Skylanders - Giants Youtube Channels

http://www.youtube.com/user/SkylandersGame

Go to the above address to view the commercials for Skylanders - Giants

TASK FOR HALF TERM:

Research as much as you can about this game and BlogPost a case study. (Hopefully after Miss Crompton's lesson yesterday you will know that copying and pasting is NOT to be found in a case study.)

What is so unique about the game? (The first game was the no. 1 kids toy of 2011)
How is the game marketing?
How much does it cost?
The article you should have taken home helps to illustrate the audience and the market involved in such games as Skylanders but anything you can find out would be helpful.

Tip: This toys+game combo is a golden example of symbiosis.

Videogames Advert Spotting: What have you seen?

We have already said that the fourth quarter of the year - October - December is a very cramped part of the videogames release calendar, so you will notice in the run up to Christmas that adverts for both consoles (hardware) and games (software) are advertised more often.

I would like you to make a note any time you spot a videogames advert.

Name of product:
Channel seen on:
Ad break of which TV show seen between:
Time of day:

If we all try to add something to this list every time we see a games ad we can pinpoint audiences, marketing strategies and other information from the commercial.
Get spotting!

GTA5 news coming... in November!

I'm sure you have all read this as you're all checking the Rockstar Games website for snippets of news on a daily basic (Really? Just me then...) but they have released........
a piece of artwork. Click below to enlarge.

And the words underneath you ask?
"Lots of info coming next month. Get ready.

For now, enjoy this first official artwork release from Grand Theft Auto V."

And that's it.
See for yourself here.

TEASE! *dies*

If you haven't already, do add Rockstar Games on Facebook. Cough, Viral Marketing.
https://www.facebook.com/rockstargames
See how they use this platform for drawing us in.
Following the artwork release they created a new Facebook page dedicated to GTAV https://www.facebook.com/rockstargames#!/grandtheftautoV


http://uk.ign.com/wikis/grand-theft-auto-5?objectid=20587
IGN have made a Wiki for GTA 5 that will be added to as and when new information is, ahem, leaked to the public. As we want to be mentioning anything to do with Rockstar and GTA in the exam, it would be wise to pay this page a visit a few times before the exam as things WILL start heating up in the GTA-promotion market just as we get to crunch time for revision.

Video game publishers

Still unsure about what the difference between the developer and a publisher is?
Have a read of the video game industry series' Wikipedia article on:
Video Game Publisher

Very easy to understand!
Just as you need to be able to use these terms correctly and identify the role that the publisher has, whether you are talking about GTA IV/Skylanders/CoD/Angry Birds etc.

Vertical Integration

Another definition from The Media Student's Book...

Vertical Integration: Gaining control over the whole process of making a media product - developing, publishing, distributing and exhibiting.

Rockstar Games have become a vertically integrated company by buying developers they have previously worked with, such as DMA Design who became Rockstar North and Angel Studios who became Rockstar San Diego. By doing this Rockstar have control over development, funding and marketing of their products.

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