Targeting local audiances essay

 It is important to target local because this means thast the console or game can be constructed and changed to please the majority, if the game gets changed so that people more people can play it then this will get more sales and therefore get a greater number of people involved in the gaming world. Targeting local audiances means that things can be monitered easier as most of the things to do with the game will be very similar or the same in alot of cases. Games can more easily be adapted to the area like for example alot of things need to be censored and left out in certain areas like the 'Nazi' sign in Wolfenstein needs to be cencored in Germany because of their history with this sign.
 
      Production is another important

Distribution

The distributor of sky landers; giants is 'Theinthing'


The Distributor of Angry Birds is ' Chillingo'



The distributor of GTA V is take two interactive, they own 2K games and Rockstar and they also own different sectors of Rockstar like Rockstar Leeds for example.

UGC

UGC stands for 'user generated content' and this is where players can actually create their own content to be involved in the game, this is kind of like modding the game but the content will already be in the game, the player just needs to have their own imagination to make their content suitable to them. An example of UGC is in a game like little big planet for the PlayStation 3, in this game there is an option to create your own level where the player starts from scratch and completely starts the new level, using tools in the game and certain objects. One advantage of using UGC in your game is the idea that it even gives the developers ideas for things to involve in the next game as they will be spoilt for choice for ideas. Another advantage is that the game can never really get boring as the players can just keep creating new missions of their own and it will be exactly what they want.

Ratings

VIDEO GAME RATINGS

In all things whether it be film, game, websites or even magazines, they all must have some form of rating, this is because some content involved in the product may not be suitable for younger viewers. Age ratings are to give the target audiance an idea of what will be involved in the game, this will stop younger people purchasing the game/film and will let people and shop keepers know if the game involves violence or sexual content or even bad language. This can also help people to decide whether they actually want to buy it or not as the age rating will explain alot about the game. PEGI rating on a game lets us know that it contains content suitable for a certain age group and above.  So, a 7 game is suitable for everyone who is seven or older while an 18-rated game is suitable only for adults. These game rating will show how har d the game is as this is more to do with game reviews game ratings are purely to show who the game is aimed at. PEGI stands for 'pan european game information' and this means that they will rate all games that are now being made now, they will rate the game based on who they think it is suitable for and will also give a few PEGI description icona that will show what is in the game like horror, seual content, drugs etc.
here is an example of some of the PEGI age ratings and who would be able to access them. The more violent and maturer the game the higher the rating, GTA will be rated an 18 for example because of the drugs, strong language and violence.

 Here is an example of the icon descriptions given for some games such as the spider for fear or the fist for violence. PEGI is being introduced so that european parents can see what games to buy for their kids and if it is suitable for them to play, also PEGI introduced game ratings so that game companies cannot be sued for unsuitable content as it will clearly state that the game is not for younger kids, so if a younger child does get hold of the game and complains then the game company can just say, 'this child should not be playing this game anyway because of the age rating.'

Lord Of The Rings Online

 Lord Of the rings online is a fantasy mmorpg game made by Turbine and Midway games in April 24th 2007. To play this game you have to pay $14.99 a month or you could suscribe to the $77.70 every 6 months, or even pay $41.85 every 3 months depending on what payment method you would like. In this game you can walk freely across a massive world and participate in quests with other people in the world, you can level up and upgrade your character with the help of others in the world.

GTA V trailer

Recently, Rockstar have released the latest trailer for the much anticipated game Grand Theft Auto 5! In the trailer, it begins with a song by Stevie Wonder called Skeletons, this is a fairly upbeat song that sort of reminds us of the original gangster feel, it almost reminds me of an 80's cop film, it helps set the scene with a great panning shot of the city Los Santos (or Los Angeles as we would know it). From the first establishing shot we can see Rockstar almost showing off how far they have come when it comes to graphics as the render distance shown in this first shot is amazing, the graphical detail looks very good. After showing some jump cuts of various things such as nice cars and nice expensive looking houses we here one of the main protagonists speaking about crime, this also helps to set the scene as we hear him as an almost warning to get out of crime before its too late. We then have a lot of jump cuts showing more of where it is being set and we see nice parts of the city an less nice parts, we are then introduced to the 3 main characters in the game. The first main character who narrates at the start seems to be an almost rich gentleman in his late 40's, we seem to thing he has been involved in crime for a long time and now has a life of luxury and is out of crime for now. The second Character we are introduced to is first seen in a run down poor part of town, he seems to be a poorer man who seems to be pretty mad as we see him beating people up and standing with dead bodies, he seems and we get the feel that he is very angry for some reason. The third and final protagonist i s a black gentleman who also seems quite rich and doing well for himself as he seems quite young, we see he has troubles with his wife as we see them arguing in the trailer. From  this trailer the scene is the city and they are all dressed in relaxed clothes that anyone would wear, the lighting is very bright and it makes the whole area seem nice, colorful and a lot going on, as with the costumes, these are bright, the fact that everything is bright may suggest a lot of wealth and happiness maybe. From the trailer we get a lot of Rockstar's humor as there are many parts that are just what Rockstar would do. Also we get to see a lot of new features and new vehicles and weapons that may be in the game such as quad bikes, jets, attack dogs, new cars, planes and many more, this could show that Rockstar have tried to introduce much more into their game and better features to make it much more interesting. Throughout the trailer there are several establishing shots with a few medium close ups and long shots, hopefully Rockstar will release more to reveal much more in the future.

