video games makes children grow up into aggressive teenagers. Available at: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2588864/Violent-video-games-makes-children-grow-aggressive-adults-study-claims.html (Accessed: 29 September 2016).
A Publisher is a person or a company who promotes a certain product, the exact definition on Wikipedia is, "A video game publisher is a company that publishes video games that they have either developed internally or have had developed by a video game developer. As with book publishers or publishers of DVD movies, video game publishers are responsible for their product's manufacturing and marketing, including market research and all aspects of advertising". Sometimes the Publisher of a game can be the same company who developed the game, this therefore means that when they are publishing the game, they do not need to do what another company wants them to do to promote the game, an example scenario would be if there was two companies, Company 1 made and developed the game, Company 2 are publishing and promoting the game. In order for Company 2 to publicize the game more effectively they may put things into trailers etc. that will have no part in the actual game what so ever - this is know as misleading advertisement as it has given the people/consumers a false prospect so are therefore buying a game for something that does not exist - That is not a common scenario as the majority of the time, the publishers promote the game as it will be when it will be released. There are many examples of publishers; there are Major Publishers and Mid-size Publishers. Examples of Major Publishers; Sony Computer Entertainment, Tencent, Microsoft Game Studios, Nintendo, Activision Blizzard, EA (Electronic Arts), Bandai Namco Games, King Digital Entertainment, Nexon, Ubisoft. Examples of Mid-size Publishers; Telltale Games, Capcom, Sega, Deep Silver. There are a variety of examples of really good publishers but can often do bad things. Activision ticks all of the boxes in this situation because although they are a great publisher they are notorious for In-Game-Purchases/DLC. For example in Call of Duty: Black Ops 3, they have a supply drop system, which is essentially like a gift basket that does not give you nice gifts, the chance of you getting a good item in them is 2.4%, that is a considerably low percentage. Also, if you are a season pass holder, it means nothing, you do not get weapons, guns, camouflages for free, you have to buy supply drops too which is extremely bad practice from Activision which has caused some distress with people as it is ludicrous that the rates are so low. Some people argue in favour of Activision however, despite how preposterous the supply drop system is - people argue that there are cryptokeys, this is like an in game currency that you are able to spend on supply drop and other various things but even still the rate at which you receive them is incongruous. Another argument is that you do not need to buy them, Activision does not force anybody to buy the supply drops so if anybody becomes distraught at the lack of profit they made from the supply drops then it is no-one but their own fault for spending the amount of money they did. In contrast to this is Electronic Arts, they have a similar idea with their FIFA and various other game 'Packs' in which you can buy with 'Fifa Points' or 'Coins', both are easily accessible as to earn coins you can sell players and play games and Fifa Points you can buy them however the price is not as atrocious as Call of Duty. In these packs you are not guaranteed a good player but people still buy them and often spend a lot of money trying to get that desired 'Ronaldo' or 'Messi' player card but very rarely does it happen. Nonetheless people do not complain that they do not get a bad player as it is very easy to get the coins back as there are a considerable amount of ways to get them back, which is completely different to Call of Duty, this is the sole reason why a lot of Call of Duty players dislike Activision. This therefore has a negative impact on the industry as it makes people think that all publishers who have In-Game-Purchases/DLC are just trying to steal your money due to the bad reputation that has been given to Activision, which is very often not the case as the publishers just want to bring more variation and variety to the game as they do not make it Pay-To-Win.Bibliography:Activision (2016) in Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Activision (Accessed: 24 September 2016).
Video game publisher (2016) in Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_publisher (Accessed: 23 September 2016).deleted (2016) Corrected rare supply drop statistical analysis • /r/blackops3. Available at: https://www.reddit.com/r/blackops3/comments/4bzfqb/corrected_rare_supply_drop_statistical_analysis/ (Accessed: 24 September 2016).
What is a Console Manufacturer/First Party Publisher?
