If you have ANYTHING to do w/the gaming industry, you've got to check out and attend GDC! it is THE place to be (E3 and it's ilk are SOOO over-rated).
Plus, as an added bonus...I've finally succumbed to all of the requests & peer pressure - I'll be speaking this year on Outsourcing in the gaming industry, with several of my colleagues. It'll be awesome and great fun, to be sure.
(I think this is the first time I've given a presentation that was BEFORE lunch, and not after...my, the natives will be restless. At least I'm not the last presentation before the bar opens...)
Come learn what to avoid in your next outsourcing situation. Trust me - these lessons can be learned and applied REGARDLESS of what industry in which you happen to find yourself.
Plus, there's lots of weird people here and they're a BLAST to hang out with!
CHECK IT OUT!!!!!!!!
Showing posts with label Video Game Industry. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Video Game Industry. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Sunday, September 10, 2006
Opening The Xbox
“The revolution will come in fits and starts. It probably won't come from giving hardcore gamers more of what they already like. Doing a fighting game with better graphics isn't really a new invention. Yet much of the industry is currently afflicted with the illusion that it is. About 60 percent of the successful games now are either sequels or extensions of brands that exist in another medium. There is a real risk of what the IDSA'a Doug Lowenstein calls “creative ennui.”...The gaming industry has produced cultural icons before, from Pac Man to Pong, and it will do so again. As every gamer believes, the ideal game isn't here yet. It's just around the corner.” (p. 346 – 347).
I just got done reading Opening The Xbox. I found it to be a very readable book, with a very comfortable writing style. The descriptions of the what the project team went through, however, seemed very reminiscent of many other professional projects I have been involved with in my career, and not necessarily unique to Microsoft or the tech. industry. What was enjoyable and enlightening, however, was the detail which Mr. Takahashi provided. Liberally spiced with information that was outside of the inner mechanics at Microsoft (like the challenges with Nvidia, Flextronics' manufacturing capacity, the marketing and sales performance of competing platforms, etc.), provided the perfect backdrop to the whole story.
In the end, I found it to be an easy and enjoyable read. It provides great insight into Microsoft's launch of the Xbox, and an interesting perspective on the video games industry as a whole. I also appreciated the “personal face” Mr. Takhashi gave the story by providing interesting tidbits of the personalities and their lives, throughout the story. That technique not only made it very readable, but it also helped me relate to the story in a much more fulfilling way.
However, it's this blog's opening paragraph (which I quoted from the end of the book) that I think is really at the heart of the issue I think the video game industry faces, and this book didn't really address:
Take me for example. I don't consider myself a “true gamer” necessarily, because I don't spend more than 20 hours a week playing video games, like some people I know; it's more like 10 – 15 hours per week (but who's really counting? :) ).
But do you know what I would spend 20 or more hours a week on? Creating new business ideas! I LOVE IT! I absolutely LOVE THAT! I love being able to take different ideas and putting them together in new ways. The by-product of that is interesting, and I and others have benefited in a number of different ways – non-profits I work with, to my current employer, and (I'm sure) to employers and customers whom I have yet to meet. So, while guys like Jonathan “Seamus” Blackley and Kevin Bachus got the lions share of the spotlight in the book (and rightly so), I related more to guys like Ted Hase, Rick Thompson, Ed Fries and Robbie Bach (the “business” / management folks). That is just fun for me!
Even at Sun Microsystems (where I've worked for a LONG time – it'll be 7 years this December...wow, that really IS a long time...), the things that have always drawn my interest and sparked my creativity the most have been new businesses and new business models, like our foray into Utility Computing and Managed Services. Project Darkstar is my latest muse (here is the “historic mugshot” that I found on my camera, from a few months ago; okay, shameless plug time – check out more details on this ground-breaking technology here and here).
The difference, though, between what I read in this book and what I see at companies like Sun and others, can be tied to two things:
If you want to move mountains and change the landscape, you can do it a spoonful at a time (which takes a while by yourself, but you gain speed the more people who pickup spoons) or with explosives (which is the equivalent to what Microsoft did). The latter is quicker, but it will still take a lot of time for people to join together in that new landscape and figure out what to do with it.
At E3 this year, I was over-whelmed by the presentation and volume of titles, and under-whelmed by the dearth of unique content. For the most part, it's all the same. In the four years since this book was published, not much has changed to hit that grand vision of new cultural icons and “games as art”. I don't see “Destroy All Humans” being reviewed by the New York Times' art critics. This is even a year in which we are seeing new console releases by Sony and Nintendo (although Sony just announced that they will again delay their launch – as seems to be typical with console launch announcements), but where are the new Space Invaders and Tetris (which were hits on multiple platforms)?
