Business of Media

Class of 2017 || Business Entertainment Minor

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Pulling the plug on Kickstarter

The developer Night Works Games have decided to cut the funding for its own crowdfunding because they want to finish a demo for an arena shooter. The game had enough hype, but it was not on place for a goal of $700 000. 

Kickstarters have had a way of earning indie games money. For example, Amplitutde asked for $775 000 and ended up raising $844 000. For the gaming industry and especially for game developers just starting off, this is extremely helpful. It is a great way to gain more awareness and rise in competition against blockbuster games such as Call of Duty. I think that if more gaming developers could have access to funds such as this, we would have more ideas, games, and better accessibility! 

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Agar.io

Agar.io is a darwinian like bacteria survival game created by Matheus Valadares and published by Miniclip. This game broke the record for one of the fastest channels to reach a million subscribers in less than 7 months. 

The fact that Agar.io has reached over 2 billion views on YouTube shows how unique it is, because only 21 other game franchises have generated that many views and those are usually high tech, blockbuster games. Agar.io is a more simple, 2 player game. 

The game gained a huge audience because of how many people can play at once. You actually start out as a small bacteria and you try to swallow as many other cells without the other ones swallowing you. It is hilarious and is all against real people, which is one of its biggest attractions. 

Source: http://venturebeat.com/2016/03/03/agar-io-bacteria-game-gets-2b-views-on-youtube/

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Online Gaming Surges in China

In 2015, online gaming was worth around $15.3 billion China, but Niko Partners, an Asian games market intelligence group, expects that number to reach $20.4 billion by 2020. The growth also comes from a lot of e-sports, especially for multiplayer online battle arenas such as League of Legends. 

There is now also a surge in the use of internet cafés, because demand for a social setting rose with the popularity in watching professional live sports. Eventually, these internet cafés may become home to virtual reality, augmented reality, and other gaming software. In 2015 china had 146,000 Internet Cafés with 20 million daily users. 

Source: http://venturebeat.com/2016/05/03/online-gaming-in-china-will-be-worth-20-4-billion-by-2020/

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Nielson Getting on Board with Mobile Gaming

Nielsen has decided to enter the entertainment market beginning with mobile gaming. It has a new program called Mobile Game Tracking (MGT), where Nielson will base their information gathering from a group of 1,200 weekly mobile gamers. 

The mobile industry is now worth $34.8 billion and bigger industries are beginning to take notice. Nielson wants to provide another platform other than the app store to see which games are most popular. Instead, this more precise tracking will be able to reveal information on demographics. For Nielsen, they will have a new market to work with other than traditional TV. 

source: http://venturebeat.com/2016/05/03/nielsen-is-now-tracking-mobile-games-in-an-effort-to-expand-in-a-streaming-tv-world/

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Games Market headed for $100 Billion or not?

In March, the Open Gaming Alliance, a nonprofit trade group focused on gaming estimated that the global game market will reach $100 billion by 2019. Within this data, analysts claim that the PC game business will become the biggest part of the industry at $37 billion, increasing by 35% from 2015.

However, another market research firm called Newzoo has predicted gaming as $99.3 billion this year, which puts the $100 billion estimate in a hard place. In the gaming industry, growth depends on both software and hardware. eSports and virtual reality drives consumers to buy more and experiment more. There is a lot of hope and optimism in the gaming industry for 2016. 

source: http://venturebeat.com/2016/03/14/global-games-market-forecast-to-hit-100b-by-2019/

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Called to Duty

This is pretty similar to a lot of new marketing initiatives for the new movies that are coming out and it is very interesting to see game launches doing similar things. Tim Ellis, chief marketing officer of Activision Publishing said: “Messenger gives us the opportunity to engage directly with our fans in an interactive adventure that has never been done before”

The players found the chat bot through a popular map in last year’s Call of Duty, Nuk3town and fans who figured out the right clues could get a link to Infinite Warfare’s trailer. Apparently, this campaign is not rare in gaming and often developers put clues in old games to lead people through online scavenger hunts. However, the bot space gives marketing a new tool and having these “characters” talk to the people make everything so much more personal. 

Source: http://venturebeat.com/2016/05/03/call-of-duty-infinite-warfares-first-victory-6m-bot-messages-on-facebook/

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Successful Gaming Platform Swipes Right for Tinder

Kamcord, a startup video network that has been incredibly successful in the gameplay world has been able to raise $10 million for their most recent funding round. Kamcord allows people to livestream their gaming from phones and tablets. This funding comes right at a time where the video company is shifting to an “appcasting” strategy where people who do not play games can broadcast themselves. Because of this new ability, avid users of Tinder and Instagram can showcase their actions on social media and could potentially grow their viewer base to 1 million.

Kamcord is emphasizing the market gap for people who do not play games. Because the company is doing well in terms of its gaming livestreaming business, it wants to begin to compete with companies such as Periscope and Youtube. 

