A new generation of games is emerging:
games that start at a set time, that have
episodes, even seasons. Games that will
be played by tens if not hundreds of thousands
simultaneously. Games that are becoming like a service and less like a product.
This presentation by Jeroen Elfferich shows that games, especially online ones, should perhaps focus more on TV that the traditional obsession that videogame developers have had with cinema. And given the incredible amount of pioneering that has always taken place in Holland, this provides tremendous opportunties to companies based or partnering there.
What The Games Industry Can Learn From TV (Festival of Games 2010)
1. What The Game Industry Can Learn From TV
(and vice versa)
Jeroen Elfferich
Festival of Games
June 4, 2010
2. Social Gaming Services & Technology
HQ in Amsterdam (NL)
Office in San Francisco (USA), Airplay acquisition
3. Multiplayer: realtime social gaming
◦ Flexible and robust client & server technology
Crossplatform: web, mobile, TV, console
◦ Play anytime, anywhere, on any device
Broadcast integration: PlayToTV
◦ Watch a show, play with friends, beat the nation
Social gaming: play with your friends
◦ Deep integration with Facebook, Netlog, Hyves, ...
8. Write Design
Fund, license Fund, license
Produce Develop
Market (a lot!) Market (quite a lot!)
Pray (for a hit!) Pray (for a hit!)
Cinema Console
9. Rely on an internet connection to run
Other players matter
More serverside than clientside code
Tendency towards open standards; away from
downloads and plug-ins
Mobile, Tablet, PC, Set-top-box – I don‟t
care. They‟ll all be connected
10. Write Design
Produce Pilot Develop v0.9
Market Seed and/or market
Broadcast
Upload and launch
If success then
◦ Write, produce Season 1,
Regardless of success
market a bit, broadcast ◦ Tweak, upload v0.91
◦ Wash, rinse, repeat ◦ Analyse, rinse, iterate
TV Online
11. Go to theatre Go to retail store
◦ Pay ◦ Buy box
◦ See movie ◦ Go home
Go to store ◦ Play
◦ Buy disc Go to app store
◦ Go home ◦ Pay
◦ See movie ◦ Download
◦ Play
Cinema Console
12. Watch show Play online
◦ It‟s free ◦ It‟s free
◦ Watch ads See ad
◦ Be brainwashed (a bit) ◦ Fill out a form
Play more
◦ „Micropay‟
Play more still
TV Online
14. 4 Billion TV users worldwide
US: 4 hours a day (2 months non-stop per year!)
TV in 99% of all households, 2.24 sets on average
TV is turned on 6h47m a day
Total hours of TV consumed: 250 billion
% Americans who say they watch too much TV: 49
Youth – hours in school: 900 behind TV: 1,500
TV commercials seen per year: 20,000
16. 100.000.000.000+ Euro
◦ 2009 US market TV revenues, Idate
25.300.000.000 US$
◦ 2009 US market game industry revenues, Newzoo
17.
18. Show Debut channel Debut year Distributor
Sony Pictures
1 Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? ITV (UK) 1998
Television
Nederland 2
2 Deal or No Deal 2002 Endemol
(Netherlands)
3 Wipeout ABC (US) 2008 Endemol
CBS Studios
4 Wheel of Fortune NBC (US) 1975
International
5 Family Feud ABC (US) 1976 FremantleMedia
6 Don't Forget The Lyrics Fox (US) 2007 RDF Rights
7 Hole in the Wall Fox (US) 2008 FremantleMedia
Shine
8 Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader? Fox (US) 2007 International/Mark
Burnett Productions
CBS Studios
9 Jeopardy NBC (US) 1964
International
10 I Love My Country RTL4 (Netherlands) 2008 Talpa Media
Most Popular TV Gameshows in the World
TBI, 2009
19. 1988
The „Henny
Huisman Effect‟
is a situation
where the
national phone
system grinds to
a halt due to a
sudden, massive
amount of phone
calls.
22. “... The programme is sold in a series of 52 episodes to national TV
company Sichuan TV. Never before did a European producer sell a full
season‟s worth of TV to a Chinese broadcaster. The show will be called
„Wo Ai Wo De Zhu‟, or „I love China‟”
23. Crossplatform IP & Formats
Internet-based participation
Scheduled Gaming
TV Gameification
24. Until the 20th Century, games was the #1 pastime
Radio, then TV turned us into passive consumers
Late 20th Century, videogames showed that people
care about interactive entertainment
And now, the broadcast industry is trying to figure
out how to succeed in interactive formats
www.exmachina.nl
25. TV Lessons
◦ Scheduling & scarcity
◦ Marketing & episodes
Web:
◦ Personalisation & social graph
◦ Gameification of Everything
◦ Massive multiplayer
New devices (iPad, Google TV, TV out, Dual
Screen)
27. PlayToTV: 4 pillars
Real-time sync with TV
Massive scheduled interactive
entertainment
Access with mobile apps, web apps,
TV apps and web services
Live interaction thru social
networks, playing with friends