07.17.13 |
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Rob Fahey writing for GamesIndustry International:
Here’s this approach in summary – “save AAA games by making more money from the same consumers”. If you think you can rescue AAA by following that strategy, I’d submit that you’re part of the problem, not part of the solution. AAA development isn’t in trouble because its consumers don’t pay enough money – it’s in trouble because the growth of its consumer base has stalled. After years of meteoric growth, AAA games have hit a ceiling – new people are playing games in droves, interactive entertainment has gone every bit as mainstream as anyone dared to dream, yet AAA experiences are utterly failing to encourage new audiences to jump in, to swim upstream and become fully fledged video game consumers.
07.17.13 |
Gaming |
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The upcoming PS4 versus XBox One fight could easily be won over policies instead of games.
Console exclusives will dominate conversation out of the gate but I expect a stalemate a year from now; the incentive for cross platform gaming is especially strong this next generation. The XBox One and PS4 share a similar, PC-like architecture which makes ports from one console to another easier. In addition, rising PC and mobile competition should translate into fewer overall consoles sold. It’s smart business sense for games to launch on as many platforms as possible.
However, digital sales will be dominant on consoles sooner than many skeptics think. A digital sales policy that’s straightforward, permissive and consumer friendly will move sales more than any game exclusive will. Just look at the massive success of the iOS App Store, Steam and Netflix; clearly content fuels the majority of sales, but a strong digital policy is an integral part of each platform. For instance, Netflix has a single flat fee and few account sharing restrictions. The iOS App Store utilizes iCloud to auto download app purchases to every iPhone and iPad registered to a single user.
To Microsoft’s credit, their original XBox One E3 DRM policy anticipated a digital future. But they reversed, and as of now we’re largely in the dark on both Sony’s and Microsoft’s digital sales policy.
Each company should start by emulating Steam’s policies:
- All console purchases should be tied to a user account, not a single or set number of devices, with unlimited downloads to a registered console.
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Sales should be common with game prices fluctuating often. Older titles should be eventually marked down to meet lower demand.
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Allow customers to pre-download games in a locked state at their leisure, before launch day. Then offer a quick unlock code when the game is released.
But that’s just the first step. The disc market for console games still has some clear advantages over digital: A strong used game market, multiple vendors competing over prices, the speed of a disc install versus a huge, multi gigabyte download. To address these, a digital market should provide further incentives like:
- Digital downloads available a few days before a game shows up in stores.
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XBox/PSN credits or other incentives (e.g. extra subscription time, themes, bonus content) for “trading in” digital downloads.
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A true digital used market where gamers can buy and sell games (albeit with likely heavy restrictions.)
Granted, the previous suggestions would require massive coordination with game publishers, vendors, and the gaming public as a whole. Even reaching digital parity with Steam is an ambitious goal for the short term. Yet, much like we’ve seen in the music and app markets, digital sales isn’t just an option, soon it will be the dominant option. If Sony or Microsoft introduce a strong digital rights policy before their competitors, I’d expect it to be a huge factor in terms of which company “wins” this gaming generation.
07.16.13 |
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Google product designer Jean-Marc Denis makes a pretty compelling argument why you should seriously think about integrating Sketch into your production workflow. It’s one of the best “why Sketch over Photoshop” posts I’ve read.
While my time is still heavily in development, when I do drop into design, I find that I’m heading into Sketch more and more often. Photoshop still gets the majority of my bulk export work however.
07.16.13 |
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Drag and drop SVGs on this nifty little web tool by the Filament Group to auto generate fallback pngs and a quick demo web page. In short, if you’ve gun-shy about using SVGs on your web design given legacy browser compatibility, this should make your production work much easier and more reliable cross browser.
07.15.13 |
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Ryan Aston, The House Next Door:
Davis took over the hosting reins at GameSpot after Rich Gallop left and Gerstmann was fired, and immediately slotted into the same role at Giant Bomb. He jovially hosted the Bombcast and all of their live shows, including their panels at conventions like PAX. An incredibly funny and welcoming individual, he was just as friendly as he was amusingly insulting, but he was never disrespectful and his words never corrosive or venomous. His laugh was booming and infectious. He was an easygoing individual universally described as fun to be around. As awkward as he was at being recognized in public, he remained approachable and affable, showing fans the same love he received in return. Browsing the literal tens of thousands of comments following this sad news, it’s borderline impossible to find anyone with a bad word to say about him.
