Appropriately sizing and hosting your online game project’s infrastructure can improve your bottom line. In this white paper, IBM describes the current state and direction of key technological trends and how they impact the business of games, focusing on what online game companies need to know to more rapidly and efficiently build a better game.
IBM Digital Media SolutionsMay 2006
The Business of
Interactive Entertainment
Appropriately sizing and hosting
your online game project's infrastructure
can improve your bottom line
George Dolbier, Executive Architect IBM Digital Media Solutions
Ayalla Goldschmidt, Marketing Manager IBM Digital Media SolutionsThe Interactive Entertainment IndustryPage 2
IntroductionContents Reaching far beyond the familiar PC and console game realm, today's Interactive Entertainment industry has a hand in everything from cell phones 2 Introduction and cars, to Las Vegas casinos and global currency fluctuation simulation. 2 Anatomy of an industry Today, you can find interactive technology used to simulate everything from 5 Critical taxonomy of an industry battle situations to auction markets, from microbiology to entire societies. In 10 The bigger picture spite of all its diversification and cross-market saturation, the primary goal 12 A high-level look at the games has remained largely intact and unscathed. What it boils down to is the ability 14 Dividing up the globe, online to leverage technology as a means to provide compelling entertainment and game style socialization products to the general public.19 Economic factors in hosting a game As a human endeavor, Interactive Entertainment is, in essence, a collaborative 22 Dealing with a dud game hosting art form nearly as complicated as the games it produces. The typical modern company game is a combination of 2-D graphic arts, 3-D computer-generated graphics, 24 Industry direction scripting, voicing, sound effects and music. And while many production 25 Conclusion elements are in parallel with the movie-making process, the essential layer of active audience participation brings an added dimension of complexity. As an entertainment medium, as an art form and as a game, each new level of complexity is made possible only by the maturation of computer technology. As a matter of fact, it typically takes a non-trivial amount of sophisticated hardware and software to build a modern game. As a result, providing services and solutions to this industry can be quite daunting to the uninitiated.
This paper intends to provide anyone with an interest in the industry to start from very little knowledge, and gain enough experience to be able to understand the language of multiplayer online games, learn how they operate, and understand the important factors to consider when building a multiplayer online game. Moreover, those intrepid literary adventurers who dare trek through the entire paper will be rewarded with an excellent understanding of multiplayer online games.
Anatomy of an industryIt is widely unknown and sometimes difficult to comprehend, but massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs) are one of the most technologically complex projects currently undertaken by mankind. Games like the popular EverQuest and World of Warcraft easily have as many parts and components as a space shuttle. As such, a game launch in the marketplace can be as spectacular as a Space Shuttle launch. It takes hundreds of people to develop a multiplayer online game, dozens of people to manufacture, advertise, market, distribute, The Interactive Entertainment IndustryPage 3
and stock games in retail establishments, and hundreds more around the Highlights world to configure, install, maintain, and support it. Not only does it take an enormous amount of people to launch a game, but it also requires several Not only does it take an enormous distinct business models to be in play at any given time. amount of people to launch a game, but it also requires several distinct Publishersbusiness models to be in play at any This business model consists of those who actually make a game happen. given time. Publishers produce the CDs, assemble and print collateral, assemble and box the game, manage relationships with retailers and various methods of Developers make all of the critical distribution, and above all collect and distribute revenue from game sales. In decisions regarding what technology the tradition of Hollywood movie studios, publishers control the sales channels, will go into the development of a along with the means of getting the game out to consumers. In this role, game, as well as the infrastructure on publishers play a large part in the economics of the industry, funding most of which the online game will run. the game... [download for more]
