Global Markets as The Next Casual Gaming-sized Phenomena

September 7th, 2009

life-with-playstation(This is another canned GameSetWatch column, I hope you enjoy.)

If 10 year product life cycles are anything to go by, then we’re perhaps a third of the way through this most recent generation of consoles. Over the past several years we’ve seen an unprecedented turning point for the industry in the form of audience expansion through the advent of casual gaming. While casual gaming will no doubt continue to embed itself as a norm of this industry, enjoying the many fruits of its labours, we can already see the swell forming for the next phenomena to succeed casual gaming and that is expansion to global audiences.

The Global Medium

Video games are hardly a global medium. Japan, America and “Europe” (includes Australia and New Zealand); the three regions where video games are most prominent in terms of shared distribution, only account for roughly 20% of the global population. Even between these divisions there remains a large disparity in available software. As an Australian player I cannot legitimately purchase PSone classics such as Metal Gear Solid, Resident Evil or Spyro the Dragon through the Playstation Network. As an American player, perhaps you don’t know very much about the classic Enix RPG Terrinigma? Nay we dare discuss Japan.

The other collective 70-80% of global population have their own individual market situations. Often the means to acquire games in such regions are more complex (although not necessarily illegal, as one might assume), shifting the market in multiple, intertwining ways. Despite the natural complications, games are often no less prominent and successful in such countries, even though software distribution is rather limited, particularly of the home consoles.

So then; the Difference

What separates a China, Korea or India from becoming a Japan, America or Europe in many cases is systems of trade and systems of localization which are much narrower. Although there is a degree of generalization (comes with the territory) the 70-80% figure can be divided into two groups which I have suitably dubbed “enclosed markets” and “one-way street markets”.

sim-city-world

China and Korea (both separate and as a joint unity) represent the former (“enclosed markets”) very well. Both countries enjoy rich game industries which can be segregated in several components; the burgeoning development industry from the mainland, rampid piracy and importation of mostly western or Japanese product from neighbouring areas (ie. Hong Kong, Taiwan) and legal consoles and software (ie. iQue, DS Lite, Wii(Korea only)). The legal, mostly online-based industry lives off the pay-per-play/pay-for-necessity model and is a thriving market. With all of the illegal stuff being detached from the mainland (ie. most of what is pirated isn’t legally available anyways) and everything legal predominately existing only in China or Korea, the Chinese and Korean games markets are in this case self-sustaining.

Unlike the enclosed markets, many of the countries that would fall into the “one-way street market” category have little or no industry of their own. Whatever industry is present usually develops for the web. Common sense given development kits are tough to come by. Jamaica embodies these characteristics. As such, there is no recognised games industry in Jamaica and local distribution is either weak or non-existent. Never ones to let down though, keen Jamaican gamers import their games and consoles either from local import vendors or through the internet. Further, enthusiastic players and community leaders in the capital Kingston will pool together their resources to form community “arcades”. In these “arcades” players can pay to play the latest games, only a couple of months (or less) after the North American street dates. So, in contrast, one-way street markets have relatively small industries of their own and rely wholly on distribution from the outside.

Fixing This “Problem”

Everything I’ve just explained shouldn’t be treated as a “problem” or “issue”, because the reality is that there will never be such a thing as a “total” global market, and nor should we believe otherwise. Games are simply product after all, and product regulation varies per country, per culture. Games are also very subjective things and as people who live in culture which shapes our sensibilities, not every game is suitable for every market or every person. The success of Madden in the UK and Australia is indicative enough of that!

Instead, it’s all about access and distribution. There’s nothing that says players in Russia pirate video games simply because they’re Russian. Rather, there is no distribution model in place which satisfies the perception of value for Russian players. Further, illegal means can give access to certain content, but not all of it. If you provide people with a reasonable deal, there’s no reason for them to turn it down. The reasonable deal obviously must adhere to the cultural norms of the respective societies which is what will shape the consideration sets of the publishers of today and the future.

Old News

Reading this far you might be forgiven into thinking this is all rather current, which is to say that it isn’t! Global expansion is old news and has been quietly developing since the start of the industry. The same countries listed as examples were acquiring games, just as they do now, 15-20 years ago through similar, if not the same means. With this said though the industry is now the largest of all forms of entertainment and distribution continues to lose physicality, ensuring that major strides are all but imminent. The following initiatives are good examples of this;

In April Sony announced that it would be releasing six to seven new titles developed specially for an Indian market in partnership with local developers. On May 25th, Brazil released their own home console Zeebo, created for developing counties and soon to be exported elsewhere. Back in 2006 Nintendo opened a new Korean subsidiary with the DS Lite and Wii releasing in the respective years that followed – both consoles have seen significant success since.

Wishful Thinking?

There are two key factors that are and will continue to affect the global expansion of the video game industry in forthcoming decades. Those being the newfound modernization of countries such as China and India and the continual success and pervasiveness of the video game industry.

As suggested, the internet is a major contributor to the latter. Physical distribution, shipping and additional expenditure that comes with it can be completely avoided through distribution platforms which run over the internet. Every country that is able, already acquires games through the internet, so for publishers it’s only a matter of value proposition. The same can be said for development; the internet creates a viable market place for developers such as the few in Jamaica.