Still waiting for Aunt Bea's Quilting Smackdown! That would be a great one to see – have The Rock and Aunt Bea duking it out! Maybe someday...in the meantime, we'll just have to make do with more of the same.
I just got done reading Opening The Xbox. I found it to be a very readable book, with a very comfortable writing style. The descriptions of the what the project team went through, however, seemed very reminiscent of many other professional projects I have been involved with in my career, and not necessarily unique to Microsoft or the tech. industry. What was enjoyable and enlightening, however, was the detail which Mr. Takahashi provided. Liberally spiced with information that was outside of the inner mechanics at Microsoft (like the challenges with Nvidia, Flextronics' manufacturing capacity, the marketing and sales performance of competing platforms, etc.), provided the perfect backdrop to the whole story.
In the end, I found it to be an easy and enjoyable read. It provides great insight into Microsoft's launch of the Xbox, and an interesting perspective on the video games industry as a whole. I also appreciated the “personal face” Mr. Takhashi gave the story by providing interesting tidbits of the personalities and their lives, throughout the story. That technique not only made it very readable, but it also helped me relate to the story in a much more fulfilling way.
However, it's this blog's opening paragraph (which I quoted from the end of the book) that I think is really at the heart of the issue I think the video game industry faces, and this book didn't really address:
self-confidence - quit believing and acting like you have to get “people” to take you “seriously”. Screw 'em! You're already a multi-billion dollar industry, so who really cares?
The Big Set-up - the notion of “the killer game” is a set-up for failure, and “it” being “right around the corner” is even worse! You need to have people really get off on the “technology”, and others who are as passionate about the “business”, and have them work together. The video games themselves (whether it's a console or a piece of technology or some game art or whatever) is the real common ground to unite the project. Entertainment, art, interactivity, immersion – how this is defined is changing, and will continue to change over time.
Take me for example. I don't consider myself a “true gamer” necessarily, because I don't spend more than 20 hours a week playing video games, like some people I know; it's more like 10 – 15 hours per week (but who's really counting? :) ).
But do you know what I would spend 20 or more hours a week on? Creating new business ideas! I LOVE IT! I absolutely LOVE THAT! I love being able to take different ideas and putting them together in new ways. The by-product of that is interesting, and I and others have benefited in a number of different ways – non-profits I work with, to my current employer, and (I'm sure) to employers and customers whom I have yet to meet. So, while guys like Jonathan “Seamus” Blackley and Kevin Bachus got the lions share of the spotlight in the book (and rightly so), I related more to guys like Ted Hase, Rick Thompson, Ed Fries and Robbie Bach (the “business” / management folks). That is just fun for me!
Even at Sun Microsystems (where I've worked for a LONG time – it'll be 7 years this December...wow, that really IS a long time...), the things that have always drawn my interest and sparked my creativity the most have been new businesses and new business models, like our foray into Utility Computing and Managed Services. Project Darkstar is my latest muse (here is the “historic mugshot” that I found on my camera, from a few months ago; okay, shameless plug time – check out more details on this ground-breaking technology here and here).
The difference, though, between what I read in this book and what I see at companies like Sun and others, can be tied to two things:
money – Microsoft had plenty and was willing to commit significant amounts of capital for long periods of time – not because they wanted to build a video game console, but rather because it was an integral part of a larger strategy. Microsoft wants to be the gateway to home mechanics (entertainment, finances, etc.), and they see the Xbox as a great way to enter and begin building on that vision
strategic commitment – building on the above bullet, while near-term unit sales of consoles and titles are important, it's not the only thing. Sony, for example, has a potentially much broader and more strategic reach with it's movie and music entertainment business lines, which seem to continue throwing off cash regardless of poor economic conditions in any single market or geography it finds itself in.
If you want to move mountains and change the landscape, you can do it a spoonful at a time (which takes a while by yourself, but you gain speed the more people who pickup spoons) or with explosives (which is the equivalent to what Microsoft did). The latter is quicker, but it will still take a lot of time for people to join together in that new landscape and figure out what to do with it.
At E3 this year, I was over-whelmed by the presentation and volume of titles, and under-whelmed by the dearth of unique content. For the most part, it's all the same. In the four years since this book was published, not much has changed to hit that grand vision of new cultural icons and “games as art”. I don't see “Destroy All Humans” being reviewed by the New York Times' art critics. This is even a year in which we are seeing new console releases by Sony and Nintendo (although Sony just announced that they will again delay their launch – as seems to be typical with console launch announcements), but where are the new Space Invaders and Tetris (which were hits on multiple platforms)?
