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

Visual Novels

I know you properly wonder why I am writing something about novels in a blog, which is about RPG and game industry. The truth is the other name of the visual novel is anime games.

Anime and game fans properly know what visual novel is but, they are many people out there never even heard about it. Visual game is an interactive fiction game using state anime art graphics. They are a lot like a RPG games with a lot of dialogue feature.

Most of the visual novels narrated as first person rather than third person like the printed version. It feels like you are in the story as the protagonist as many mainstream games do. Also, visual novel use days rather than chapter as primary structure unit.

Even though visual novels are also called as anime games, they offer minimal gameplay. Sometimes you can choose multiple options or interactive story driven actions like Da Capo which use the map of the school and surroundings in order to make you choose how do you plan to do in this time. In addition, many novels offer multiple endings which depends on your choices during the novels.

There are a lot of genres for this games but, most popular are science fictions, horrors and tragedies (which also mentioned as crying games.). It is hard to say which one is the most popular genre but, right now the eroge genre which also called erotic genre are more popular than other adult content products in the different industries. Most of these games were focused on story rather than the erotic content. They became so popular that some of the other genre visual novels starting to offer adult version or adult pictures as add-ons.

If a visual novel became successful than there will be a good chance that, the content of the novel will be adopted to manga and anime if they became popular as a visual novel like Da Capo, Fate/Stay Night, Clannad and School Days.

Because, most of the visual novels do not distributed in the West, visual novels have a small market in here. Although it seemed visual novel market in the West tart to growing as many visual novels translated to English, French and Russian.

By the way, you can find many information about visual novels in this website. They provide great database for the visual novels as well as information about their release platforms and language.

Screenshots:
1.http://s.vndb.org/sf/06/1306.jpg
2.http://s.vndb.org/cv/65/8565.jpg
3.http://s.vndb.org/sf/02/2302.jpg

Mods...what are they?

I know many of the hardcore gamers know what is a mod and how important it is for players. But, during my conversation with other players I realized that there are many gamers still don't know anything about mods and how mods can affect them.

Basically, mods are additions created by the players (they were called as modders.). They are made for especially role playing games, real time strategy games, turn based strategy games and rarely first person shooter games. Although as I mentioned many modders are players, many of them have programming and graphic design background and they were some cases that some mods created by the current developers and unemployed game developers.

However, downloadable contents (DLCs) and mods are a little bit different. DLCs are created by the official developer teams and that kind of addition are created for gaining another source of revenue. But, mods are created for sharing your work with the fans of the games and they are free for the players.

Some games offer toolset of the game in order the create mods. For example, games like Oblivion, Fallout 3 and Fallout Last Vegas (although they use the same G.E.C.K toolset.) and Dragon Age Origins. These mods created by the modders usually shared with modding community websites or some social websites that created by the developer team. However, some games do not offer any mods and many modders change the code of these games and add their designs to make mods for them. Best examples are mods for Total War and Civilization series.

Why it is so important to download the mods? Actually if you like your game and satisfy with everything and do not want to change the original content of the game you do not need to (and possibly you do not want to) download mods. However, many mods adds additional varieties and more options to the games. For example, with the mods you can have more weapons, armor, items, enemies and quests in your game database. In addition, with the mods you can add more realism or more arcade overhauls to your games. They are definitely worthwhile to download especially you want to add more fun to the games and I can guarantee you that there are many good modders which offer you the mods that you do not want to miss this chance to download.

P.S I also want to thank all the modders who use a lot of times and work to create these wonderful mods.

