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TRADE UPDATE Technology and time are money
UKIE chairman Andy Payne discusses the need to evolve and adapt in order to remain relevant in the fast-changing video game market
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Games need to deliver experiences that fit the needs of time-poor users. Andy Payne, UKIE
WHAT’S in a name? Actually, rather more than we may think. Taking out the words ‘leisure’, ‘software’ and ‘publishers’ from our new UKIE moniker and replacing them with ‘interactive’ says a huge amount about how we see ourselves today. We are in a changing world and some refer to it as disruptive, but I would like to see it as innovative. Instead of ‘challenge’, think ‘opportunity’. But words are not enough, actions count and strategic thinking is absolutely essential. So what do we need to be prepared for when developing a strategic vision for the future? Well, there are seismic shifts due for many traditional boxed product video games makers, who will have to face up to the disruption and innovation within the games industry. These seismic shifts will be influenced by two aspects – technology and time – things that affect all of us every day, and more specifically affect all of our businesses and the way we monetise products we make for a living. First, technology. As we know, more people are playing games, with products being enjoyed on more devices and screens. As technology changes, so too does the way that people access and play video games. As we see interactive entertainment become mainstream, we see the migration of games from bedroom to living room to coat pocket. The mechanism to buy or simply ‘get’ products has migrated from High Street to cloud. The traditional gaming formats have had to change and innovate. More motion control, 3D delivery and ‘being the controller’ have all arrived in 2010.
UKIE NEWS
TAX SUPPORT On Friday, November 10th a Westminster Hall Debate looked at Government support for the UK software industry. MP Mike Weatherley spoke on behalf of UKIE and focused on what the Government can do to protect IP and urged it to meet UKIE to discuss tax relief.
www.mcvuk.com
BROADBAND Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, Jeremy Hunt, has announced plans to provide every UK community with access to super-fast broadband by 2015. UKIE director general Michael Rawlinson welcomed the news.
CHARTS Week 45 has gone down as the biggest grossing week for video game software in UK history, with £113.8m made. £81.9m of this was generated by Black Ops, the biggest launch of any game, beating previous record holder MW2by 21 per cent.
PIRACY To highlight the scale of IP theft in the games industry, the BBC filmed a UKIE IP Crime Unit raid in Wirral last week for their Fake Britainshow. The operation was against a person who copied games and modified consoles and was caught on camera. Look out for it next year.
December 17th 2010 35
But with all this innovation and consumer choice comes the challenge of time. Just how much media time can individuals devote to playing traditional video games? Games compete for peoples’ time against TV, radio, social networking, film and music. However within the games market there are competing formats and technology, as consumers who may have spent their time playing boxed products now have competing offerings from social and casual games. With consumers having their media time split between more outlets than ever, games need to deliver experiences that fit the needs of time-poor users – resulting in a quality over quantity model. That can be in the form of immersive, enriched, online and multi-screen experiences that consumers now get from World of
Warcraft, Fable, Call of Duty, FIFA, or Football Manager. And it is also about delivering something for the millions of people that spend Saturday nights crowded around their TVs playing Wii Partyor Singstar,or those who have five minutes to spare waiting for a bus. Games are now a rich mix of products and services – sometimes both. This is a real challenge for all game makers. For those who are competing for the consumers’ money, this means you really need to ensure you make something that consumers are prepared to trade their valuable time for. In short, you need to be relevant and needed. Equally, here at UKIE we need to ensure that we offer all of our members a mix of products and services. Just like our members, we need to remain relevant and needed if we are to remain in the game.
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