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Single-player games will be dead in three years, says industry analyst
So game development studios desperately want to move the entirety of our hobby online in order to mimic the recurring revenue model of MMORPGs. That's not exactly news, but it is news when an industry analyst makes an eyebrow-raising claim regarding the immediate future of the genre. To that effect, Eurogamer recently attended a "closed-door, Sony-organized panel discussion on the future of video games," which featured an analyst predicting the end of single-player titles by 2014. Mark Cerny, a "veteran video game consultant," used the 2009 single-player RPG Demon's Souls as an example, saying that its mixture of traditional offline gameplay and social connectivity to other gamers experiencing the same title is the wave of the future. "The funny thing here is, we don't even know what to call this. Is it single-player or is it multiplayer? We don't even have the words. It's kind of Orwellian. If you don't have any word for freedom you can't have a revolution," Cerny said. What exactly is that revolution, and will it be good for gamers? Check back in 2014 to find out.
Break into the gaming industry as an ArenaNet intern
I can do that! Budding game artists and programmers rejoice! If you have been looking for a way to break into the industry, ArenaNet is offering just that opportunity -- it is now considering applications to its 2012 Internship Program. The Class of 2012 will offer the following disciplines: Character Art, Environment Art, Technical Art/VFX, Animation, and Programming. ArenaNet feels that "artists learn more in the first few months of a game industry job than in their entire time at art school." The focus is on "an immersive work-based educational program where intern artists work alongside professionals" to develop and hone their skills. If accepted to the program, interns will have to relocate to the Bellevue, WA area at their own expense, but they will be paid an hourly stipend for their work as well as have the opportunity to participate in an internal educational program. The deadline for entry into the 2012 class is September 21st, 2011. If you think you have what it takes, check out the official announcement for full details and links to each discipline's respective applications.
Mike O'Brien discusses the business of ArenaNet
It's hard to become invested in MMOs and video games without learning something about the industry at play -- an industry of repeated layoffs and mergers, acquisitions and shuffling ownership, and a whole lot of passion and drama over seemingly inconsequential subject matter. The acquisition of PopCap by Electronic Arts last week prompted The Seattle Times to conduct an interview with Mike O'Brien of ArenaNet, known for the highly anticipated Guild Wars 2 and the already quite successful Guild Wars, about acquisition, corporate oversight, and the life of a smaller studio moving into big waters. As O'Brien puts it, the decision to seek outside funding from the start was a direct result of the scale and scope of the Guild Wars project. Rather than trying to scramble for resources to create a big project that could compete, the studio went for a company that seemed like it would appreciate their way of doing business. And O'Brien has nothing but positive things to say about the working relationship between his studio and NCsoft -- although he's very aware of what can happen when a small studio gets bought by a larger organization. The full interview should be of interest to anyone who follows the industry... and like we said, that's a good part of the MMO crowd.
2010 game industry holiday card blowout
In the spirit of the season, we bought you a gift. Okay, okay -- maybe "bought" isn't the right word. But we did get you something! First, open this link in a new tab, then this link (also in a new tab), and then hit the play button on the second link. Isn't that warm cocoa just a little bit sweeter? Good. Now that you're more comfy, we hope you'll join us in perusing the gallery we've dropped after the break. In it, you'll find an assortment of holiday cards from across the game industry, featuring both adorable creatures and anomalous cretins (as pictured above in no particular order). We've selected some of our favorites just before the gallery, so head past the break with us, won't you?
Entertainment Media Council now seeking charter members
If you haven't already pledged your allegiance to the ESA or the ECA, you might be interested in hearing that the Entertainment Media Council -- a group of game industry professionals whose mission is to "transform the way the game is played and advance the industry to the next level" -- has just announced its Charter Membership Program. The EMC is apparently looking for "businesses whose leaders believe in our mission" and promises "lifetime recognition and lifetime memberships for key personnel." The real question: Does said "key personnel" also receive a private bathroom? Also, any chance to sign a massive charter document? Please say yes! Unfortunately, the call for charter members doesn't go into that kind of detail. It does, however, feature a laundry list of expectations of its potential members, including the reduction of "unnecessary and wasteful layoffs" and an intention to "increase the success rate of new firms" -- two things we can certainly get behind. There's a heap more information for, um, you businesses out there interested in joining. Just check out the EMC website for details.