I think Nexus websites are great for searching mods for your preference. If you search mods for your games here are the links for the nexus websites;

http://www.tesnexus.com/ (for Oblivion)
http://www.dragonagenexus.com/ (for Dragon Age: Origins)
http://www.fallout3nexus.com/ (for Fallout 3)
http://www.newvegasnexus.com/ (for Fallout New Vegas)


Screenshots:
1. http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/38336-1-1304674120.jpg
2.http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/3374-1-1286773944.jpg
3.http://www.dragonagenexus.com/downloads/images/2822-1-1305486739.jpg

Power of the Teens

Today I watched 3 podcast which are related to game industry. Each of the podcast discuss certain aspect of the game industry. Mostly, the liabilities which can be a huge problem to the relation between games and minors.

First podcast was about the Supreme Court case about selling mature games to the minors. In this podcast there were 2 guests which discussed the ban the games for minors is right or not. I had to admit, I liked this podcast because topic was discussed objectively which related how the mature games effect the minors. How minors can access the mature games and how these games affect minors daily lives. I agree with the host about this court is a serious matter for the game industry which will able to influence game industry seriously.

Second podcast was about the same issue, but this time host had 3 guest which overview the censorship of the game. In this discussion mainly focused rating system that if it is really working or not. Also, how the decision of the Supreme Court will affect the industry. Some of the guests were strongly disagreed with the idea of banning the games for the minors. However, they also discussed how rating and censorship is in the Europe in order to compromise the issue with alternative point of view.

Third podcast was about the same issue, but compare to the first two podcast, this podcast shoot by the non game related websites. This podcast was about the host's point of view about the issue and how important the game industry for the economy and most of the gamers. He was worried about the impact of the decision of the Supreme Court will destroy most of the important franchises like Activision's Call of Duty. He defended his issue with how violence and nudity is the reflection of the reality.

This issue is a very serious matter recently about the game industry. As all the podcasts discussed the decision of Supreme Court will have a huge impact to the game industry. Rating of the games or "maturity" of the games right now seems that the most important liability for the video games. We see more news about nudity and violence of the games. Moreover, some of these games already banned from other countries because of their maturity. Moreover, this time entire genre is going to aimed by the court. All of these issues will affect the developing of the mature games which are the backbone of the game industry.

Podcast links:
1. http://www.gameindustry.com/podcast/item.asp?id=95
2. http://www.gameindustry.com/podcast/item.asp?id=68
3. http://www.justin.tv/thegunnshop/b/281891068?utm_campaign=archive_export&utm_source=thegunnshop&utm_medium=youtube

Screenshots:
1.http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizations/ccfc/images/manhunt%20axe.jpg
2.http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1425/710361398_04a8ee59ca_o.jpg
3.http://jimmyjangles.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/miranda_breasts_sex_scene_mass_effect.jpg

Other side of the Coin

Everyone who is interested in the game industry or read news regarding the games probably read couple of sues regarding the game developer or distributor companies. It is like every major or minor company in the game industry that faced couple of courts since 2000.

Most of these courts focused on violence and nudity of the video games. With the advancement of technology and popularity of the mature games, many games today contain violence and nudity in their arsenal. Best examples are Dragon Age, Mass Effect and The Witcher franchises for the RPG games.

Because of that, many parents and media focused on the contents of the game. Recently, long awaited game Duke Nukem Forever accused as highly sexist by the media and Women's Media Center VP. Because of the status of the women in the game (every women in the game are strippers and you can kill them for fun), The Gearbox Software will likely face a case about this issue after the release.

Regarding of the mature game issue, there is another case about mature games in the Iowa Supreme Court. The case is about how to sell the mature games with or without parents. California State wanted to prohibit the sail of mature games to the minors who do not have parents with them. Video Software Dealers Association and Entertainment Software Association concerned by this law because they fear that this law may hurt their income tremendously and apparently both parties will face each other in Iowa.

However, the industry does not just face sex and violence regarding cases. Sometimes taxes and the other regulations are important case as well. For example, the best known Facebook games, FarmVille and CityVille developers Zynga considering the leave San Francisco because stock-option payroll tax.

Screenshots:

1.http://www.electricpig.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/fallout-gore.jpg
2.http://www.3drealms.com/duke-nukem-forever.jpg

Advertisement in Games?

