“The Oculus Rift has come a long way from a Kickstarter concept piece to billion dollar acquisition by Facebook.”

Oculus VR are not breaking new ground for the integration of VR technology and innovative motion controls into video games.  It has been attempt before in various different guises, from Nintendo’s Power Glove to Victormaxx’s ridiculously expensive Cybermaxx headset. Peripherals for video games have never really improved on the overall gaming experience, at least not enough to make gamers shell out cash on the high priced products. The Oculus Rift is really a refinement of the technology laid down by Jaron Lanier, Thomas G. Zimmerman and others alike. The wide field of view, HD display and head tracking the key selling points of the new device and may well be the final piece of the puzzle that was missing previously. The other issue that held back many devices prior to the current day equivalents was a simple matter of size. One of the first virtual reality head mounted displays was so heavy and cumbersome it had to be suspended from the ceiling, users nicknaming the device the “The Sword of Damocles”. Even Nintendo’s Virtual Boy seems bulky and unwieldy by today’s standards. There is no doubting that Oculus VR have put their work in trying to make their device slip seamlessly into the gaming experience and make the interactivity as intuitive as possible.

“Virtual Reality has come and gone in the past can the current trend maintain prolonged interest and more importantly sell in sustainable numbers.”

However it is not as if the company has a monopoly on the VR market as both Sony and Valve are looking to enter the arena with their own interpretations. At this year’s Games Developers Conference in San Francisco Sony came out swinging with their own version of a VR headset dubbed Project Morpheus. The Japanese tech giants have been working on VR prototype headsets for a number of years, integrating their own Move controllers into the system. Sony has the slight advantage of having a long history in the tech industry and all the experience that comes with it. However the Oculus team can boost about the veteran developers that have joined the company, with id Software founder John Carmack the chief technology officer at Oculus VR. Even Valve’s own VR specialist Michael Abrash has switched sides and joined the Oculus Rift team. It would seem that at any rate gamers will be spoilt for choice when these devices make it market, when that will be is still up in the air. Some hints point towards a late 2014 early 2015 launch for the Oculus Rift, but another important question arises in response to that is the devices proposed price point. Again no official pricing structure has been announced only guesstimates can be made at this time, the most recent Dev kit version of the device going for $350 (€254). $250(€180) to $300(€220) the price range been floated around by some market analysts. Oculus VR founder Palmer Luckey has stated that he may adopt a similar model used by the console manufactures, dropping the price and making up the money on licencing deals with game publishers. This is integral to the success of any of the current VR headsets in development, the support of the video game developers to integrate the technology into their games. At the end of the day if there isn’t an extensive catalogue of titles that will support VR then the Rift, Morpheus, Gameface or any of the other VR headsets will ultimately fail.

“The Oculus Team have had VR market all to themselves the last two years but now competition is heating up with others jumping on the VR bandwagon.”

The decision by “Notch” to pull his official support for Oculus Rift integration with Minecraft doesn’t help with publicity for the VR company. Not that ‘Minecrafters’ desperate to see their blocky creations up close and personal are out of luck, as there are mods that support Oculus Rift input. However an official release of a VR compatible version of Minecraft could have been a big boon for the Oculus Rift over it soon to be competitors. The Rift is definitely carving itself out as a PC peripheral as opposed to Sony’s VR which obviously will be supported by their PlayStation console. Sony already demonstrating their eye tracking technology working with the current PS4 release Infamous: Second Son. So just like the console wars that take place between Sony and Microsoft it is the exclusive titles that can often sway customers moreover than hardware specs. There is even now a host of tech companies that want to take VR even further, not happy with just tracking movement of the player’s vision they want get them on the move. Companies like Virtuix with their Omni motion tracking device want to have Oculus Rift users get of their seats and start moving. The demonstration of Valves new VR headset at Steam Dev Days also incorporated spatial awareness and the capturing of full body movement. This entire aside the current generation of VR is still in its infancy with projects still in development and release dates still TBA. It would seem that there is enough momentum behind the VR push this time that it is unlikely to be a flash in the pan. Whether or not it will be a revolution in video game interaction is still out to tender. A quick review of interactive peripherals of video games past doesn’t paint a great picture. Even the evolution of the video game controller has been fairly stagnant for the last decade, although Valve might have something to say about that. The coming years and eventual product launches will offer a clearer idea for the future of Virtual Reality.

By Colm O’Sullivan

The post The State of the Industry: Virtual Reality The Future or Fad? appeared first on Game Design Ireland.

“Nintendo have relied on countless revisions of the Mario games to help boost console sales, but how long can this tend continue?”

However Nintendo’s policies where formed in an era when the video game industry was in its infancy and companies were viewed a kin to toy manufactures. Nintendo having a long and successful history in the toy manufacturing business prior to their switch to the video game industry. The problem they face now is that the video game industry has moved on from its kid orientated origins and matured alongside its aging gamers. Gamers who want something a little more than Mario in a cat suit, a game like The Last of Us dealing with adult subject matter raking in a host of awards over the last year. It is a sign of the times that as far as the console market is concerned games are generally aimed towards an adult audience. Nintendo over the last decade has managed to sell record amount of devices with their Wii console hitting the 100 million mark. In spite of this sizeable market lead many AAA titles that are ported over to the console failed to sell anywhere near those numbers expected for such a popular console. A fact that has led publishing giant EA to become increasingly hesitant to publish any of its titles to Nintendo’s latest WiiU console. Former EA CEO John Riccitiello stating in March of last year, that no future titles were in the works for the WiiU platform.

 “Nintendo’s flagging console sales saw a sharp increase with the launch of the Wii, its successor the WiiU has come nowhere close in comparison.”

