“The debut E3 trailer set the graphical bar high for the Ubisoft developers, as far as current gen is concerned they get a pass but the 360 and PS3 ports have come under a lot of criticism.”

The initial sales figures suggest that Ubisoft hopes of a new franchise to add to their development rooster might come to fruition. Over 4 million copies sold in its first week, making the game the best-selling new IP at launch. Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot commented last month that they hoped to sell as much as the first Assassin’s Creed title which sold more than 6 million copies. At the current rate of 4 million in a week Watch_Dogs should easily surpass any of Ubisoft’s predictions and with a WiiU release still to come in September. With such impressive sales and generally positive reviews there is no doubt that the Ubisoft heads will be cracking the whip for their Montréal development team to get back to work on a sequel. In fact last year the Head of Sales and Marketing at the company Tony Key made the comment “That’s what all our games are about; we won’t even start if we don’t think we can build a franchise out of it. There’s no more fire and forget – it’s too expensive.” in reference to the then in development Watch_Dogs. A statement that reflects Ubisoft’s current catalogue of games that are mostly made up of sequels or games based on existing properties. Nobody can really blame the publisher from taking a conservative approach when faced with new IP, video game budgets have increased tenfold in the last decade. The likes of GTA V costing Rockstar over $250 million, with the company relying on the games accumulated reputation to shift copies and recoup the costs. Even if Ubisoft have to take a hit financially on the first release with planned sequels the can account for the initial loses in the franchise.

“A small hitch in the games release as arisen over a bug that causes players to get stuck on the games loading screen. Uplay, Ubisoft’s digital distribution service is suspected to be at fault.”

In an interesting move the publisher has also tasked their film division Ubisoft Motion Pictures to start drafting up a film script for Watch_Dogs. It seems a little earlier to planning a movie adaptation for a series that is so new but then again they are already thinking of the long term plan for this would be franchise. Ubisoft have already made plans for all their other major franchises to get the silver screen treatment, the Assassin’s Creed movie gathering steam with a late 2015 release date announced and Michael Fassbender attached as the lead. The video game industry in fact is beginning to mirror their Hollywood counterparts in some respects. At the top end of the industry the big players favour content that will be able to offer them significant return over a long period of time as opposed to a quick flash in the pan. It would be hard to envisage the pitch session for Goat Simulator with the executives at EA or Activision and the publisher drawing out plans for the game as a franchise. Disney planning out a road map for their highly successful Marvel series of films right through to 2021. The big movie producers favour adaptions over original screenplay, the video game industry taking a similar stance.  At the other end of the scale the indie scene has exploded in popularity with new IP finding great success in what can be sometimes a swing and miss sector of the industry. For as many triumphs like Minecraft and DayZ there are there are ten times as many failures among them. The indie movie scene following a similar failure success rate among the films released over the last few years.  However the more important issue surrounding Ubisoft’s movie studio is will we finally see a decent video game adaption in the cinemas, the video game community doesn’t needs another Prince of Persia movie.

“The film is still in early pre-production with no indication of what role Michael Fassbender might be taking on; Altair, Ezio or Connor?”

Taking a look at some of the other major publishers, paints a similar picture with already establish IP getting the go ahead and financial backing. EA like Ubisoft seemed to have taken a gamble with new IP Titanfall, but then again is it much of a gamble when working with Vince Zampella a proven hit driven developer. No doubt EA have plans for Titanfall to be what Call of Duty has become to Activision with Zampella the man behind that particular franchise. The same could be said of Take-Two interactive and their new IP Evolve that is set to release later this year. Not so much a gamble with Turtle Rock at the helm, the same team that was behind the highly successful Left4Dead franchise. These games also seem to be perfectly suited for a host of DLC releases and eventually sequels. It is becoming rarer and rarer that a game will be made with a definitive end point. Modern video games are developed with the sequel in the back of the developers mind or at least at the top end of the industry. When a publisher is given a hit by one of their studios they always want more. The video game fans also playing a part in this, the community endless speculating on sequels and follow ups. With E3 just around the corner the rumour mill is in full effect and rampant speculation abounds.