Wikipedia states that a First Party Developer is, "A console manufacturer, also known as a first-party video game publisher, is a company that manufactures and distributes video game consoles in addition to permitting third-party publishers to produce games for its platform in return to licensing fees". A First Party Publisher are the people who actual make the consoles, this is because they are the ultimate publishers, they get to choose what games are approved and even decide what games get more publicity, for example; 'No Man's Sky', a title that was exclusive for the PlayStation 4 received a lot of publicity from Sony (The makers of the PlayStation 4), they developers of No Man's Sky (Hello Games), also received a lot of financial backing to help produce and develop the game. This is an example of First Party Publishing as Sony chose to put the game in the spotlight and raise awareness about the game that was exclusive for their platform. The Console Manufacturers also have the power to make new things for their consoles, for example; the Kinect, this was a real turning point in the games industry as it meant that new games could be created as there was a new way of playing games. There are many examples of different Console Manufacturers, these include; Microsoft with their Xbox One, Apple with their iDevices running iOS - the Smartphone industry has risen a considerable amount in recent years as more and more games are being developed for them. The Smartphone industry is growing at an astonishing rate and that is partially because of the how Apple and other Smartphone companies feature games making them more popular, this is done by the featured section on the App Store which gives the users a highlight reel of games that should be tried. A game that definitely needs to be mentioned for the Smartphone is Pokemon GO, that game has been a huge inspiration to the gaming world both because it is on the Smartphone and there are not as many games in that area but also because it has brought a new way to play games - traditionally gamers would sit in their chair/coach and play on their console/PC all day, but now because of Pokemon GO, people are going travelling around the area that they live in and are trying to catch different types of Pokemon. Just the concept of gaming outside of your house is extraordinary but it is revolutionary as it now means more people will try and follow in Niantic Inc's footsteps to produce more games that use the same idea of moving out of your comfort zone to excel in a game. For example; there is a game called Ingress, this game was also developed by Niantic Inc. (the same people who made Pokemon GO) and use similar game mechanics - the game uses your phones GPS location and the objective of the game is to hack different portals and build them up after you have chosen a team to fight on the other side of the portal - you must travel to different locations in the real world to actually hack the portals to claim them for your own team. However, this game was already released before Pokemon GO was, this shows how the First Party Publishers can make a game more popular as Ingress is a good game but it has not had the success and publicity that Pokemon GO had showing that it is key to remember the featured section on the App Store and Play Store brought the game tonnes of revenue (Pokemon GO), displaying the power that First Party Publishers have on the Gaming Industry.Bibliography:Console manufacturer (2016) in Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Console_manufacturer (Accessed: 23 September 2016).
(No Date) Available at: https://thinkgaming.com/app-sales-data/ (Accessed: 24 September 2016).Ashish (2016) 10 best augmented reality games like Pokemon GO. Available at: http://www.mobipicker.com/games-like-pokemon-go/ (Accessed: 24 September 2016).
What is Distribution and Retail?