The cofounder of Kamcord, Adi Rathnam realized “that there is actually a third camera on [the] phone: the screen”. His theory in moving towards appcasting comes from how Instagram “built an empire off the back camera of your phone” and how Snapchat “carved a billion-dollar business off the selfie-cam”. He thinks that capturing things happening on the phone screen might even be more interesting than the photos taken with a camera. In some ways, he is correct-- the number of screenshots that I personally take is pretty countless. His other idea is to “give people more of...an online personality”. 

To market this, Kamcord has partnered with famous YouTubers to use the platform and show off what it can do. 

Source: http://venturebeat.com/2016/04/25/kamcord-raises-10m-and-wants-to-livestream-your-tinder-sessions/

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What happens when Facebook Takes Over Your Life

From all the talk about virtual reality, there’s always the underlying fear that when VR launches, it might seem a little too real. 

In Facebook’s recent demo, the company showed researchers making social interactions in a “how to do selfies” video. The aim is to have social interactions in “reality”, so that we can physically meet with friends or family members in virtual life. 

Yaser Sheikh and his Carnegie Mellon students built Panoptic, a studio where they captured motions of people and their social interactions. Then, the researchers try to combine hundreds of videos from the studio in virtual reality without markers. He got the idea from the birth of his daughter, where he wanted to share with his relatives the same experience he had and to give them the opportunity to get to know his children without having to travel. Sheikh knows that the Oculus Rift VR set has a long way to go but he hopes to have moments where “the technology disappears and you simply interact”. 

To achieve this goal, Facebook will need to create realistic avatars, sense subtle motions, and predicting social interactions. Currently, head movements and hand movements could be distinguished, but technology is still far from the other factors. 

Although, if the goal is achieved, and the new generation is exposed to virtual reality as reality, there is no telling what would happen to our world. Would all meetings be in a virtual world? What would happen to touch? Will kids stop playing outdoors and begin playing indoors? Will video chats be improved to real life walks and talks? The future is very unknown, and very unpredictable. 

http://venturebeat.com/2016/04/13/facebook-wants-to-make-social-vr-indistinguishable-from-real-life/

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Feeling someone else’s pain

Virtual Reality has advanced even further, and is bringing to light the suffering that 40 million people in the United States go through daily: migraines. For those who are not affected by what a migraine is, it is hard to understand how people cannot function through the pain.

Thanks to Excedrin, the painkiller brand, non-migraine sufferers can now experience what their loved ones feel! For this experiment, only a couple of migraine symptoms were replicated, such as auras, disorientation, floating spots, tunnel vision, and extremely bright lights. The video shows the friends and relatives of those in pain going through the virtual reality experience and not being able to handle what was coming for them.

Their reactions caused a new level of empathy and hopefully will help those insensitive to certain diseases understand how lucky and privileged we are to not have them.  

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/migraine-virtual-reality-video_us_57075b60e4b0c4e26a225176

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Virtual Reality Shoots

Recently, my friend let me try out her new virtual reality headset. I began hearing more more about new headsets, including one of the “best” ones yet, the HTC Vive. 

The HTC Vive actually begins shipping on April 5th to those who preordered the headset. Its goals are for its users to feel transported to another virtual place. If this feeling succeeds, then virtual reality could be the new thing. The Vive has an $800 price, and hals multiple sensors. It supports a “room scale” of 15 feet by 15 feet so you can set up in your living room and map out the place where you can play. Anytime you come near the 15feet border, there will be blue walls appearing before your face. 

There are new target shooter games, exploring, and soon even for temple run (where you actually seem like running). It would be amazing if our VR experience is perfected like in the movies, and eye-tracking technology is added, but this is still an incredibly big step for human gaming. 

Sources: http://venturebeat.com/2016/04/05/the-htc-vive-offers-the-best-consumer-vr-experience-with-todays-technology/

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Will Snapchat begin to look into minigames? 

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Minecraft teaching school

Minecraft the game is going to help with developing artificial intelligence. Yes-- Minecraft. It’s called Project AIX, and if offers computer scientists the chance to use Minecraft to improve artifical intelligence research. The characters can explore the worlds just as humans can, which makes them easier to train, and observe.

This is not the first time that games have been used to research AI smarts! Last week, Google’s Go program defeated a human at Go for the first time (even though the human wasn’t a “master”, he was still pretty good). 

Microsoft is keeping AIX as a low-key project right now, but this summer, this platform will be made available to everyone so that AIX will become better and better.  

Source: http://venturebeat.com/2016/03/14/microsofts-using-minecraft-to-boost-artificial-intelligence-research-with-project-aix/

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Nintendominate!

Nintendo usually does not go towards the mobile gaming industry, but two days ago it released its first communication game: Miitomo. Described as the perfect app that seems like “if we live in a universe where the same company that invented Mario also invented social networks".