This is the fundamental root of Nintendo’s problems is that despite the falling out between the company and major publishers like EA they ultimately seem unconcerned. Nintendo long ago became the kingpins of the video game industry and it’s a state of mind that they haven’t lost even in the face of their impending failure. Nintendo’s failure is not something that can be predicted by diving into the future but instead taking a look back at the past and a company in a similar situation Nintendo is in today. Sega were Nintendo biggest rivals with the two consistently going head to head with their console platforms throughout the 80’s and 90’s. Like Nintendo they often favoured first party development over licencing deals with third party companies, relying on iconic video game characters like Sonic The Hedgehog to sell their consoles. The 1998 release of the revolutionary but ultimately poorly selling Dreamcast is the device that spelled an end to Sega’s days as a console manufacturer. Sega announcing its intention to become solely a video game publisher only three years later, this has allowed them to remain reasonable profitable within the video game industry. Even going as far as to swallow their pride and negotiate an exclusivity deal for the Sonic franchise with their old rivals Nintendo.

 “Nintendo might take heed for their former rivals Sega. Whose consoles failure to gain a sizable percentage forced the company out of the console market for good.”

Pride is something that would be a bitter pill for the Nintendo executives to swallow if they ever came to approach Sony or Microsoft about licencing Mario to rival platforms. It is also the fact that despite poor sales for their WiiU console they have managed to retain a decent share of the handheld market in the face of stiff competition from mobile devices. Since the launch of the GameBoy back in 1989, Nintendo have managed to rack up impressive unit sales in that sector of the market. The games developed for the handheld market are generally of a more casual nature and aimed at a younger audience. Something that Nintendo excels at with franchises like Pokémon, Animal Crossing, Kirby, etc. Many analysts have stated that one way for Nintendo to re-establish itself in the industry would be to port many of its handheld titles over to mobile platforms. The latest version of their handheld devices the Nintendo 3DS and 2DS have sold over 42 million units combined, double that of their preceding device. Although something has be said for the fact that there are over 250 million iPhones and over 1 billion Android devices. Just looking at the numbers it might seem like an obvious move for Nintendo to port its games to mobile, but it is unlikely Nintendo will want to enter into a market where they would have to relinquish a certain level of control. More importantly they would have to share in the profits with Apple and Goggle, one reason why Nintendo are so guarded over they own IP’s.

 “Nintendo have hinted that they are doing some research into smart phone technology, but seeing any of their games on iPhone or Android will be a long way off yet.”

Nintendo is somewhat stuck at a crossroad with it obvious to see that their latest console is a failure but on the other hand they seen positive sales of handheld titles. The latest games in the Pokémon franchise accumulating over 11 million in sales in the last 12 months. Boosts to profits like these will only help Nintendo in a small way with its general loss of market share in the console sector not looking good on their financial reports. Should Nintendo follow Sega’s path and give up on the manufacturing side of things and primary focus on software development. That question will become clearer based on the sales of Nintendo’s next console; the company cannot afford to have another console launch fail to generate sales. Another WiiU would surely spell the end for Nintendo’s console days. However many would have said the same around the time of the GameCube, that like the WiiU lost Nintendo a sizeable share of the market. However they were able to bounce back with the highly successful Wii console so a lot rides on the success of their next console launch. In essence Nintendo needs to remove itself form its self-imposed ideology formed in the early 80’s and join the rest of its competitors in the 21^st Century.

By Colm O’Sullivan

The post The State of the Industry: The Fall of Nintendo appeared first on Game Design Ireland.

“Chinese history and culture has traditionally been viewed through the eyes of Western and Japanese developers.”

The 14 year old ban on selling video game console sold by foreign companies has been temporally lifted. The lifting of the ban will open the doors for the likes of Sony and Microsoft to sell their consoles to Chinese consumers, convenient timing with the two manufactures recently launching their new line of next gen consoles. Of course it will not be the first time Chinese gamers have had a chance to play Microsoft’s or Sony’s devices, with the black market for consoles ever present during the ban. It is also not the first time that foreign console developers have entered into the Chinese market. In 2003 Nintendo launched the iQue Player that was only sold in China and was an attempt to curb the rampant piracy that has plagued the video game industry in the country. China’s policy of keeping manufacturing in house has led to a culture of imitation. Where making counterfeit versions of popular western products is seen as more beneficial for the economy then spending money to import the goods from other markets. Any video game developer or console manufacturer will have to compete with an industry where the term copyright infringement doesn’t quite translate into mandarin. Although the ban has been lifted it is not open season for console manufactures with all devices to be sold in the country having to pass government review. If it meets the requirements it is then only available within Shanghai’s free trade zone. So combined with this and the extreme levels of piracy it will be an uphill battle for any foreign video game company to establish themselves within the Chinese market.

“The iQue Player was based of the outdated N64 system and never really gained much favour with Chinese consumers.”

Not deterred by these facts many western companies have already cast an eye on new digital hubs within the country as potential base of their Asian operations. Companies like Ubisoft have already gained a foothold in the Chinese market establishing Ubisoft Chengdu in 2007. Others like Activision and Blizzard have made deals with Chinese based companies to distribute their games, in what is becoming one of the fastest growing markets for video games. The one sector of the Chinese market that has seen the biggest growth is the PC market, in some part due to the lack of access to consoles and other devices. PC’s taking up two thirds of the industry as a whole and pulling in over $6 billion in revenue in the year of 2011 alone, with that number more than likely increasing in the intervening years. The PC market in China is one the largest globally, mainly thanks to the proliferation of free play games. The free to play model proving very popular in China, where the average worker only earns about 4,000 Yuan a month; just under €500 a month. The high price point of console and console games alike will be an inhibiting factor for many in China wanting to get their hands on the new consoles, with both the PS4 and XboxOne costing as much as an average worker’s monthly salary. Another reason why cheap counterfeit games and consoles are so prevalent in China with video game piracy also at above average levels.

