Video Game Conventions

We just left behind Quakecon last week and now Gamecon is approaching. But, what we really now about these conventions?

Video Game Conventions are necessary for both the developers/publishers and game players. Video Game Conventions are the biggest events for the video game industry. For the developers/publisher, they have a chance to market their products to millions of people at once. In addition, these conventions give them an opportunity to create or make a stronger relationship with their audience. For players, they have a chance to see the upcoming games and attend seminars or announcement presentations. These marketing methods are creating a chance to get closer with the developers of their favorite games and get more inside video game industry. Also, they can see many beautiful women (most of the game players are male).

As I said these events are big for the video game industry. So, all the press related to video game industry will be there and anyone who cannot attend these events can follow it from live video of online game magazines such as Gamespot and IGN. One of the reason of this attention is the fact that you can hear new announcements for a new game (much likely a sequel game of the best seller games.) or new detail for the upcoming games. Moreover, you can find new console tools and new addition and technology for the consoles such as PS3, Wii and XBOX 360.

Most of the biggest convention establish in North America. Especially in Los Angeles, California. The reason behind that is most of the renown game developer or publisher company located in California and North America is the biggest market for the video game industry. However, Tokyo Game Show in Japan and GamesCom in Germany is one of the biggest events in video games industry too.

Here are the biggest video game conventions for the video game industry:

1. E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo): Is one of the biggest events in video game industry which, is presented by Entertainment Software Association. E3 is renown for their big announcement. Nearly every big game announce in E3 first or release any useful information. You can find nearly every big name in E3 however, you can only attend E3 if you are from video game industry. So, this event is a big marketing campaign which developers/publishers and console companies can meet with press.

2. Tokyo Game Show: Presented by Computer Entertainment Supplier's Association (CESA). Tokyo Game Show is the mother of these events which, is located in Chiba, Japan. Unlike E3, it is open for public and nearly attract 200,000 or more people. This event is a heaven for JRPG (Japanese Role Playing Video Game) fans because nearly every JRPG game announced or give more detail and important information in this event. Even though Japanese companies are more dominant in this event, you can find plenty of Western video game companies.

3. GamesCom: A game convention which, is located in Cologne, Germany. Even though it is one of the youngest conventions in the video game industry, this convention is the biggest in video game industry with 254,000 visitors, more than 4,400 journalists and 505 exhibitors from 33 countries. This convention is the festival for video game industry which, you can find live music and sport arenas. Every biggest video game developer and publisher is there to market their games to directly to their customers.

There are many game conventions that I didn't mention in here but, they are big and important enough to rival these three. Blizzcon, Quakecon, Californa Extreme, Gamecon (Games Convention) and Penny Arcade Expo. These are all important events which, open an opportunity for both gamers and developers to meet each other for mutual benefits.

Screenshots:
1. http://a31.idata.over-blog.com/441x397/0/01/53/72/hot/e3-2006-girl-2.jpg
2. http://img.vidaextra.com/e3girls2.jpg
3. http://ps3media.ign.com/ps3/image/article/117/1175207/e3-2011-the-top-20-booths-of-2011-20110610013052952.jpg
4. http://www.ripten.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/e32011-600x381.jpg
5. http://cdn2.mixrmedia.com/wp-uploads/wirebot/blog/2011/07/tokyo-game-show1.jpg
6. http://sillegamer.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/gamescom_09_Besucher.jpg
7. http://www.dvhardware.net/news/2011/gamescom_boothbabes_2011_pcgh.jpg

Being a Sequel Video Game

Nowadays, a lot of sequel game released this year and many upcoming franchises like Mass Effect and Elder Scroll will be released at the end of this year or the beginning of 2012.

No matter what genre is, sequel games are the dominant video games in the industry right now. There are a lot of reasons that developers choose to create sequel games rather than a new game. Developing a sequel game is less risky than the creating a new one. Because, sequel games have loyal fans already and there may be enough demand for the sequel game. For instance, many players demanded a sequel game for "Batman: Arkham Asylum". Thus, "Batman: Arkham City" is going to be release at fall.

However, developing a sequel game won't guarantee that this game will be as successful as the previous one. Moreover, it can be much worse than the previous game. Many old school players can remember that many successful video game franchises had many worse sequel games for their franchise. Tomb Raider series after the first game and Fallout: Tactics can be the best example.

A sequel video game should have advanced graphics, gameplay and interface than the previous game. Also, it should have many new features too. However, the important part of creating a sequel game is keeping the successful features of the previous game. That is the difficult part because many developers have to decide which features were successful and which weren't by measuring the feedback of both critics and fans.

There were a lot of franchises that managed to balanced existing features of the previous game with the new ones. Blizzard Entertainment is one of the best when it comes to sequel games. Their franchises like Diablo, StarCraft and WarCraft had been always successful with their sequels. Right now, their upcoming sequel "Diablo 3" is one of the most anticipated video games for 2011.

