The information below is a collection of notes written during researching and an outline of the contents of the assignment. All of the work here is present in the downloadable document above as well as all the other work I have done.
Contents
- Executive summary
- Introduction
- Terms of reference
- Methods of study
- Job roles employment and departments
- AAA, Indie
- Factors that may influence future of games industry
- Conclusion
- appendix
Executive summary (task 1)
Through this market summary, I intend to convey various factors of the games industry, ranging from factors that may influence the future of the industry to job roles and their part in development of a game in order to identify the structure and stability of the games industry
Introduction
The creative industries in relation to games design and development
Terms of reference
Off the Shelf software –
Bespoke software –
Middleware –
AAA studio –
Indie Studio –
GDPR / General Data Protection Regulation –
SDK / Software Development Kits –
Methods involved in study (task 2)
Through this study I have used various sources for my research from articles written around the subject to other market analysis reports. All sources used throughout this report are tracked and can be found in the bibliography
Discussion (task 3, 4, 5)
Task 3 – Job roles / employment sectors/departments
The games industry has a wide range of needed jobs. From being directly involved in development to those needed for marketing or workplace facilities such as a HR department or a marketing department.
Task 4 – indie, AAA and other company structures that practice in the industry
Evaluate – against criteria (comparison) – employee satisfaction, pay rate, job security
Contracts – Full time, part time, o hour, contracted,
The various jobs needed in the industry are (mostly – self-employed, freelance etc…) hired by various companies that practice within the industry. The two major structures are AAA studios and Indie studios. There are other companies that work within the industry such as publishers but AAA and Indie are the commonly the types that develop and create games.
AAA and indie being the major part of development companies within the industry they are the main focus of my research and understanding as these are the main pillars of the industry and other company structures are built to support the development of games.
Other companies within the industry –
Publishers –
Off the shelf software / Bespoke
Engines –
Off the Shelf (OTS) software and bespoke software – Middleware – engines
A part of developing a game is the software used, mainly the engine. Some studios choose to use an in-house engine such as Bethesda’s Creation Engine or EA’s Frostbite which would be called bespoke. Bespoke software means software made within the company that is going to use the software. Bethesda created the Creation Engine for games from 2011 (Skyrim) – to 2018 (Fallout 76) [1]. Bethesda has since moved onto creating a Creation Engine 2 [2] for use in games that have yet to be published, the first of which is Starfield. The Creation Engine 2 is developed within Bethesda Softworks and is still a bespoke software
Other studios choose off-the-shelf software for their engines, for larger AAA studios there has been conformation that they are moving to Unreal Engine 5, an updated version of Epic’s software [3], namely CD Projekt Reds new Witcher, GSC’s return with S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 and Epic’s own game Fortnite. This new step in technology is not just used by AAA developers such as CD Red or Epic games but is also used by Ninja Theory for the second Hellblade and other Independent developers Team Clout’s ‘ill’. There are many other options for off-the-shelf engines such as the other Unity, Godot, GameMaker or the construct line which each have their own reasons for use, Construct is mainly 2D whilst Unity is a jack of all trades from 3D fps games to mobile games to VR.
Outside of bespoke and off the shelf engines, there are other kinds of software, mainly off the shelf, that various companies use. From sound to trees, there are a range of commercial softwares that can be bought by studios needing a hand in those areas. Going back to an earlier source [1] from an article by Matt Bertz, Bethesda used off-the-shelf software in tandem with their bespoke engine, SpeedTree [4]. SpeedTree is an OTS vegetation focused programming and modelling product used in cinema [5] and games, Hitman III [6]. Off the shelf software is also commonly called middleware, it is the same as off the shelf but with a different name. Middleware Havok was and is supported by its developers. Havok is used for advanced physics. Physics can be difficult to program and if made poorly can be taxing on hardware which is why Havok is used by many titles such as several of Ubisoft’s games to a selection of Bethesda’s to some Nintendo’s games, notably Breath of the Wild.
Middleware is one of multiple different companies that operate in the industry and whilst some are not too significant, such as SpeedTree, and others are complex technology that in some cases are used as a games main mechanic; the Red Faction series [7] used Havok Destruction in order to deliver its destructible world. The wide use that middleware can cover is one of the major reasons why there is such a wide variation in the software available. Going back to different game engines, EA’s Frostbite engine has built in destructible environments as is seen in Battlefield games since Battlefield: Bad Company [8], the debut of the engine*, and as frostbite has destruction built in it would not have need to use Havok’s destruction engine like Red Faction: Guerrilla.
*Battlefield has used destruction since Battlefield 1942 but did not use the frostbite engine, instead using the Refractor engine, which was developed by Refractor games, a Swedish development team which was bought by DICE who then used the engine for Battlefield games with the only outliers being RalliSport Challenge, a rally racing game, and Codename Eagle a precursor to the battlefield games and the debut of the Refractor engine.
[1] Bertz, M., 2011. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Preview – The Technology Behind The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – Game Informer. [online] Game Informer. Available at: <https://www.gameinformer.com/games/the_elder_scrolls_v_skyrim/b/xbox360/archive/2011/01/17/the-technology-behind-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim.aspx> [Accessed 20 April 2022].
