Synergy

Another defnition from The Media Student's Book

Synergy is the concept that extra value could emerge from using the effort put into one product in the production and promotion of another. For example, a media conglomerate working with an author in a publishing division might also consider film, television and game adaptations in other divisions of the same company.

The possibilities of synergies between divisions of a conglomerate became apparant in the 1980s - the film industry was revived commerically through rental and retail sales of films on VHS as well as technological innovations such as cable television, videogames and music video.

The main players in the games industry

The players
(Taken from The Media Student's Book, Fifth Edition by G. Branston & R. Stafford)

The majors include Sony, one of the studio conglomerates, via its Playstation, and Activision Blizzard (Skylanders / Guitar Hero / Call of Duty / Tony Hawk / Warcraft etc), the company formed from the game division of the French media conglomerate Vivendi and the software company Activision. Vivendi was briefly part of the studio major Vivendi-Universal.

Harmonix, creator of the Rock Band series is part of Viacom, so some games companies are linked to the media conglomerates.

Many independent games designers and publishers, many from the UK, have been gradually consolidated to produce major publishers like Square Enix (Japan), Ubisoft (France) and Electronic Arts and Take Two (USA).

To make a comparison in which the hardware factor is stripped out, most of these publishers have a turnover from games roughly equivalent to a major Hollywood studio take from cinema box office (ie. around $1.5 billion). According to Activision Blizzard, which has major strengths in online franchises, the combined European and North American market for gaming software in 2008 was $24 billion. There are undoubtededly parallels between films and games in terms of how the Japanese and American companies publish games that are then possibly distributed in certain territories by their rivals.

Definition
Conglomerates: Companies that are made up of separate divisions, each with distinct identities operating in different sectors of the market - and possibly different industries altogether. They are often formed through a process of 'mergers and acquisitions.' When this happens in a specific market or sector, it is termed consolidation.

Renowned industry analyst Nick Parker claims that the tipping point - the "'iTunes moment" - will occur in 2014 when the games industry might have some parity between digital distribution and retail.

Mindmaps - examtime.com

Have made a mindmap of the main topics we have looked at so far a https://my.examtime.com/en/mind_maps/766

Though from the looks of it you'll have to log in to see - http://www.examtime.com/
it's free to sign up and personally I find mindmapping very useful for revision.

Could be useful if you don't like going through reams of notes for revision. Just a thought...

iPad Mini - meaning for gaming?

You may have seen the launch event this evening detailing the new iPad Mini.

We have only just touched upon the iOS devices in our study of the gaming market, but it is not to be underestimated.

There are now 160 million Game Centre accounts. These accounts allow for scoreboard listings to be added but also borrow one of the most popular elements of Generation 7 gaming: earning achievements/trophies. This did not happen before the X360 and PS3. This means that there are 160m iOS gamers, earning achievements whether they be from winning the league in Football Manager 2012 or completing a level in Angry Birds.

So we have a new gaming device on the market in time for Christmas. And Nintendo thought they had the market to themselves this festive season! At £269 for the most basic, the iPad Mini is quite a bit more than the Wii U but considering the iPad's perfect example of technological convergence in that it can do near everything in one, it may take the place of the new Wii under many Christmas trees... Unless you think the two markets the two products are aiming at are mutually exclusive? Interested in anybody's opinion on this!

In other news: I want one!

Gotta Catch Them All!

While thinking about the whole concept behind Skylanders and thinking about crazes and fads, I remembered this episode of South Park entitled "Chinpokomon" (Series 3 Episode 10 for legal downloaders...) that sums up the whole 'marketing directly to kids' idea and pester power. This episode aired way back in 1999, at the height of the Pokemon fad though they seem to have predicted pretty accurately how toys and videogames combine (through the special Chinpokomon gamepad!) in a very similar way to our Skylanders toys. Just found it interesting!

Mr H

Who is missing what UPDATED

Click below to see the latest image of who is missing what. We NEED you to get as much up to date as possible over the break. We need to be able to see commitment to the course and half empty blogs with numerous holes is not the way forward.

