Game Network Newsletter - December 2010
December 17, 2010 (Back to archive)
In This Issue
- Game Developers Conference 2011 - VP of Glu Mobile talks business models and platform strategies
- Independent Games Festival - CEO of TransGaming discusses launch of GameTree TV platform
- GDC China 2010 - UBM TechWeb Game Network Global Brand Director, Simon Carless, recaps successful GDC China event, discuss market in China moving forward
Mike Breslin, marketing VP at Glu Mobile, talks about the company's transition into smartphones, its adoption of the "freemium" business model, and its support of the Smartphone Summit at GDC 2011 |
 |
 Mike Breslin |
Q: Mike, what impact has the smartphone boom had on Glu Mobile's business?
Mike Breslin: Glu Mobile has a deep heritage in the mobile gaming space. It was the first independent mobile games company to go public. And, in January, Niccolo de Masi became president and CEO and has really transformed Glu Mobile from a traditional legacy mobile company to a new social mobile company, specifically on smartphones and tablet devices. It has truly been a remarkable year for us.
Q: Given that transition to smartphones, what key factors go into deciding what titles to launch on the different mobile platforms?
Breslin: We take into account several channels of information. First and foremost, we listen to the consumers and research what are the current consumer trends and what will be the future trends. Then we look at what's good for the device; certain games may not play that well on a mobile phone, for instance, but may play better on an iPad due to the screen size. We also look at our own roadmap because, as a publisher and a public company, we need to have a balanced portfolio without putting all our eggs in one basket. For example, we don't want to make 20 games for the 18-35-year-old male demographic because, frankly, more than half of today's mobile gamers are now women.
And so, due to Glu's ability to develop across multiple mobile platforms, we will have launched over 95 games in 2010 – and that includes both feature phones and smartphones – and we plan to do the same in 2011, releasing six freemium social mobile games a quarter to further build and solidify our leadership position in social mobile games.
Q: What's the formula for a great mobile game?
Breslin: Again, much of it depends on what makes sense from a user-interface perspective. Some of the best games are the ones that take full advantage of the size of the screen, the gyroscope in the device, the front- and rear-facing cameras, and all the other cool features you can implement.
For example, we released "Deer Hunter: African Safari" for the iPhone in August and it's become the #1 hunting franchise in the App Store. One of the reasons for that is that it's so realistic because it uses all of the iPhone gaming features. When you look through the scope to spot a water buffalo off in the distance, if you move your phone away from you, the game senses that and the scope zooms in; if you move left or right, the game moves with you so that it almost looks like it's in 3D. Similarly, in our flying game "Glyder 2," the software uses the iPhone cameras and gyroscope to make the game simple to get into and to give you that sense of flying.
Our number one key strategy right now is the freemium model which allows people to try the game for free and then play it – either with no cost to them or they can buy items to unlock parts of the game. In other words, you can play it and work your way through it and have an awesome experience without spending a penny but it might take you longer to complete.
Q: Last month you came out with "Lord Of The Rings: Middle-Earth Defense" for iPhone and it's received really good reviews. What's up next in the development pipeline?
Breslin: Well, "Deer Hunter Challenge" will be coming out any day now for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad; the release date really depends more on Apple than on us. It's a freemium game that lets you go from rookie to master sportsman as your experience level increases...and you can upgrade to greater weapons, equipment, and clothing.
Also ready for release is "Hero Project," a freemium social RPG that enables you to create a hero and save the world from evil. Not only do you get to choose your own super powers, but you can fight crime together with your friends, which is the social part of the game. A really cool feature is that you can play the game on, say, your iPhone when you're out and about, and then, when you get home, you can continue the gameplay on your iPad to extend the experience.
Q: Glu Mobile is supporting the Smartphone Summit at GDC 2011. What are your primary goals for attending – and supporting – GDC?
Breslin: I personally have been a supporter of GDC ever since I've been in the business these last 16 years having started off in PC and console gaming and then having worked my way into mobile. It's an organization that's always helped promote and support and drive the industry as a whole. And I'm a big believer in supporting the people who are supporting you.
As for the Smartphone Summit, social mobile gaming is a huge initiative for us here at Glu Mobile and we want to be at the show and support the Summit. Our goal is to be on the short list anytime anybody needs any information on the space...or wants to talk about social mobile gaming in general.
