Video Game Industry Lessons For Product Managers

So I can only speak for myself, but back in the day I used to be quite good at video games - you know, the big stand alone game units that you could only find in arcades. Since then, I've tried to keep up with the home game consoles, but I must confess to having lost my skills.

These days I have to confine myself to an occasional run at Half-Life just to reassure myself that I still have it. Which brings up an interesting point, wouldn't be be great to be a product manger at a video game company?

The Video Game Industry

If you are the type of person who is easily impressed by big numbers, then try this one out for size. The video game Grand Theft Auto IV brought in over $300M in a single day when it was released. That was double what the most recent Batman movie brought in the day that it opened.

The industry and its product managers do have their challenges - things are getting tougher. The cost and complexity of developing games are rising with every new release. Oh, and you can imagine just how fickle video game customers are - one bad release and your product line could be done for.

What Does It Take To Have A Successful Video Game Product?

Success in the video game industry depends on a combination of solid risk management and savvy research and development. This part of the business will never change. However, the way that video games are sold and how they are being distributed is undergoing a fundamental change that is affecting all product managers.

One new model for video game manufacturers involves subscription online offerings. In this product offering, users can download the game code for free and then they pay a monthly charge to be allowed to connect to servers that generate the game playing environment where all subscribers can play at the same time.

One of the largest video game manufactures, Activision Blizzard, already generates more than $1B in revenue and more than $500M in profit from its World of Warcraft subscription business. Clearly this is the wave of the future.

Another new focus is what gaming experts are calling the "casual" market. This is how video game product managers are trying to expand their potential customer base - they are trying to create products that appeal to game players who don't have a lot of time to learn complicated rules. One of the better examples of a popular casual game is Guitar Hero.

Another key decision that video game product managers need to make is to pick which game console they will develop games for. For example. games made for the Nintendo DS can be developed more cheaply than those for consoles, manufactures can experiment far more cheaply in ways that they can't do for the PlayStation or the Wii.

The Future Of Video Game Products

The video game business is a rough business to be a product manger in. Publishers need to sell about one million copies of a game on the PS3 or Xbox 360 just to break even. This constant pressure to be successful is generating creative new ideas for product managers.

One new idea that has only just reciently started to show up in video games is the idea of in-game advertising. Sponsered ads can show up on billboards, on character's clothing, or even as shopfronts in the environment. Because so many of these games are online, ads can be changed over time - nothing is fixed.

An additional way to make money that is just starting to be implemented is that the game is free for gamers to play, but they must pay for extra items such as new gear for their players. With certain market sectors, e.g. teen girls, this can produce rich rewards.

Final Thoughts

Every product manager yearns for the opportunity to be responsible for a product that is truly popular and video games sure seem to fit that description. However, the video game industry is a rough and tumble battlefield that punishes products that fall behind and insists on constant innovation.

Even if you are not working in the video game industry, you can still learn from what they are doing. Moving as much of your product support and update process online to reduce costs and boost customer interaction is one innovation that we can all explore doing.

If product mangers can find ways to work innovations from the video game into how they are managing their products, then they will have have found yet another way that great product managers make their product(s) fantastically successful.

Dr. Jim Anderson
http://www.TheAccidentalPM.com

Dr. Jim Anderson has been a product manger at small start-ups as well as at some of the world's largest IT shops. Dr. Anderson realizes that for a product to be successful, it takes an entire company working together. He'll share his insights and guidance on how to make your products a fantastic success.

Subscribe to the FREE Accidental Product Manager newsletter to get the information that you need to have a successful product and a successful career. Go here to to get your free subscription: http://tinyurl.com/p4ru9d

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Video Gamers - Have You Considered Working in the Video Game Industry

There are many opportunities available in the video gaming industries. If you are very enthusiastic about career in the video gaming industry, this article will surely give you a couple of things for some serious consideration. In this article we will mention the top five careers you can seek in the video gaming industry.

