A look into the past ten years of gaming history.
Created by DonaldYoung on Aug 1, 2010
Last updated: 08/01/10 at 11:08 PM
Question 1: What were the details of the event? On May 25, 2010, Electronic Arts announced that Insomniac Games would become part of their EA Partners program (Insomniac 2010). Insomniac, creators of the Ratchet and Clank and Resistance franchises, said this arrangement was made to create a new franchise for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. This new game will be Insomniac’s first game to come out on multiple platforms and its first game not on a Sony console, in the company’s 16 year existence. When the agreement was announced, Ted Price (2010), CEO and founder of Insomniac Games, said, “Working with EA partners allows us to extend the reach of our games to a multiplatform audience while retaining ownership of the intellectual property.” Question 2: Why was the event important to the industry? This agreement spoke to the industry in two ways. It showed the importance of having a game on multiple platforms in today’s market, and the importance of a developer owning the intellectual property it creates. Insomniac has not had a property on any console other than a Sony console since its first game. Even though Insomniac has always been an independent company, Sony has published almost all of their games and has total control over all the intellectual properties the company has created. I think in today’s changing market, Insomniac made this decision for the health and growth of the company. Having a new franchise on multiple platforms, and being able to control the direction of this new franchise, will bring the company greater revenue and a larger fan base. Bungie recently made a similar deal with Activision Blizzard Inc., and I believe we will see more of these types of arrangements in the future. (Ashcraft 2010) References: Press Release from Insomniac Games, Insomniacgames.com (2010, May 25) Insomniac Games Selects EA Partners For New Publishing Agreement. Retrieved August 1, 2010 from: http://www.insomniacgames.com/about/news/latest/1529691 Brian Ashcraft, Kotaku.com (2010, April 29) Halo Developer Joins Forces With Activision. Retrieved August 1, 2010 from: http://kotaku.com/5527119/halo-developer-joins-forces-with-activision?skyline=true&s=i
Question 1: What were the details of the event? At E3 2008, Microsoft announced a deal with movie distributor Netflix to offer streaming movies on Xbox Live. Xbox 360 users with a Netflix membership and Xbox Live membership could use an application on the Xbox Dashboard to stream TV shows and movies from their Netflix Instant Queues (Block 2008). The service launched November 19, 2008. In November 2009, Netflix began streaming movies on Sony’s PlayStation 3, with a similar model as the Xbox 360(Kennedy 2009). In April 2010, Netflix began streaming movies to Nintendo’s Wii. Question 2: Why was the event important to the industry? The integration of Netflix turns the consoles into multimedia devices instead of just videogame machines. Services like Netflix help to make the consoles a social network. Friends can watch movies or play games and still be connected through Xbox Live or the PlayStation Network. Facebook is another social service that has been recently added to the consoles to further social interaction between members (McWhertor 2009). I believe that as the consoles evolve, we will see more services like these that change the consoles into social multimedia devices. References: Sam Kennedy, 1up.com (2009, October 25) Netflix Officially Coming to PS3. Retrieved August 1, 2010 from: http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3176634 Ryan Block, Engadget.com (2008, July 14) Netflix on Xbox 360 and Fall’s Revamped Dashboard/Guide Details. Retrieved August 1, 2010 from: http://www.engadget.com/2008/07/14/netflix-on-xbox-360-and-falls-revamped-dashboard-guide-detail/ Michael McWhertor, Kotaku.com (2009, June 1) Facebook, Twitter Coming to Xbox 360. Retrieved August 1, 2010 from: http://kotaku.com/5274491/facebook-twitter-coming-to-xbox-360
Question 1: What were the details of the event? In December 2007, Activision and Vivendi announced that the two companies would be merging. On July 8, 2008, a stockholders meeting was held and 92 percent of the shareholders agreed to go through with the merger. As a result of the merger, Vivendi Games, parent company of Blizzard Entertainment, became a wholly owned subsidiary of Activision. Vivendi received 295.3 million newly issued shares of Activision stock. Vivendi then purchased 62.9 million newly issued Activision shares at a price of $27.50 per share. The total amount Vivendi purchased was about $1.7 billion in Activision shares making Vivendi own about 52% of the newly merged company. The new company was named Activision Blizzard Inc. (Alexander 2008). Question 2: Why was the event important to the industry? With the merger of Activision and Vivendi, Activision Blizzard Inc. is now the largest game publisher in the world, and by a good margin. A lot of people in the industry fear that having a company of this size could form a monopoly. Certainly the new company has a lot more money to throw at the development of a game than most. For example, Kotaku.com recently reported StarCraft II’s development cost at around $100 million, a price rarely seen by any game (McWhertor 2010). With a company capable of publishing more expensive games and a greater number of games than most companies, Activision Blizzard could eliminate smaller publishers who just can’t compete financially. References: Leigh Alexander, Kotaku.com (2008, July 8) Activision Blizzard Merger Official. Retrieved July 26, 2010 from: http://kotaku.com/5023049/activision-blizzard-merger-official Michael McWhertor, Kotaku.com (2010, July 16) StarCraft II has a $100 Million Price Tag. Retrieved July 26.2010 from: http://kotaku.com/5589040/starcraft-ii-has-a-100-million-price-tag