“E3 could have seen the big revel of the next Assassin’s Creed game if it wasn’t for those pesky internet sleuths leaking the news early. No doubt they will still have a few tricks up their sleeves for the event”

Watch_Dogs wowed fans at E3 2012 and the anticipation for the game only intensified over the following two years. The game has amassed encouraging sales in its first week of release and is surely on its way to recouping the development costs. Ubisoft might have been criticized for making such bold claims about the games future over a year prior to its launch. Most developers and publisher have future vision for their new IP but to come out and state those claims so boldly is not so common. If the games follow up can build upon the original and maintain the fans attention than their maybe hope for the future of the franchise. If not certain Ubisoft executives might have to back track on their previous statements.

By Colm O’Sullivan

The post Watch Dogs Review appeared first on Game Design Ireland.

The post Top 5: Open World Games appeared first on Game Design Ireland.

“FIFA is now one of EA Sports most profitable annual franchises, the company in the early days predicted that the game would be a complete flop.”

In the early stages of planning and development for the game, EA’s UK based team went looking to recruit some locally based developers to help them build out some prototypes. A pair of developers from Cheshire, Jules Burt and Jon Law had been working on a football game prototype experimenting with various camera angles. Most other football games at the time such as Sensible Soccer or Kick Off! featured a top down view. The developers of the then titled EA Soccer wanted to create a game that would stand out from the rest. Despite the promising start the executives at EA stateside, were less convinced and didn’t put much faith into the success of the project. The development was shifted to EA Canada who took the early prototypes and built upon them implementing an isometric view for the game. A key selling point for the game was to rest on the realism that they could build into the gameplay and graphics. However just like previous EA Sports titles it also relied on the licensing deals that could be negotiated for teams and player names. This proved to be a problem as unlike the NFL, FIFA didn’t hold the licences for individual players and teams or the various domestic leagues. EA had secured a licencing deal with FIFA but it was all but the name included. Resulting in no real player names featuring in the game, instead the developers used their names to fill out the team roosters.

“The licensing deal with FIFA didn’t give the developers any of the rights for the teams and players but it did give it the brand recognition which it has maintained over the last two decades.”

Just as the development started the US EA executives had tried to shutter development over fears of potential loses in revenue, this trend continued throughout the development process. Both the Canadian and UK based developers had to continually convince their bosses that the game would sell well, as there was a large European market that had yet to be capitalized on. They argued that with the FIFA name behind them that there would be instant brand recognition, which would help boost sales. The game managed to get to market despite the best efforts of the EA executives and would end up proving them wrong for having their initial misgivings about sales figures. The game sold nearly half a million copies within its first month of launch and blew all expectations away. Becoming the bestselling game of 1993 despite the fact it was only launched in December of that year. The studio was soon back to work on the next title and over the last twenty years has managed to build up one of the most successful video game franchises. The FIFA series selling more than 100 million copies combined, earning it the title of best-selling sports video game.

The post Compendium: Sport’s Video Games Goal! appeared first on Game Design Ireland.

“The games developer Howard Scott Warshaw has openly embraced the attention his game has received negative or not, he’s just happy it’s still talked about.”