Industry survey shows iPhone growth, console development preference
Alright, alright, calm down -- before you break out the bottle of kerosene for a completely baseless flame war, we're going to point out that the following survey results are from a "comprehensive 55 question survey" of "more than 800 video game professionals from North America and beyond who read Gamasutra, subscribe to Game Developer magazine, or attend Game Developers Conference." We'd also like to note that the not-quite-recovered economy is likely playing a larger role than we can tell at the moment. All that said, the 2009/10 State of Game Development Survey shows that small development houses ("50 employees or fewer") have grown seven percent in the last year -- a statistic pretty much directly tied to the 25 percent of developers now working on "mobile platforms" (nearly 75 percent of which name the iPhone directly). We're hoping that, by this point in the post, any potential console warriors have moved on and won't notice us pointing out the breakdown of development percentage for each home console. Of the developers working on home consoles, 69 percent said they're developing for Xbox 360, while 61 percent claimed PlayStation 3. Maybe more interestingly, Wii console development dropped from 42 percent of respondents last year to 30 percent this year. Soft sales of third-party Wii titles last year likely didn't help to persuade devs to work with Nintendo. We'll see how that translates to the console's releases in the coming year.
Activision UK head polls execs from 'The Big Three' on digital distribution, cloud gaming
[Image credit: Vermin Inc] If it weren't for the fact that the recent "Andrew Brown asks" is a featured piece on UK-based MCV, the answers to his questions repeatedly starting with "Whilst" would have likely tipped us off to the Britishness of the feature and all involved. Both Sony's Ray Maguire and Nintendo's David Yarnton employ the subordinating conjunction whilst responding to questions about everything from the future of digital distribution to what the industry will look like in 2019. Though the Sony and Nintendo execs were a bit more reserved in their predictions, Microsoft's Neil Thompson believes digital distribution will "explode in the next three years." All three gentlemen admitted that retail will still play a major role for (at very least) a few more years. As for cloud computing, only Microsoft's Thompson seems to be on board. "I'm convinced cloud will play a central role in the games industry of the future ... our strategy is certainly to enable people to connect to their key entertainment content through innovative services that span across multiple devices." Our only worry is that, by the time all this future stuff arrives, we'll be too busy cruising around in our flying cars to care.
ESA partners with Microsoft & Sony for STEM initiative, launches game creation competitions
The Entertainment Software Association (ESA), the game industry lobby group, today announced two new game creation contests meant to support President Obama's STEM initiative (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math studies). A partnership between the ESA, Microsoft, Sony, the Information Technology Industry Council (ITIC), and the MacArthur Foundation will help to fund and run a series of STEM-related game design competitions. Details of the first two competitions – "Game Changers" and the less creatively titled "STEM National Video Game Competition" – are scant at the moment, though the former will involve Sony donating 1,000 PS3s and copies of LittleBigPlanet to libraries and community-based organizations in low-income districts, with plans to share the winning levels free to the gaming public. When asked, an ESA representative told Joystiq that more information would be revealed in "the coming weeks."
Keiji Inafune says Japanese game industry is over, man
Giving Tokyo Game Show attendees a chance to get some hands-on time with Western-developed Dead Rising 2 at a party this week, Capcom's Keiji Inafune stated, "Japan is over. We're done. Our game industry is finished." Bionic Commando producer Ben Judd translated the Mega Man creator's claims to the crowd (that Destructoid captured on video, found after the break), explaining the eulogy as Inafune's reaction to the show floor at this year's TGS.Unsurprisingly, his words were less harsh about his Japanese company's upcoming titles. "Just so that you all don't think that the game industry is finished, Capcom is doing our best," he said. Next year's Dark Void and Dead Rising 2 -- both Western developed games, mind you -- can't hurt Inafune's confidence, eh?
From the ashes of Midway Newcastle, Atomhawk Design rises
One of our favorite things about the game industry (not the game business, mind you) is its unflappable resilience. Take, for instance, the story of Midway Newcastle. Even after the staff got a 60-day warning of the studio's imminent closure and was shut down preemptively, some members of the team were able to band together and form a new company, Atomhawk Design.Billing itself as "a leading creative visualization and digital art production company," Atomhawk plans on creating digital art for not just video games, but also "film and online." We're not sure how much of the ex-Midway Newcastle folks made the jump to the new company, but we've asked Atomhawk for comment.
Peter Moore asks for transparency in marketing, doesn't mind being called ugly
"We're never not interacting with our community," Peter Moore recently claimed at the Edinburgh Interactive Festival, MCV UK reports. Apparently the EA Sports prez was advocating the need for more community engagement and developer transparency in the gaming industry, saying, "We needed to get away from the 'dark science' days of making games, when we'd just lob the consumer a screenshot on the odd afternoon." It's reported that he also argued for early and frequent marketing for games, adding that some publishers still don't understand the necessity for sustained engagement. He posits that community interaction and openness is key, though Moore admits he's had to develop a "thick skin" due to some forumgoers on the EA Sports blogs calling him "ugly." Aww, sorry Peter. We still love ya, buddy!
