Business of Gaming

2 Comments Posted on by Steve Murray Columns, Video Games

Console Wars: The Xbox One’s Failure to Launch is a Marketing Failure

playstation-4-vs-xbox-one-controllersHaving had a few days to digest the two very different launch events for Sony’s PlayStation 4 and Microsoft’s Xbox One, I’ve come to a realization. As much as people don’t seem to like the Xbox launch, it wasn’t a failure in and of itself. In fact, I believe that Microsoft successfully accomplished what it set out to do.

The Xbox One and PlayStation Four both play video games. However, if you were to watch the two launch events, I’d understand if you were a little confused by that statement. While the PlayStation 4’s launch emphasised how it plays games and how it augments that with the social networking and sharing features, the Xbox spent comparatively little time talking about the games.

The difference in the launches was an example of how the console manufacturers are positioning their next-gen consoles in the market.

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6 Comments Posted on by Steve Murray Columns, Video Games

I’m Tired of Reboots, Remakes and Reimaginings: The Onset of Gamer Fatigue

generic-modern-military-shooter-coverI think I’ve finally snapped. I checked the gaming headlines the other day to find out that Bethesda was doing a “reimagined” Wolfenstein game set in a version of the 1960s where the Nazis won World War II and ruled the world. I’ve played a bit of Wolfenstein 3D  and was thought it okay but I didn’t particularly care much about it even though it’s the grand-daddy of modern first-person shooters (well, pre-console revolution FPSs).

Yet, when I heard about the upcoming Wolfenstein: The New Order, I snapped (or the blogger facsimile there of). As this console generation has slowly ground on, the influx of new intellectual properties being developed seems to have almost stopped. What new multi-platform IPs do we have to look forward to this year? Fuse, Remember Me and Watch Dogs? That’s it?!

It’s tough for me, and I’d imagine many gamers, to be excited about the near future of gaming when there is so little to be excited about. We’re stuck with publishers giving us a series of franchise reboots, remakes, reimaginings and sequels to put some money in their pockets. Quite frankly, it’s wearing me out.

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3 Comments Posted on by Steve Murray Columns, Video Games

Canada is a Gaming Powerhouse

canadian-gamingOne thing that I’ve realized as working on our Canadian Gaming Week is that the Canadian gaming industry is currently in great shape. Sure, Vancouver could use a little bit of help and the once great BioWare has been on a down swing but to parrot a Don Cherry line about Canadian hockey, we are the best.

If you look at last week’s Canadian Videogame Awards, the nominees and winners lists look like most major year-end awards lists. Three of last year’s biggest triple-A games, the best-selling sports game in the world and two of the best reviewed indie games of 2012 were all developed on Canadian soil. Canadian gaming isn’t just a powerhouse but is thriving hotbed for the games industry.

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3 Comments Posted on by Steve Murray Video Games

The Dollars and Cents of BioShock Infinite

bioshock-infinite-alternate-box-artAt the beginning of January, I wrote up a detailed breakdown of how much a publisher actually makes for each new copy of a game they sold. With today’s release of BioShock Infinite, I thought it would be a good time to apply these numbers to a practical example to show how profitable games actually are.

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4 Comments Posted on by Steve Murray Columns, Video Games

Caveat Emptor: What Rights Do You Have as a Gamer?

simcity-2013-connection-errorIn the last couple of months, we’ve had some very bad experiences as a gaming community. There was the abysmal Aliens: Colonial Marines that left gamers and fans of the Aliens franchise dissatisfied at best and angry at worst. The SimCity launch was a disaster of the highest proportion. It was probably worse than the Diablo III launch since EA and Maxis couldn’t be bothered to plan for a worst case scenario that we all saw coming. While, not a major issue, Tomb Raider had some serious issues on certain NVIDIA graphics cards.

The problem is that, unlike customers of most products, you have virtually no rights as a customer of the video games industry. Have you ever read the terms of service that you agreed to for digital distributors like Steam and Origin? If you have, you should ask yourself why you would ever buy a game from these people.

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1 Comment Posted on by Steve Murray Columns, Video Games

Why March is the New Video Game Christmas

gamestop-black-fridayIt used to be that all the big products were launched in time for the Christmas shopping season (or your religion’s December equivalent). This included video games. Last year wasn’t much different with big releases in the run up to Christmas including Far Cry 3, COD: Blops 2, Hitman, Assassin’s Creed 3, among several other triple-A releases.

The reason for releasing games in the fall in the run up to Christmas is obvious. Christmas is the biggest shopping season of the year. Everyone is asking for and looking for Christmas gifts so what better time to get your big products out there than when people are spending scads of money anyway.

So why do I bring up March? If you’ve checked the release calendar, you’d have noticed that this month has more noteworthy games coming out than seemingly any single month in the past year. We’ve already had reboots for Tomb Raider and Sim City start the month and BioShock: Infinite will close it up. In the intervening time period, there you can buy StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm, prequels for Gears of War and God of War, and The Walking Dead cash in from Activision.

So why has March turned into such a hotbed for big game releases?

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