What is Distribution and Retail, you may ask? Well, Distribution and Retail is simply how and where the game is sold. A great way to explain this topic is how we buy our games, typically in today's world, we buy digitally as it is much more accessible to buy our games that way and also saves time, we no longer have to stand in lines and wait to buy a hard-disc that can be broken very easily and damaged without even meaning to do so, all you need to do is misplace the disc once and you have to pay another £40.00 just to get the game again - this is why buying digitally is revolutionary as we have all of out games in one area that are unable to be broken or damaged. There are plenty of examples of where we can buy our games; GAME, HMV, Xbox Marketplace, Play.com, Amazon, Games Station, Playstation Store, iTunes, Steam, Smartphone App Store, eBay. The old method of distribution as already mentioned is going to a physical store - these stores are completely reliant that the manufacturers make and pack the games in their cases so they can be sold on shelves. There are negatives and positives to take from going to a physical store, for example; you can buy the disk which is portable and can be taken anywhere whereas if you bought the game digitally it is only limited to a certain account or device that cannot be used anywhere else, so you would not be able to take your brand new game to your friends to play. However, buying hard-discs are extremely spacious and require rooms to store them, this is where the digital stores come in handy as they allow for space to be saved in one area - this therefore means that they are easily accessible when you want to play a game. At certain stores, they have deals and discounts, for example; if you buy at a store, you will receive a free voucher for an in-game weapon of your choice. For the release of Fifa 17, GAME decided that if you buy Fifa 17 then you would receive a code for a free subscription to NOW TV, this could make people want to buy the game more due to the bonus add-on that you would receive. This however is not the case at Steam and other digital marketplaces as you do not receive those bonuses, this could make people buy the hard-disc instead of the digital copy. In hindsight, there are websites on the internet such as G2A and MMOGA - they have sales for games meaning you can buy them for much cheaper than they usually would be, this means people tend to buy digitally as they can get the games for a much lower price - this could also allow for the person to buy another game or buy In-Game-Items to better their experience. On G2A, they sell Battlefield 4 for just under £7.00, this is extremely useful for people who do not want to spend an excessive amount of money - when the game was first released it was around the £40.00 mark and if you were to buy the game in stores now it would probably cost around £20.00 so it saves you a lot of money. The way we buy games is changing the gaming industry a lot, it is revolutionary and also much better. This is because it saves space and time. People can now have a cloud storage of all of their games in one place and do not need to eject the disc out of the console etc to put in another game, all is required now is that you close the application and find the game you want to play on your Steam Library etc. In time, it may become the new thing to buy digital games and buying an actual copy of the game could be a thing of the past.Bibliography:cigdemkalem (2011) NBickelmann. Available at: http://www.slideshare.net/cigdemkalem/video-games-distribution-and-marketing (Accessed: 29 September 2016).
G2A (2016) Battlefield 4 – buy origin CD-Key (global). Available at: https://www.g2a.com/battlefield-4-ea-origin-cd-key-global.html (Accessed: 29 September 2016).
What is Outsourcing Companies?
Outsourcing Companies are basically people who work on a part of a game or film etc for another company, for example; a Games Developer is making a game but is unable to create the music/soundtracks for the game and needs somebody to create them. They would then outsource this to somebody so they could create the soundtrack for them, it is so much cheaper to outsource the job to somebody who knows how to make the music rather than have your own studio with employees as it costs a lot of money to not only pay them but also run the studio efficiently. The definition for outsourcing in Wikipedia is, "Outsourcing is a practice used by different companies to reduce costs by transferring portions of work to outside suppliers rather than completing it internally. Outsourcing is an effective cost-saving strategy when used properly. It is sometimes more affordable to purchase a good from companies with than it is to produce the good internally". Countless people work as Outsourcing Companies not many stand out from the rest, Virtuos however are a really big Outsourcing company as they have worked on many big games. For example; they have worked on Uncharted 4: A Thief's End, Captain America: Civil War, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided and many other big game and film titles. Whilst Virtuos were working on Uncharted, they provided clothing for more than 30 characters including the main combatant Drake as well as the countless vehicles and the environment. This is a very essential part of the game. As the developers at Naughty Dog will not have a studio that specialises in the creating of the environment etc so that is where they will ask companies such as Virtuos to help create the environment and the vehicles instead of having their own studio as it is much cheaper to do so and can sometimes be better as the end product looks of a higher standard. As Virtuos say themselves, they specialise in 3D art and software development for games hence why Naughty Dog contacted them to help with the art work for the final Uncharted. The work that Virtuos did in the Deus Ex: Mankind Divided was astonishing, Virtuos provided modeling for more than 30 key characters. In addition the Virtuos team in Vietnam worked on more than 200 hours of mocap animation and produced hundreds of animation cycles for the AAA game. Deus Ex: Mankind Divided takes place in 2029, and mechanically augmented humans have now been deemed outcasts. Living a life of complete and total segregation from the rest of society, covert operative Adam Jensen is forced to operate in a world that has grown to despise his kind. Armed with a new arsenal of state-of-the-art weapons and augmentations, he must choose the right approach (and who to trust), in order to unravel a vast worldwide conspiracy. This goes to show how the industry is changing for the better as, more people/companies are working together on a project to make better game/movie etc. The more people who are specialised in a certain field, the more professional the game is going to look and play as one company is not rushing to get all aspects of a game finished and can focus on one small part of the film/game to make it feel as good as possible, for example; a company can be working on the 3D modeling whilst one works on the programming so they can go into more depth and spend as much time possible instead of only working on areas for short/brief periods of time.
