Pricing Games on the App Store - Premium isn't Dead, Freemium is Here to Stay, and it's Everybody's Fault. Ah, the Great App Store Pricing Debate.
For years people have been arguing over the cost of mobile games. Playing With Firearms In Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. By Rich Stanton on December 13th, 2013 at 9:00 pm.
I have sniped a Terrorist across the full length of A-Long. YouTube Blocks Game Videos, Industry Offers Help. By Graham Smith on December 11th, 2013 at 7:00 pm.
It’s a bad day to be the producer of game videos on YouTube. Dozens of YouTubers are reporting that they’ve received copyright claims against tens or sometimes hundreds of their videos. The copyright claims seem to be coming not from game publishers, but as a result of tightening of restrictions to how you’re allowed to monetize videos. In fact, numerous game publishers – including Ubisoft, Blizzard, Deep Silver and Capcom – have reached out to offer help against the claims. This gets complicated quickly and is the tip of the iceberg as far as the potential problems of distributing game videos on YouTube goes.
There’s a larger problem: videogame channels are almost entirely dependent on third-party materials. This is essentially what has started happening, as reported by CVG. For their part, the games industry at large seems to be doing what they can to help. Deconstructor of Fun: Why Plants vs. Zombies 2 Can't Make It To the Top. Personally I think that Plants vs.
Zombies 2 (PvZ2) is a great game. The game has kept all the good from the first episode and spiced it up with new content as well as features like map and gesture operated powerups. The biggest change of the sequel though is that it wen from paid to free. And as you know, this blog is all about game mechanic. Plants vs. Zombies 2: Between Scylla and Charybdis. The following two articles form an interesting diptych on Plants vs.
Zombies 2: Shenandoah's Eric Lee Smith: "We don't need hits to succeed." Eric Lee Smith considers the El Alamein prototype on my visit to Shenandoah’s office.
Eric Lee Smith is always prepared. Sunday Almanac, 17 November 2013. They were the good guys once.
The EA title card from the credits of Starflight for Amiga. A couple of weeks ago, ex-Firaxis designer Soren Johnson did a post-mortem on Plants vs Zombies 2, the freemium mousewheel-masquerading-as-a-game that EA forced PopCap to squeeze out earlier this year. Though EA hasn’t made any statements about the game’s success, comparing its App Annie numbers to bona fide free-to-play hits suggests that the game has bombed. Giving Away Your Game is Hard. The mobile gaming market has fast become a crazy universe buzzing with users, money, creativity, and entrepreneurship.
It's an interesting challenge trying to mine lasting lessons for success from a platform that evolves so rapidly, with such low barriers of entry for creators and consumers alike, where the prevailing wisdom can (and does) change within a matter of months. Everyone seems to have an opinion on what works best. How A Single Patch Can Shake The Dota 2 Trading Market. By Cassandra Khaw on November 19th, 2013 at 7:00 pm.
“Do you want a scoop?” “Yes.” That didn’t seem sufficient. Football Manager 2013 Pirated 10 Million Times, Says Devs. By Graham Smith on November 14th, 2013 at 6:00 pm.
An Outsider’s Critique Of LoL Esports’ Biggest Stage. By Nathan Grayson on October 17th, 2013 at 3:00 pm. I came, I saw, someone else conquered. Last weekend, I attended League of Legends’ Championship Series finals, which – in an undeniably historic moment for eSports – were held in Los Angeles’ Staples Center, a venue that’s played host to thousands upon thousands of fans through countless professional basketball games, boxing matches, and hockey games. Shenandoah's Eric Lee Smith: "We don't need hits to succeed." Game Developer reveals 2011 Game Industry Salary Survey results. Gamasutra's sister publication Game Developer magazine, the leading game industry publication, has released the results of its 11th annual Game Developer Salary Survey, finding that the average U.S. 'mainstream' industry salary was virtually flat in 2011, compared to 2010.
The Game Developer Salary Survey, available in full in the April 2012 issue of the magazine, is the only major publicly-released analysis of salaries in the worldwide video game industry. It provides an exhaustive breakdown of salaries and benefits at major game studios by discipline, job function, experience level, region and gender. The survey has also charted the growing worldwide independent game industry in the last three years. The Development of Games. David Galindo's Blog - How much do indie PC devs make, anyways? The following blog post, unless otherwise noted, was written by a member of Gamasutra’s community. The thoughts and opinions expressed are those of the writer and not Gamasutra or its parent company. So how hard is it for a relatively unknown indie dev to break into the PC gaming industry? Much has been said about the Xbox Live Indie Games service, the iPhone App store, and various other platforms indies can jump off into, but what about good ol' fashioned PC gaming?
Today I'd like to share my experiences selling a recently released indie game called the Oil Blue, mainly because I think sales transparency among indie devs is so important right now given the increasing difficulty of building a successful PC game (more on that in a bit). Relatively Unknown While I've made freeware games over the past ten years or so, I haven't actually gotten serious about breaking into the commercial game industry until a year or two ago. Oh. Honestly, I think it hurt me more than anything else. The Future of PC Gaming, According To The Lead Creator Of League of Legends. Why Minecraft Is So Damn Popular. How One Developer Cheated His Way To The Perfect Smurf Village and Why. What Indie Developers Can Learn from Minecraft news - Frozen Synapse Game. We take a look at this phenomenon and ask what it means for our business, as well as that of other indie developers... Like most indie devs, I'm a bit tired of hearing about Minecraft at the moment! I thought I would collate my thoughts on it in order to put the issue to bed.
S Blog » Indie games as a business. Game Industry News, Interviews and Videos. GDC 2010: Ngmoco's Neil Young on how freemium will change the Ap.