In all around entertainment businesses, advertisement is the main income and marketing tools for the companies. Because of the large audience of the entertainment industries, many companies choose them for marketing their products or services. This type of business is common especially in the music and movie industry and we can see the sign of the branding and marketing of the products inside the game industry as well.

However, there is a big difference between other entertainment industries and the game industry in regard of advertising. Most of advertisement and marketing tools aren't fond by the audience. Most of the audience try to avoid the advertisement rather than listen or watch. On the other hand in game industry, advertisement adds realism into the game which is highly demanded by the audience.

Most of the in-game advertisements are brand names who are the sponsors of the sport teams like brand name of the sponsors on the jerseys. Because of that reason, most of the in-game advertisements are for sport genre. Madden, NHL and NBA2K franchises are the best example. However we can see other brands name in racing and simulations as well.

It's hard to say that we can encounter any advertisement in RPG games. Because most of the RPG game have a concept of medieval fantasy and this concept hardly open an environment of marketing.

Screenshot sources:
http://img810.imageshack.us/f/ajie.jpg/
http://www.digitaltrends.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/ea-sports-game-gatorade.jpg
http://www.testdriveunlimited2z.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/Test-Drive-Unlimited-2-tdu211.jpg

Power of the Sequels

One month ago I wrote a post about how the competition will rise in the game industry for 2011. There will be a lot of AAA games going to be release at the same time. Despite the news, the whole industry will wait till to the end of year because of the recent financial reports.

Also, there are some news going out in the internet about the games in the Game Development Center 2011(GDC 2011). In the GDC, there was a lot of games which made a huge impression to the press as well as to the auidence.

However, I realized that most of the anticipated games of the 2011 and recently released AAA games are sequels of the last or two years old games. For example "Dead Space 2", "Dragon Age 2" and "Witcher 2: The Assassins of Kings". At first, it may seemed that industry repeated itself by creating something already created 2 or 3 years ago. However, these sequels games are more improved than their predecessors.

These new games offer more graphics, gameplay, action and most importantly more fun than their predecessors. Although, most of these games are not yet released, the expectations of the industry and audience seems to be very high. Because the developer teams of each game tried to keep their strong points and improve their weakness as well as creating more contents for their games.

Actually, I don't really sure about why most developers tend to do sequels rather than creating a new game. I guess it may be because of the recent financial news or the popularity of the sequels games. With the discouraged news of financial reports, the developers and producers don't want to take huge risks anymore. Because one failure may lead to bankruptcy in these days. Moreover, sequel games have a loyal players because of the first game and the name of the product already became a brand which the auidence can trust.

At the end, I think these were the reasons why we see many sequel games in the shelves today. But I can't say that I have problem with this. Also I believe that, most of the audience agree with me right now.

Negotiation

Negotiation is something that we are doing every time during our daily lives. Like when we negotiate about the time when we will return at night, deciding a place for lunch with our friends and choosing a location for a summer journey with our lover.

Also, the negotiation is an important part of the game industry. Most game producers needs to negotiate the when they were planing the schedule, priorities,relationship between the teams and searching for the funding resources. So, negotiation is one of the vital points in the process of developing games.

That's why in this month I interviewed with Ergun Aydalga, one of the owners of Aybim the Software Development Company, about the preparations and the vital things during negotiations. Software Development Industry is very similar to the game industry so I thought that this interview will be useful for the game industry too.

According to the Ergun Aydalga,one of the important things in the negotiations is the preparation process. He advised that the best way to understand the other party and deciding on your objective criteria is visiting your opponents if you have a chance. In these visit, you have a chance to meet your opponent face to face before the negotiation starts. These visits also gave you a chance to understand both the personality and the objectives of your opponent.

Another way to prepare the negotiations is the build your self consciousnesses before the negotiation. Ergun Aydalga suggests that meditating or relaxing will be useful but it depends on the individual.