“The Chinese game Final Combat strangely resembles a certain multiplayer title developed by Valve. Just can’t put a finger on it?”

China is not the only Asian region that has lacked investment by foreign companies with the Middle East also a relatively untapped market. Although many developers have published and distributed games to the Middle East, the translation of the games material over to the Arabic culture has been more an afterthought for the games creators. Just like China there are certain government restrictions that have hampered many major titles from been distributed throughout the region. Alcohol, sex and excessive violence all running afoul with the government’s censorship boards. Countries likes Saudi Arabia enforcing far stricter constraints than others. Again Ubisoft in its goal to grow its global presence has established an office in Abu Dhabi in 2011 to help localize many of its titles for the Middle Eastern audience. The Arabic language and its grammatical form proving to be the biggest challenge for western developers to interpolate. However with a market that is estimated to draw in $1 -2 billion in revenue each year, it should be in the interest of the big developers and publishers to investigate the potential for the expansion of their operations in the region.

“Skeletons seem to put the frighteners on Chinese officials, a comparison of the undead character from World of Warcraft stands as a testament to this.”

For a long time Japan has for the most part been the sole country with a substantial video game industry in Asia. Long established through companies like Nintendo, Konami, Sega, et al. However many analysts and industry professionals have been extolling the merits of other potential markets in Asia, China been the most enticing. The industry in China is still very localized and may take a decade or so to reach the same levels of revenue as its western counterparts, but its exponential growth his hard to ignore. Companies like NetEase and Tencent could be the next big players in the video game industry. Tencent over the last few years acquiring stakes in western developers such as Epic Games creators of Gears of War and Riot Games the studio behind the popular MMOBA game League of Legends. It might not be long before gamers will be playing titles that are made in China and disturbed to western audience, but importantly come from a Chinese cultural perspective. A game where the Chinese are the good guys and it’s the Americans who are the warmongering invaders.

By Colm O’Sullivan

The post The State of the Industry: The Rising in the East appeared first on Game Design Ireland.

The post The State of the Industry: Year in Review 2013 appeared first on Game Design Ireland.

Rockstar’s stalwart franchise has long being a torn in the side of concerned parents and censorship campaigners. The GTA series has being at the forefront of video game controversy ever since their first outing back in 1997. The first game in the series was a top down open world that allowed players to mow down pedestrians in cars and shoot up the streets with an array of different weapons. The general public and mainstream press at the time where shocked at such levels of violence in a game that was in their opinion targeted at children. A problem that has always dogged games like GTA that feature violent or graphic content is that although that most carry an 18 or R rating, video games are still generally viewed as a medium for children. This of course is far from the case as the annual survey of the average gamer carried out by the ESA (Entertainment Software Association), puts the average age of a video game player at 30. Nevertheless GTA has always been used as an example for video games effect on the youth. Whether it ranges from excessive playtime causing mental health issues that affect many children or even incidents of young people carrying out extreme acts of violence being attributed to the influence of the game. Although the latest game in the series has just being released and once again carries an 18’s rating it wasn’t long before controversy reared its head. It was an employee of a video game retail outlet that raised the issue of negligent parents purchasing GTA V for their children, even with the content warnings on the box and the advice of the retailer falling on deaf ears. It would seem that Rockstar can rarely release a game without it causing some level of controversy. Rockstar’s Table Tennis probably one of the rare exceptions in their catalogue of games not to be involved in any controversy.

“GTA V is already putting Rockstar in hot water over the scenes of torture featured in one of the mission, an obvious satire on current American politics but a step to far for many”

The first GTA game set the tone for the public’s reaction to the violence that featured in the series. The game received general negative reaction from the news media in many European countries with the game being banned outright in Brazil. The next major controversy came with GTA III as the series moved in the 3D realm with the violence now more realistic than its predecessors. The main complaints levelled against the game was the apparent lack of consequence to the criminal actions carried out by the main character, with no lasting repercussions for killing police or military personal. The message being sent to the player in the game doesn’t reflect real life. A just argument if it is a child playing the game who may not be able to reason out the differences between the virtual and the real world. However as is always stated by the game developers and publishers is that these game are for adults who are able to distance themselves from the games universe and the one we inhabit. Similar issues where raised with the next game in the series GTA Vice City set in a fictional Miami during the 80’s, however this time it was Cuban and Haitian groups that also added to the debate. They argued that they had being poorly represented in the game as nothing more than criminals and thugs.

“GTA IV saw Rockstar break new ground with criminal violence not the only controversial issue, the main characters ability to drive while intoxicated raising the ire of many concerned campaigners.”

All of these grievances where soon overshadowed with the release of GTA San Andreas and the major controversy the unfurled around the sexual content of the game, the fiasco that was otherwise known as the “Hot Coffee Mod”. A sex based mini-game that was removed from the final releases of the game but was modded back in later by those who found the hidden source code. Although not featured in the retail release and any modifications to the game breaking the EULA (End User Licence Agreement), the news media focus it accusations entirely on the games creators instead of those who distributed the mod. The mod features the main character CJ engaging in sexual intercourse with one of several girlfriends that appeared as part of the dating mini-game. The “Hot Coffee Mod” allows players to control CJ actions while engaged in the act of intercourse, with similar controls to the dancing mechanics used in other parts of the game but didn’t feature any nudity. Regardless of whether the content was hidden or a breach the EULA the game faced major criticisms by numerous interest groups, even senator Hillary Clinton at the time demanded that new regulations be drawn up for video games. The controversy resulted in the games re-classification by the ESRB (Entertainment Software Ratings Board) from mature to adults only. It marked a point where GTA and its creators Rockstar were made the focus of the media’s negative attention towards video games. The series has continued that tradition right up to the current release, in fact the Guinness Book of Records Gamers Edition even cited the franchise as the most controversial in the industry with over 4,000 articles written on the subject.

