Bruce On Games » Practical information

Game marketing is three times more important than product quality

Bruce — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 11:33:41 +0000

This makes absolute complete and utter sense. People buy perceptions, not reality. And people are far more concerned about peer pressure than they are concerned about their own judgement.

There is a make of car that is distinctly average. In fact some of the smaller models are not very good at all. Yet it manages to sell extremely well despite selling at a premium price. Because people want to be seen behind the badge. They will pay thousands of dollars in premium to buy just a few dollars worth of chrome and enamel badge. And most people buy silver and grey ones, because that is what everyone else does. All due to the power of marketing. The brand is presented as sporty which is just the image every housewife wants when she does the school run. Customers just don’t realise when they are victims.

If you are a game developer and you tell your mum about the game you are working on then that is marketing. Marketing is any communication. So it is a fact that a game with zero marketing will have zero sales.

Over the years I have never seen a game get the sales that it deserved just for its quality. Yet I have many times seen a game get far more sales than it deserves because of its marketing. And I have also seen many good games fail because of bad marketing.

Just look at the five games I was writing about yesterday. They are virtually identical yet they have massively different numbers of players. The difference is just the marketing. Marketing is more important than the game, this is a self evident truth.

Yet still there are very many game publishers who do not understand this. Many self and small publishers on the iPhone App Store, for instance. There you can see that marketed games sell well, non marketed games sell badly. It has precious little to do with the quality of the game. (Unless it is a total dog).

Now EEDAR has done research in the game marketplace from which they say “Marketing influences game revenue three times more than quality scores”. And actually the difference is even bigger than that, because the scores form part of the marketing!

So there you have it. If you want to sell more games and make more money then send me an email and I will come and sort it out for you!

Game development clusters

Bruce — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 11:34:00 +0000

30 years ago commercial videogames for home computers arrived in Liverpool when I brought a pile of Apple 2 games to Microdigital that I had bought at Computer Components of Orange County in California. A couple of years later, in Liverpool, Bug Byte software was set up, one of the very first British video game publishers. From this, also in Liverpool, there came Imagine, Software Projects, Psygnosis, Denton Design, Jester Interactive, Bizarre Creations, Rusty Nutz etc

Then in the mid 80s I worked at Codemasters, just outside Leamington Spa in the centre of England. From this there are now has a whole pile of gaming companies in the area. This is not something unique to the gaming industry. It happened with shoes in Northampton, with bicycles in Coventry and with pottery at Stoke on Trent.

There are now lots of game development clusters around the world, usually created in the fallout from just one pioneer. In the UK we have cluster in Dundee, Guildford, Brighton and several more. In China there is one in Shanghai of at least 20 companies as a result of Ubisoft being there. In America there are lots of clusters, Austin, Texas has very many game companies as do Los Angeles, Seattle and Boston. In Canada Toronto and Montreal have grown quickly as the locations for many companies. And Seoul, Korea has around 60 companies.

From the point of view of a developer there are many advantages doing business in a cluster. The human resources and services are all there, geared up just right for running a gaming business.

From the point of view of an employee there are many advantages to working in a cluster. Job mobility without moving house and security of employment being significant advantages to anyone.

But a further advantage of clusters can be found in the pages of Adam Smith’s 1776 book, The Wealth of Nations. A cluster will support the division of labour with specialist companies forming to service the industry. For gaming this could be sound, QA, translation, motion capture, marketing and other technical services which make doing business in the cluster more flexible and effective.

And then there are the politicians. Political attitude has a huge bearing on the success of a company. So it is vital for a game business to nurture local and national politicians as well as the civil servants who do their bidding. When an industry employs several thousand people in one location it can exert considerable political power to its advantage.

This is just one reason why companies within a cluster should co-operate, even if, as is often the case, there is previous bad blood arising from business dynamics. The businesses have many areas in common that can be addressed more effectively jointly. There should be CEO level meetings of every company within a cluster every month.

And, of course, government can leverage these clusters to generate national wealth, something we have seen the Canadians do with startling success and something the British government has failed abjectly at. The game industry is already worth many tens of billions of pounds in economic activity and will grow to be a lot bigger still so this is of critical national importance.

So there we have it, if you want to start a game company then do it in a cluster, if you want to work in the games industry then you are best off in a cluster and, if you are already part of a cluster, ensure that you leverage it for your maximum advantage.

