The Business of Games Or How To Make a Living Doing What You Love To Do
Who I Am. 2001 to 2011 - Helped grow Stardock into a major PC game publisher 2011 to 2013 - Business Development Manager for GameStop, in charge of PC Digital sales 2013 to Now - Director of Business Development for Nightdive Studios. Over 100 titles published on Steam, GOG and Xbox One, including the System Shock and Turok games. *Education- B.S. from NYU, MBA from Detroit Mercy, MBA Scholar of the Year, Beta Gamma Sigma, etc.
You should ONLY care about the business of games, if.. If you want game development to be a career, not just a hobby. If you want to be happy in the business. The primary source of dissatisfaction cited on game development forums is lack of compensation, specifically a disconnect between effort and reward. What Defeats Us Lack of a business focus at the outset. How do we expect our games to generate money? How much should we expect? Where will we sell them and what will we sell?
Recently posted on the Indie Game Developers Facebook page:
It s SCARY Out There!
There are also opportunities
Ideas Alone Aren t Enough You think your ideas are hot. Everyone does. That's normal. But when you have professional people working forty, fifty, even eighty hour weeks for years, you have entirely different perspectives. Until you've done that, you just don't have the context to understand. - Mark Maratea, Formerly Principal Software Engineer at KIXEYE
South Park s Underpants Gnomes
Businesses Need Someone to Navigate Change
What Biz Dev Does Part 1 Reports to CEO, CFO Inward Facing Interactions Coordinates with the company s lawyers Works with Game Producers and Directors, Art Directors Strategy meetings Coordinates with Marketing and Community Managers Ensures that developers, artists, and others have the tools that they need for content creation
What Biz Dev Does Part 2 Outward Facing Interactions Coordinates with platforms Google, Apple, Steam, Xbox, PlayStation Publisher relations Activision, EA, Take Two, Ubisoft Media Polygon, Kotaku, PC Gamer, others Interviews presents the company s positions Attends industry events GDC, E3, Pax, Gamescom, Casual Connect Developer relations Unity, Unreal, NVIDIA, Intel, AMD, Oculus, Vive
Skill Set For Business Management Be a generalist possess many different skills Communication skills written and verbal Presentation skills be comfortable speaking to people and creating presentations Contact management Lists and calendars, social media including LinkedIn Psychology and active listening Accounting and finance create a business plan and forecast Be an active reader learn everything about the business
Understanding Change - A Historical Perspective (From the Business Side)
Changes in the Game Industry Platforms and Models Console Games The Old Days Personal Computer Physical media Floppy and CD Disks, Cartridges Sold at retail or through the mail Shareware Today s Models Console PC Mobile Browser Retail shrinking Digital growing Free to Play (F2P) In-app purchases Ad-supported Social media
Consoles Early consoles: Magnavox Odyssey in 1972 Atari 2600 in 1977 NES in 1983 (1985 for U.S.) SNES in 1990 Gameboy handheld in 1989 PlayStation modern era 1994 Xbox launches 2001 All based on physical media
Selling Into The Console World Today Walled gardens By definition consoles are controlled by the owners, SONY and Microsoft for today s console. Need certain approvals to obtain dev kits and publish games.* Marketing is still largely controlled by SONY, Microsoft, Nintendo.* In the past, console games were 100% retail. Now, led by DLC, content is moving toward digital. PlayStation Network, Xbox Live, Nintendo eshop. Transition to digital creates opportunities for indies.
Personal Computer Games IBM Personal Computer introduced in 1981 Microsoft Flight Simulator is released as the definitive game. By 1987 the PC was the largest gaming platform in the U.S. In 1990, John Carmack and John Romero made Commander Keen In 1992 Carmack and Romero form id Software, develop Wolfenstein 3D. Doom and Quake followed In 1994 Microsoft adds DirectX to Windows 95 In 1999, Valve releases Counter-Strike, introduces the Steam client to make digital updates.
Selling PC Games Open environment, relatively easy. SteamDirect Windows, Mac and Linux supported In the U.S., retail sales of PC games are effectively gone. Digital sales are thriving. Steam sales 2017 estimated at $4.3 billion. Other stores: EA Origin, GOG, Windows store, Amazon, Itch.io. Discord has recently announced a store. Low barriers, easy entry, free tools.
Mobile Games ios and Android platforms Apple, Google, Amazon, other stores 34% of all gamers ONLY play mobile games Enormous potential audience size, hard to get visibility. Many paths to monetization: Direct sales Free to play, in-game items Ad supported Hybrid models
Browser Based Games
Club Penguin
Show Me The Money!
Top 10 Game Companies By Revenue As of December, 2017
Development Old Days Build your own game engine. License one idtech or Doom engine (Original Strife) LithTech engine (NOLF, F.E.A.R.) Unreal engine Unreal Unity Today CryEngine see below Lumberyard- Amazon
Financing Old Days Do It Yourself Two jobs, long development cycle. Finding a publisher meant- Giving up control Getting paid was an issue Needed help getting retail placement (MDF) Today Self publish - Steam Direct, etc. The challenge is discovery. Publishers still important. Retail high upfront cost of manufacturing, dependency on stores. Venture capital control. Incubators Crowdfunding Kickstarter, IndieGogo, FIG
NIGHTDIVE STUDIOS RAISED $1.35 MILLION FOR SYSTEM SHOCK VIA KICKSTARTER
-Most funds ever raised via crowdfunding. -Non-traditional model. -No publisher. -Amazon Lumberyard. -Will Star Citizen be a failure, a hoax or the start of something new?
Summary More options for developers Platforms, engines, financial and funding models Barriers are being lowered all the time Network, Meetup, get involved in the industry Gamejams, Hackathons, build your portfolio Most important of all MAKE SOMETHING!
Resources Gamasutra - The Art & Business of Making Games, http://www.gamasutra.com/ SuperData, the world s leading provider of market intelligence, https://www.superdataresearch.com/ Indie Game Business, https://www.twitch.tv/indiegamebusiness/ TinyBuild, http://www.tinybuild.com/indie-dev-resources