The video gaming industry is well over $100 million and is still growing on a very positive note. Millions of Dollars are being spent on the evolvement and the distribution of various games. It is a huge market and the opportunities are plenty.

Game Tester

By becoming a game tester, you will the first in the market to play any game before it hits the market. As a game tester you will be in given the responsibility to test the game before anybody can even purchase them. Gaming tester is also considered more important than the game developers itself by some people, since the feedback given by the tester could determine the release dates of the game.

Since the video gaming industry has become very competitive, a new game is hitting the market every day. The video gaming industry has to make sure that the game created by them works as it is designed for. Being a game tester, you will be the first to play any game and can even decide to change any aspect of the game.

Game Designer

A game designer has to be very creative. You should have good imaginative skills and the ability to get that imagination to life with the animation. Latest video games have the most creative and advanced graphics and sounds. As a game designer you will need a wide spectrum of imagination and thoughts. You should be able to work on the graphic software program relevant for your project. Most importantly you will need to have the ability to follow the given set of instructions.

Game Programmer

Though game programmers are always in demand, this career is not just for everyone. To become a game programmer, you should be proficient in many software development languages. You should be extensively trained for handling any software developing language to develop a game. The gaming programmers will need to be qualified with the required skill-sets pertaining to the game programming.

Game Critic

The job of a game critic is to inform others the features of the game. You can be employed by any gaming website to write reviews about their games. However you should have flair to write and passion for video games in order to fit into this job.

Game Attendant

Video games stores normally hire people as game attendants. You should have the knowledge of the games available in the store and help the consumers in purchasing the game they required. Apart from this you will be among the first to have access to all the new games hitting the market with a discounted price.

The gaming industry is just too huge and the opportunities are plenty. If you are interested in being a part of this mammoth industry, you could surely upgrade your knowledge with the relevant courses available in the market today.

Gregg Hall is an author living on the Emerald Coast of Florida. Now that you know a little more about gaming jobs be sure that you get quality computer games by going to http://www.nsearch.com

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Oportunidades de emprego na indústria de jogos de vídeo

Muitos se não mais, teria em conta o fato de que existem oportunidades de emprego real atrás de jogos de vídeo. Neste artigo nós irá expor a todos que a indústria de videogames paga.

Se você quiser que todas as vantagens de ter primeiro Acessar para o último lançamento do jogo, ou melhor ainda os sistemas de jogos mais quentes e obter a primeira revisão fora revista Jogos recentemente publicado, então a trabalhar como balconista de videogame pode conjunto seu frenesi de jogos, tornando-se um funcionário do videogame faz não só satisfazê-lo com todas as regalias e descontos anexados a ele, mas é também uma oportunidade para fazer algum dinheiro fazendo o que você gosta melhor, não concluir que a indústria de videogames pagar.

Agora se você é aficionado de jogo e você quer atender a sua vocação de se tornar um testador de jogo, você está em um lote inteiro da emocionante experiência de jogo, talvez até mais do que você pode segurar. Você será capaz de testar jogos mesmo antes de estarem disponíveis, você terá que empurrá-lo para os limites e conquistar cada aspecto do jogo, você é livre para realmente encontrar alguns bugs no jogo e forçar a programadores de jogos para dobrar seu esforço em manter o jogo competitivo antes ele é liberado oficialmente. Tornando-se um testador de jogo também lhe dá o poder sugestivo para moldar o jogo de sua preferência.

Você pode colocar suas habilidades artísticas para o jogo e que foi literalmente significava. Trabalho como Designer de jogo, ele não só pagar bom mas ele contém a maior parte do glamour e orgulho, especialmente quando outros jogadores apreciam os caracteres que você criou, pode precisar de uma imaginação muito ativa e conceituação mas se preocupe não porque você tem o topo da linha de programas de software de gráficos à sua disposição, por isso não deixe que a habilidade artística de seu ir para o lixo, se tornar o próximo top Game Designer e você pode realmente dizer que o vídeo Game indústria paga.