“The GTA series has run the gambit of culture taboos from drug trafficking, glorifying criminal acts, full frontal male nudity, excessive violence to the sexualization and subjugation of women.”

All thee controversies aside the question still remains that, is GTA a bad influence for young people? The problem with such a question is that there is no simple answer, there are far too many variables in the equation to find a definitive cause of negative behaviour in young people. It is far easier to lay the blame with one source instead of fully investigating the myriad of reasons for young people to act out in violent or disobedient ways. Countless surveys of that effect of violent video games on the mental state of young people have been deemed inconclusive, with some arguing that games do have a negative affect and other contending such views. There are some that go as far as to argue that violent video game allow people with violent dispositions to alleviate their stress and behavioural triggers. Whether these statements are true is irrelevant as it is not just video game alone that can influence somebody to carry out a violent act, if video games are to blame then so is film, TV, literature, the internet and any other number of mediums that feature violent or sexual content. Prior the rise of video games into mainstream culture, it was often violent movies or TV shows that took the brunt of the general public’s criticisms. It was the rock n’ roll stars of the 50’s and 60’s such as Elvis and Johnny Cash that were blamed for corrupting the minds of young people. Video games are simply the most misunderstood medium at the moment and therefore make for an easy target. Until the video game industry becomes as well known and ubiquitous as film or TV, it will always be used as a way to explain the complex negative issues regarding youth wellbeing and health. Instead of spending time addressing the growing problems of youth violence the media just looks to a game like GTA for the easy answers to their problems. The scapegoat for much larger economic and socio-political problems that can’t be solved with news report attacking GTA over the content within their game. Children by their nature are more impressionable and vulnerable to graphic content then others, however simply looking to ban violent video games is not going to stop them from being influenced by another source. More effort should be made to protect children from such games not by censorship of such material but through proper parental guidance enforcing moral authority on the media that their children can consume. In an industry that boost more content than ever before why should a child be allowed to play such violent games, when a host of more appropriate titles are available on the market.

By Colm O’Sullivan

The post The State of the Industry: GTA’s Influence on Youth appeared first on Game Design Ireland.

“Who is the most recognisable figure game developer Gabe Newell or director Steven Spielberg, I’m guessing the latter”

The end of year crunch is upon us, the release of GTA V next week will be the start of a season of AAA video game launches and with two new consoles also coming out it should be one of the busiest in recent years. This massive influx of income generated by the industry over the coming months will no doubt grab the attention of some of the news media outlets. This is a time when I dread to watch or read the news in case I stumble across a story or piece on video games. If you stick to reasoned and more favourable news sites that are dedicated to provide news on the latest games and tech, then you’ll be ok. However if you stray onto the more conventional news outlets the view that is portrayed of video games and gamers alike is often stereotyped and offensive. The main issue is not any sort of dislike or angst against the industry it is purely a case of misunderstanding. Many of the reporters and journalist don’t do their research and revert to using generalizations to make the piece more palatable for the viewers who are also likely misinformed about the culture of video games. Although as gamers we would like to think that video games have come to rival the film and music industries and yes financially the video game industry does compete alongside the more established mediums. The one problem is that outside of those who are involved in the industry, it is still not as well known by the general public. The main reason why societal problems such as violence and attention deficit disorders are wrongly attribute to video games as unlike the other mediums that make up an integral part of common culture, the video game industry is an easy scapegoat as it is seen as the outsider with nothing significant to add to the zeitgeist.

“Is this what the mainstream media think all FPS players look like?”

It was a recent article on the tech news website Techdirt that really highlights this stereotyping and generalization. The piece is written on a CNBC report that discusses the issues surrounding fans of the Call of Duty Series. The report is a completely misinformed unresearched biased piece of journalism that really doesn’t deserve the airtime and the Techdirt columnist pulls no punches when he deconstructs the news report. It is just one of many news reports that feature reporters and analysts who have never played a video game or carried out any sort of fact finding or research, but have very opinionated statements and judgments to make on the subject. The most infamous of these botched reports was the Fox News claim that Mass Effect featured full frontal nudity and a completely uncensored sex scene. The report featured psychologist Cooper Lawrence who weighed in with some very assured comments on the games graphic content even though when questioned admitted to have never played the game. When later showed the sexual content from the game she retracted her comments. It shows the mainstream media’s lack of respect for video games and the people who play them. It very unlikely that when Jeremy Paxman is interviewing a politician that he hasn’t done his research on that person beforehand. So why is it ok for reporters and journalists to comment on an industry that they know nothing about apart from some misguided stereotypes or views that were established twenty years ago. Video games have moved on from Pong and Space Invaders, but to others it is still just a passive past time with no cultural merit or beneficial qualities.

“Can the media just give GTA a pass this time, haven’t Rockstar suffered enough in the accusations and criticisms in the past.”

As mentioned above the release of GTA V is close at hand and undoubtedly will spark a series of reports on what has become the bad boy of the industry in the eyes of the news media. Whenever the video game industry becomes a target for the general public’s problems, Rockstar’s title series is often the focus of those accusations. So what will the media attack the game on this time violence, sex, drugs etc. If they do want to make a case for the negative influence that a game like GTA has on people then all I hope is that they argue a strong and informed case and not resort to the usual hyperbole. Telling it’s audience that a company Rockstar is the reason for all of our societal woes, instead of facing up to the reality that it can’t be pinned down to one single source and that at the end of the day the video game industry isn’t going anywhere as much as they try to take it down.

By Colm O’Sullivan

The post The State of the Industry: Media vs Gamers appeared first on Game Design Ireland.