You should try to keep up to date with latest developments in the gaming industry - try to read a few articles from the gaming website feeds on the right hand column. You need to be doing your own reading into topics to further your own knowledge.

REMEMBER:
"Research and post" DOES NOT equal "copy and paste from Wikipedia" - do not be lazy: You will be found out in the exam.

UPDATE: I have added more greens following relooking at Blogs. Well done to Michael and Laura who both added quite a few missing pieces yesterday!

I have also added a list of those missing 4 pieces of work or more - After Half Term I will revisit the Blogs and see how many pieces are still outstanding. The names of those who still have 4 or more pieces of work missing will be passed on to Mr Delaney, as we need to see commitment to the course at this stage. But well done to everybody for trying to fill in gaps and catch up on work missed through absence etc.

Have a good half term,
Mr H

Tomorrow - Test of what you know so far!

Tomorrow's lesson will be taking place in L22 - This is my classroom and where we will be every Thursday period 5.

You will have a sheet of questions to work through. Some will require longer answers than others - some will require examples from the games we have looked at so far.

To revise, it would be wise to revisit the lesson powerpoints label cloud on the right hand side of this page as well as the History of Rockstar Games video.

If you finish, I have an article from Edge Magazine that I will be asking you to read and make notes on. The article charts the current trend of games aimed at the pre-teen market - obviously a very different audience from the GTA IV and V games we have been looking at. One of the most successful of these games aimed at pre-teens is the Skylanders series, loosely based on the Spyro universe.
The first Skylanders game was the big hit of Christmas 2011 and Friday sees the release of sequel Skylanders: Giants - which many predict to be a similar success (sales if not critical!). If you have time with your revision, have a glance at a couple of the trailers to see what makes this IP so unique

Click below for the official trailer for the sequel.



Consider the difference in marketing between Skylanders and GTA IV. Where do you think Activision (Publishers of Skylanders) choose to spend marketing £££ advertising the game?

Lesson 11 - Synergy & Symbiosis

11 synergy symbiosis from mrhoward12

TASK:

1. Define these two terms without copying and pasting.

2. The examples earlier in the PPT used the film industry - Explain them using your own examples from the Games Industry - you will have to think about what to research: Googling "symbiosis in games" will not give you what you need!
PPT behind the cut

The Rockstars are taking over!

Rockstar Games have come a long way since Brits Sam and Dan Houser were slogging it out in the music industry (BMG) - now the sprawling Rockstar empire covers many countries. They are vertically integrated - they own companies involved in every stage in the videogame making process from start to finish.

Each of these has since been renamed with the word Rockstar in their name - remember that R* has been iconic: it stands for many of the firm's key fundamentals, as well as acknowledging their lofty ambitions from day one.

TASK: find out information on all members of the Rockstar family. Give the name, what they do, what company they used to be and when they became part of Rockstar. What game has each of these satellite firms been involved with?
These studios all have the standard R* logo, but usually a different colour - try to include an image of the logo to help us get to know them a big better!

BONUS LEVEL: What is the link between the ultra violent Grand Theft Auto games and the classic puzzle game Lemmings?

THURSDAY: First Half Term test of what you know!

(Edit: Yes, it is now Thursday we will be doing this - we will find something else to do tomorrow when we are in the computer rooms and save the test for when we are in a classroom)

FOR THURSDAY: It would be wise to go through everything we have looked at so far to do with the videogame industry in the Audiences & Institutions module.
We are going to have a test of everything we have looked at - in particular key terms and industry terminology that you will need to be familiar with for the exam.
You will also need to be completely familiar with the Rockstar Games corporation - remember the History of Rockstar Games YouTube series of videos!
Click on Lesson PowerPoints on the right hand side for everything that has been used but the areas we have looked at so far are:
*The different sectors of the videogame industry
*Convergence - both cross-media and technological
*The Institutions
*Rockstar Games
*Your specialist topic (essay subject) be it Digital Distribution/Social gaming/controller changes
*Consumption
*Game Development (Business models)
*Indie Games
*Media Ownership - Rockstar Games and vertical integration

Click here to go to all the lesson powerpoints:
http://dhsemediamrhoward12.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/lesson%20powerpoints