You don’t want to work in the video game industry

Bruce — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 09:53:21 +0000

There are now many hundreds of millions of people playing video games. It is inevitable that many millions of these are great gaming enthusiasts and that many of these want to work in the video game industry. My advice, based on 30 years in and around it, is don’t. And here’s why:

Playing video games is fun, it is entertainment. So you might think that making video games is fun. It isn’t. Not more or less than other jobs. Because that is what it is, just another job.
People who are industry wannabes always say that they want to be game designers. This is because they don’t know how a game is made. In fact there are very few game designers involved. On any development team the main sort of people are artists (of different sorts) and programmers (of different sorts).
Being keen about video games is no qualification whatsoever for working in the industry. Being a good computer programmer or artist is a much better basis. Even better is to be very good at maths. Game companies want people with the skills to make games and being an enthusiast isn’t a skill.
The competition to get into the game industry is fierce because there are so many wannabes. So the industry can be very, very choosy. When I was at Codemasters the minimum degree to get in was a 2.1 and you had to score over 130 in an IQ test.
Because so many people want in the wages are terrible. Similarly qualified graduates going into other industries will typically earn a lot more.
If the wages are bad then the working conditions are worse. Crunch is a widespread practice in the industry. Huge numbers of hours of unpaid overtime.
Career advancement is typically very, very slow. This is because most of the jobs are at a similar level, programming and creating art.
The work itself is often tedious, repetitive and boring. It is a hard slog to create all the dots that you see on the screen. There really are lots of better and more interesting jobs in the world.
Job security is awful. Companies routinely get rid of people as the work flow fluctuates. No matter how good you are it is ridiculously easy to find yourself out of a job.
The training industry has jumped onto exploiting the wannabe. Lots of colleges and universities have jumped on the bandwagon. There are now hundreds of supposed game industry courses in the UK. Yet amazingly only 6 of these are accredited by Skillset! There are now more people in training for the video game industry than there are in the industry. The vast majority of these people are wasting their time and money.
Game companies are mainly not very well run. This is because it is an immature industry and the management skills and practices are just not there. It is much, much nicer working in an organisation that is run properly. Which you are far more likely to find outside gaming.
The industry is firing, not hiring. Lots of game studios have closed, many have shed jobs. Electronic Arts alone is shedding 1,500 people. There are lots of very good, very experienced game developers who can’t get a job. Against that newbies don’t stand a chance.

The proof, as they say, is in the pudding. And over the years I have seen lots and lots of people leave the video game industry. They move to other industries where the work is better, they earn more money, they get promotions and they have job security.

If after all this you are still determined then I have some advice. Don’t train for the video game industry. Instead train to get a very good qualification that the game industry needs but which you could use in other industries. Maths and physics are the prime examples. There is a huge shortage of graduates in these subjects, so you would be far more attractive to a game company. Good artists and C++ programmers are more common, so less valued. But they are still both qualifications that can be used in many industries.

Interesting Twitter abuse

Bruce — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 15:39:21 +0000

Someone is running an online hate campaign against me. Obviously he has never met me and has too much time on his hands.

But he has found an interesting way to market his campaign. He has set up a bogus Twitter account called bruceongames2 and made tweets to it pointing to websites that support his hate campaign. Then comes the clever bit. From this account he then followed the followers of my legitimate account. Each one then gets the follow notice, and then if they click through to find out why I’ve apparently started another account they get to see all his hate tweets.

My legitimate Twitter account is Bruciebabe.

Evony, the truth, Facebook group

Bruce — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 14:38:14 +0000

Feel free to join and add your thoughts: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=295181985789&

London Game Festival 2009

Bruce — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 09:26:37 +0000

Next week is the fourth London Game Festival. A collection of 12 events during the week, a format that seems to be working nicely. Here is a list of all the events:

Wednesday October 21

The BAFTA Annual Video Games Lecture, in Association with GAME: Peter Molyneux Wednesday 21 October 2009 18:30 BAFTA, W1J 9LN, £7.50
Saturday October 24

London MCM Expo 2009 Saturday 24th – Sunday 25th October 2009 09:00 Excel London, E16 1XL, Adult Ticket (15 years old & above): £10 l Child Ticket (11 to 14): £5 l ‘EARLY ENTRY’ Tickets £13 Per Day
Sunday October 25