Um crítico jogo desempenha um papel vital no desenvolvimento contínuo de videogames, eles escrevem insights e revisão honesta de um jogo em particular, revistas de jogos dependem de escritores para conteúdo e conteúdo é o que os faz vender, hoje em dia você tem muitos local ou a escolha de se tornar um crítico jogo médio, você pode gostar de escrever para uma revista de jogos ou um site de jogos, onde em escrever para um site de jogo irá revelar-se mais conveniente, porque a maioria de seu trabalho será feita on-line.

Um dos backbones do mundo do jogo é, evidentemente, programadores de jogos, é um trabalho delicado e não qualquer um pode ir apenas para o bandwagon, embora programadores de jogos estão sempre em demanda leva um programador superior para manter-se com a tecnologia de avançada e da preferência do jogador. Altos programadores qualificados são especialistas em vários idiomas de desenvolvimento, seu treinamento extensivo e vasto conhecimento da maioria dos aspectos de um jogo fá-los ativos raros nesta tecnologia controlada por mundo.

Com base nos factos e oportunidades que discutimos neste artigo, tudo indica que a indústria de jogos pagar e permanecerá por um longo período de tempo. Currículos educacionais ainda incluíram jogo design e programação em classes, que mostra a necessidade de novas gerações de jogadores, jogos críticos e designer de jogos e caixeiros mesmo jogo Sim, para o mundo do jogo evolui com o tempo. Então descanso assegurado que todas as oportunidades que ele traz nos dar uma escolha para ser informado e ser capaz de saltar para o movimento em um determinado momento.

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How I Got Into the Game Industry

Not long ago, I was a starry-eyed kid who wanted to make video games for a living. I grew up with Mario and had every Nintendo home console from the Super NES forward. I was even one of those entrepreneurial types who made fan sites. It started simply with AOL's free web space and then grew slowly to other free web space sites until finally a domain of its own. That site was known as The N Chamber--guess what the N stood for--and at one point Google had listed us first for the search phrase: "Nintendo dolphin." Those were certainly good times but unfortunately our web presence was connected with eFront and their scandal brought everything to a fiery collapse.

At this point I was maybe 14 or 15 years old developing websites and offering my "opinion" on the industry news and with game reviews. To think that anyone seriously listened to what I had to say is laughable to me today. But, I was a fan and I loved the industry--if nothing else, I learned a lot about web development and the game industry. After the eFront meltdown, I was still active in the game fan site arena and worked on a few more websites before I finally called it quits. I tried to resurrect The N Chamber on numerous occasions but, it was not the same for a variety reasons including Google no longer listing us in a favorable search position and realizing it was futile trying to compete with the likes of IGN or Gamespot--blogs were not a big thing yet. Nonetheless, I worked on multi-platform gaming websites--GamerPlay/WiredPlay--and although they didn't get very far, I learned a lot of PHP and MySQL programming as I was bent on creating my own content management system.

I was probably 16 or 17 in the end days of my fansite years. I had still not actually made a real game yet. I tried learning C++ on my own but, that never got too far. In my last two years of high school, we had majors. I had picked the Computer Science major and it was there that I really learned how to code. I took C++ and Java as well as Web Design--which was cake for me--and a computer architecture class--didn't care for that class and still don't. Luckily, my programming classes were not super strict so we got to create games for our projects. Programming anything else would have just been ridiculously boring. My first "games" were generally crappy ASCII graphics experiences but, I had a blast. We made a really dumbed down ASCII "Final Fantasy" like RPG that had one level in my first semester. In the second semester, we did some card games but, the project I was most proud of was an ASCII version of Defender. It only had one level as well but I managed to figure out how to have the game scroll so enemies would come towards you while you moved your plane. We figured out how to use color and sound. It was the biggest game I had ever made at the time--and I thoroughly loved it.

