Games Industry

Involved Entities

Publishers

Often known for providing tight budgets and highly restrictive intellectual property contracts, these are the people who are responsible for sorting out a games Marketing and Licensing. Developers, either as individuals or part of a company, approach publishers with a game idea to request a budget to complete the game. In exchange of this budget the publisher gains intelectual property rights and a proportion of each sale.

Publishers rarely take on innovative projects. 95% of published games are making a loss (* needs statistical facts) today, so publishers keep to projects that are proven to be making a success and only part money with developers that have proven their skills before hand.

Developers

You, the developer, are responsible for creating the code that makes the game run. Producers, responsible for the sound, and Artists, responsible for the sprites, models and textures, are also involved in this. This corner of the industry is hard to enter as it is highly a specialised and talented group of individuals.

Retailers

With a lump sum of cash from the publisher, retailers are often responsible for selling our games. Publishers usually have their hand in the specific merchandise to show and how they should show it. This may be relatable to the food industry, where it is commonly known that companies like Heinz pay hundreds of thousands of pounds to have their beans placed at eye-level.

Economics

Rough idea:
Costs

people - average salary £45,000

X

Time - usually 1.5 - 2 years

Expect 4 Million+

Income

unit price - £30-£40

Hardware Royalties £5
Manufacture £2
Retail £10
Publisher/DevelopmentIP Royalties / £12

meaning a AAA title needs 300,000 sales to break even!!!!!

So this means publishers want to limit there risk. They do this by spewing out the same title++, or titles like other titles.

in a top 100 only 15 had original IP…

BAAAAAAAAADDDDDD :-(

NB: Read Fear by (i think) Jason Rubin, Look into Eric Zimmerman

At any point during the games development it can be canned from concept through to they have even sold copies of the game

There are different types of programmers in the industry, these include:
Engine programmers
A.I. programmers
Gameplay
Graphic
and Interface

Artists also have many different sub roles:
Concept
Animators
Modellers
Character
and Texture

Further Information

• Industry Overview - http://www.obscure.co.uk/articles-2/industry-overview/
• Essential Industry Facts - http://www.theesa.com/files/2005EssentialFacts.pdf ^[PDF]