GTA V what we know so far

GTA

GTA are set to release the fifth game in their massive franchise and GTA has had a popular rich history, whether it be controversy or massive marketing. GTA was originally made in the UK by the Houser brothers. They originally worked for a company called DMA and later became Rockstar. GTA IV is the follow up of the 2008 4th game and is set to be released in spring 2013, there was a lot of controversy over when it was supposed to be released an Rockstar changed the date many time to make sure the game was tweaked to perfection and have now said it will definitely be in spring 2013, we do not know if they are waiting until the next generation of consoles or just waiting to create more anticipation. In the GTA games you can basically do whatever you want whether it be killing people or stealing cars or even robbing various items, the GTA world was open for you to have fun. There have been 5 GTA games already, each with different features and each in different cities, making the game interesting as people were always interested to see where the next GTA game would be set. GTA was mostly made by Rockstar North and published by Rockstar.
 
 So far we do not know much about GTA V but we do know that it will be set in a place called Los Santos but we know it to be Los-Angeles, this could suggest wealth and upper-class crime may be involved in the games instead of petty smaller crimes. Rockstar have used a type of leaking tactic to show the audience about the game and have only released a few screen shot and a short trailer of the game so far, this gets the target audience very excited about the game and gets it to be a much more anticipated game. The fact that people only have small things to learn about the game makes the game seem amazing, like 'oh there has been a picture of a jet released, this must mean we can fly a jet' this is what screen shots will create. This is a very smart way to get their game out there from Rockstar as people will always be seeing images that hardly reveal anything from the game, Rockstar also use billboards, posters pictures that hardly reveal anything to get everyone hyped up. So far two trailers have been released showing that their are 3 protagonists in the game and a bit of their backgrounds, the game looks very good from the trailers. The very fact that there is not even a pre-order date yet suggests that Rockstar are waiting and getting people to wait thus creating immense amounts of excitement for this game.

top 20 games right now

These are the top 20 games that are being bought right now, this shows the trends in gaming right now and what people are playing and what they want. This will give game developers ideas about what games are mostly being played. This also shows what games and what type of games are not selling well, this will show developers what and where they are going wrong with their games if their games are not selling well. This will also give the game developers ideas for maybe making a follow up of that games that sold well and maybe see if they can improve it. Fifa 13 is so popular because it is literally on every console and it is even released on the PS2, this is to establish their market and gain more of a community. Assassins creed 3 is the top because it is a very good game and it has been a big antiscipated title for a while and it is obviously been successful because it is first. Alot of the time an established franchise game will sell well because people already know what it is about and may have enjoyed the last one so want to play the latest game, new IP games will still sell well but people may be weary of buying it because they have never heard of it before. There are some first party games that released that sell well because people know the company and trust that the games are going to be good like Pokemon for example. The fact that there are some kids games selling well shows that there are maybe growths in the child gaming market, this could show that more kids are now playing games and the market for Childrens games is becoming more of a popular option.

Vivendi

Zynga

Business model

the model Zynga uses is based on payments through credit cards and and players buying things within the game. In one of the games your characters uses energy an eventually your characters energy will run out, the player can buy more energy from Zynga using paypal.  Also players can buy points to get better in the game and upgrade their characters. Another method used to make money would be Zynga would send out a questionnaire that would have to be payed for, this will improve the game and include other add ons. People will pay credit cards for DLC and other add ons. They also use advertising fees to gain money.

