Trendsurfing: Episodic gaming (The Times)
By David Rowan
What’s the difference between playing a computer game and watching a plot- twisting TV drama series such as Lost or 24? Increasingly, less than you might think. In a trend that is beginning to sweep through the vast computer-gaming industry, developers are turning away from releasing all-inclusive narrative epics and instead allowing their stories to drip out one episode at a time. Just as Dickens offered his novels initially as serialisations in magazines, so the game creators hope to tell their interactive stories in a series of short, self-contained bursts. It is a bold new business model that could hook players in for years – or at least until they find something more compelling on another channel.
Why would developers want to risk selling a series of £10 instalments rather than bank on a single £30 or £40 earner? For a start, because they think there’s more money to be made in the long run by building up a loyal audience that will keep coming back for more. Plus, as production prices soar to tens of millions of dollars, the games firms can test the market at an early stage to avoid potentially costly mistakes. If the audience hates some aspects of a game, or decides that a minor character should take a more central role, the techies can quickly tweak their work in time for the next episode. Just as with network TV series, games that bomb can be dropped before the firm has invested unfeasible sums. But when they do discover a hit, that emotional connection with players can keep enticing the fans to subscribe to regular online updates. Ching ching.
Episodic gaming has lurked in the shadows for almost a decade, with Electronic Arts among the first companies to offer online updates to titles such as Wing Commander. But now, with development costs rising ever higher and broadband penetration widening the online marketplace, more mainstream developers are endorsing the model. Valve has released the first "episode" in a series of new Half-Life games, Ritual Entertainment is offering instalments of its first-person shooter SiN, and Rockstar Games promises Xbox 360 updates for its release of Grand Theft Auto IV. Even the language is sounding like that of TV schedulers: Telltale Games is updating its classic Sam & Max rabbit-and-dog cartoon franchise with a new title revealingly called Sam & Max: Season 1.
You’d do the same if it was your money at stake. It can typically cost $20 or $30 million to develop a full-length title with the graphical detail and plot complexity to satisfy today’s console players. The first few Sam & Max episodes, by contrast, each cost well under $1 million. But the trend is not simply about maximising developers’ profits in a market estimated at $26 billion a year. The ponytailed types who program the games are excited about the storytelling possibilities – from the challenges of hooking players with end-of-episode cliffhangers to the opportunity to gain quick feedback. "Rather than guessing how people are playing our game, we can watch them navigate through the game," says Gabe Newell, managing director at Valve Software, who now claims "a real-time connection" with players. "We can see them get stuck at various points and say, ‘Oh, that’s not what we designed,’ and work to correct that."
The big question, though, is how quickly the trend will percolate to the wider entertainment culture. Guess you’ll have to tune in next week if you expect Trendsurfing to give you the answer.
(The Times Magazine, November 4 2006)
What’s the difference between playing a computer game and watching a plot- twisting TV drama series such as Lost or 24? Increasingly, less than you might think. In a trend that is beginning to sweep through the vast computer-gaming industry, developers are turning away from releasing all-inclusive narrative epics and instead allowing their stories to drip out one episode at a time. Just as Dickens offered his novels initially as serialisations in magazines, so the game creators hope to tell their interactive stories in a series of short, self-contained bursts. It is a bold new business model that could hook players in for years – or at least until they find something more compelling on another channel.
Why would developers want to risk selling a series of £10 instalments rather than bank on a single £30 or £40 earner? For a start, because they think there’s more money to be made in the long run by building up a loyal audience that will keep coming back for more. Plus, as production prices soar to tens of millions of dollars, the games firms can test the market at an early stage to avoid potentially costly mistakes. If the audience hates some aspects of a game, or decides that a minor character should take a more central role, the techies can quickly tweak their work in time for the next episode. Just as with network TV series, games that bomb can be dropped before the firm has invested unfeasible sums. But when they do discover a hit, that emotional connection with players can keep enticing the fans to subscribe to regular online updates. Ching ching.
Episodic gaming has lurked in the shadows for almost a decade, with Electronic Arts among the first companies to offer online updates to titles such as Wing Commander. But now, with development costs rising ever higher and broadband penetration widening the online marketplace, more mainstream developers are endorsing the model. Valve has released the first "episode" in a series of new Half-Life games, Ritual Entertainment is offering instalments of its first-person shooter SiN, and Rockstar Games promises Xbox 360 updates for its release of Grand Theft Auto IV. Even the language is sounding like that of TV schedulers: Telltale Games is updating its classic Sam & Max rabbit-and-dog cartoon franchise with a new title revealingly called Sam & Max: Season 1.
You’d do the same if it was your money at stake. It can typically cost $20 or $30 million to develop a full-length title with the graphical detail and plot complexity to satisfy today’s console players. The first few Sam & Max episodes, by contrast, each cost well under $1 million. But the trend is not simply about maximising developers’ profits in a market estimated at $26 billion a year. The ponytailed types who program the games are excited about the storytelling possibilities – from the challenges of hooking players with end-of-episode cliffhangers to the opportunity to gain quick feedback. "Rather than guessing how people are playing our game, we can watch them navigate through the game," says Gabe Newell, managing director at Valve Software, who now claims "a real-time connection" with players. "We can see them get stuck at various points and say, ‘Oh, that’s not what we designed,’ and work to correct that."
The big question, though, is how quickly the trend will percolate to the wider entertainment culture. Guess you’ll have to tune in next week if you expect Trendsurfing to give you the answer.
(The Times Magazine, November 4 2006)
posted by David Rowan at Saturday, November 04, 2006
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