The answer as proven by the documentary crew on the 26^th of April, yes Atari did buried the unsold E.T. cartridge among some other titles. Over 700,000 cartridges were exhumed form the landfill site in Alamogordo, New Mexico. The one thing that I can’t get my head around with all the news coverage on this issue is why this is such a big reveal. A company deposing unsold or faulty merchandise in a landfill is not all that unusual. Of course over time the story has been elaborated on and given an altered narrative. The story of a company so ashamed of their failure that in the dead of night they buried the games in the middle of the desert and sealed it off with concrete to forever entomb the worst video game ever made. The real story is far more mundane that sees a company bury merchandise in a standard landfill close to the company warehouse and seal it with concrete to stop local kids trying to dig it up. In fact if the documentary crew had done a bit of research they would have found a New York Times article archived from September of 1983 that reported on the dumping of the cartridges at the New Mexico landfill site. I have to wonder how Fuel Entertainment the documentary crew behind all this is going to produce a full length feature out of it. Microsoft believes in it so much so that they partnered up with the crew for the event and will be releasing the documentary as part of their new Xbox Originals programme series, set to start up next month.

“What couldn’t be sold in 1983 might find some interested buyers in 2014, with the unearthed cartridges planning to be sold off.”

It’s almost comic how excited the video game community was over the discovery of some rubbish Atari threw out over 30 years ago. What’s next the mystery of what happened to all those Nokia N-gage’s that were shipped but never sold or riffling through the dumpster at Valve to find any mention of Half Life 3. Not to say that the documentary crew’s efforts were wasted but why finding these cartridges was such a massive reveal, puzzles me when all that was exposed was a company following standard procedure in finding a cheap way to dispose of unwanted merchandise.

By Colm O’Sullivan

The post Gaming Sidenote: Atari’s Garbage is Big News Apparently? appeared first on Game Design Ireland.

“Tim and Chris Stamper founded Ultimate Play the Game in 1985; the company would later be re-established under the new name Rare Ltd., producing many memorable games along the way”

Prior to Nintendo’s buyout of the company Rare had been on a development marathon producing over 50 games in a five year period most of them for the NES console. An astronomical development rate by today’s standards but it helped Rare make enough profits to invest in some computer graphics hardware that would benefit the company going forward. The Silicon Graphics workstations that they purchased allowed them to create advanced 3D models and push the bounds of what was possible for video game graphics at the time. After the buyout they were tasked by Nintendo to use the new technology to create a 3D CGI game that game would become Donkey Kong Country. Due to the limitations of the 16-bit era of console gaming there was no way Rare could make a true real-time rendering 3D game so like others at the time, pre-rending the assets was the way to go. Myst was one of the first games to pioneer this method of creating a pseudo 3D game with pre-rendered graphics. The process for Donkey Kong Country involved modelling and animating the main characters and enemies on their graphics workstations. Then they would save of a series of image stills and turn them into 2D animated sprites that had the appearance and lighting of 3D models. The Finnish developers Bloodhouse had used a similar technique for their 1993 game Stardust. The limitations of the hardware also made it difficult when implementing some of the games other graphical elements. The games 3D backgrounds also taxed the SNES consoles limited memory so the team had to carefully arrange backgrounds that repeated elements but trying to make them appear as natural as they could. These techniques helped the game stand apart from most of its competitors and rivals when the game went on the market in November of 1994.

“It was the work by Rare on Donkey Kong Country and the team at Cyan Inc. with their Myst that helped push forward the era of 3D gaming.”

Nintendo’s 16-bit SNES console was always under pressure from its main rivals Sega who boasted 32-bits and a CD-ROM drive with their SegaCD console. Nintendo needed a title that would show off their consoles hardware potential and compete with their high memory rivals. The launch of Donkey Kong Country helped them do just that with the game becoming an instant hit with the gaming community. The game would go on to reach over 9 million in sales and pick up a host of video game awards along the way. It helped Rare gain international status and cement the relationship between them a Nintendo that would carry on for the next number of years. The Donkey Kong franchise now given a new lease of life would continue to see regular video game releases over the following decades with an iconic look that is still influenced by Rare’s original character designs.

The post Compendium: The Age of 3D Donkey Kong Country 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.