Question 1: What were the details of the event? At their E3 2006 press conference, Microsoft announced that Grand Theft Auto 4, a series previously exclusive to Sony, was coming to the Xbox 360. A year later, Microsoft announced they had paid $50 million for timed exclusivity of two pieces of episodic content coming to GTA 4 (Klepek 2007). The company paid $25 million for the first episode and $25 million for the second. Eventually, the two episodes became available for the PS3 after the timed exclusivity agreement came to an end. Question 2: Why was the event important to the industry? Microsoft showed the industry how aggressive it is willing to be when acquiring licenses. Microsoft also acquired other Sony exclusive series like the Final Fantasy and Metal Gear Solid franchises. A lot of these purchases paid off for Microsoft. GTA 4 sold more copies on the Xbox 360 than the PS3, and I believe that is partly due to the exclusive episodes. Reference: Patrick Klepek, 1up.com (2007, June 18) Microsoft Paying $50M for GTA IV Episodic Content. Retrieved July 29, 2010 from: http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3157895
Question 1: What were the details of the event? Microsoft XNA is a set of tools that professional developers and amateurs can use to create videogames. Microsoft provides the base level code, which allows developers to focus on creating content instead of writing repetitive code. Games written in XNA Game Studio can be submitted to the Creators Club community where the games are judged by other creators, and then uploaded to the Xbox Live Marketplace. The creators can then set prices for their games and will receive 70% of the total revenue their game creates. The service is now called Xbox Live Indie Games (Carless 2006). Question 2: Why was the event important to the industry? XNA allows small developers or amateurs to create games that they can actually profit from. Since the service was created, XNA has helped creators to realize their gaming vision without having to go through publishers or understand how to write complex code. XNA has also helped to spur the indie game movement we have been seeing the last few years. Titles like The Dishwasher may have never existed without the service. I believe we will see more creative and unique titles because of XNA. Reference: Simon Carless, Gamasutra.com (2006, August 14) Microsoft To Enable User-Created Xbox 360 Games. Retrieved July 27, 2010 from: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/10458/BREAKING_Microsoft_To_Enable_UserCreated_Xbox_360_Games.php
Question 1: What were the details of the event? In 2004, Rockstar North and Take-Two released Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas for the PS2 and Xbox. The game was later released for the PC. Hidden in the game, inaccessible to console players, was a sexual mini-game that portrayed the main character having intercourse with his girlfriend. The mini-game was unearthed in a PC mod of the game on June 9, 2005 and was eventually unlocked on consoles through game hacking tools (Thorsen 2005). The game received immediate attention from lawmakers, politicians, and the media. They demanded the game be rerated and taken off shelves. The ESRB did rerate the game to “AO” instead of “M.” Rockstar then rereleased the game with the mini-game removed and patched the original game in order to disable the mini-game. Civil class action lawsuits followed the controversy and Take-Two eventually agreed to settle for about $24 million (Adams 2006). Question 2: Why was this event important to the industry? The controversy brought attention to the industry’s ratings system and the portrayal of adult content in videogames. Similar to the Mortal Kombat controversy, Hot Coffee attracted politicians to the industry. Their solution was to create laws that governed the videogame industry instead of it being self-governed, and to enforce fines if the laws were broken. Laws like these are still trying to be passed today. References: Tor Thorsen, Gamespot.com (2005, July 15) Confirmed: Sex minigame in PS2 San Andreas. Retrieved July 28, 2010 from: http://www.gamespot.com/news/2005/07/15/news_6129301.html David Adams, Ign.com (2006, June 8) Rockstar, FTC Settle Over Hot Coffee. Retrieved July 28, 2010 from: http://ps2.ign.com/articles/711/711788p1.html
Question 1: What were the details of the event? In 2004, EA announced they had signed an exclusive licensing agreement with the National Football League and NFL Players Inc. for sole rights to the NFL’s teams, stadiums, and players (Surette and Feldman 2004). The arrangement stated that only EA had the rights to publish NFL games on PCs, consoles, and handhelds in the action, simulation, arcade-style, and manager genres. The five-year contract was slated to end in 2009, but EA renewed its contract with the NFL to continue until 2012 (Ahearn 2008). Question 2: Why was the event important to the industry? By having sole control over the NFL license, EA eliminates its competition. In previous years, Madden may have had three or four competitors, but after the agreement was signed the only alternative for other companies was to create fictional football teams, stadiums, and players. Competition is good in the gaming industry. It promotes creativity and ingenuity among developers, which creates better products for the consumer. It also gives the consumer choices in the type of football experience he/she wants to have. That kind of competition doesn’t exist anymore. If a gamer wants to play a game with his/her favorite NFL team, the game to play is Madden. References: Nate Ahearn, uk.xbox360.ign.com (2008, February 12) EA Sports Locks Up NFL License…Again. Retrieved July 29, 2010 from: http://uk.xbox360.ign.com/articles/851/851316p1.html Tim Surette and Curt Feldman, Gamespot.com (2004, December 13) Big Deal: EA and NFL in exclusive licensing agreement. Retrieved July 29, 2010 from: http://www.gamespot.com/news/2004/12/13/news_6114977.html
