Business Models
Arcade - Coin
Arcade games that relied on coins are mainly something from earlier decades, mainly the 1980's. Arcade machines are typically more uncommon at this moment in time and it is highly unlikely that they will be making a comeback. Arcade machines are typically found in arcades as their popularity has severely declined with the rise of home consoles. Most games that were originally only available on arcade games are available for purchase for home consoles and are even available to play for free online and there is no need for a player to leave the comfort of their own home.
Some famous arcade games include PacMan and super Mario, games that were released early in the rise of video games. Both of these games were particularly popular when they were released and made Nintendo and other companies a vast amount of money, though now their fame is on mno0dern generation consoles.
The key difference between an arcade machine and a home console is, when you use an arcade machine you have to pay to play every time, with a home console, you only have to pay for the console and the games for that console and then you can play any game as much as you like, free of charge. This makes home consoles far my preferable and more convenient. The size is also an important factor when comparing home consoles to arcade machines, home consoles usually fit on your TV unit and an arcade machine would need a large amount of space to itself making it more inconvenient for having at home compared to a home console such as an Xbox One.
Console - Box, Ship and Done
Consoles are the most convenient and long lasting ways of gaming today and make companies such as Microsoft a vast amount of money compared to when home consoles did not exist and people had to leave their homes to go play video games. In today's game industry, the gamer also has a say in what goes on, they have an opinion on what they think of the games that are out today and can determine what changes and what new releases are available.
After a concept for a console is created, the actual development of the console begins. This is the key stage when all of the predetermined elements of the console are put together to create the final product. Once the final product is created, it is boxed, shipped and sent to retailers such as GAME and HMV for distribution to buyers.
First party publishers
There are few outstanding publishers for consoles today, but the consoles that stand out are the Xbox One, PS4 and the Wii. These consoles have gained their success by using the latest technology available for a home console and having unlimited features and keeping up to date with all the latest games. Featured on these consoles are apps such as Sky and YouTube, subscriptions are available for the online feature of the consoles for apps such as Netflix. With the online compatibility of thee consoles, gamers can compete in games online against each other and share their own personal achievements. Some of the main consoles share the compatibility to play the same games, but some have games made exclusive to them, such as the Halo franchise for the Xbox consoles.
Digital Distribution - Observe, Measure and Modify
The amount of gaming content distributed digitally is increasing, there is little need to manufacture, transport, store and distribute games on disk anymore. This is very cost effective for the publishers, and opens the market up. Because gamers are connecting online, the developers and publishers can watch patterns emerge and respond, the gamer is becoming part of the development team as there opinions determine what content for consoles is created.
Content available today is things such as apps for things like social networking, internet browsers, subsciptions for applicatins such as LoveFilm and On-demand services such as Onlive.
Apps
Apps are a much quicker and cheaper way for developers and publishers to create games and get them to market as there are now vast amounts of portable devices that can run apps that most people own, such as iPhone's. This has opened up the gaming market greatly, apps can often be free as they funded by advertising. You will notice when you play most downloaded games on your portable device, that there are a lot of advertisements between levels and during levels. Below is a screenshot of an advertisement I often see when playing Flappy Wings on my Nokia Lumia, at the bottom of the screen.
Social networking
In October 2013 Facebook had collected 1.19 billion active monthly users, 874 million people using their social games, and 728 million active daily users. Social games are paid and played through micro transactions. The vast numbers of users who are connected through social networking means that huge numbers are drawn into playing games and paying for them on a regular basis.
Internet browsers
Gaming in internet browsers is mostly free, but as with with social networking games in internet browsers make their money from micro transactions and advertisements. One internet browser game that features microtransactions is Battlestar Galactica Online.
Subscriptions
Many game companies have subscriptions such as MMOs like World of Warcraft. These games are available on PC and a subscription obliges the player into conducting regular payment that results in a constant income stream for the publishers, from all the World of Warcraft players with active subscriptions. Additional payments are made for additional features built into the game, like ppaying to alter character traits and expansion packs. Subscriptions work particularly well with games like World of Warcraft, as they are very time consuming so they take a lot of time to make progress in the game, so a constant subscription is needed, especially as new content is always being added to the game, encouraging a player to continue their subscription.
On-demand
On-demand is a feature in which you can make purchases online and have access to them instantly, For example, on Xbox Live you can buy games On demand for download, it is much faster than going to a store and purchasing them and more convenient, especially if you have good download speed. I myself recently purchased Batman Arkham City On demand and it downloaded fairly fast and I was able to play it almost instantly, it is a very good game and as it downloaded straight to my hard drive, content loads much faster than a disc.
No comments:
Post a Comment