Come senior year of high school and senioritis was totally setting in. No one wanted to do any real work. Outside of my programming classes, I just got my B's and was plenty happy with it. But, in my Java class, it was more game making. We did some crappy projects that was supposed to teach us what we needed to know for the Advanced Placement exam but for the final projects, we could do whatever we wanted. I made a version of Missile Command in my first semester. With Java, we could more easily use windows, draw shapes, and import images so this was the first game I had made that wasn't in ASCII. If I were to look at my code for that game today, I'd probably cringe in pain but, I loved it then. Each game that I did pushed the bar a little higher so for the final project of my last semester, I attempted to recreate Super Mario Bros. it was the best looking game that I had ever made because I basically took the graphics off the Internet. The performance was not so hot but I still loved doing it. Mario moved, jumped, stomped and all that and the enemies moved and the screen scrolled but, it was all imperfect--I did the best I could.

Upon graduating high school, I received the gold medal in Computer Science for the class of '04. I wasn't the best programmer--I might have been the best Computer Science student grades-wise. It was probably a mixture of the image that I had created of myself and the grades. It was all about marketing which, ironically, is the major I settled on in college. The first college that I chose to attend was the University of Advancing Technology in Tempe, Arizona. They had a game design program and was probably one of the best schools for that at the time. There are all kinds of schools that have game design programs today. I took some game related courses and because it was a multimedia major, I also took classes in Photoshop and Illustrator as well as XHTML.

Being the go-getter that I am, before I started my college career I got an internship over the summer with a game company in New York--my home. I tried contacting every game company in the city that I could find and only one ever got back to me--Black Hammer Game. All I did while I was there was test a game: Supremacy: Four Paths to Power. It was a turn-based strategy game and I am not a big fan of those types of games. I didn't really learn too much and there were other issues going on with the game but, I did meet Nikita Mikros--who happens to be my boss today. So the summer ended, I got something nice to write on my resume and off to college I went.

Everything was new and nice in Arizona. It was a different environment than NYC and it was college. I did pretty damn well in my first semester maintaining a near 4.0 GPA but, I did not end up staying and finishing my degree in game design. I transferred back to New York where I went to school for business. Pretty crazy choice considering how much I loved games, right? Perhaps. I really didn't think that I needed a game specific degree to make games and considering what I am doing today, maybe I was right.

The day I got back to New York, I was scheduled to appear in a meeting at a company that my friend worked for--they needed a programmer and apparently I could program. This was a company that did web-based programming work so that was what I did. Luckily I had the knowledge from all the days I spent working on those websites. I worked there for a little over two years and it was, if nothing else, good experience and I improved my programming. I wasn't making games--though I tried to lobby for it--but, programming is programming. I still followed the news in the game industry and once or twice attempted to work on gaming websites again but, they fell pretty flat.

I left my job doing web-based work a little towards the middle of 2007 and started at a game company--Tiny Mantis Entertainment, founded by Nikita Mikros of Black Hammer Game. I had kept in some contact with Nik Mikros and did a small project for him but, that was about it. It was pretty coincidental that he needed a programmer and I was sick of my old job. So there it was, I was in the game industry. This isn't Electronic Arts and I'm not working on Halo but, I still love doing it a lot more than "web applications". In the year that I've been working at Tiny Mantis, I've done quite a few different projects--some of which aren't really games and some that will never see the light of day. I did the programming for Lil' Bush: Iraq Hero for Comedy Central, a Poker game for the France-based Boonty, and a sequel to an Ed, Edd, N' Eddy game for Cartoon Network. You might see some ad banners from Hyundai programmed by yours truly at some point in the near future as well.

