25th October 2012

The Video Game Industry

Industry structure – The key businesses within the industry are publishing, development, distribution and hardware manufacturers (console makers Sony, Nintendo, Microsoft). The key issue to be aware of when looking at the industry is the complex interactions of the various companies. A company focused on one of these areas may also be active in others. Publishers often own all or part of a development or distribution company and the hardware manufacterers all act as publishers for their own 1st party products. This means that an independent development company seeking to do business with a publisher may actually be approaching the owner of one of their main competitors.
In addition the international nature of the industry means two publishers who compete in one territory can end up working together (one may distribute the others games) in another territory. Because of this it is very important to understand the existing global relationships when doing business within the games industry.

 

The 5 Most Important Computer Games Ever

5) Call Of Duty 4 Modern Warfare- i have chosen this game at number 5 because it was the first Call Of Duty game that really took off and that everyone had to have. Released in 2007, the game was available on all consoles such as Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and Nintendo Wii. The game recieved a score of 94% from Gamerankings and Metacritic making the game a big succes, it also became the best selling game worldwide for  2007, selling 7 million copies by January 19th and 13 million copies by May 2009.

4) Donkey Kong- This arcade game was released in 1981by Nintendo, the game is an early example of a platform game genre as the gameplay focuses on maneuvering a main character onto various platforms whilst dodging various objects. the 'jumpman' (since renamed mario) has to rescue a damsell in destress (since renamed pauline) from a giant ape named donkey kong, mario and donkey kong have become 2 of the most popular nintendo characters.

3) Street Fighter II- This game sold 200,000 copies and made the gross revenue the company made was 1.5 billion in 2 years. It was originally released in 1991 and is the sequal to an arcade street fighting game that was released in 1987. It ran on CP System Arcade Hardware. By 1994 the game had been played by at least 25 million Americans either at home or public arcades.

2) Space Invaders- This arcade game was released in 1978 and sold 360,000 hardware copies which made a gross revenue of 2.702 billion up to 1982. The game was designed by Tomohiro Nishikado and the aim of the game is to get through waves of enemies by shooting them down. When designing the game, the designer drew inspiration from popular media Star Wars, Breakout and War Of The Worlds.

1) Pacman- Released in 1980, this arcade game sold 400,000 hardware units causing a revenue of 3.5 billion up to 1999. Designed by Namco, the arcade game was first released in Japan on May 1980. Pacman ia often crdeited as the lanmark in video game history which makes it number one in my countdown of the top 5 most important computer games ever.

Upcomoming Video Game To Be Released

Call Of Duty Black Ops II

Ready to be released on the 13th November 2012, Black Ops II is the next game in a series consisisting of the highest demanded first person shooters. This game looks like is has focused on what was Black Ops biggest selling point, the Zombies, which to be fair is a good idea because it is what most people buy the game for. Treyarch look to have moved away from the original nazi zombies also, with the zombies just wearing standard rags. The storyline has been brought into consideration also, probably to cure peoples boredom after getting to round 30 and just killing themselves because there was nothing left to do, watching videos it look as though you complete some tasks in one area then hop on a bus to a different area to do more tasks which should keep people happy and keep them guessing as to what to do, also the fact that players can play 8 person zombies is an exciting new feature because although more players means more firepower, at the same time there might be such a thing as too many players to get in each others way or to hinder strategies.
         After watching the online multiplayer video, i can only really think of positives to it as it looks like the developers have thought of everything.... they have even included not using a primary weapon for the knifers out there. the new class layout gives us something to get our heads round and new gun attatchments means there are lots of variations to differenct Call Of Dutys. We even got a sneak peek at killstreaks which look to have more detail added with new killstreaks brought into the game. And before you ask, yes Treyarch have brought back the 'dive to prone' feature.

The Effect Of Changing Technology In The Game Industry

The obvious examples of changing technology are the Xbox Kinnect and the Playstation Move, and it looks like microsoft have had more success than sony in that department. The playstation move and xbox kinnect never really looked to take off because it meant doing something that most hardcore gamers arent used to doing, exercise, so microsoft and sony turned their attention to targetting the family market for their new products in hope for more success but i have to say i dont know any families that have purchased one so maybe new technology is not needed in the gaming world? maybe we dont need any new technology until it gets as advanced as to just thinking what to do so it does it on a games console, until then, i think gaming is as advanced as it could get.