In just 2 days, Miitomo hit #1 in ‘All Categories’ in the Japanese iOS store. It beat the most popular messaging app, LINE. App marketing intelligence firm Sensor Tower’s data shows that apps that hit #1 in Japan receive more than 100 000 downloads per day. This might be a turnaround for Nintendo, who has not fared well with its Wii U home console. By 2017, a total of 5 mobile games are expected to hit the markets. 

Miitomo is similar to another popular Japanese mobile game, Puzzles & Dragons. You can even import the mii that you already have in your 3DS or Wii U! 

Currently not available in North American app stores. 

Source: http://venturebeat.com/2016/03/18/nintendos-miitomo-for-ios-tops-japans-app-store-in-less-than-two-days/

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Wii Don’t Tolerate Patent Trolling

A patent troll is an individual or company that seeks to enforce patent rights against the entity it accuses with a much higher value than the original patent. Essentially, it owns a patent but does not produce any products-- it seeks a license fee from others and usually begins with a lawsuit or demand letter. 

UltimatePointer, a technology firm appealed in the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals that claimed Nintendo’s motion-controlled Wii technology infringes on UltimatePointer’s patents. Fortunately, Nintendo announced that it had successfully won against UltimatePointer in this appeal. 

Patent trolls are an issue because defending yourself in court can often cost at least $1 million, and many defended cases are around $2.5 million. In Nintendo’s case, UltimatePointer has pay some of Nintendo’s attorney fees because they could not prove Nintendo’s technology. In other words, the judge subtly accused UltimatePointer for engaging in this patent troll behaviour. 

Nintendo is known for defending itself and its tech. Sorry UltimatePointer-- should have done more research!  

Source: http://venturebeat.com/2016/03/02/nintendo-fends-off-more-patent-trolls-in-wii-victory/

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Utomik and Chill

Utomik, a Silicon Valley startup is a game streaming company trying to build a “Netflix” for games. Currently, it is launching an open beta test of its platform with access to 145 games for only $5.99 per month. The first two weeks are free, and then charges for unlimited gaming. Eventually, it will raise the price to around $10 per month. 

There isn’t a lot of originality in this tactic, since Sony and Nvidia offers similar deals. However, what sets Utomik apart is their involvement with the cloud, which will eliminate the long download wait. Certain games will be instantly playable and the rest of the game will download while you play. This is called a “progressive download”, and the system will actually predict what files you will need. 

Utomik gets its inspiration from Spotify, and has both classic and new titles. Its rivals incloude GameTap, Steam, Gamefly, and Nvidia. The system’s previous beta generated over 16 000 sign ups and 63% said they enjoyed playing games on Utomik. Let’s see what happens!

Source: http://venturebeat.com/2016/02/29/utomik-starts-beta-test-of-netflix-for-games-with-145-titles-for-5-99-a-month/

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Gaming Industry Takes on Gender Diversity!

The Entertainment Software Association has released that approximately 48 percent of game players of women, but only 22 percent of game creators are female. The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS) recently partnered with Intel to launch WomenIn, an initiative to promote gender diversity and change the face of the gaming and technology industry. 

The goal is the double the number of women working in the gaming industry. To achieve this, the AIAS is providing a scholarship for women focusing on creating internships and partnering with other companies. The organization hopes to build a mentor database. At the annual DICE Summit in Las Vegas, the president, Don Daglow hopes to “build a link that can produce a tremendous array of people”. 

From the statistics and stereotypes surrounding women in gaming, I do hope that this initiative gains viewership and begins to break the stereotype for video games amongst women. It is heartening to see a big organization like AIAS taking the first steps. 

Source: http://venturebeat.com/2016/02/17/intel-helps-kicks-off-educational-drive-to-promote-gender-diversity-in-gaming/

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App World Problems: Overrun by Dots

When we think about app tech, some may automatically think of the West Coast or Japan area. However, New York is catching up with its small, independent startups & businesses, some of which are earning a meaningful amount of revenue. One of these apps is TwoDots, a highly addictive, (and I can personally vouch for this,) mobile game overtaking the world of office procrastination. 

The American Games representative, The Entertainment Software Organization, ranked New York as 4th-largest in terms of video games companies. Patrick Moberg and Paul Murphy, the founders of Dots, keep their game on the market by focusing on the experience. The founders do not want to throw ads in at any time in the near future. It is 100% possible to play the game without spending money and just waiting, but people are spending money for fast features. 

In our fast moving world, this kind of experience guarantee with the option of paying more seems to be one of the fastest moving strategies for apps. Instead of frustrating customers with required purchases in order to advance the game, the Dots folk laid everything to the game on the table and the customer is in control. There’s also a story to this seemingly simple game, giving an even greater incentive, and at the same time increasing competition amongst the video game industry. 

Source: http://www.amny.com/news/business/two-dots-grand-theft-auto-among-nyc-video-game-industry-s-staples-1.11453867