Sometimes, I can't believe that I am doing what I am doing. Some kids wish to be an astronaut or something and then maybe they'll get there. I feel generally blessed that I'm able to get paid to do what I really want to do--make games. I can't say I want to be programming forever but I love the industry. I was interviewed by a high school student aspiring to get into games not too long ago. It reminded me of my own unmapped road and I was glad to be able to offer some insight. I don't know everything and I'm still "new" to the industry but, I hope I was able to offer him something. I didn't get to tell him my entire story as I have here and that is probably why I wrote this. This is my experience of how I got here. There are probably better ways to break into the industry and every year new people are working at EA, Activision, Midway, Nintendo, Microsoft, etc. I can only offer my story in hopes that other starry-eyed kids dreaming of working in the game industry can take away something from my experience.

Tommy Leung
http://www.supertommy.com

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Top 10 News for Video Gaming Industry in 2006

The world is fast changing a few centuries ago the focus was on nations, economies, and science. With the onset of the cyber world gaming shares a platform along with important happenings in the world today. The year 2006 for avid gamers was full of expectations and excitement. According to statistics the US totaled more than USD 10.5 billion in hardware, software, and accessories sales alone setting a new record. Sony PSP and Nintendo DS took portable gaming to new horizons and many predictions were proven wrong in 2006.

The year 2006 brought excitement and thrills:

1. Three gaming consoles vied with each other for supremacy and the Xbox360; Sony PSP; and Nintendo Wii set pulses racing with gaming reaching new heights with the latest technology.

2. Gaming designers and companies like Vivendi Games, Activision, Rockstar, and Electronic Arts brought new games, revitalized games, and futuristic technology to gaming. God of War won accolades at DICE where game developers unveiled great plans for 2006.

3. The E3 or Electronic Entertainment Expo held in the Q2 of 2006 unveiled press conferences by giants in gaming as well as launches of new games like Assassin's creed, Haze, Command and Conquer 3, and Wii Resident Evil among many others. Gaming gurus studies and reviewed the event and presented expert opinions on gaming delights.

4. Gaming watchers NPD kept a finger on the pulse of gaming and established that gaming was here to stay and figures were up by 29% over July 2005, 17% in August, and 38% in September.

5. The leaders in Q3 were Madden NFL 07 and Lego Star Wars II: The Original Triology which crossed the one million units sold hurdle. Consoler gaming reached new delights with announcements that Half-Life 2 rejuvenated, Street Fighter II' Hyper Fighting and The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion were all reaching out for Xbox360, PS#, and PSP.

6. Q4 reached new heights with launches of state-of-art gaming consoles like Wii and PSP3. Each had its fans and gaming was all a buzz with expectations, some joys as well as disappointments. Blizzard drew considerable attention with its massive multi-player role -playing masterpiece World of Warcraft.

7. NDP industry tracking revealed that Q4 reached new heights and that PS3 sold 197,000 systems while Wii sold 476,000 systems. According to the trackers 400,000 copies of the Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess was retailed.

8. Technological advancements in the gaming world reached new heights. High level graphics, speed, clarity, and multi-player gaming took gamers to new adventures. The gaming industry went all out to take gaming into the future with designers and hardware manufactures redefining gaming.

9. Change is inevitable and the Entertainment Software Association will have a new head as Douglas Lowenstein the founding President of ESA decided to move on.

10. The year laid the foundation of futuristic gaming hardware which set the trend for designers to focus on better software and greater games. 2007 will introduce multiplatform games like Grand Theft Auto IV, Army of Two, BioShock, and more.

The Gaming Industry is all set to reach new heights in the coming year with gaming gaining popularity world over. The World Wide Web, popularity of the internet, and tech savvy gaming consoles has caught and sustained the interest of gamers young and old. Gaming has expanded its base and become multi-player with gamers from all over the world vying their skills against opponents from all over the gaming universe.

Barry Allen is a freelance writer for Free Online Games, the premier website to play thousands of free online games including arcade games, action games, card games, flash games, strategy games, puzzle games and more. His article profile can be found at www.1888articles.com/games-articles-121_11.html

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Lives With Games Tradition and Industry

O cidadão de Estados Unidos da América se sente que jogos é uma parte da sua vida enquanto países desenvolvidos tais como o Reino Unido e o Japão iria entende que jogos é perspectivas de altas para obter lucro em nível nacional ou internacionalmente. Jogos é muito influência na vida humana neste momento. Jogos significa em referência ao computador, Console de vídeo tais como playstation, PDA e também mão-conjuntos de telefone.