The Xbox One has been steadily lagging behind its rival the PS4 since the launch of the two consoles in November of last year.  Sony have got the jump on Microsoft this time around are looking to be the console of choice among gamers for the current generation. However with so many variables to many of the facts and figures surrounding next-gen console sales it really isn’t fair to say that the Xbox One lost the console war. Latest PS4 sales figures as of February state that 5.3 million units have been sold, whereas as of January the latest figures available for Xbox One sales put Microsoft’s console at just over 3 million. Granted with the boost in sales from the release of Titanfall this number will have jumped significantly, more than likely nearer 4-5 million at this point. This is one of the many problems when trying to extrapolate any argument for which console is more successful.

“The PR war of words has been going strong ever since the consoles were announced early last year and it hasn’t abated since.”

Microsoft in particular has been very cagey about releasing console sales numbers, probably due to the fact they just haven’t managed to sell as many units as its rival. Yet this leads to the other problem with using sales figures as a measurement of success due to the fact that the PS4 has a wider global reach than its competitor. The PS4 is available in 57 regional markets, whereas the Xbox One is only available in 13 with an expansion to a further 26 markets promised by the end of 2014. If you are to approach it from purely a financial viewpoint again it is difficult to compare the two, with the Xbox One featuring a higher price point then the PS4. Breakdowns of the two consoles internals suggest that the PS4 is slightly more costly for Sony to produce meaning that Microsoft makes more of each unit sold. However such cost analysis is purely speculative with consoles traditional been sold at a loss, the manufactures usually recouping their investment with third party licensing deals.

“The consoles hardware is irrelevant as it is the software on the devices that count, who has the better line up of games is the true determining factor.”

This is where a deal with Respawn Entertainment to make their game exclusive for the Xbox One comes into play. It is the sales of a game like Titanfall and the subsequent increase in Xbox Live subscriptions that determine success as far as the Microsoft executives are concerned. The first task with a new console release is to accumulate a large enough user base that they can use to negotiate better licencing deals with publishers and developers. The same goes for Sony who might see a significant boost in PS4 sales with the release of their exclusive title Infamous: Second Son. It’s interesting that Infamous: Second Son like so many of Sony’s exclusives is only available on the PS4. Whereas for any PC gamer Titanfall is readily available, how many lost sales of Xbox One consoles are accrued from this fact? Taking into account that Titanfall sits on top of the PC games sales charts there is a sizeable number of gamers, who might have been forced to buy a new console to play the game.  EA on the other hand need a game like Titanfall on the PC, in order to attain more legitimacy to their digital distribution platform Origin. That has been trailing behind its competitor Steam since it launched over three years ago.

“Which exclusive title will prove to be the bigger draw, open world superhumans or FPS mechs?

The console war has only been raging for less than six months at this point and early reports would suggest that the PS4 is coming out on top. Granted from a quick observation of the sales figures it is clear that Sony has sold more console, but it is not so easy to declare a winner based on such facts. The myriad of other factors that play into the analysis of sales figures can allow anyone to massage the numbers to achieve a desired result. This is what has led to the PR battle between the two companies with both sides manipulating the figures to make one seem better than the other. At the end of the day it is clear that both consoles have done very well and will likely see continued growth in the near future with games like Watchdogs, Destiny and Elder Scrolls Online all on their way this year. The only clear fact that can be drawn from all these figures is that with a yearlong lead on its competitors and just under 6 million units sold. Nintendo and their WiiU are set to be the biggest losers in the current console war.

By Colm O’Sullivan

The post Gaming Sidenote: Titanfall and the future of Xbox One appeared first on Game Design Ireland.

Titanfall

“Medal of Honor marked a turning point in video game narrative, were games could now attempt to emulate Hollywood in terms of grandiose storytelling.”