Question 1: What were the details of the event? In November 2004, a blog post was made to LiveJournal.com that critized Electronic Arts for making their employees work an obscene amount of hours each week, and not paying them for overtime. The blog post was written by Erin Hoffman, then fiancée of Leander Hasty, and soon attracted the attention of others in the same situation. Leander Hasty was the main plaintiff in the following class-action lawsuit. The lawsuit, filed July 29, 2004, claimed that EA misclassified some of their employees, including artists and programmers, and decided the employees did not need compensation for working overtime. The first settlement came in 2005 when EA awarded 440 artists with unpaid overtime. And in April 2006, EA awarded $14.9 million to programmers who worked at EA between February 14th, 2001 and February 14th, 2006 (Jenkins 2006). The class-action lawsuit became known as the EA Spouse lawsuit because of the initial blog post by Erin Hoffman. Question 2: Why was the event important to the industry? The lawsuit brought attention to the unjust working conditions at EA and other companies in the game industry. After the settlements, many companies, including EA, made significant changes to employee hours and general working conditions. Today, many companies have detailed development schedules that allow less overtime and create a more peaceful work environment. Workers are also paid correctly for the time they put in. Many of these changes can be attributed to Erin Hoffman and the EA Spouse lawsuit. Reference: David Jenkins, Gamasutra.com (2006, April 26) Programmers Win EA Overtime Settlement, EA_Spouse Revealed. Retrieved from: http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=9051
Question 1: What were the details of the event? Steam is a digital distribution platform created by Valve Corporation. It also functions as a platform for setting up multiplayer games and is used for communication between gamers (Walker 2002). The Steam client was released September 12, 2003, but many didn’t encounter Steam until the release of Valve’s Half-Life 2. Over the years, Valve has provided many unique online services in addition to selling games through Steam. The Steam interface allows mod support, which means third-party mods and games not purchased through Steam will still be able to use Steam features. Steam Community is a social network service in which users can communicate with each other across games. Steam Cloud is a service that stores saved data from games on a central server. These services, plus the downloadable games, provide the now 25 million Steam users with an easy to use and reliable digital distribution service (Valve 2010). Question 2: Why was the event important to the industry? Steam has become a platform that has unified the PC market. Many PC gamers rely on Steam’s functionality to play games and socialize with other gamers. Valve also uses clever marketing tactics to entice gamers and bring in new users. The aggressive sales and huge bundles in the Steam Store create an eagerness to buy the games not seen on other consoles. Steam’s popularity attracted many major publishers, and now the store has over 1,000 games. Steam’s 25 million active users have shown the industry that the PC market is still viable. References: Trey Walker, Gamespot.com (2002, March 21) GDC 2002: Valve unveils Steam. Retrieved July 30, 2010 from: http://www.gamespot.com/news/2857298.html Press Release-Valve, Steampowered.com (2010, January 29) Steam Realizes Extraordinary Growth in 2009. Retrieved July 30, 2010 from: http://store.steampowered.com/news/3390/
Question 1: What were the details of the event? In 2002, Microsoft and Sony were sued by Immersion for patent infringement because the vibration functions of the companies’ controllers violated Immersion’s patented vibration technology. Microsoft decided to settle out of court with Immersion, purchasing 10% of the company’s shares, but Sony attempted to defend the case. Sony lost the initial court case. The jury awarded Immersion $82 million, which covered unpaid licensing fees over the lifespan of the DualShock controller. Sony was also ordered to suspend the sales of controllers that infringed on Immersion’s technology. Sony appealed this decision in order to keep their products on the market during the appeal process. In March 2006, Sony lost their appeal to the US District Court and appealed again to the US District Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit to keep their controllers on the market (Fisher 2006). At E3 2006, Sony announced at its press conference that vibration would be taken out of the upcoming PlayStation 3 controller. In March 2007, Sony and Immersion announced they had agreed to end their patent litigation and announced a business partnership. Sony had to pay Immersion many fees and royalties, but Sony was able to put vibration function back into its products (Immersion 2007). Question 2: Why was the event important to the industry? Sony showed the industry how important licensing technology or patenting your own technology can be, and how dangerous it can be if you don’t. Nintendo, for example, was not sued by Immersion because it had created and patented its own vibration technology. Sony went a few years without vibration functionality in their controllers; the vibration feature had become a standard in games, and without it, some support was lost for the console. Sony received many complaints from gamers and the industry for the absence of vibration. Today, Sony’s DualShock 3 has vibration technology, but only at a cost to Sony of royalties, licensing fees, and court costs. References: Immersion Corporation Press Release, Immersion.com (2007, March 1) Immersion and Sony Computer Entertainment Conclude Litigation and Enter into Business Agreement. Retrieved July 28, 2010 from: http://immr.client.shareholder.com/ReleaseDetail.cfm?ReleaseID=232152 Ken Fisher, Arstechnica.com (2006, March 13) Sony loses another round in DualShock lawsuit. Retrieved July 28, 2010 from: http://arstechnica.com/old/content/2006/03/6366.ars
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