Vikas Gupta, CEO of TransGaming, chats about the imminent launch of its GameTree TV platform, its SDK program for developers, and why it supports the Independent Games Festival |
 |
 Vikas Gupta |
Q: Vikas, For those readers who aren't familiar with it, what is your GameTree TV platform – and how does it differ from other digital gaming services, like OnLive?
Vikas Gupta: GameTree TV is a brand new videogames on-demand platform for the next-generation connected living room. We are building an entire gaming eco-system that is going to allow consumers who have an Intel-based next-generation box – such as a set-top box or a Smart TV – to be able to access videogames through a highly user-friendly interface with a variety of flexible business model options in order to access gaming for the broad family demographic.
Q: GameTree is live – or still in the planning stage?
Gupta: Because we're working directly with cable operators, OEMs, and CE manufacturers on their next-generation devices, it's not live yet. We expect it to be commercially deployed in Q1 2011.
Q: I'm assuming the games are what most people refer to as "casual" or "social" games as opposed to hardcore?
Gupta: Yes, and that's one of the differentiations we have with OnLive. When you think about who the cable operators' customers are, the best definition is the broad family demographic. So we're putting together a really good portfolio of content that has broad appeal to everybody in the family unit as both immersive and snackable entertainment. We really believe that the hardcore gaming market is already over-served, so we're not going after that market. We will have casual content, social games, MMOGs, free-to-play games, and so on.
The other differentiation from OnLive is that we are downloading the content from the cloud directly to the device as opposed to streaming content. What that allows us to do is completely predict and optimize the performance of the game because we know what that hardware looks like. And it enables us to integrate very tightly with the operator and be complementary to TV viewing. So, for example, if you are watching a TV show and there happens to be a corresponding game associated with that TV show, the operator can pop up a little widget as the show's credits roll that says "You can play XYZ game now to continue the experience." And then, with a single click, you are transitioned from the TV show to the game. It's a seamless transition – no switching of inputs, no changing of devices, no plugging in peripherals. It's all being done on exactly the same platform that you've been using to watch TV. How powerful is that?
Q: Are you currently encouraging indie developers to build games for the GameTree platform?
Gupta: Absolutely. That's one of the reasons we're supporting the Independent Games Festival at GDC 2011. We are a sponsor and we are going to be initiating and publicly launching a GameTree TV development competition very soon as well. We believe that the indie games community has exhibited an incredible amount of innovation and creativity...and we're trying to give them the opportunity to access a great platform that ultimately gets their games into the biggest consumer audience possible.
Q: If I'm an indie developer and I want to get involved in GameTree, what do I do now?
Gupta: The best thing to do is go to our Web site and click on our SDK. We have two programs. One is where developers can download the SDK completely for free – and it comes with a whole variety of tools, one of which is also an emulator – and they can start to build their game or adapt an existing game using the technology that we provide. And then, using the emulator, they can fully test the game and start to optimize it. The second program involves becoming part of the authorized GameTree TV developer program which means that they've got to submit a little more information, we then review their application, and then – if they meet our criteria – we approve them. As part of the approval process, they will get direct technical support from us as well as the actual hardware with the right software stack so they can then take their game and start to build it or optimize it specifically on the hardware that GameTree TV is going to be deployed on.
Q: What is your rev share model?
Gupta: Our business model is a revenue share between the operator, TransGaming, and the game developer. We're not disclosing the rev share numbers just yet. We'll become more public about that next year as we start to put together some more of our marketing information. Developers, however, can contact us and get more information. We certainly encourage that.
Q: I understand that GameTree TV is only available in Europe. Are there plans to launch in the U.S. and in other markets?
Gupta: Yes, our initial set of launches will take place in Europe and that is because Europe is an early adopter when it comes to next-generation technology. There's a lot of competition in the cable space in Europe – unlike in North America where cable operators get a certain territory which gives them a monopoly within that territory. So cable operators in Europe really have to fight hard and they have to differentiate themselves because, if they don't, consumers have the option to leave them and go to their competitor. That, coupled with the array of other forms of competition that take the consumer away from the television, compel operators to make their own offering more palatable.
But the U.S. cable community is watching the Europeans very closely, and we do believe that by mid- to late-2011, we're going to see GameTree come to North America as well.