Following the release of Medal of Honor: Allied Assault some of the developers including West and Zampella decide to leave 2015 Inc. and form their own studio. The limitations imposed on them by their employers and the control on the creative process by the publisher EA, forced 22 members of the development team to break away and establish Infinity Ward in 2002. Interestingly 2015 Inc. has only produced one game since the mass departures and has not seen the same level of success as it had with Medal of Honor. Infinity Wards funding was boosted in the beginning when the publisher Activision bought up 30 percent of the company. The studio went straight to work on its first title a WWII themed FPS, following on from the experience gained with their previous game. Call of Duty was released in October of 2003 and was an instant classic, with mission structures and narrative techniques that their previous publisher EA had disagreed with. The most iconic mission of the game, forcing the player to fight through the besieged city of Stalingrad with only a clip of ammunition and no weapon. An idea that was unthinkable in the FPS genre, a reason why the game was a success and spawned an acclaimed franchise. When WWII shooters became too commonplace West and Zampella decided to shake things up and produce Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. Again Infinity Ward proved to be the studio at the forefront of the FPS genre setting the trends and game design conventions that others would attempt to emulate.

 “The original title in the series received its very own rerelease on the next gen system in 2009, known as Call of Duty Classic.”

Just as the second Modern Warfare title was breaking all sales records decent was brewing between Infinity Ward and their publishers/owners Activision. West and Zampella were aggrieved about the lack of royalties afforded to them by Activision, based on the success of the latest Call of Duty release. The ensuing conflict resulted in Activision firing both West and Zampella on the grounds of “breaches of contract and insubordination”. The reason for the dismissals was in reaction to a supposed meeting that took place between the pair and EA, to which Activision was not privy too. The subsequent legal battle of lawsuits being filed by both parties would mar the establishment of West and Zampella’s new venture Respawn Entertainment in April of 2010. Just as in the case of 2015 Inc. a large number of Infinity Ward’s development team left the company, 48 resigning from Infinity Ward with 38 of them joining West and Zampella at Respawn Entertainment. Activision has tried to maintain the high level of quality and strong sales figures for its Call of Duty franchise even bringing in another development studio to help get the games to market. Although sales figures have been annually smashed with each subsequent release aside from Call of Duty: Ghosts, the critical acclaim and public opinion has waned of late. Now after four years in the making Titanfall is finally on the market, but can the Respawn team do what they have already managed multiple times before and reshape the FPS genre.

 “It’s a game of cat and mouse between the fast and agile pilots; and devastation brutal giant titans.”

The development of Titanfall has not been without its level of turmoil with long time development partner Jason West leaving the company for personal reasons. Although the nature of his resignation has been a matter of rumour and speculation, with West’s erratic behaviour and discord with Zampella possible reasons for his split with the company he co-founded. Zampella is now flying solo and we will get to see if he can do it on his own. Judging from the response of the beta released in late February and from the early Metacritic scores it looks like Respawn is on to a winner. Just as Zampella and his team have always done in the past they have not settled just to follow along with the crowd. The FPS genre of late has becoming increasingly stagnant, with little in the way of innovation coming out of the genre for the last number of years. A few gameplay tweaks and graphical improvements seem to be enough for most developers, with new IP falling by the wayside in the face of established franchises. Titanfall is attempting to draw influence from a myriad of different sources to push forward the evolution of the FPS genre. The most distinctive feature of the new Zampella title is the lack of a singleplayer narrative, with the game only featuring multiplayer gameplay. Not that this is something new in the FPS genre with the original titles in the Battlefield series featuring only multiplayer modes. However for Zampella this is breaking new ground since the singleplayer narrative has been as much a crucial part of his previous games successes as the multiplayer component. Iconic gaming moments such as the storming of the Normandy beaches and the first-hand experience of a soldier post nuclear blast, have helped Zampella earn his high ranking status in the industry.

 “Will we see a reunited West and Zampella in the future, somewhat debatable with the apparent success garnered by Titanfall under the solo leadership of Zampella?”