BlizzCon 2009: Breaking into the Gaming Industry live blog
This panel will be starting at 10:00 a.m. PDT / 1:00 p.m. EDT and will be live blogged here.The live blog after the break!Update: Live blog over. Very interesting panel for those looking to get into the industry.
Texas Gov. signs game developer tax break bill into law
When he's not busy keynoting major industry events and extolling the virtues of his state, Texas Governor Rick Perry is a swell guy. Further incentivizing the aforementioned game industry types, Mr. Perry just recently signed into law a bill that will extend the 2007 initiatives, according to the San Marcos Daily Record. House Bill 873 looks to increase state grants available to a variety of digital mediums, including games, film and other commercial prospects. The state is hoping the bill will encourage game development companies and film studios (among others) to bring their work to Texas, which Perry backed up by saying, "We are strengthening our state's investment in a vital industry that not only shows off our state to the rest of the world, but also draws investment and creates jobs for Texans." Considering the poor economy and tightening budgets, we're fairly certain this bill will work as intended.[Via GamePolitics]
Microtransactions anticipated by game industry professionals
If you thought microtransactions weren't taking off, think again. In a recently conducted survey by VentureBeat, the microtransaction business model was voted the most impactful area of the games industry by a sample of 160 industry professionals.The second place choice for the professionals who answered the survey was the appearance of smartphones as a game development platform. The two results came in very close, with 66 percent voting for microtransactions as the most impactful and 61 percent voting for smartphones.The survey comes as a part of VentureBeat's GamesBeat event, where the main conference is scheduled to take place tomorrow in San Francisco. The GamesBeat conference isn't a part of the main Game Developers Conference, but their wish is to view their conference as complementary to the main GDC instead of competing against it.
Get a job! Blogger catalogues over 4,500 open game industry positions
Laziness is both the bane and best friend of anyone in the job hunt. As many of our readers seems to be interested in the game industry, many of our readers must also know that it's a difficult industry to break into. Job hunting is a difficult process, often resulting in dead ends, and sometimes it's just easier to kick back than search through one more listing.Luckily for the lazy, game designer and blogger Yehuda has done all of the hard work. Over two blog posts, he's compiled a frighteningly exhaustive list of worldwide game industry positions open right now. The list runs the gamut from media positions to lead programming jobs -- internships, full-time, part-time and everything in between. Since these positions were listed when he first did the research, potential applicants should be warned that not all the jobs might still be available. Still, the quicker you act, the quicker you might nab that dream job. Special thanks go out to Yehuda for doing all the dirty work. [Photo via MMBOB on Flickr]Read - 3,500+ Computer Game industry JobsRead - Another 1,000+ Game Industry Jobs
SXSW: The Inside Scoop - how to get a job in the game industry
For the most part, the "Inside Scoop" about getting a job in the gaming industry sounded like getting a job in pretty much any industry, except maybe trading decommissioned nuclear weapons on the black market. They hit the main points several times, which were as follows: Have a professional looking resume. Wear clean, washed (!) clothes to any meeting or interview. Be on time. Network. Network. Network. Like any industry you hope to break into, it's often not what you know, but who you know. Although panelist Bryan Stratton did add that he had a friend who he helped get a job in the field, and he ended up making a lot less money than he should have because of his lack of a higher education. So put down the controllers from time to time and read a book, ftw ... er, paycheck.Of particular note, one panelist mentioned that the two most important applications you can learn to help get a job in the industry are ... Microsoft Excel and email. Most of the time you are going to be coordinating assets and communicating with other people, so it's highly important that you know your way around a spreadsheet, and can organize your inbox and send/receive files and then know where they are.So if you can pwn in Excel as well as you do in Gears of War, then you're well on your way.
UK government: There is more to life than video games
Shaun Woodward, the UK's Creative Industries and Tourism minister, wants the game industry to help curtail the amount of time kids spend playing games. Which is more than a bit ironic considering he took no such umbrage last month, telling a crowd assembled for the announcement of the BAFTA video game awards, "Video games are a huge part of the creative industries in the UK and deserve full recognition for their vital role in our economy. The huge diversity of games, from entertainment to education, put them at the centre of culture in Britain."He's being a bit equivocal, last month heaping loads of praise on the same industry he's wagging his finger at this week, but he's far better than opportunistic American politicians who would rather play the parental role for you. Woodward goes on to say, "We want to help parents have the facts to help them in their parenting, and we want games to be a responsible part of this mix." So, first he doesn't want children to play games, now he wants games to help people be better parents? Make up your mind, man!Woodward advocates that parents should be the ones raising their kids, not the government, which is a stance we can fully support. If your kid is locked in his room playing World of Warcraft for twelve hours a day, you need to be a better parent instead of waiting for men in black suits to show up and take his paladin away. Don't let a television or a joystick raise your kid, either hire an au pair or roll up your sleeves and get involved.