“The new Call of Duty game will likely bring up this debate once again with hordes of children slaughtering hundreds of virtual bad guys”

Recently Australia’s video game ratings board the ACB went on the offensive against overly violent video games with both State of Decay and the unreleased Saints Row IV being denied classification which effectively means that stores won’t stock the games on their shelves. In the case of State of Decay it was the drug use that put the game over the edge as far as the ACB was concerned. Left4Dead 2 faced similar hurdles when going through Australia’s ratings system and was equally deemed too violent for classification, its use of melee weapons against the undead was too much for the antipodean audience. However on the other side of the world in the US the game received a mature rating which allows anyone over the age of 17 to play the game, in Europe under the PEGI system the game is rated 18. It should be pretty clear then that a game like Left4Dead 2 is not appropriate for young children to play, very much in the same way a child in those countries would not be given a zombie film like 28 Days Later to watch as it too has an 18 rating. The two pieces of media have a very similar amount of graphic content with the video game potential being more graphic due to the first person interactive nature of the game, putting the player right in the heart of the action. However parents who buy this game for their children will most likely not have made such a comparison and still hold to the 30 year old misconception that video games are still just a toy for children. Over the last few years the ESA (Entertainment Software Association) has regularly released stats on the average age of a video game player which at the moment stands at 30 which is down from 35 in previous years. The fact is that the video game industry is and adult industry with the vast majority of AAA titles geared towards an over 18’s market. As the industry gears up for the end of year rush of video game releases, the majority of the titles among them will be rated for over 18’s with Call of Duty: Ghosts, Assassin’s Creed IV, Watchdogs, Battlefield 4 and the most contentious of them all GTA V. The publishers don’t just favour games with adult content for arbitrary reasons, they target this sector of the audience as they are most likely to have a regular income to spend on frequent video game purchases. The industry has also matured along with its audience, those children who played the heavily pixelated more child friendly games in the 80’s have now grown up and are looking for games that are geared towards them. There is still a large percentage of the market dedicated to more child friendly games with Nintendo and its latest console the WiiU still championing itself as a toy for kids and too most of the general public this is still the image they have of an industry that have grown well beyond that.

“I’m sure GTA V creators Rockstar will hope they don’t have to deal with a media backlash over the games content as they have in the past”

The media has spent a long time painting the video game industry as the bogey man and using violent video games as the scapegoat to explain horrific shootings and tragedies that don’t always have a clear explanation. Time and again it is a particular video game a violent shooter and murderer played that becomes the focus of the media’s attention even if is purely circumstantial, with no clear connection between a person carrying out real acts of violence and a game that may allow them to commit similar virtual acts. The most infamous of these claims is that the game Doom influenced the two shooters in the Columbine High School Massacre. There was evidence that the two shooters Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold played the game extensively, with rumours of a custom map of the high school made by them for the game. There is evidence there to say that the game influence them in their actions, but as documentary film maker Michael Moore argued in his film about the incident that any number of external stimuli could have influenced them. In fact he makes a case that bowling could be as much to blame for their actions, as the two played the game as part of extra-curricular classes for the school. Video games alone cannot take the blame as there are hundreds of factors that could lead a person down such a path. A recent case on the island of Majorca blames Dead Rising 2 and in particular its spiked bat weapon that is associated with its protagonist, as the influence for a son to killing his father with a similar implement. However when reviewing the case it is clear to see that there is more to this story, but it makes for a catchy headline and creates more interest whether it’s right or wrong. Since the early pixelated days of Mortal Kombat and Wolfienstien3D, violent video game have been the easy answer to what is obviously a cultural and physiological problem that society wishes to ignore. The use the video game industry as the scapegoat is a way of avoiding this issue in the same way film, music and TV have long been the negative focus of the news media.

“It quaint to think what the media believed to be ultra-realistic violent video games that now look pre-historic in terms of graphical realism”

Is there a solution too these problems that the industry faces over its violent and graphic content. At the moment the biggest issue is the legal enforcement of the various video game ratings. The main problem is that only 9 out of the 33 participating European countries actually make it illegal for a game to be sold without a rating. Although even in those nine countries which include the UK, France, Austria, Switzerland et al. only a few of which make it illegal for a shop to sell game to a person under the age rating. It is usually left up to the discretion of the store owner to enforce such policy, which is the case for Ireland. Even if such laws are in place there is nothing to stop an adult buying an age rated game on the child’s behalf. The other problem that has recently become a bigger issue is the rise of the digital content marketplaces, which means that games can be bought anonymously with no proof of age and often the games do not have to carry an age rating. As the video game industry is still at a very young stage in comparison to other better established mediums such as film and TV, it is still very much misunderstood by those outside of its main audience. There will always be a market for violent video games and simply calling for a ban or even the ludicrous idea of taxing such games, are not the ways in which this societal problem can be fixed. It is up to the industry to try harder to educate parents and others that video games are not just for children anymore and there are ways to allow their children to enjoy video games without subjecting them to violence or graphic content. It is also the duty of the parents to heed the warnings and research the content and age ratings of the games they allow their children to play, in the very same way they approach other forms of media.

By Colm O’Sullivan

The post The State of the Industry: Finish Him!! appeared first on Game Design Ireland.