Actually, many most anticipated games for both 2011 and 2012 are sequel games. "Mass Effect 3", "Elder Scroll V: Skyrim", "Diablo 3" and "Batman Arkham Asylum" are the big guys of the list. We are going to see how many of the sequel video games managed to beat their predecessors.

Screenshots:
1. http://www.comicbooked.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Arkham-City-game-informer-cover.png
2. http://www.pollpub.com/images/member_photos/PollPubPolls634082814915682500%20_%20tombraider1jpg.jpg
3. http://i.geeksailor.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/diablo-3.jpg

Business Plan for Video Game Industry

During one of our class, we watched one of the episode of "Shark Tank" in order to learn how to pitch and negotiate with the investors of your company or product. When I watched the videos, I realized my last post about how to find investor for your game.

I said that finding a publisher is the essential part of the company. When I watched these videos, I understand how true that was. Developing a video game is very risky for the investors. You have to spend millions of dollars for years and there is not guarantee that you will sell as much as you want. In order to lower the risk, finding a publisher will be the best for lowering the risk. Investors will think more carefully because finding a publisher provide a guarantee for the investors.

Finding a publisher is not the only think that you have to do. You have to build a stable marketing plan. If no one knows about your game, you won't sell anything to anyone. Investors will look for a sound marketing plans too. Because like many products in the entertainment industry, a marketing plan will directly affect your sale numbers.

Of course organizing a budget and sale assumptions will be important too. Nevertheless, investors will look for these first. A good organized budget and realistic goals will improve your chance to finding a publisher and investor.

Also, pitching your project will be important. During your pitch, make sure that bring a lot of visuals to describe gameplay, characters, design and story of your game. Using visual tools for your pitch is much more effective to both publishers and investors. Also, it will make easier to understand than the text and your words.

The investors like Risa Cohen and Marc Jackson will definitely interested on these subjects on your business plan. Nevertheless, distribution, marketing, finance and presentation is the key elements for all products in the entertainment industry.

Investors of the Video Games

Video Game Industry is a growing industry. A lot of many spend to create these marvelous games and many developers and publishers gain a lot of money from it. However, it is not easy to financing a game. Many publisher already receive a lot of business plan from many developers so they are very selective about who they are going to choose. This situation is very common in the entertainment industries namely movies and musics.

However, in video game industry it is impossible to fund a game without publishers. Because of their need of millions of dollars, high risk and length of the development process, many banks and investors don't even consider a video game business plan for investing.

However, some investors using completion bonds to invest a game. With completion bonds the lenders can spread out of risks and game publisher and developers gain money. This way many more ideas will receive green light.

This new venture system is using by the Risa Cohen who manages guarantee of completion for EFB. The other player of this game is Marc Jackson who is the managing director of Seahorn Capital Group in Los Angles. Let's learn about who they are in more detail.

Risa Cohen

Risa Cohen was born and raised in New York City, She started her career in entertainment as a Playwriter and Producer for theatre. In 1994 she started producing games and has since worked for Kalisto, Atari, Exmachina Image and Disney. In 2010, Risa Cohen Productions and European Film Bonds in Copenhagen, Denmark formed a joint venture to provide completion bond services for videogames and digital media productions In addition to her production work, Risa is a member of the faculty and president of the educational steering committee for the multimedia masters program at the Institute International Multimedia in Paris.

Marc Jackson

arc has 20 years entertainment industry experience in senior management roles in theme park development, new media and interactive entertainment, including 5 years as CEO of video game companies. Marc began his career working in project management for the Walt Disney Imagineering group on its Paris theme park, and pursued his MBA in Europe where he developed his passion for digital entertainment businesses. rom 1997 to 2001, Marc was CEO of LA-based console game developer Player 1 where he managed licensing and publishing partnerships with Sega, Midway, Interplay, and Universal – and successfully delivered eight Playstation and Nintendo console video game titles. In 2000 Marc began advising investors and media companies, and by 2002, Marc had become a pioneer and innovator of film-style production finance and risk management techniques applied to interactive entertainment and video games.

Ok we know who they are but they are not going to accept any offer they will receive. So we need to know what is important for creating business plans.

Best way to creating a business plan is focused on how are you going to take opportunity from the market and how are you going to distribute your games. Especially finding a decent distributer is very important for the investors. Other important factor is the sound marketing strategy. Without marketing you won't be able to sell your games. If you are going to decide to distribute yourself, then it is very hard to find an investors too unless you have a great understanding from markets, demands and a great marketing strategy. Also, the resumes of the development team will affect the investors too. Their past experiences and knowledge may charm the mind of the investors.

If you are going to look for investors for your games, good luck because you are going to need it. But if you careful about your marketing strategy and working with an experience crew then you will have a better chance to find an investor you need.