Still waiting for Aunt Bea's Quilting Smackdown! That would be a great one to see – have The Rock and Aunt Bea duking it out! Maybe someday...in the meantime, we'll just have to make do with more of the same.
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
Who's Sorry Now?
Apparently, the video game industry is. Still. And I'm not sure why.
It seems to me that most of the articles out there written about the video games industry generally have at least one of the following two themes present in the article:
“I'm sorry that video games seem so violent to you (a non-video game playing person or organization). They aren't to us (the video game industry), because we know that they are just made up worlds we've created to play in, and frankly we don't take ourselves that seriously anyway.”
“Hey everybody, we're a real industry and you should take us seriously!”
I think it's time to relinquish the second one. With video game budgets reaching the sizes of some feature film budgets, development cycles stretching out almost as long as feature films, and industry revenues in the same neighborhood as the motion pictures industry, I think the video game industry should admit that they have "grown up” somewhat and just get on with the business. I don't hear the likes of Youtube, Facebook or Myspace apologizing for a huge marketplace presence or multi-hundred million dollar valuations (after only a few months and a modest business model). Video games, as a genre, have been in existence for over 40 years (NOTE: for a brief, cool look at this, check out my friend's recent visit with a living legend – one of the, if not THE, industry founder – Ralph Baer).
The USA Today had two big stories today related to video games:
- one profiled the new Wii from Nintendo and a Q & A with Reginald Fils-Aime, Nintendo of Americas new President and Chief Operating Officer
- one profiled 4 video games as examples of how "games can be helpful"
See what I mean? I think these were pretty informative articles, but I don't hear similar undercurrents in articles about Ford, NTT Docomo, Pfizer, etc.
What I think is interesting about this, however, is that it seems to be ubiquitous; there isn't one particular writer, editor or publication taking this tack. It seems fairly prevalent.
So what's it going to to take to change this? I think the industry itself has to change and move itself forward. One of the things that struck me at E3 this year was not the ubiquitous Booth Babes. It was what I call the lack of originality in the content. Generally speaking, the new game releases broke out into the following categories:
1. Themes:
- "Dungeons and Dragons" genre (these would be the Worlds of Warcraft, etc.)
- "shooting games" (could be FPS' like Unreal Tournament, Call of Duty, the various vehicular combat simulations, etc.)
2. Line Extensions of Existing Franchises:
- almost any game that uses one or more of the following: Star Wars characters or story lines, Marvel comic heroes, Disney characters, any new movie or TV show release (Desperate Housewives??? Really? So "desperate housewives" are playing video games now, it's not just 13-year old kids in the basement?)
3. "Casual Games""
- in quotes because even though everyone in the industry seems to have a certain perception about it, it's coming across to me as "We know there's an undefiend market segment out there, and we think that it happens to be the bulk of our target market. However, since we can't quite define it very specifically, we're going to "throw a lot of stuff" at it (i.e. - subscription revenue models, ringtones, Bejeweled and "classic" game knock-offs (or re-published versions), etc.) and see what sticks". No risks here...these are all merely "investments in micro-markets."
One of the latest market perspectives to gain a lot of attention has been articulated by Chris Anderson, and his notion of long tail economics. With enabling technologies like the internet, I personally think this is the first era where we can actually see these dynamics play out in real-time. Examples:
Success - Cable TV. Bruce got it wrong when he said there were 57 channels with nuthin' on - there are literally over 500 channels (depending on your service provider and package) with nothing on - except those shows that are really of interest to you. And if you can find something unique enough for you, head over to Youtube or MySpace
(potential) Failure - Satellite Radio. What was supposed to be a great revolution to revitalize the medium is actually turning into a losing business venture (at least for the foreseeable future). What's great about satellite radio is the broader spectrum of offerings (literally). What's bad about it is getting it paid for - either through subscription revenue (which is another en vogue business concept these days, that shouldn't be applied as ubiquitously as people seem inclined to do so - but that's another blog I'm cooking up), or by charging advertisers higher rates to reach a more refined audience. The Wall Street Journal reported today that XM Satellite Radio and Sirius are losing significant amounts of money at a time when they forecasted to be making significant amounts of money.
What I object to, however, is this concept being applied "everywhere". The crisis isn't a lack of content, it's a dearth of creativity. It's imagination. The technology already exists. Stop apologizing and let's get on with the business already!
As I said to the panelists at E3, if I'm wrong and long tail economics apply here, then there really is a market for Aunt Bea's Quilting Smack-down!, and I will be here waiting to try it out, with virtual knitting needles on my cell phone...who's the Developer and Publisher willing to put their money where their mouth is?
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