“Assassin’s Creed 4; Pirating a game that glorifies pirates has a certain whiff of irony about it”

File sharing is as old as the internet itself in fact that was the original purpose of computer networks such as ARPANET created by Universities for the free exchange of information. It wasn’t until the late 90’s and the creation of the site Napster that the concept of file sharing copyrighted material in Napster’s case music became a hot topic in the media. Napster was eventually brought down under a sea of litigation over copyrighted material and only later resurfaced under a pay for play model. It seemed that its downfall would see an end to illegal downloads but it only fuelled the flames of others looking to usurp the big money corporations and since then the number of P2P and file sharing website has grown exponentially with several sites rising out of the ashes of an injuncted website e.g. PirateBay, MegaUpload. Music and Movies make up the major share of the files uploaded to these sites but video games have gained a larger presence in recent years. Publishers and creators of video games have from an early stage looked to fight illegal downloads with DRM technology ever advancing to combat those who look for ways around it. CD Keys where previously the most commonly used form of DRM but hackers found easy ways to decrypt those keys, so developers looked to use online authentication to combat this and from a platform like Steam this seems to work quite effectively and others like the latest SimCity cause mass uproar from the gaming community. Developers and torrenters have continued this struggle from the early days of file sharing to now and the fight isn’t dying down. Piracy is said to be gathering steam and is set to bring down the gaming industry if it continues at its current pace but is this just hyperbole our is there truth to pessimistic statements  like this. Up until now there has being no study based on video game piracy and any facts or figures given out by either side have always being vastly biased with both parties only agreeing that it happens but with no real indications of what the actual numbers are or to what degree economically piracy has an effect on the video game industry.

“The faces of evil from the point of view of publishers and developers alike”

A joint study by Anders Drachen of Aalborg University, Robert Veitch of Copenhagen Business School and Kevin Bauer of University of Waterloo have looked to achieve the first non-biased research into the prevalence of video game based torrenting. The study analysed file sharing of around 173 video games over a three-month period between 2010 and 2011, only illegal copyrighted games were included in the results as demo and trials or legally distributed games were ignored. The researchers of the study developed technology to interface with the Bit Torrent search engine to gain the metadata information from the shared files to retrieve a list of unique IP’s that downloaded the file. From there they were able to draw up results of which games were pirated the most. Overall a 12.6 million unique peers were found using Bit Torrent to download copyrighted games. The findings make for some interesting reading with some common misconceptions laid to rest. Surprisingly it wasn’t the massive gaming markets of the US and Britain that ranked among the highest torrents per population that honour goes to the eastern European countries of Romania, Croatia, Greece, and Hungary. Most would also believe that it would be the latest instalment of Call of Duty that would rank highest in the numbers of downloads whereas in fact it ranked sixth just behind Tron Evolution. This raises an interesting point as Tron Evolution didn’t sell nearly anywhere as well as Black Ops and reviews were mixed trending towards negative. Is piracy the reason this game didn’t sell as well as it should have. This is where the issue becomes less clear cut, some would argue in particular Propaganda Games who were its creators that this demonstrates that their company lost money due to lack of sales from its players using torrents instead. On the other hand you could argue that a vast majority of those who torrented the game did so because they wouldn’t have paid money for a game with not so positive reviews. The study unfortunately can’t answer these questions as it only collected data in a small time frame and to gain some more concrete evidence a longer case study is needed. RPG and Action-Adventure games ranked amongst the most highly pirated genres but it was interestingly puzzle games that topped the list which shows that the casual gaming market suffers from piracy as much as the AAA best sellers. Family friendly and kid orientated games were also popular among those pirating games, again what conclusions can be draw from these results, is it the kids themselves pirating the games or cash strapped parents trying to keep up with their child’s insatiable appetite for video games. A study like this is important to better understand a subject that undoubtedly has an effect on the industry, how effective it is hard to say and would be reason enough to conduct further research into the matter.

“Watch out Bethesda the pirates have your games in their crosshairs”

Video game piracy is part of the industry whether the publishers and developers like it or not. Some have looked to embrace it by using the P2P networks to distribute updates and additional content for their games or others using in game advertisement to alleviate lost game sales. Others will always look to combat it with the console market in particular having an aversion to piracy, causing many console users having their accounts banned for playing pirated games. The questions that should be asked is not whether piracy is good or bad but what are the real short and long term affects that it has on the industry. Those that argue that they wouldn’t have bought the game legitimately and only pirated it because it was free and subsequently argue that they haven’t caused any loses to the publisher or developer would want to study the case of German developers Crytek and their 2007 FPS game Crysis. The game was heavily pirated which lead to a higher number of user downloading patches and accessing the games server’s then copies of the game were sold. In this case it has cost the developers money to update the game and maintain servers for more players then they expected to support financially. Piracy isn’t a black and white issue and is far more complex when calculating loses compared to the film and music industries. The rise of free to play games have offered a new way to tackle piracy but for the mainstream video game releases it is still comes down customer pondering the eternal question.

By Colm O’Sullivan

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“Mid 90’s mobile gaming at it’s best”

The game that set this industry on its path to widespread recognition was Snake which was available on the Nokia brand of phones in the late 90’s. It is estimated that 350 million people have played the game based on the number of phones sold. Although still a 2D monochromatic version of the game it gave other developers the idea that the ever technologically advancing mobile phone could be used as a platform for gaming working in much the same way as the already established handheld market did, a variant of the game had appeared on Nintendo Gameboy under the title of Serpent. At the time there was no market for mobile games as most came pre-loaded onto the phones and was hampered by the hardware and graphical limitations of the phones themselves. The other major hurdle was the access to these games with no proper mobile networking infrastructure in place at the time, most games were sold through the network carriers with download speeds hampering the development of more advanced games or successful games being able to reach a wider audience. It wouldn’t be until the advent of smart phones with powerful processers and larger memory storage that mobile games would look to compete with the console and pc markets, now with Wi-Fi and 3G enabled phones the mobile software developers such as Apple and Google could now establish digital marketplaces like the iTunes App Store and Google Play to deliver the digital content. In the intervening years the industry included some failures with the N-Gage been the most well-known of these. Nokia had looked to capitalize on the success they had with selling phones that would allow its customers to play games. Among many hardware and technical faults that plagued the device the main issue was the lack of support by third party developers to make games for the device, at the time not many video game companies were solely established to develop for the mobile market, most games where made by those who worked on handheld games or were simply ports of other companies popular titles. The game that could be argued to be the catalyst for the mobile industries growth is of course Angry Birds made by Finnish game developers Rovio, the company was established in 2003 as Relude and aimed to develop specifically for mobile platforms. The company has also made recent moves into the publishing sector of mobile gaming, with their new initiative Rovio Stars helping developers Nitrome and 5 Ants get their games to market.