ISDA (Interactive Digital Software associações) fez análise cerca de dois anos atrás e encontrou que jogos se tornou tradição de vida das pessoas dos Estados Unidos ser ele individual ou outros lugares, como casa, hotel, na aeronave, quando jogar internet, pela EXPO também conhecido como E3 coletando grande produtor para desenvolver jogos de todo o mundo. Muitos produtores e jogos desenvolvedor é centrado em Unidos afirma uma parte do Japão.
usando o PDA e mão-conjuntos de telefone. O povo dos Estados Unidos sempre acompanhamento do desenvolvimento de jogos, por exemplo através da EXPO jogos como entretenimento eletrônico

Há muitos fator encontrado pela IDSA da sua análise da seguinte maneira:

a) sobre 10 a 11 horas por família jogando jogos.

b) sempre jogos ONLINE com Internet nos Estados Unidos

c) os entrevistados alegaram que jogos é muito bom e satisfatoriamente entretenimento ao invés de assistir televisão e cinema.

d) PC é mais útil para jogar enquanto se aplica e-mail cai para número dois.

e) é mais aceitável tipo jogos de jogos de Console ou PC é mais ações e esportes.

Japão ou popularidade conhecido como nação do sol levantando produzindo número de equipamentos de jogos. Como a Sony é um grande nome no entretenimento, especialmente em jogos. Da mesma forma, o personagem dos jogos se tornou mais interessante e seus desenhos animados como POKEMON tornou-se mais popular. O rápido desenvolvimento na tecnologia sem fio, como eu-modo tornou-se jogos de entretenimento muito popular. Indivíduo é livre em jogar o jogo embora através de mão-conjuntos de telefone que é de 3 polegadas de tamanho.

Você pode querer saber quantos jogos Video Viewer no Japão? De acordo com análise CESA (associações de fontes de entretenimento de computador) em 2002 descobri Visualizador de vídeo games foram aproximadamente 23,6 milhões ou 25,6% japoneses seria muito em jogos de vídeo.

Para informática há boa concorrência entre produtores de equipamentos de áudio, como alto-falante e placa de som tornou-se jogos de computador. Qualidade é muito elevada através de competindo com gráfico produtor cartão tornou-se um fator de bom para jogos de computador.

Porque jogo é tornou-se parte da tradição de vida na maioria dos outros países é muito rentável para a nação. Por exemplo e através de análise e investigação da empresa mercados encontrado que o marketing games eletrônica no ano 2000 foram até 60,1% comparação ano 1996 com apenas 27% do valor de mercado totalizando 2 bilhões de libras durações de Sterling do ano 2001 a 2005, que mostra boa demanda de perspectiva e utilização na indústria de jogo.

A demanda é muito alta de pessoas ao redor making mundo competindo muito bom entre os jogos de Console produtores. Concorrência pelo produtor de console encontrado para ser de alta qualidade de seus produtos de três produtores de jogos do mundo como Sony, SEGA e Nintendo. Microsoft também produzir seu console conhecido como XBOX que é aceitável no mercado mundial.

Na verdade os jogos não conta idade. No início de jogar os jogos é só para jovem idade apenas 12 e 18 anos de idade. Nos dias atuais, ISDA relatórios maioria jogando games ou jogos de PC ou Console é entre 18 e 35 anos de idade. Este é um factand pode ser devido a trabalhos pesados ou estudo onde jogos é meio para aliviar tensão. Para finalizar este artigo, gostaria de citar as palavras do Douglas Lowenstein, Presidente da IDSA que é jogos da mente do Intelectual, para entreter e educar-nos em nosso bem-estar.

Para mais informações visite http://www.game2u.cjb.net

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