The tools are therefore already in place, with further advancements (such as streaming gameplay) on their way. The key problem then is having someone set up a system of access which provides attractive content at a good price point through a viable means. It’s not particularly easy to do in an industry with multiple consoles, established distribution streams and individual markets, but it’s worth considering. At least, that’s my prediction of where global distribution is heading.

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The Gaming Race for the Holiday Season

November 17th, 2007

Its been a very fruitful few weeks for the gaming industry, with release after release of the year’s most anticipated games all in one very short time span. Its been a very interesting time for us gaming enthusiasts. During this time period I’ve been using websites like Game Rankings to find out which games are hits and which games are misses, and what makes them good or bad.

I have to say its been an interesting race for the best game of the holiday season. With most of the major games out the way, I think that its a good time to analyze the situation. So lets run through some of the big games. Here is what I’ve discovered over the past few weeks.

Major Disappointments and Surprises

I want to start off with Assassin’s Creed; 2008’s most ambitious game title with it’s unique go anywhere, climb anything game mechanics. Now Ubisoft definitely delivered in this field but they unfortunately slipped up in a number of important areas. If you’ve been following the game’s progress, especially over E3 then you’d be familiar with some of the game’s bugs and glitches that occurred during presentations and also during hands on with the game. ‘m talking simple things like some unresponsive AI etc. Unfortunately these errors still exist in the final build, in fact when taking a closer look it appears as though the game in some ways might have been a little rushed out the door. The other main problem is that the gameplay remains fundamentally the same throughout the game; find intel and then assassination a person of importance, rinse and repeat 9x and you get the idea. This game is currently scoring about 82% on GameRankings which isn’t bad but its seen some average reviews from IGN (7.5/10) and 1up(7/10). Also the GameTrailers review, despite talking criticism thought out gives the game a 9.1/10.

assassians creed logo

Now while Assassin’s Creed was a little disappointing, Super Mario Galaxy came out and surprised a lot of people. At the moment its sitting on a strong 97.4% with 18 reviews. The game is pretty much what you would expect, the plumber reinvents himself in a space like environment. Each planet that Mario traverses has its own respective physics which make for some interesting platforming environments. Presentation wise Mario Galaxy hands down is the best game on the console, sugary coated goodness.

Just What We Expected

Overall the majority of anticipated games all turned out like you’d expect, generally its because most of them are in some ways safe bets. So its a bit hard to mess up. Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune is a kick ass “dude raider”-esque game with perhaps too many pirates, Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock relies on the same formula with a few new elements such as boss battles to not make it feel stale (but don’t worry thats Rock Band’s job ;)). Crysis is a stunner with its graphical prowess it removes some of the annoying gameplay elements that were in Farcry.

Battalion Wars 2 for the Wii was as you’d expect another decent Wii adaption of a Gamecube franchise. Most of the motion control works although there are a few issues here and there. Naruto: Rise of a Ninja for the Xbox 360 is your above average anime affair that makes use of its lisence well. A simple battle system drops it down a peg.

Call of Duty 4 is a fantastic rush, Infinity Ward has heightened the intensity of the game’s scripted battle events. In a way these events and the game’s length can be seen as slighty problematic but the authentic combat look and feel easily brush these aside. Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles is a game made for fans of the series. Although the motion controls aren’t perfect and the game can be a little finicky with enemy weak points its still a good, lengthy arcade shooter for any one interested in the genre.

call of duty 4 modern warfare

For the portables, Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness was pretty much an ungraded version of the original PS2 game, nicely rounded into a PSP title. Both Castlevania Dracula X Chronicles and Contra 4 are as tough as nails which is a real set back for newer players. Contra limited itself by sticking to a safe, conventional design while Castlevania had a few platforming quirks.

Just Plain Average

Out of the bunch there were a few titles there were pretty meh; Clive Barker’s Jericho failed to live up to the horror author’s name and was pretty average. The same applied for Kane & Lynch: Dead Men. Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games was pretty much what you’d expect, a mini game romp with some mildly interesting Wii mote games.

Conclusion

Putting things into perception, safe bets are still financially secure for developers with games like Guitar Hero III. Franchise favorites like Mario or Call of Duty continue to move the industry forwards with expansions on tried and true gameplay. And games are still being hyped beyond potential and no matter what the end result gamers everywhere are disappointed.

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In the Gaming Life of…

November 3rd, 2007

Hey Guys, I am pleased to announced that the time has come. With the exclusion of one Chinese exam I am on Christmas holidays. So I have 4 months without University life slowing down the site’s progress. I am so pleased, you see although the site has been running nicely over the past few months, deep down I have been yearning to do better. And nows my chance.

The other thing that has been stuck in the back of my mind is how to prepare for such a holiday. I mean 4 months is a fantastically long holiday and I haven’t been playing a lot of games this year. So its finally my time to relive my childhood and play games like there is no tomorrow. Ah the summer time. So over the past month I have been utilizing every scrap of my spare time in order to prepare for this glorious time and this is how I did it.