“Many other ragdoll demolition games have come and gone, but Angry Birds pleasing visuals have seen Rovio rise to the top”

Angry Birds was released onto iOS platforms in December of 2009 and instantly became one of the bestselling games on the mobile market. It currently sits third in the list of bestselling mobile games with 12 million downloads just behind Tetris and Pac-Man. Aside from the games appealing aesthetics it is it’s unique touchscreen mechanics that helped boost its popularity and sales, the development of smart phones with touchscreen features and gyroscopic sensors allowed game developers to explore new and unique gameplay mechanics that just aren’t possible on other devices. Other games that utilized this technology include the likes of Doodle Jump, Fruit Ninja or Temple Run. Due to its success Rovio has been able to port the game to several other devices including a move to consoles and pc’s and has led to the subsequent release of multiple sequels and follow up games in the series. One of these ports is the Angry Birds Friends which is a Facebook version of the game and was released last year. The rise in popularity of Social networks and the developments in web based gaming has led to developers now shifting focus over to this new platform for development with Zynga being one of the key players in this area of the industry.

“Farmville seems to teach people to become organized hoarders, how many horses or elephant’s does’ one person need”

Facebook has seen itself become the dominant leader in the social networking scene and has a user base exceeding 800 million and daily activity on the site reaching over 400 million. Undoubtedly many of those users log on every day to play one of the many games now available on the site, Zynga’s Farmville being one of the most popular games with a monthly active user base of over 250 million. The game is based on the freemium business model that permeates much of the gaming industry today. The model was proposed by venture capitalist Fred Wilson in a 2006 blog post “Give your service away for free, possibly ad supported but maybe not, acquire a lot of customers very efficiently through word of mouth, referral networks, organic search marketing, etc., then offer premium priced value added services or an enhanced version of your service to your customer base.”, today only two of the top 50 gaming apps in the iTunes store don’t fit into this model. The mechanic used by Farmville and many other like it is the limitation of actions that can be carried out over a certain time period, where traditionally with video game development a player can spend as many hours as they wish playing a game, with the likes of Farmville there is only a certain amount of task that can be completed until the user has to wait a period of time for their actions tally to refill. Incentives are offered to those who invite friends to play the game, subscribe to certain in-game advertisement or pay with real money to refill their actions tally. The model that is used by Zynga has come under many criticisms for manipulating it players most of whom are young as is their target audience in forcing them to spend money to simply continue to play the game without waiting, they have also being subject to multiple lawsuits for promoting advertisements in its games that don’t conform to the proper regulatory bodies and guidelines set by Facebook. The concept of free-to-play games is currently a contentious issue in the industry as there are many arguments both for and against its use, although not officially confirmed it is highly likely that free-to-play games and the freemium model could be coming to the next-generation of consoles with Epic Games Mark Rein speaking at the UK’s Game Horizon conference “The next-gen consoles are going to be fully embracing the free-to-play and these IAP-type business models”. The issue that has many gamers worried is what is going to be both Sony and Microsoft’s approach to the freemium model, Valve’s Team Fortress 2 and Zombie Studios Blacklight: Retribution (announced to launch on the PS4) have paved the way for a successful freemium model that balances the price of additional content and the effects that the content has on those who choose not to spend any money.

 “Valve’s endless obsession with hats, has proved to be a profitable business model”

The mobile and social networking gaming markets have seen a massive rise in popularity thanks primarily to the technology and devices that run these games. Unlike in other sectors of the industry where it is the games themselves that help grow the consumer numbers for a particular device, the casual gaming market relies on manufactures like Samsung and Apple to develop better phones and tablets that our able to advance the graphics and mechanics of the games and companies like Zynga relying on Facebook’s growing popularity to maintain their own user base. Largely the causal gaming market relies on small independent game developers creating games that help to gain recognition for the industry as the vast majority of AAA developers have yet to come to grips with the limitations of mobile devices and prefer to work with more technologically advanced consoles and pc’s. Devices such as the Ouya look to bridge that gap by basing their consoles off the existing android technology that powers a large majority of phones and tablets on the market. It would seem that a move towards a cross platform development is something that might be in the near future but it will still take the major developers wanting to work with the limited technology and the manufactures offering more advanced devices for a blend of the two industry sectors to happen.

By Colm O’Sullivan

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Within the next year the video game market is set to reshuffle as Microsoft and Sony gear up for the release of their next gen console. A battle that will be fought and won by whoever can spend the most to attract exclusive titles and DLC and which side can muster enough hype to keep their loyal fans happy and possibly turn a few from the other side.
We can rewind back to 2005 and the release of the Xbox 360, it was Microsoft’s second outing in the console market and with a year on its main rival they easily won a place in gamer’s hearts and emptied their wallets. After the dust settled Microsoft had sold over 75 million units with Sony trailing behind on 70 million itself. Although Nintendo’s console outsold both of them with nearly a hundred million units, it failed to earn respect from gamers and developers alike with most title ported to the Wii failing to sell, which might have something to do with Nintendo’s poor reputation with third party developers. A reputation that was formed in the video game crash of 1983 where Nintendo were one of the few companies that survived the oversaturation of consoles on the market. Is the modern video game industry heading towards a similar faith? The Xbox 720 and PS4 are forecast to release before the end of the year with Nintendo’s latest iteration the Wii U already on the market and the android based Ouya and rumour Valve steam box also in the pipeline, not to mention Xi3 highly anticipated pc/console hybrid the Piston also coming out this year the video game industry is set to become a battleground, that might change the dynamics going forward or send us all back to early 80’s levels of recession.