[2] McNally Institute. 2022. Is Bethesda Building A New Engine?. [online] Available at: <https://www.mcnallyinstitute.com/is-bethesda-building-a-new-engine/> [Accessed 20 April 2022].
[3] Mates, R., 2022. Unreal Engine 5 Games List – Upcoming UE5 Titles | GameWatcher. [online] Gamewatcher.com. Available at: <https://www.gamewatcher.com/news/unreal-engine-5-games> [Accessed 20 April 2022].
[4] Store.speedtree.com. 2022. SpeedTree – 3D Vegetation Modeling and Middleware. [online] Available at: <https://store.speedtree.com/> [Accessed 20 April 2022].
[5] Goggins, K., 2016. SpeedTree Takes Hollywood – Columbia Metropolitan Magazine. [online] Columbia Metropolitan Magazine. Available at: <https://columbiametro.com/article/speedtree-takes-hollywood/> [Accessed 20 April 2022].
[6] Windsor, A. and Nielsen, M., 2021. Hitman III’s High-Performance Foliage – SpeedTree. [online] Store.speedtree.com. Available at: <https://store.speedtree.com/hitman-3/> [Accessed 20 April 2022].
[7] 2009. Red Faction: Guerrilla. Illinois: Deep Silver Volition.
[8] 2008. Battlefield: Bad Company. Sweden: DICE.
Task 5 – Factors that influence creativity (past and present) and factors that may influence creativity (future)
The external environment of the games industry is volatile and constantly changing, there are many factors at hand that influence what is being made the creativity possible in the industry.
GDPR stands for General Data Protection Regulation and its focus is about a user’s personal data and how that can be used by companies who harvest that data. Whilst this mostly had ramifications towards the web and sites that use and harvest personal data such as social media platforms, it also had impacts on the games industry.
The GDPR requires those that harvest data to know why they are and what they are doing with that data, this also applies to partners, in terms of games, SDK’s. SDK stands for software development kits and are used in a variety of ways and one of these ways is using user data so when it comes to using SDKs in game development (in this case mostly mobile platforms, as they utilise SDKs the most) the developer needs to know what data is being taken by the SDK. The GDPR has other effects on development, for children’s consent which is an age group that mobile games end to target. The GDPR in games development acts similar to a tick box needing developers to follow the articles, for example children’s consent is a part of the GDPR and so in mobile games you can act on article 7 & 8 by adding in an in-game consent notice for the player.
Outside of development of a game, GDPR also has some effect on game analytics. In terms of game sales, revenue and general performance of the game or users who keep track of themselves through different platforms. One such platform, GameAnalytics [5.1] is a software platform that is used to track general game analytics, players, playtime etcetera.
[5.1] Evans, J., 2022. A guide to GDPR requirements for mobile game developers. [online] GamesIndustry.biz. Available at: <https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2021-04-16-a-guide-to-gdpr-requirements-for-mobile-game-developers#:~:text=Essentially%2C%20game%20studios%20are%20required,partners%20are%20collecting%20and%20why.&text=Game%20studios%20will%20need%20to,across%20different%20apps%20and%20websites.> [Accessed 10 February 2022].
Political
Loot Boxes – many politicians have stood against loot boxes what else could they stand against
Loot boxes have been followed and polluted with controversy for most of the 2010’s and heavily so in the latter half of that decade. The political issue highlighted through most legislation is around the psychological similarities between loot boxes and gambling and that through loot boxes in child-accessible games, this could encourage children to gamble, under the UK gambling act of 2005, there is no mention of loot boxes, mostly as these weren’t present in the same capacity at this time as one of the earliest accounts of loot boxes/gambling in video games was Maple Stories Gachapon tickets, which where only present in Japan and had people spend 100 yen for in game items.
Technological
New tech is constantly developed, there is no guarantee of how platforms for games can change
VR as a gaming platform came to fruition over the 2010’s and saw massive leaps in what was possible over that time, it is possible that other technology can arrive and make an impact on the industry. However, even with VR’s wide variety of games many AAA publishers and developers are yet to make any major move on the platform leaving the door open for a multitude of smaller projects lead by smaller teams, if a new technological platform was to arise, it is uncertain whether large developers would risk resources and years of development on a new platform, similar to how VR has been over recent years. One major outlier from this is Valve, it is up for debate if Valve is AAA or not but when Half Life: Alyx was released, it cemented VR as a worthwhile platform for high quality games development and as AAA games take multiple years to come to fruition, it could only be a matter of time before large companies such as Ubisoft or Xbox make a move on the platform.
VR
Social factors
E-Sports is new, what changes could it bring in the future
A rise in e-sports as a professional sport could lead to a rise in ‘e-sport’ games, counting games such as CS-GO, Overwatch, Dota 2 and Star Craft as e-sport games. This could lead to a surge in this style of games, as is the case with demographics of gamers. Demographics are a large part of games and have in the past influenced many changes in the games industry and what was developed. In recent history, the rise of Battle Royale as a genre was
Conclusion (task 6)
Appendix
“assignment 3 market report” is a working document that will be updated regularly.
Jacob's game journal 