I’ve taken a while before I’ve made any mention of Ryan here after his passing almost two weeks ago, but The House Next Door’s summary here gets him right: funny, smart, universally liked. As a regular listener to the Bombcast and Giant Bomb in general, he will be greatly missed.
07.12.13 |
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It’s almost too easy to link to another Film Crit Hulk piece given his consistency. But this is another 10000 words easily worth your time if you’re interested in film, especially screenplays for big budget films over the summer (or have always had a bit of skepticism over J.J. Abrams’ skill overseeing screenplays.)
Here’s my favorite part:
LET’S GET HYPOTHETICAL: IF YOU (THE REAL YOU READING THIS NOW) WERE WALKING DOWN THE STREET AND SOMEONE CAME UP TO YOU AND YELLED, “Quick! I’m your long-lost brother you never knew you had! Someone’s after me! We have to run!!!!” YOU WOULD BE COMPLETELY TAKEN OFF-GUARD, WOULDN’T YOU? NOW, WOULD YOU BE CURIOUS? WOULD IT BE CRAZY? WOULD IT BE EXCITING? SURE! BUT YOU WOULDN’T EXACTLY BE INVESTED. YOU WOULD BE SUSPICIOUS. YOU WOULD DISTANCE YOURSELF. MEANWHILE, IF YOUR ACTUAL BROTHER THAT YOU’VE KNOWN AND LOVED YOUR WHOLE LIFE SHOWED UP AND SAID “Quick! Someone’s after me! We have to run!” YOU WOULD BE MUCH MORE INVESTED! IT’S YOUR BROTHER, AFTER ALL. BOTH ARE YOUR “BROTHERS” BUT ONE IS A PERSON WITH WHOM YOU HAVE A SHARED HISTORY AND LOVE. YOU HAVE ALL THE RELEVANT INFORMATION TO YOUR BOND THUS THERE WOULD BE A SUBSTANTIAL ROOTING INTEREST. AND BETWEEN THESE TWO SCENARIOS, THE MORE DRAMATIC AND COMPELLING SITUATION SHOULD BE OBVIOUS, RIGHT?
07.11.13 |
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Technologist Alex Kessinger on using feed readers effectively:
Reading efficiently can mean a number of things to people, and that’s fine. Some people want to read to stay up to date, others want to cover a lot of ground while not spending too much time reading. The idea is that reading efficiently covers the whole spectrum of reading goals.
Efficiency is a formula. How much did you consume, in what amount of time, and what do you have to show for it? If you read a ton quickly, but you can’t recall what you read, then you are wasting your time. If you want to have a high recall, and thus consume a small amount of material slowly, that’s fine, but this is a balancing act. You need to decide what your goal is before you can do anything to optimize for it.
Well said. This long series of posts inspired me to shake up my RSS feed reading habits. It might be a good topic for an upcoming blog post here.
07.10.13 |
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I’ve written enough responsive navigations in the last few months to be skeptical when I see a simple Javascript-based plugin solution. But probing further, the developer is Viljami Salminen, and the guy’s talented. It’s also library agnostic – no awkward jQuery dependency required. Worth taking a look at for your next responsive project.
07.09.13 |
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The short answer by Ars Technica is “no”. Frankly I don’t know what’s more interesting, the notion that PS4 and XBox One are a relative bargain, or that a new Neo Geo would cost $1111 in today’s dollars.
07.08.13 |
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It’s an older article but is worth revisiting now that the dust over Microsoft’s DRM stance has somewhat settled. AnandTech’s Anand Lai Shimpi goes into some expected serious depth here:
Differences in the memory subsytems also gives us some insight into each approach to the next-gen consoles. Microsoft opted for embedded SRAM + DDR3, while Sony went for a very fast GDDR5 memory interface. Sony’s approach (especially when combined with a beefier GPU) is exactly what you’d build if you wanted to give game developers the fastest hardware. Microsoft’s approach on the other hand looks a little more broad…It’s a risky strategy for sure, especially given the similarities in the underlying architectures between the Xbox One and PS4. If the market for high-end game consoles has already hit its peak, then Microsoft’s approach is likely the right one from a business standpoint. If the market for dedicated high-end game consoles hasn’t peaked however, Microsoft will have to rely even more on the Kinect experience, TV integration and its exclusive franchises to compete.