London MCM Expo 2009 Saturday 24th – Sunday 25th October 2009 10:00 Excel London, E16 1XL, Adult Ticket (15 years old & above): £10 l Child Ticket (11 to 14): £5 l ‘EARLY ENTRY’ Tickets £13 Per Day
Tuesday October 27

London Games Conference Tuesday 27th October 2009 16:30 BAFTA, W1J 9LN, £229
Wednesday October 28

Emergent Design for Playful Engagement Wednesday 28th October 2009 09:30 Graduate Centre, N7 8DB, £20
GameHorizon presents ‘Best of British’ Wednesday 28th October 2009 11:00 Kings Place, N1 9AG, £150 + VAT
Friday October 30

Eurogamer Expo 2009 Friday 30th – Saturday 31st October 2009 Old Billingsgate, EC3R 6DX, £6
GamesIndustry.biz Career Fair Friday 30th – Saturday 31st October 2009 Old Billingsgate, EC3R 6DX, £6
Golden Joystick Awards 2009 Friday 30th October 2009 ,
Playful Friday 30th October 2009 Conway Hall, WC1R 4RL, £40
Saturday October 31

Eurogamer Expo 2009 Friday 30th – Saturday 31st October 2009 Old Billingsgate, EC3R 6DX, £6
GamesIndustry.biz Career Fair Friday 30th – Saturday 31st October 2009 Old Billingsgate, EC3R 6DX, £6

I will be going to two of these. The Best of British on Wednesday 28 October has a very promising programme of speakers:

10.00 – 11.00	Registration and networking
	Host (Gareth Edmondson, Reflections studio introduces the event).
11.00 – 11.30	Ed Vaizey, discussing the games industry and its importance to the UK economy.
11.30 – 12.15	KEYNOTE: Charles Cecil, MD of Revolution studios will take a look at the British games industry where are its roots and what made Britain the birth place of the games industry. What are the key USPs of Britain moving forward?
12.15 – 13.30	Lunch and Networking
13.30 – 14:15	“Darwinia + playthrough”: Mark Morris MD of Introversion will talk about the benefits of being a British independent studio and how they have managed to transform from a small time indie to professional console developer. Mark will be talking about the influences of their latest and most exciting game Darwinia+ which is due to be released on XBLA later this year.
14:15 – 15:00	“Marketing Browser games” Simon Seefeldt is Head of Business development at Jagex – a world-leading developer of high quality, browser-based games and the largest independent games developer and publisher in the UK creating games such as Runscape and funOrb. Simon will talk about how they build their communities and market their games and how Britain is a great place to make games
15:00 – 15:30	Tea Break and Networking
15.30 – 16.00	Title: “I, myself and iPhone”: Paul Farley, MD Tag games will be talking about how Tag games started and what the benfits are of being a casual games company in the UK. Paul will also be highlighting the pros and cons of iPhone versus some of the other platforms.
16.15 – 17.00	“Give us a break” Gareth Edmondson and a panel of leading developers and games experts will be discussing the prospects for a Games Tax Relief and the implications for the industry as a whole if the measure is implemented. Games Tax Relief could benefit developers by reducing their over-reliance on publisher funding, promote original IP development and encourage a move to more sustainable online business models. The availability of government subsidies overseas is making the UK less competitive, not only from the point of view of costs, but also of skills as government support in other countries has attracted key staff away from the UK. The panel will be looking at what the Government reaction has been so far to TIGA’s lobbying and what are the next steps in ensuring tax breaks happen.
17.00 – 17.05	The decision – what is the best ever British game? All delegates will be asked to nominate a game at registration the top 10 nominations will then be voted on by the audience.

Then on Friday I am going to Eurogamer Expo. A consumer event with lots of games, development sessions and a career fair. And which is sold out!

Help defeat Evony

Bruce — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 11:15:05 +0000

As regular readers will know Evony are trying to sue me for libel in an Australian court. So we have a plaintiff from country A trying to sue a defendant from country B in country C. They can do this because judgements from Australian courts are enforceable in England. And they are trying to say that because internet content is available globally they can sue me in any country they feel like. Obviously they have chosen Australia to create the maximum difficulty in my defending myself, they are misusing the Australian legal system to censor the internet.

They are going after me because I exposed Evony to the harsh light of publicity. The Guardian newspaper did the same but they are not taking the Guardian to court because the Guardian have the resources to defend themselves from such spurious claims.

