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January 21, 2008

Microsoft ESP Leveling The Serious Games Market Playing Field

MS ESP stimulating a new ecosystem of Serious Games solutions



Via: Microsoft ESP

Following my recent posts Serious Games Market Enroll Major Players, $9 Bi: Microsoft's Conservative Estimate For The Serious Games Market and Microsoft Shaping The Serious Games Movement Into A Multi-Billion Dollar Market , I thought it was time to go deeper into the Microsoft ESP Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) platform under a marketability perspective.

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Forterra's Serious Games Picked As A 2008 Winner
Forterra Systems Inc.’s OLIVE™ Press Release January 18, 2008

IEEE Spectrum Predicts Forterra Systems a Winner For 2008

Forterra Systems Inc.’s OLIVE™ virtual worlds software platform along with IBM’s new chipmaking process and Sprint’s Xohm high-speed wireless broadband data network are just three of the five projects identified by the editors of IEEE Spectrum as “winners” in the fifth annual issue highlighting the best and worst of global technology.

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MellaniuM: When Reality Feels Like a Serious Game

Sources: Overman's Blog - The Latest From MellaniuM

ReadWriteWeb - Virtual Worlds Poised to Become Valuable Work Tools

Wired Magazine - When Reality Feels Like Playing a Game, a New Era Has Begun

Forrester Report - Getting Real Work Done In Virtual Worlds

The revelation that games could be serious has now become conventional wisdom: "we've gone from games representing life to becoming life".

Of course, the basics of gameplay — competing against opponents, setting records, winning prizes — are as old as human civilization. But the gaming mindset has now become pervasive. We use game models to motivate ourselves, to answer questions, to find creative solutions.

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January 16, 2008

In-game advertising interview
"Ads can and should be part of the realistic and immersive experience. This means ad exposure realistic to the setting and real life. From a quantity standpoint, we generally aim for about four to five minutes of advertising in a game-play hour. It is critical to note that this is not interrupting the experience, but part of it. In other words, a gamer consumes the ads while consuming the game play itself. Contrast that with television and other media forms where ads interrupt the experience. In an hour of television, you're likely to be exposed to at least 12 minutes of interruptive advertising."
ClickZ interview with Cory Van Arsdale, Massive's CEO. (part1 and part2)

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January 15, 2008

MySpace Builds Game Portal?


Looks like MySpace is working on a gaming portal. The URL for this page is games.myspace.com. This could be a hit if the games are less like the ones you can find on other casual game destinations (Yahoo Games, for example) and more like Facebook app games with a stronger social component to them. Social advergames on MySpace would also be an interesting ad channel.

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January 10, 2008

Speaking of predictions...
Much to my credit (maybe?), I refrained from compiling any kind of top-tens, prediction lists or magic ball readings over the last month. They're usually silly and well, trying to forcefully put together a top ten 'anything' wasn't exactly my idea of a good holiday time.

Still, this is interesting. You get to pick three predictions for SL for 2008! That is, of course, assuming you still have an interest in all that. If you do, that's a rather jolly list.

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January 9, 2008

Take Two Extending
Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. (NASDAQ:TTWO) today announced the acquisition of Illusion Softworks, a premier Central European-based game development studio with operations in Brno and Prague, the Czech Republic. Illusion Softworks has approximately 200 employees and will join Take-Two’s 2K Games publishing label as its newest studio, 2K Czech.

Established in 1997, Illusion Softworks is the creator and owner of several hit video game franchises, including Mafia, Hidden & Dangerous and Vietcong. The studio is currently working with 2K Games on Mafia II, the sequel to the original Mafia, which helped establish the gangster genre and sold more than two million units.

Full press release here.

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January 8, 2008

Starcraft on the DS

Now this is pretty cool. Apparently, while everybody's waiting for Starcraft 2 with their tongues hanging out, a couple of fans are working on a Starcraft port for the DS. Fun stuff.

story and image via DS Fanboy

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January 7, 2008

Welcome Back
So I'm finally back from a two weeks vacation where games (and the business they create) were not the first thing on my mind. It was refreshing but, at the same time, something was missing. So I'm back on the wall now, so to speak. Updated the backlog with a few posts from our contributors and should return to a daily blogging schedule now. Hope you all had a good vacation and, if I may be so colloquial, have a bloody good year :)

Alex

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The Future Of Serious Games

Serious Games moving into fields that deal with complex topics



Via: Social Technologies - Learning From Playing

Games that provide players with opportunities to learn and understand complex situations or different points of view have emerged as a distinct subset of videogames.

Increasingly, creators are taking the definitions of “play” and “learn” in new directions, often blending the two creatively.

“This shows the maturity of the gaming industry as a medium for educating children—and adults,” explains Simeon Spearman, an analyst at the futurist research and consulting firm Social Technologies.

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January 2, 2008

Serious Games Market Enroll Major Players



Via: Dusan Writer's Metaverse - Battle for Virtual Worlds 2008: Microsoft Takes Shot At Google

With all the attention on whether Google will launch a virtual world version of Google Earth (possibly connected in some way to SketchUp), two moves by Microsoft into the Serious Games and in response to SketchUp market further demonstrates that 2008 will be the Year of the Virtual World.

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