Farmville 2

On 26 june farmville 2 was announced an it was later released in september 2012. It will have a 3D feature and full 360 degree turning, a massive advancement from the first game. Farmville 2 will be marketed through adverts from facebook as this game is mainly played on this social networking site. There will be adverts announcing farmville 2 all the time on facebook and it will get as many people interested as possible. There will be a press event called 'unleashed' and this will market the game to investors and get the game more popularity, the fact that the game has already got into a press event suggests that it going to be big. I have also found that there has been youtube adverts released prompting people to get a facebook account and to 'join in the fun.' Farmville 2 has also announced that there will be a new petting zoo feature involved in the game and this is where characters can buy animals an let people visit their animals, they can visit their friends animals and trade with them and buy new ones.

Sky-lander giants notes

Skylanders is a new way of marketing games and a way of getting people to purchase the game and much more, it is almost like a modern version of trading cards such as Pokemon or match attacks as it encourages younger children to 'collect them all.' It was originally released in 2011 with a game called 'Spyros adventure' an sold millions an proved to be a very successful product, as it was the most sold toy of 2011. Skylanders Giants was released in 2012 and already has up to 32 characters to collect with more to be rumored on the way. It has now became a huge franchise spreading over the USA and Europe and is still expanding. In this game it involves buying actual figures to progress in the game, for example if in one mission the person needs a tall character, they would have to go out and buy an actual tall figure and unlock that character. different characters have different abilities. It has proved so popular that it is no longer only on PC but is now on all consoles and is set to be on the new WII U, and from the research i have done i found that the original SkyLander series sold over 30 million toys, this shows how popular the game is. Skylanders is made by Activision who are responsible for a variety of other games such as the Crash Banticoot series, the Call of Duty series, Spryo the dragon, Tony Hawk series and even Guitar hero, the game is expected to be fairly good because of its developers history. In my opinion i think the Skylander figures are a bit expensive for what they are but this is expected because the Skylander franchise is the first of its kind and nobody else has thought of this idea until now, Activision would have to charge a fair amount to make sure they make a profit. I found that you can buy Skylander starter and booster packs from Amazon for around 30-50 pounds wich will get you a few characters, if you ask me i would say that this is a bit expensive for a toy, but i have been proven wrong because skylanders giants is already selling and doing amazingly well. the figures on their own are fairly expensive, ranging from 15-19 pounds from a lot of places. This game gets a lot of advertisment through television and internet sites as children are always looking for new characters and new levels that are set to come out, but from reading forums and websites i found that a lot of people are finding this new way of 'gaming' to be a bit of a con and a way of ripping people off and in my opinion i have to agree with these comments made, i cant see how this game correctly priced and how it sells so well, why cant they bring the characters out in DLC rather than figures. Although with it selling so well, maybe this is the 'new' way to game?

Synergy and Symbiosis

Synergy is where two parts of the same company work together and collaborate to ultimately produce a single fianl product or goal.

Symbiosis is where different companies will work together to make a profit, for example a company could allow another company to make toys of their products, for example disney could pay a toy company to make toys of their films, they are still not in the same company, just working together.

Rockstar Family Task

The Rockstar family

Rockstar Japan- rockstar Japan were never any other company but they became part of the rockstar family in 2005 and still are.  They represent all localization of Rockstar titles in all of Japan.

Rockstar Leeds- Rockstar Leeds joined the Rockstar family in 2004 and are still a part of this family, they were previously known as Mobius Entertainment and were based in Leeds England.  They helped create Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories and Vice City for the PSP. The most recent game from the Leeds Studios is the microsoft windows version of L.A. Noire and was very successful.

Indie games- the impossible game

Indie games are small games made by a very small group or company or a single individual person, who do not get any support from game publishers.  Indie games rely massively on digital distribution as it is the cheapest way to get their games out there without paying manufacturing and shipping costs.  Minecraft is an example of a game made by a single individual, and it has been very successful.  Indie games usually hardly have any budget or have a very little one, this means the game cannot be 'amazing' but still have the capability of being quite fun.  Alot of indie games strated out on the pc as flash games and get made into better more in depth games.  Indie games have their own section in games consoles such as the xbox live market place, it has a massive wide variety of indie game that you can buy or trial.  Indie games are becoming a mssive market in the gaming world as more cretive people are thinking of new ideas foe new games, this means more and more indie games are oming about all the time! There are many cases of small indie games sarting small and ending massive like, minecraft, super-meat boy amd many others. Indie games do not have the funding to compete with AAA games that are being produced as these 'bigger' games have always had the graphical and funding advantages, although indie games can still pack a punch as there is a whole audiance who much rather prefer indie games to the AAA blockbusters and this market is ever growing.
The impossible game