New High Definition Monitor

Now lets get one thing straight here, I’m not a materialistic guy, I bank about half of what I earn and only ever buy ANYTHING once I know that its perfect for me. But every now and then I treat myself and this is what I did here.

dell high definition monitor

A few weeks ago I bought myself a Dell 24″ LCD monitor to play games and do some design work on. My twin brother has been eyeing down this model for the past 4 months now. Its gotten some rave reviews and has a pile of useful features, including:

Its pretty much the best in its range and is extremely well priced. The week that I bought it Dell had $100 off and then when I called up with some questions they offered a further $100 off. The only issue with the monitor is that I needed to pick up a separate sound bar(speaker) to play audio. I’m not a big sound buff, so this didn’t really bother me. And hey I can to get some long deserved use out of my Sony headies.

So far I have had a few gripes with the monitor but nothing due to the machine itself. I quickly discovered that I couldn’t use it as a screen(or second screen) for my laptop. My working environment is just not set up for that. So (as in the picture before) I have it on that sturdy bench.

Also using two screen of such resolutions would be too taxing on my weak little laptop. Nevermind that I can’t get the resolution past 1280 X 800. Although I gotta said high def images and video look incredible when displayed on the screen(I used my brothers notebook, its a Dell so it was plug and play 1920 x 1200 res).

gaming bean bag and pillow

Now because the monitor is not on my work desk that means that I need comfortable seating to play games. All I currently have is a bleh bean bag and a large cushion. I use the bean bag and leave my brother with the cushion. Its not all bad though, these things can be easily fixed. It also means that I get to finally plant my ass in a bean bag while playing games. I’ve always been envious of those bean bag gamers.

My final gripe is how damn shitty non high definition content looks. This has taken a while for me to grow accustomed to. I have finally adjusted though, I’d need to adjust anyways as I’ll be playing plenty of old games on it (I’ll get to that later).

The Launch of Metal Gear Ebay

Lame title? Yeah I agree. I was very pleased with this one though. As you know, I have recently been on a crusade to hunt down not so easy to find games. I’m not talking Radiant Silvergun here but rather old discontinued rare PAL games. Being PAL its that much harder.

Now you see, despite my fanboyness towards the Metal Gear franchise, I haven’t actually finished MGS2. All because I kept delaying my PS2 purchase(for about 2 years). Its all about that non-materialistic stuff, it just had to be cheaper, God I’m such a stinge.metal gear solid 2 artowork solid snake

After continued frustration with my copy of MGS2: Substance for the PC I decided that I needed the PS2 version. So I went searching with little luck. Until I decided to give eBay a go. Now I had never used eBay before, for some reason I had some rather negative stereotypes about the service. I desperately need this game, so I’d get it by any means possible. So I did some searching and in a few minutes I’d already found a limited edition copy of the game(with Documents of MGS2) going for a great price. So I snapped it up right away.

I had the game for about 3 days before I started playing it. I wasn’t sure if I was going to wait until I had finished my Uni assignments before I started or not. My mind was quickly made up once I got that week’s work hours, to discover a free day or two. And incidently all of my Uni work had eased off then. So I used this time to capitalize on the game. After getting up to the Big Shell from a few previous play sessions I decided that I needed to go all out. So I spent about 19hrs on and off playing the game until it was beat.

The List

So I had began my eBay journey. Now due to my success, my brother decided to follow suit and he started buying games left right and center. In fact eBay really has opened up a whole new slew of possibilities for us and hence my brother and I have decided use eBay to perfect our already great gaming collection.

We’ve had all of your consoles from Commodore 64, Atari, NES through to the today’s consoles. And for each console we have had a neat collection of games to accompany it. But like everyone whom has a passion for collecting, we have some empty spots on the shelf that we want to fill up, of games that we might have missed the first time around. So with the help of eBay we are now going back and filling in those spots.

A long time ago I wrote a poorly written article about how to Play Console Catch ups. My brother and I used this idea to write a monstrously comprehensive list of titles that we wanted to purchase in order to finish off the collection. So we wrote this list of everything that we are after of games on every console released up until now. That includes Wii VC and games for consoles we didn’t quite have just yet.

The other big downer is the NES. Unfortunately we tradgically sold our NES and its 13 or so games years ago. The only console that we have sold. So we are buying it all back and more. What makes it even worse is that we had a 3 in 1 cart featuring Super Mario Bros/Tetris/World Cup 88(has similar sprites to River City Ransom).

When the dust settled our list was a staggering 132 games long. Don’t forget that this includes all games released in the past few months as well. Not just retro games.

In anycase, I have totally forgotten to mention the games that we have picked up so far:

The joy in this exciting venture is that some games are ridiculously cheap, some of the game on that list were just $1. I think that the worse part about this whole thing is that a few of these games I’ve owned/played heaps.

Conclusion

Although it took a while I’m glad that I got all of that off my chest. I thought that it’d be a change of pace from the usual news and editorial based content. Tell me what you think of these sorts of posts as am not sure what to think. I’ll be sure to keep you all up to date on how our little venture goes.

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