Bibliography:Investopedia.com (2003) ‘Outsourcing’, in Available at: http://www.investopedia.com/terms/o/outsourcing.asp (Accessed: 29 September 2016).
2015 (2016) Virtuos. Available at: http://www.virtuosgames.com/ (Accessed: 29 September 2016).
2015 (2016) UNCHARTED 4 RELEASES WITH 3D ART FROM VIRTUOS. Available at: http://www.virtuosgames.com/en/uncharted-4-releases-3d-art-virtuos (Accessed: 29 September 2016).2015 (2016) DEUS EX RELEASES WITH 3D ART FROM VIRTUOS. Available at: http://www.virtuosgames.com/en/deus-ex-releases-3d-art-virtuos (Accessed: 29 September 2016).
What is the Press and Media?
The Press and the Media are the people who report on games, they are the ones who can make a game look really good or really bad as they have a huge influence on their readers/viewers, if a newspaper does a bad report on a game, some readers may be put off from buying the game because of what the newspapers have said. The definition of Media on Wikipedia is, "Media (the singular form of which is medium) is the collective communication outlets or tools that are used to store and deliver information or data. It is either associated with communication media, or the specialized mass media communication businesses such as: print media and the press, photography, advertising, cinema, broadcasting (radio and television) and publishing. The definition of Press is, "Press members include journalists for newspapers, magazines, radio, Internet news sites and television. Some of these professionals work in war-torn areas and in other dangerous situations. Professionals called "anchors" work on television to provide details of newsworthy events that happen throughout the day or night". An example of the Press and Media is the Daily Mail/Mail Online, typically they have released articles that make games look bad, such as; they made an article about violent video games and how they are like the fuel to make children grow up as aggressive people. It was reported that they learn the patterns and begin to live their life using those patterns. This article was aimed towards parents, the whole aim of it was to make the parents want to ban the games for children to stop them from playing the games to reduce the chance of children being aggressive, however that would not solve the issue as banning the game will not change anything, the children will still be aggressive or not aggressive depending on how they are raised, what I mean by this is that the parents are responsible for how their child behaves, if they raise them without care then more than likely they will become aggressive etc. This is another issue of how the media tries to make a mountain out of a molehill, basically, they try to make something seem really bad by blowing it out of proportion completely. If it was the case that games make children violent and aggressive then people who have played PacMan should be crazed drug addicts running around trying eat people whilst taking small pills. That has never happened which just goes to show how the Press try to make everyone and everything look unacceptable. This is not all the time however as there are various examples of how the Media try to make games seem good, IGN are a great example of this, they give great reports/articles showing truly why a game is good and do not pick the game apart purposely looking for the negativity in a game. The Games Industry is forever changing because of the Media/Press and it is more negatively than it is positively, this is because as previously mentioned, the Media are always trying to make games look bad rather than look for the good about a game, if this continuous to happen, people will be put off buying games for them selves or other people as they feel it would be bad for their health just because of what the Media has said. The Media can be a great source to find out information about different subjects however sometimes they can be ludicrous, completely and utterly woeful sources of information regarding games overall effecting the games industry negatively - this is why the Media/Press should not always be taken literally all of the time.Media (communication) (2016) in Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_(communication) (Accessed: 29 September 2016).Credit (2016) What is the press? Available at: https://www.reference.com/education/press-1e023bfd40378d90# (Accessed: 29 September 2016). Reilly, R. (2014) Violent video games makes children grow up into aggressive teenagers. Available at: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2588864/Violent-video-games-makes-children-grow-aggressive-adults-study-claims.html (Accessed: 29 September 2016).
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