14th November

                                                           Essay comparing Assassin’s Creed 3

 with Double Fine Adventure

 

Introduction

The games Assassins Creed 3 (AC3) and Double Fine Adventure (DFA) are both video games, however they are funded differently and have a lot of differences. Some of these differences are things like the way the games are published, who publishes them, the game design, who designs them, the way the game is marketed, how are they marketed, and the way the games are distributed, how are they distributed and we can make comparisons between the two and how successful each game will be with the differences that they have.

Publishing

Both of these games are published differently, for example Assassins Creed 3 (AC3) id published by Ubisoft which is an established publishing company, an advantage of using such a well known company for publishing is that because everyone knows the company, the games audience trusts that using Ubisoft, the game AC3 will be a success. However, using such a well known publisher can have a backfiring effect on the game, for example AC2 used Ubisoft as its publisher and i think it lost the AC franchise 52 million dollars even though the AC game sold 29 million units. Having a big name publisher can have other bad effects on the game for example the publisher decides the target audience for the game and also the genre of the game so the publisher is likely to choose a ‘trendy’ game genre in order to make money and this can take some of the originality out of the games being created. Also the audience of the game is just fed the finished version of the product and have no say in how the game is created or the storyline.  With Crowd Funding including the game Double Fine Adventure (DFA) the game creators have full control of the game so they can choose the genre of the game and what the target audience for the game is, and whilst the game is being created, the people who funded it are kept up to date on the website page via videos and blogs, the funders are also involved in the game and have a say in the storyline, characters etc. However, using crowd funding can have negative effects in that the idea for the game may not raise enough funds needed to create the game.



Design

The design for the two games is different also, with the two games having different genres in some respects but also being the same in some ways. For example, AC3 is a multi genre game consisting of most genres such as sandbox, action, adventure and fantasy. DFA has an adventure genre as it is a point and click game and both of these genres have been chosen by the creators and designers to suit their target audience. AC3, being the huge gaming franchise that it is, used 1,300 people to help design the game over the development period which although it would cost a lot more, makes AC3 a much more in depth and in detail game. AC3 is a 3D game which contrasts with the 2D point and click game of DFA. DFA used only 30 people to make the design for the game and even though that means the game will probably not be as in depth and detailed as AC3, it will have cost a lot less to make so both games have their advantages and disadvantages when designing their game, however even though it will have cost a lot more to do, AC3 will have a much better game design as it is 3D.

 


Marketing

 
With crowdfunding, DFA will not have to spend a lot of money at all to get people to be attracted to their product as they already have their audience of 87,142 people before the game has even been produced, also all of their marketing has been done on either Kickstarter or Youtube which has cost the game designers nothing. DFA can be confident that their game will be a success even though they are not paying anything for marketing because even though the designers asked for $400,000 to make the game, they received $9m in the first 9 hours. AC3 are using Ubisoft which will cost them a lot of money to do but it should pay off as it should appeal to lot of people. AC3 will be advertising on TV, radio and with posters etc. Which although it will cost a lot more than DFA cost of $0, it will bring in more money as more people will know about it and AC3 has already sold just over 3.5 million copies.


 Distribution

Both of the games are distributed differently in some ways, for example AC3 will be released in shops for people to buy or will be available for people to buy online, this will cost the designers of the game money to put their game in the shops. Because of this, AC3 will get more publicity so more people will probably want to buy it making the game designers more money. DFA is different because it will not be released in shops, instead it will be available to download or buy online and because to help make the game random people pledged money to make the game better, the people that pledged money will receive a reward for their help, for example if a person pledged $15 or more, they will receive the finished game free on PC, Mac, and Linux, or via Steam for PC and Mac, exclusive access to the Beta on Steam, access to the video series, and access the private discussion community so people have already got incentives to buy the game and these rewards go all the way up to $10,000 or more and the people that pledged this much money or more get to have lunch with Tim Schafer and receive all of the rewards between this amount of money and $15

Conclusion

In conclusion, the two games have so much difference to them even though they are both video games, AC3 is a big franchise with a lot of money so you would expect the franchise to make the designers a lot of money however the publishing, marketing and distribution will cost them a lot of money, especially using a big name publisher Ubisoft. DFA on the other hand, is not expected to be as much of a hit as AC3 but the fact that the designers of this game will save money on publishing, marketing and distribution means that the designers can focus on selling their products. However, even with the costs of marketing, publishing and distribution you would still expect AC3 to be a much more successful game than DFA because it is a well known franchise with expert game designers.