Libel is incredible expensive to bring to court, some cases end up with legal costs of over a million pounds. To get my case just to the first day of court in Australia should cost me over £50,000. You can see why freedom of speech is threatened here. Because my case is setting a precedent my lawyers have agreed to act on a no win no fee basis with no win no fee. In other words they will try and extract costs from Evony for bringing a frivolous case before the courts. But in the mean time there are a lot of costs to cover in putting the case together.

Obviously I can reduce myself to penury and send every penny I have to them. This seems a little harsh for just telling the truth. I have already sent them a substantial sum, as much as I can reasonably afford. So I have created a way that you can contribute to the fighting fund with the PayPal donate button at the side of this article. Anything would help, £1 even. It all adds up. So please help with a donation. And a big thank you to those who have already donated, it is much appreciated.

For those who live in the UK, a letter to their MP may help. Here is a draft that could be used:

Dear MP,

As you know there is a significant threat to freedom of speech with lawyers practicing reputation management on the internet. They threaten libel action against the authors of content that their clients don’t like, whether it is the truth or not. Those authors are then forced to withdraw that content because of the massive costs of defending their, often truthful, position. Obviously this mechanism is used most frequently by those with the most to hide. The libel law is thus being used against the interests of your constituents.

In a further twist we now have a Chinese video game, Evony, with a recently incorporated Delaware front company, sueing a British blogger, Bruce Everiss, in an Australian court. They are indulging in this extreme libel tourism firstly because Australian libel judgements are enforceable in England and secondly in order to make it as difficult as possible for Mr Everiss to defend what he maintains to be a truthful position. If Evony succeed it will open the floodgates of undefendable action being taken against British people in Australian courts.

As your constituent I would like to know what you are doing to maintain the freedom of speech on the internet. Also I would like to know what the government are doing to prevent the total abuse of the legal system that is happening in the case of Mr Everiss and Evony,

regards, etc

So there we have two ways that you can help. Please do so because what Evony are doing is a threat to every one’s freedoms.

Games Media Awards finalists

Bruce — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 06:15:39 +0000

Best Games Magazine

Games TM – Imagine Publishing
Edge Magazine – Future Publishing
PC Gamer – Future Publishing
Retro Gamer – Imagine Publishing
Official Xbox 360 Magzine – Future Publishing

Best Games Website

Eurogamer.net – Eurogamer Network
VG247.com – videogaming247
Gamespot.com – CBS Interactive
Videogamer.com – Pro-G Media
NowGamer.com – Imagine Publishing
Incgamers.com – IncGamers

Specialist Writer (Print)

Jon Blyth – Freelance (PC Zone)
Tom Francis – PC Gamer
Matt Handrahan – Games TM
Matthew Castle – NGamer
Darran Jones – Retro Gamer
Gillen McAllister – Official Xbox 360 Magazine

Specialist Writer (Web)

Dan Howdle – Nowgamer.com
Wesley Yin Poole – Videogamer.com
Pat Garratt – VG247.com
Ellie Gibson – Eurogamer.net
Chris Schilling – Gamerzines
Simon Parkin – Freelance (Eurogamer)

Games Coverage in a Mainstream Magazine

Zoo Weekly – Bauer Consumer Media
Nuts – IPC Media
Shortlist – Shortlist Media
FHM – Bauer Consumer Media
Front – Flip Media

Games Blog

Rockpapershotgun.com
VG247.com
Ukresistance.co.uk
Guardian Games Blog
Nowgamer.com

Coverage in a National Paper

The Guardian
The Daily Telegraph
Daily Star Sunday
The Independent
The Sun
The Daily Mirror

Games Broadcast/Podcast

One Life Left – www.onelifeleft.com
Eurogamer.tv – www.eurogamer.tv
Game On – BBC Radio 5 Live
Start/Select – uk.gamespot.com
Games Weasel – www.gamesweasel.com
Johnny Minkley – BBC Radio 1

Rising Star

Neon Kelly – Videogamer.com
Samuel Roberts – 360 Magazine
Matthew Pellett – Xbox World 360
Chris McMahon – Games TM
Graham Smith – PC Gamer
Mike Channell – Official Xbox 360 Magazine

Regional Games Columnist

Ross Wilkinson – Press Association
Dave Cook – The Scotsman
Steven Fox – Metro
Dan Slingsby – Games Addict
Ian Crump – Southern Daily Echo

Games Media Legend

The winner of this award will be named on the night

Edinburgh Interactive Festival 2009

Bruce — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 15:14:24 +0000

A part of the broader Edinburgh Festival, this presents games as a intrinsic part of our culture, a position I have always enthusiastically supported.