Also during the interview Ergun Aydalga mentions the importance of separating the people from the problem during the negotiation. Ergun Aydalga said that the best way the do this is focusing mutual benefits during the deal. He claimed that even though other parties may be become hostile at the beginning, you can solve the issue if you can offer the best beneficial offers for both parties. Because doing this will neutralize the behavior and you gained the respect of the other parties. Thus influence them to make a deal even though you had a small chance at the beginning.

So, according to the one of the expert in the software business these are the vital points for preparation and making a successful deal. I thanked again for his time and consideration for giving me a chance to wrote this interview in this blog.

A Bloody Battle is Upon Us!

2010 started quickly with the release of "Mass Effect 2" but, last season didn't met the expectations of the game players except brand new game of the huge series: "Fallout New Vegas” which, wasn't graded much by critics unlike "Fallout 3". This status of the game market reflect the games sales which dropped 2% to $24.7 billion.

However, 2011 is still new and may change everything. Unlike last year, this year has too much expectations and anticipations by the audience because of the announcements of the big guns.

The first wave of the bombardment is going to happen in March. "Fable 3", "Dragon Age 2" and "Witcher 2: The Assassins of Kings" which are the three of the greatest RPG sequels will be in the front line at the battlefield. Moreover "Shogun 2: Total War", the last game of the one of the best RTS game series in all time, will start the invasion of the shelves in March. Last but not the least, "Crysis 2" which was the sequel of the best seller game "Crysis" will be on the shelves in this March.

Why wait for the March? Even though it is not a bombardment the scout battalions already released, like one of the most anticipated MMORPG, which is "DC Universe Online". Also there are rumors like "Diablo 3 and games, which don't have a specific release date like "Deus Ex: Human Evaluation" maybe show themselves in 2011. Also, important DLCs for "Fallout New Vegas" and expansions like "The Sims Medieval" will offer more for the games, which are already in the field. However, the outcome won't be decided until the end because another big sequels like "Mass Effect 3", "The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim" and "Batman: Arkham City" will show themselves at the last quarter of the 2011.

With the rising of the inflation, dropping sale rates and decreasing buying power around the world, will these games can beat each other and find themselves a buyer? It is uncertain and these games will be able to face a delay but with the financial status of the game market and the power of these brand names, we will definitely see a very bloody battle soon.

Big Pocket of Duty

Activision's Call of Duty: Black Ops earned a milestone by gaining 1 billion dollar revenue since the game released on November 9. According to the Gamespot:

"In the first 24 hours, 5.6 million gamers answered the latest Call of Duty for a total of $360 million in sales. Within the first five days, Black Ops sales had reached $650 million. Those numbers trumped last year's opening for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, which posted a 4.7 million unit, $310 million one-day total and reached $550 million in five days."

Even though Call of Duty is a shooting game not a RPG, I still want to the write about this success. Because this achievement may effect not just RPG but, entire game industry as well.

You may want to know how this is going to effect the game market? The reason is simple. Activison's Call of Duty: Black Ops is one of the products that earn so much money in so litle time that, achievement can be compared with the James Cameron's Avatar Movie. Also, this success shows the accomplishment of a game that one can make on the sales chart.

Of course, best selling is not a new thing for the game industry. If I remember right, GTA 4 gained nearly 155 million dollar at their first three day. Also, everyone knows about how Blizzard earn more than 1 million dollars in every month thanks to the World of Warcraft.

However, I believe that no game has earned 1 billion dollar so quickly in the entire history of game business. This maybe a sign that game industry will become the most profitable market in the entertainment business.

On the other hand, there is always a downside. Recently, Best Buy announced that their entertainment software sales down 15.4 percent in the last 14 months. Also for the last holiday season their sale down 1.6 percent since last year. But according to the news, Best Buy already have problems about decrease in the sales of the other departments. So this decrease do not show the real potential of the game market.