Tag Archives: gamasutra

Zynga, Rovio And The IPO Issue

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You don’t have to be a wizard of Wall Street to know the market sucks these days. While the Dow Jones Industrial average is slightly higher than it was at the start of the year, persistent fears of a double-dip recession – or worse – are preventing both individual and institutional investors from jumping into the market with any gusto.

That’s starting to affect the valuations of companies with looming public offerings, including a high profile one in the gaming world. And it should be a lesson to other game companies thinking about an IPO.

Read more at Gamasutra

Interview: Epic Talks UE3 On Flash, Infinity Blade 2

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[Speaking to Gamasutra editor-at-large Chris Morris, Epic Games president Mike Capps hints at in-house plans for Unreal Engine 3 on Flash, while Chair head Donald Mustard said there’s room on iOS for games that are “priced a bit higher.”]

Just minutes after Epic Games’ president Mike Capps and Chair Entertainment creative director Donald Mustard debuted Infinity Blade 2 at Apple’s press conference for the new iPhone 4S in Cupertino, CA on Tuesday, Epic’s CEO and technical director Tim Sweeney was on stage at the Adobe Max conference — roughly 350 miles away in L.A. — announcing that Unreal Engine 3 would be supporting Flash.

It was what you might call a busy day for the company. And barring some unforeseen — hell, unimaginable — event, it was one that set Epic up for a tremendous cash windfall.

Read more at Gamasutra

Interview: Telltale Games Bets Big On iPad

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In August, Telltale Games saw 15 percent of its monthly revenue come from the sale of iOS games. Last month, that percentage jumped to 30. Gamasutra’s Chris Morris talks to Telltale’s Connors about the tablet revolution.

In August, Telltale Games saw 15 percent of its monthly revenue come from the sale of iOS games. Last month, that percentage jumped to 30.

In fact, year to date, the iPad has been the fastest-growing revenue driver for the episodic game maker. That phenomenal increase came amid an effort to drive new content to the device, but it was also a chance for Apple’s systems to prove themselves as viable income sources.

Read more at Gamasutra

Opinion: The Holiday Hit Lists

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[Gamasutra editor-at-large Chris Morris looks at trends in recent holiday “hot toy/game” lists that highlight everything from LeapFrog to Call of Duty — but do they really say anything at all?]

If you’re like me, the fact that the holiday push now begins in September is mildly nauseating. Can we all agree, before we dive any deeper, that the display of Christmas decorations in stores starting around Labor Day is categorically wrong?

Still, the relentless march to move the holiday shopping period earlier and earlier continues, so it’s not especially surprising that the prognosticators and seers from all sorts of research firms and corporations are putting out their annual guesses about what will top this year’s “gotta have” lists — which basically amount to corporate tools that don’t mean all that much.

Read more at Gamasutra

Interview: Game Insight On Making Hay From Android Games

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[One Russian game company shares its story about finding success with the “freemium” model on Android, and how its Android revenue should be “much higher than [that of] social networks” in Asian territories.]

In today’s mobile gaming world, conventional wisdom says if you want to make money, the Apple App Store is the place to be. It is, after all, the birthplace of mega hits like Angry Birds, Tap Tap Revenge and Doodle Jump.

Android, however? Indie developers might make a few dollars, but no one’s getting rich off of it, right? Wrong. Game Insight, a Russian-based developer of social and mobile games is betting big on Android and is starting to see that bet pay off.

Read more at Gamasutra

Analysis: The Next Legal Threat For Game Makers

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New changes to the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act could have a wide impact on the industry as traditional game makers enter emerging markets, according to Gamasutra editor-at-large Chris Morris.

The video game industry has barely had time for the hangovers after this year’s Supreme Court victory celebration to wear off, but its next big legal challenge is already gaining strength.

While June’s high court ruling let developers rest easy about the content they put in games, many attorneys at the time warned that privacy issues, specifically as they relate to children, could be the next thing to watch for. Late last week, the Federal Trade Commission announced proposed changes to the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) that could have a notable impact on many game makers.

Read more at Gamasutra

Analysis: How Netflix Could Shake Up The Game Rental Business

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Gamasutra columnist Chris Morris looks at how Netflix’s recent decision to add video games to its rent-by-mail service could pose a threat to competitor GameFly and shake up the video game rental market significantly.

Maybe it’s a good thing that GameFly has been unable to get its act together and launch that IPO it filed for last February – because if it had, its stock would surely be taking a prison yard beating today.

Netflix has made some baffling moves in the last couple of months, and Sunday’s announcement that it would be spinning its DVD-by-mail service into a separate division certainly qualifies as one of them. But the addition of video games to its offerings could be just what the business needs to prop that service up for a few more years.

Read more at Yahoo! Games

Opinion: Sony’s Updated Terms Of Service – Mountain Out Of A Molehill?

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Just as Sony was starting to put the consumer badwill of this year’s hacking fiasco behind it, it goes and slips a change into the terms of service for the PlayStation Network. In this opinion piece, Chris Morris takes a look.

Sometimes you have to wonder if Sony even bothers to run things by its public relations department before taking action.

Just as the company was starting to put the consumer badwill of this year’s hacking fiasco behind it, it goes and slips a change into the terms of service for the PlayStation Network – and the masses began to howl once more.

Read more at Gamasutra

Analysis: GameStop Keeps Up With The Times

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Following GameStop’s mobile device announcements earlier this week, Gamasutra’s Chris Morris discusses the company’s plan to defend itself against the ongoing decline in retail game sales.

It’s no secret that game publishers have spent a lot of time focusing on the growing importance of the mobile space, but things have been a lot quieter on the retail front.

However, GameStop’s pair of announcements Monday sent a clear signal to both gamers and investors that the company was planning to defend itself against the ongoing decline in retail game sales and the changing nature of the gaming market.

Read more at Gamasutra

EA And Activision: A Tale Of Two Social Media Strategies

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Gamasutra editor-at-large Chris Morris looks at two traditional publishers — Activision and EA — examining how the packaged game giants will square off in the emerging social media space.

EA and Activision, despite their ongoing war of words, tend to swim in the same waters. Both like the military shooter genre. Both used to like the music genre. And both want to own the MMO market.

To date, that rivalry hasn’t extended to the social gaming and mobile space. While EA has substantially expanded into both fields, Activision has been content to sit back and view the fray from a distance. That could be changing before too long, though.

Read more at Gamasutra