“Edinburgh Interactive Industry Conference
The Edinburgh Interactive Festival Conference will deliver a lively schedule from a wide range of industry sectors including video games, social networking, mobile entertainment, education, music, film and television. The two-day industry conference runs from Thursday 13th until Friday 14th August. Participants will share and gain knowledge and insights into innovations, trends and the coolest possibilities. Keynotes, panel sessions and presentations makeup the key components of the festival conference.
Conference delegates will be able to relax and network in an intimate environment during the conference and at the various Festival Networking events.”

Here is the conference timetable:

Thursday 13 August 2009

9:00 – 10:00

10:00 – 10:15

10:15 – 11:00

11:00 – 11:45

11:45 – 12:30

12:30 – 13:30

13:30 – 14:15

14:15 – 15:00

15:00 – 15:45

15:45 – 16:15

16:15 – 16:45

16:45 – 17:45

17:45 – 18:30

18:30 – 19:00

Registration

Introduction

KEYNOTE: The Challenge of Reinventing the Iconic Sports Brand Game
Peter Moore – President, EA Sports

The More Things Change…
Sean Dromgoole – CEO, Some Research

Sound Only Games
Martin Owen – CEO, Smalti

Lunch break

Lessons from Social Games
Kristian Segerstrale

It’s All In The Browser
Timo Soininen – CEO, Sulake Corp
Simon Guild, Chairman of Bigpoint Games
Simon Seefeldt , Head of Business Development, Jagex Ltd

Grow Up and Stop Playing with Yourself
Mike Bennett, CEO / Creative Director, Oil

Comfort Break

Today’s Games Industry – The Search for Profits
Ed Williams – Managing Director, BMO Capital Markets

What If…
Cliona Kirby – ,
Ian Livingstone OBE – Life President, Eidos

The Great Age of Big Blockbuster Games is Coming to an End?
Ian Livingstone OBE – Life President, Eidos
Peter Moore – President, EA Sports
Kristian Segerstrale
Ray Maguire

EDGE AWARD

Friday 14 August 2009

9:45 – 10:00

10:00 – 10:45

10:45 – 11:30

11:30 – 12:00

12:00 – 12:30

12:30 – 13:00

13:00 – 13:45

13:45 – 14:00

Welcome Back and Introductions

Let Avatars Speak for Themselves
Rob Seaver

Evolution of TV Branded Games
Peter Cowley – MD of Digital Media, Endemol UK

Improving the Multiplayer ExperienceThrough Social Technology
Jim Crowley – President and CEO, Turbine

Light Snacks and Comfort Break

Stop Telling Tales
Margaret Robertson

What’s on Gamers’ Minds
Kieran O’Neill, Co-Founder and Managing Director, Playfire

Summary and Thanks

Tuesday interviews

Bruce — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 11:00:57 +0000

Yesterday you saw the first interview in Bruceongames. Ed Vaizey, shadow Minister for the Arts told us some of what Conservative policies will be towards games when they take over government 0f the UK within the next year. The idea now is that this will be the first of a series of regular Tuesday interviews. The interviewees will all be people who are very important to the games industry. And the questions, based on my 30 years of industry experience, will try and elicit interesting and useful insights. So in future readers of this blog will not only be getting the benefit of my world view, they will also be seeing things through the eyes of some very informed people.

Coming up:

Tuesday 4th August. Philip Oliver, CEO of Blitz Games Studios, one of the world’s biggest independent game developers. Philip works tirelessly to improve the industry. Just recently he had breakfast with the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Alistair Darling, where he was able to effectively communicate a wide range of industry views. Next week you too can benefit from reading his views in his own words.
Tuesday 11th August. Jez San OBE. Game designer and developer, book author, microprocessor designer and highly successful businessman. Jez is famous as the author of the 1986 game Starglider, but these days he is a business angel, investing in a number of companies related to the games industry. So he has a wide ranging and highly informed perspective on many elements of gaming.

As you can see we are off to a brilliant start and I have promises of interviews from some impressive game industry leaders. I am really looking forward to what they have to say. I hope you find it interesting too.

Bruce On Games » Practical information

Game marketing is three times more important than product quality

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Game development clusters

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London Game Festival 2009

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