 The impossible game is an indie game made and developed by FlukeDude that is small indie company and was realeased on November 23rd 2009. This happens to be the only game that they have developed but will soon produce more. In this game you are a moving cube on a platfrom based game, the aim of the game is to get passed as many obsticles as possible without dying or failing. This game is extremely addictive and very, very frustrating! The cube moves quickly and you have to perfectly time your jump over things and make sure you dont die, you can put checkpoints down but if your good you will do it in one! The music is very catchy and gets stuck in your head but can also be very distracting at the same time, it was originally a flash game but then got brought onto the ipod touch and is now on the xbox 360 indie games section and has sold millions. i bought this game on my ipod and got very addicted to it for a while, up to the point where i got really stuck and 'rage quitted' if you will. i have got the trail on the xbox 360 an strongly recomend this game it is very hard and very fun.

Reality is broken

1. They're the world of war craft fans who are so intent on mastering the chellenges of their favourite game that, collectively, they've written a quarter of a million articles on the WOWwiki- creating the single largest wikipedia.

2. In the United states alone, there are 183 million active gamers

3. 69 percent of all heads of households play coputers and video games

4. 97 percent of youth play video games.

5. 40 percent of all gamers are women!

notes on indie games

Tent pole buisness model: this is where a company will creaste a game that will almost give their company a kind of stereotype to what most their games will be like in the future.  This alows the company to make their target market more to what they are aiming for in later games.  They will release a blockbuster game to get the publics attention annd m,ake sure that their game is always going to on the market an this will make people buy their future games.  They can then take risks when creating new games an make games that they usually wouldnt make.  For example Grand Theft Auto made alot of money Rockstar allowing them to invest in smaller other games.

The Hollywood model-

GTA- Hot Coffee MOD

The hot coffee mod was a mini game that was going to be put into the GTA game but developers decided against it although, they did leave it within the games coding, this means that if somebody knew how to hack this coding then Rockstar would get into some serious trouble. Unfortunately for Rockstar thats exactly what happened. The mini game includes a sexually aimed game with the main character and hios girlfriend. By the end of July 2005 the minigame had gained a fair bit of controversy on PC, PlayStation and xbox and it had obviously offended alot of people. This MOD effected the games age rating because originally the game was rated as 'Mature' and after the MOD got released it was then changed to an '18' rating, this also  effected sales as because the age rating had gone up alot of younger players could no longer access the game. The stakeholders lost money because they took the games of the shelves for a while, although one thing it did do was get the game publicity, this was good because it made the game more known an most likely increased the sales in the long run. The platform holders may have been effected because it may have of given them a bad name as people would associate these platforms with bad content and this may put people off buying them consoles. Retailers would of been effected in the same way as if people saw it in their shops then it may put them off buying from there and they would lose sales.                                                                      

Homework- are single player games a dying breed?

Media Work- Are single player games a dying cause?

Some would argue that single player games are slowly dying out, with the idea of multiplayer online games becoming more of a big thing, there are many reasons why this is to be an in this essay I will explain  my opinions to why this is.

   Firstly, single player games were the originals in gaming history and they were directed at the player controlling one character and going along the story, they were for the one person’s enjoyment. A few examples of games that were single player would be the likes of, super Mario, sonic the hedgehog, Assassins creed, God of war, ninja gaiden an lots more, these games give the player a much better sense that they control the game and a better sense of achievement when they beat it. The problem with multiplayer and online games becoming more popular is there is so much more competitiveness, some would argue this is a good thing an yes I agree it can make playing a game much more interesting but does it not take away the idea of beating a game on your own, where you can get more into the story? With the growth of online and multiplayer games people seem to be enjoying them more as the likes of casual gamers can socialise and talk with friends can be in/play the same game together at the same time, in some respects this is great as the likes of Fifa where you can play in pro clubs and all be in the same team in a 11 vs. 11 match, creating your team and your player, this makes the multiplayer side of gaming really interesting and relaxing way to socialise and play with friends. Another example of where the gaming experience is enhanced is the likes of Borderlands, in this game although it is an option to play on your own, it is much more fun to complete the game with your friends, you can free roam around a map openly and work together to defeat harder enemies, whilst also upgrading your characters abilities, it is multiplayer online games such as these that are now threatening single player games as they are much more enjoyable when more people can play.