Probably the far more interesting point about Titanfall’s online elements is that the game relies on some of the AI components to be handled by Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing platform. Essentially this means that the game is online only, with the AI hosting and physics calculations handled by Microsoft’s servers. It is also bad news for gamers living in regions without the Azure service like South Africa, who have understandable become quite upset. They have even gone as far as to petition EA and Respawn to have a South African release of the game. Not helping the issue is the fact that Xbox Live experienced a momentary technical hitch on launch day. Aside from the few regional grumbles and Xbox Live outages, nothing much has been made of Titanfall‘s always online requirement. This is good news for Titanfall publisher EA who suffered a calamitous PR disaster due the resulting backlash that followed the botch launch of their always online title SimCity. It’s interesting that prior to launch nothing has been made of Titanfall’s method of offloading some of its processing tasks to the cloud. Granted from the outset Titanfall is sold as a multiplayer game so certain level of internet connectivity is expected from the outset. All the same the video gaming community was ready with torches and pitchforks at the announcement that the Xbox One would need to be connect online at least once a day. Never mind the fact that for much of the western world regular online connectivity is pretty standard. Here we are less than six months post launch and a game that requires a similar feature, no angry mob in sight. It is amazing how video game fans can go from extreme statements of vitriolic fury to quiet and subdued acceptance. Obviously Titanfall is just that good of game that such heated opinions can put aside. Gamers are clearly very enamoured by giant mech’s, to let go of such issues.

By Colm O’Sullivan

The post Titanfall Review appeared first on Game Design Ireland.

“Sonic was not just Sega’s mascot he would become the face of the industry; to join the likes of Mario, Pac-Man and Donkey Kong.”

The Sega Genesis (Mega Drive) had superior technical specifications over its rival the NES. However the Genesis failed win over consumers with its 16-bit system. What Sega needed was standout title that would get consumers to buy their console. The task was given to their internal development studio Sega AM8, to design and create a video game character that would raise brand awareness. One of the team members Naoto Ōshima drew a sketch of a hedgehog character original named ‘Mr. Needlemouse’. The team soon latch onto the idea and started to develop the game as a side scroller but with a twist. They wanted to make their video game hedgehog the fastest of all the video game characters, renaming their character to Sonic to better fit with his new abilities. This increase in speed caused the developers to think differently about classic side scroller level design. Players would have to traverse loop-the-loops, springs, high fall and long jumps all at a higher speed then they would be normally accustomed too. Development began in 1990 with Sega anxious to get the game to market as soon as possible with Nintendo close to releasing their own 16-bit system the SNES. Sega however believed rightly that they had a hit on their hands with their new Sonic game, so much so that the Sega AM8 development team where affectionately nicknamed the Sonic Team.

“Over the years a host of different characters have been introduced into the Sonic series with some become standout characters, receiving their own video game titles.”

In June of 1991 Sonic the Hedgehog was released exclusively for the Sega Genesis, the game was an instant success. The sales of the Genesis console dramatically increased with gamers buying the system just to play Sonic the Hedgehog. Releasing the game prior to the launch of the SNES console helped the Genesis gain a sizeable amount of the market share, holding over 60% of the North American video game market at one time. Sonic now became the face of Sega with the blue hedgehog front and centre of any of the companies’ promotional material. The Sonic Team was instantly put to work on a sequel, this time Sonic would be joined by his sidekick a flying fox known as “Tails”. Just like Sonic, Tails became an iconic character that Sega could use to promote the brand. The sequel Sonic the Hedgehog 2 was released in November of 1992 and again proved to be a hit with gamers, selling 6 million copies on the Genesis console. Since the original game released in 1991 a Sonic themed game has been released year on year. Sonic has also featured in his own animated TV show, comic book series and countless other forms mediums used to promote the Sega brand. Even though Sega are no longer a console manufacturer, Sonic’s role as the company mascot still remains the same. From an initial concept that seemed to ludicrous to ever possibly be a success has now become one of the industry’s most recognisable characters, even reviling Mario in popularity stakes.

The post Compendium: The Birth of Sega’s Mascot 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

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