Sources:

1. http://brbent.com/team/marc-jackson/
2. http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3254/writing_a_business_plan_for_.php
3. http://europeanfilmbonds.com/risacohen.html
4. http://venturebeat.com/2010/10/15/video-game-investors-seek-to-fund-games-via-film-financing-methods/

Importance of Fansites for the Game Industry

Right now we are bombarded by the news of the games and the industry because of the "E3". There are tons of videos, trailers, interviews and previews of the games that, we cannot even trace all of them. When I tried to find information about the upcoming game of the "Bethesda", "The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim", I found an interesting fansite that, summarize all the information about the events of the "E3" for the Skyrim's fans.

The fansite I found was "The Skyrim Guild", which is the one of the important fansite of "The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim". "The Skyrim Guild" offers information about the lore, skills, items, news and trailers of the Skyrim. Also, you can find interesting topics and share your ideas with the other fans of the Skyrim in their forum page. Moreover, they have their own facebook and twitter page. Furthermore, I noticed the countdown of release date of "The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim" (It's actually very painful to watch because there is still 147 days to release.).

After I searched how important "The Skyrim Guild" for the fans, I decided to make a little bit research about the importance of the fansites to the industry. I found out that many important games have their own fansites such as "Batman Arkham City" and "No Mutants Allowed" for the Fallout series. These fansites are more likely to "The Skyrim Guild" which offers information and a community place for sharing ideas and discuss about their favorite topics. There are also, wikia pages which are created by the fans and offer lore, information and walkthrough about their games.

I noticed that, many developer offer fansite kit in their official site (most likely in their forum page) for the fans who want to create such websites. I downloaded such a fansite kit in order to understand what are they contain for the fansites. Most fansite kits offer various screenshots, videos and design materials for creating a fansite. I understand that many developers use fansites for their own marketing plans. Especially, fansites are really effective to create an awareness of the game.

Furthermore, many fansites have their own facebook, twitter, rss feeds and other social media channels like "The Skyrim Guild". This activity of the social channels offer developers a chance to reach more players with the help of their fans (and lowering their cost of marketing). Also, fansites are platforms which developers can listen their audience and make some changes for meeting the demands of the market. Although fansites can be effective for the marketing of the game, they can be some drawbacks.

Fansites cannot be controlled by the developers. They are under total control of the fans and these fans may not be happy about the some changes of the game like gameplay, graphics or interface. This can be a huge problem for the developers because they may face an organize complaints from huge amount of crowds.

The best example of this situation is the resistance of the "No Mutants Allowed" fansite for the changes of the "Fallout 3". They were worried about the game would change into "Oblivion with guns" so they protested the changes of the Fallout 3. This situation created an awkward relation between Bethesda and the fans of the Fallout series, but Bethesda overwhelmed the problem with receiving many good reviews, awards and of course sales.

In the conclusion, fansites does a great job nowadays and they become more important for the marketing plan of the developers. Their "reach" gave a huge advantage for their marketing even though they cannot control it. Thus, many developers creating fansite kits to hope their fans create a huge fansites and deliver them to that "reach" to create a game, which attends the needs of their audience.

Join Seeker's Survey!

In-game Digital Marketing

I know I wrote another post about advertisement in video games couple of months ago. However, this post is not just about advertising. It is about in-game digital marketing which grows in the game industry.

Many games use in-game advertising model in order to get more revenue. This business model create win-win situation because this is the only model which advertisement actually liked by the audience. The reason is simple, in-game advertisement adds realism to the games and because of that many players actually prefer to see advertisement campaigns. The best example is the NBA2K series. You can see a lot of brands in match which are well-known by the players.

Especially since game industry grow more than Hollywood, many digital marketing campaigns hubs around massive online games. Most notably, World of Warcraft and Second Life. This development in the game industry adds more opportunity for the developers like sharing your achievements and progress of the games in the social media channels like Tweeter and Facebook create free digital marketing for the developers.

Also, this system sometimes works like Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Achievements and progress of the game is mining by the developers. This in-game data mining offers a chance to analyze the audience behavior which will use as a feature in the next project. "Mass Effect" series is the best example of this new in-game data mining system. With uploading player's progress in the games, developers enjoyed %50 more profit of the "Mass Effect 2" compared the first game.

As the digital world changing continuously, many entertainment business change their marketing plans to reach their audience. Especially for the industries like games, analyzing your audience and understanding of their demands is the most important aspect of their products.

Related Articles:

1. http://nishithsblog.wordpress.com/2009/09/16/in-game-advertising-next-big-thing-in-digital-marketing/
2. http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/111/1117896p1.html
3. http://www.know-what-im-sayin.com/video-games/digital-marketing-strategy-of-mass-effect/
4. http://www.sophisticatededge.com/what-is-digital-marketing.html

Screenshots

1. http://blog.pcnews.ro/wp-content/photo/2008/03/adsingame21.jpg
2. http://media.photobucket.com/image/recent/Doiggy2007/ManagerScreen-1.png
3. http://xbox360media.ign.com/xbox360/image/article/111/1117896/crazy-mass-effect-2-stats-and-what-theyre-used-for-20100903105831289-000.jpg