    Secondly, in my opinion, multiplayer games sometimes take away the seriousness of a game as when playing a game with friends you can sometimes mess around during the campaign an joke about, but for hard-core gamers this would be a huge annoyance as they prefer to get on with the story of the game and do as best as they can on it, this could be one reason why single player games will survive in today’s market, hard-core gamers will keep them going because of their interest in games and determination to complete it. Another reason why some would argue that single player games are still up there in the marketing industry would be the massive single player titles that simple cannot be forgotten such as, the Assassins Creed franchise, Alan Wake, Rachet and Clank, Skyrim, Oblivion, Deus Ex; Human Revolution, the Fallout franchise, all these games are single player games that were very popular an still are, people still enjoy a good game that they can play alone and really get into, hence the massive list of titles that sold amazingly.  Of course we all like to socialise with our friends and online/multiplayer games are great for this but it could never better in my opinion the idea of doing a game by yourself, for a start you get to control how you play the game for example you may choose one path rather than another and this means you can uncover the story at your own pace, whereas in a group people may spoil it or take a path you didn’t want to take.

   Furthermore, another reason why I think multiplayer games are on the up and coming is because they are beginning to attract a lot more of a wider audience as they are much more sociable, people who maybe never pictured themselves playing video games are now feeling much more comfortable playing multiplayer games because if they are not too good at a game then single player games can be fairly stressful, but on online games a person can really on their team-mates to help them. Although having said that, sometimes online games can prove much more frustrating than single player games as you may find a lot of people online are better than you are so they may always win, this could make a person stop playing a game, no one likes to loose after all.  

   In conclusion, when it comes to do I think single player games are a dying cause, then I unfortunately do think they are losing the battle compared to multiplayer games. Although being someone who enjoys laying single player games, the idea of online multiplayer games sounds too good as more people like to be sociable now a day and these are great ways to keep the competitiveness of games yet have a good time playing the games at the same time. Single player games cannot offer as much enjoyment as online games can anymore as although playing on your own is good, playing as a team is better and much more competitive.

JOE WESTALL

Wii U post

The Wii U is one of the newest generations in games consoles coming out, it is the first in the 8th generation an will be released later in 2012. Apparently, the Wii U sports 1080p graphics which is a huge step up from the original Wii which graphics were terrible and could only play child aimed games, mature games could not be taken seriously on the Wii. The Wii U will have 20 times the memory of the original Wii. Thw Wii U will feature a new controller called the Wii U game pad, this will have touch screen an motion sensitivity. Nintendo have definately gone to town with this ne console they seem to be straying away from there stereotypical younger audiance an are now appealing to more of a variety of audiances. The Wii U will feature a various amount of new games such as, Wario-Ware, Super Mario but will also feature some ports such as Batman Arkham City, Mass effect 3 amd many more, this could change the gaming experience. It prices between £300-£330 pound in the UK which is pretty pricey compared to the let down of the last Wii. Unfortunately, there is no information on whether the Wii U can support DvD's but it has been confirmed that it will have Netflix and Youtube could feature. Originally, the Wii did not appeal to older/maturer audiances but from the research i have done, the Wii U will be looking to gain backs its core gamers with the better graphics being added and the much better game titles.

An example of what the Wii U will look like, again continuing in Nintendo style it looks quite fun to play but it makes me question are Nintendo still targeting the younger audiance?

GTA 4

Name of game: Grand Theft Auto 4

Platforms Available on: PS3, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows

Developer: Rock star North, Rock Star Toronto
Publisher: Rock Star Games
Distributor: Take Two Interactive, Capcom
How Much did it make: 3.6 units sold on day of release, $500 million in revenue of first week, as of September 2011 it has shipped 22 million copies worldwide.

Fallout Franchise

Name of game: Fallout 3

Available on: PS3, Xbox 360,PC and can be downloaded off the internet.

Developer: Bethesda  game studios

Publisher: Bethesda softworks, Zenimax Media

How much did it cost to make:$1,175,000

How was it distributed: shipped off and delivered by the likes of vans/lorries 
to the companies that were selling the game, using a variety of courier services.

Hi my name is Joe Westall and I have an Xbox 360 slim, PS3  a PC and a Wii, i mostly play my Xbox and the game I play most is Fifa 12, I have a few games mostly 3rd person free roam RPG games. My experience with video games is OK although I prefer original games such as Super Mario and Streets of rage on the Sega Mega Drive!  Most my consoles are in my room an I go on them quite bit but I don't time myself!  My favourite kind of games are RPG games such as Fallout 3 and Skyrim. I also play a few iPod touch games such as Angry Birds, Temple Run and he likes of the impossible game. I play some PC games as well such as Minecraft, Football manager. That is pretty much it....