“Let the fan boy flame wars commence”

All avid gamers and journalist are marking off their calendars waiting until May 21st the rumoured date for Microsoft’s big unveiling of its latest console. Although some have said that E3 which is taking place from the 11-13 June is the more likely candidate which would make a more appropriate setting for a console announcement this fact is backed up by the ever present countdown to E3 on Microsoft Director of Programing Major Nelson’s blog post. This would also fit with Microsoft’s previous announcements regarding its other consoles also happing at E3 in the past. The announcement will merely be a formality as the hype for this console is already at its peak with most of the hardware specifications been leaked over the last few months. A decent press event for Microsoft might be due all the same with one it’s employees getting into hot water on Twitter in the last week. Adam Orth the Creative Director at Microsoft Studios has left his position following the outcry from his comments on the social media site. Orth was discussing the concept of Online DRM which is rumoured to be present in the new console and how gamers must “deal with it” the comment that caused more outrage was in response to a question posed of living in a rural location such as Janesville, Wisconsin or Blacksburg, Virginia that would result in poor internet connection to which Orth responded “why on earth would I live there”. Orth has now removed his digital presence online which is understandable with the amount of backlash caused by his comments. ’Always Online’ is an issue that Microsoft would rather gloss over at the moment especially with the bad taste left by the latest Sims City still felt by gamers and an upcoming announcement would help soothe their tempers. Microsoft also have to contend with Sony who have already had their unveiling back in February with a host of social media and entertainment features announced, but little in the way of technical details or even a glimpse of what its  latest offering looks like. The PS4 is set to boast a similar level of hardware specs as the Xbox720 possibly with a better processors although it’s hard to make comparisons when no official specifications have been released. The next generation of consoles look to catch up with the pc market in terms of hardware with the memory, processing and graphical power of the new consoles equalling a high performance gaming machine. However it is unlikely that it will be the hardware or even the social media features that will persuade gamers to turn out their pockets, it will be the games that Microsoft and Sony can provide that will decide who wins the battle. Sony have announced both the Witcher 3 and Watchdogs as upcoming PS4 titles although more than likely these games will also come to the next Xbox, it is the exclusive titles that hold gamers attention and if it is the exclusive titles that will decide which console reigns supreme then if Valve are determined to enter the console market with the rumoured Steam Box then by purely measuring statistics they will easily win with the PC market boasting the largest number of exclusive games most of which can be found on Valve’s digital marketplace Steam.

“We can only hope to see such level of detail on the next generation of consoles”

Steam has being the saving grace of the PC market with its effectiveness at refocusing the attention of gamers and developers from the console back to the home computer. Since its launch in 2003 Steam has set the trend for the online gaming marketplace being able offer low prices by avoiding high street retailers and selling games straight from publishers to the customer direct and promoting indie developers through its Greenlight program, with the likes of EA taking years before they realised the potential of digital content delivery with their Origin platform launch in 2011 and unable to garner as much favour with gamers. Valve now looks set to take Steam into the living rooms of gamers and compete for space in the TV cabinet alongside the Xbox and PlayStation. The seeds have already been sown with Valve releasing the Big Picture mode which a software update to Steam that allows the user a more console friendly interface for use with a PC hooked up to a TV screen. The question would be do gamers really want another console like this when at the moment a high powered laptop connected to the TV can do what Valve has stated they want their own console to be able to do. A laptop that can also be used as normal computer and not built to be a closed off system which is the one reason for Steam success and the division between console and PC gaming. It would seem Valve have fallen for the bait of the console market and believe there is success to be found but that remains to be seen as it is not the piece of hardware that makes the money but the contracts and deals between the console manufactures and third party developers that have led to Microsoft and Sony’s financial bounty. If the Steam box becomes a more limited and closed off system as with other console on the market they may turn away third party developers who prefer the open and unlimited system that exist in the current PC market. It’s a trap that the makers of the Ouya console have also fallen for.

“Is this the face of Sony & Microsoft’s doom”

The android based device is set for a retail release in June of this year and is priced at $99 dollars. The project was funded by Kickstarter and raised over $8 million dollars and became the sites second highest earning project. Was all that money worth it however, from the initial reviews of the developer’s version released last month it would look like it has potential to become an alternative gaming platform but it’s just not ready yet to compete in the cut throat console market. The critics have panned it for it cheap controller design which could be expected from a pre-release version but it seems it’s biggest problem is that even before its official release it is already a generation behind other android devices already on the market. In a benchmarking test carried out by Futuremark it ranked 78th among other android devices which is not really good enough even with its lower price tag then some of the other devices above it on the list. If the Ouya is looking to set itself up as a legitimate gaming console then it needs to give gamers a reason to switch from their current devices an buy the Ouya. The Ouya is trying to compete on two fronts with the mobile phone market that already holds the vast majority of android game sales and to convince the console gamers that their device is a cheap alternative to the already established consoles. It is hard to see why gamers would ditch their phones that have so much more functionally beyond gaming or how they can be turned away from major AAA titles in favour of casual android based games, it is a similar problem that has plagued the Wii U with third party developers not willing to make games for the console and causing poor sales for Nintendo’s newest console.

Over the next year we will hopefully see the release of all these consoles that will allow us to judge for ourselves whether they will survive in the turbulent seas of the console market or will they sink to the bottom without a trace. It is unlikely that Sony or Microsoft will be too worried about the young pretenders looking to compete with them with both the PS4 and Xbox720 looking set to gain their respective companies a large financial windfall before the year is out. It is the likes of Valve and Ouya that will have a harder time convincing gamers to part with their money regardless of how cheap they price their console and the loyalties that they have built up with other longstanding companies.

 By Colm O’Sullivan

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