UBM TechWeb Game Network Global Brand Director, Simon Carless, recaps successful GDC China event, and discusses the market in China moving forward |
|
 Simon Carless |
Q: The 3rd annual GDC China event just concluded -- give us your thoughts on the show.
Simon Carless: After a lot of preparation and hard work from our Shanghai-based office, we were incredibly happy with the event, which took place in early December at the Shanghai International Convention Center. The Expo Floor, including the IGF Pavilion, got a great response from attendees, and we were particularly happy with the conference line-up this year, with major Chinese companies rubbing shoulders with a lot of the leaders in Western game development.
Our partnership with the Chinese Ministry Of Culture, which developed significantly this year, helps us to run the only officially MoC-endorsed game development event in the country. This is a big deal, given the importance and growth of video games in that space. It also gives opportunities for government, publishers, distributors, developers and those looking to learn and do business to meet up at the same place and the same time. We really feel like we delivered, and we're really excited to expand the event again for 2011.
Q: What were some of more notable talks at this year's show?
Carless: We were delighted with our conference line-up, including some major names - Bill Roper, who is a demi-god in Asia thanks to his work on Starcraft and other Blizzard games, as well as Square Enix's producer on Final Fantasy IV, Hiromichi Tanaka - it's the first Final Fantasy title to be officially released in China.
The conference also had some great appearances from emerging markets, with Chinese social network game producer 5 Minutes, the folks behind Happy Farm, a game that even predated Zynga's FarmVille, giving an excellent talk - as well as Rovio's Peter Vesterbacka, who talked about massive smash hit iOS title Angry Birds. Many of the lectures were written up by Gamasutra's Christian Nutt - check out coverage here.
People seemed to particularly appreciate that we had a handle on the emerging trends this year - our Summits based around major trends like iPhone/iPad and Social Network Games were consistently packed, with people practically overflowing the room and swarming the speakers afterward.
Q: Indie Games seemed to be a big focus this year in terms of session content and the expansion of IGF China, how has the reception been from indie developers and press?
Carless: Our Independent Games Festival for Asian and Australasia was also received very well, with innovative indie games playable on the show floor, and an excellent gala awards where we gave money and awards to indies from all over Asia - including talented developers who'd flown in specially from Korea, Taiwan, mainland China, New Zealand, and Australia. We've put up the winners on the official IGF.com website.
In addition, our Independent Games Summit showcased both Asian and Western indie developers, with notable names including Andy Schatz, who won the IGF Grand Prize in 2010 with heist game Monaco, and talked about its rapid development and success. There were also lectures from Shadow Physics creator Steve Swink, and the duo behind IGF finalist and current iPad hit Osmos, recently named as one of Apple's games of the year on the platform.
Q: What are the prospects for the market in China going forward?
Carless: There's some really interesting things going on in the space - for one thing, there's a definite rise for what's called 'SNS' (social network games), and the major social game companies in the West are working hard on expanding Chinese offices. In addition, smartphones in general and the iPhone in particular is getting massively boosted as a status symbol in China right now.
In fact, street hawkers have appended 'iPhone, iPad?' to their traditional shouts to Western tourists of 'Rolex, handbag?' We'll see how the Chinese market takes to paid apps, but it's certainly a big deal in terms of installed base. And with the growth of the free-to-play online game market and Chinese companies like Tencent and Shanda expanding significantly in the West, it's a really exciting time for the art and business of games in China - which is why we're so happy to have a flourishing GDC show there.
 |
Paul has covered the videogames industry for over 15 years now, currently writes for Gamasutra.com, and was editor-in-chief of UBM's GamePower.com. He can be reached at phyman@gdmag.com.
For more information, fill out a Request for Proposal Form.
UBM Game Network
The UBM Tech Game Network delivers market-defining platforms that drives community and business partnerships through its award-winning lineup of Game Developer Conference ® events, Virtual Reality Developers Conference (VRDC), Independent Games Festival and Choice Awards, GDC Play, the internationally recognized and Webby Award-winning online community, Gamasutra.com, Gamecareerguide.com, GDC Vault.com.
Who We Work With
Don't see your company here?
Partner with us and join the conversation.
Latest News
Interviews
Mike Gamble European Territory Manager, Unreal Engines
Hannes Seifert Head of Studio, Io-Interactive
Ina Bourmer Head of Human Resources, Goodgame Studios