Martin Tripp Associates Games Archives - Martin Tripp Associates

The games industry: doing diversity & inclusion right

James Dodd

A still from the video game, Hades, featuring the main character Zagreus and one of the game's enemies, Alecto. The game was a big winner at the BAFTA video games awards, and, featuring a bisexual main character, a great sign for diversity in the games industry.

Out there

We wrote last year about the challenges the +$138 billion games industry has had in establishing its diversity and inclusion credentials – but watching this year’s BAFTA Games Awards, I wonder if there is a lot more to celebrate than we previously noted. The increasing evidence is that large parts of the games industry and its players are some of the most inclusive and accepting communities out there. Certainly there is already a lot that other businesses could learn from the industry. Presented by

Xbox Series X / S vs Playstation 5, value for money?

James Dodd

Console yourself

Sony and Microsoft have finally released their next generation consoles. With retailers selling out faster than they can put units on sale, the launches appear to represent success for all. But do they?

On the one hand, Sony and Microsoft have succeeded in bringing new hardware to market on time, and have garnered quite a lot of positive coverage in the press and social media. On the negative side, there are stories citing widespread hardware and software issues, exclusive titles are scarce if present at all, and the cost of new games to the consumer has skyrocketed. So, are early adopters getting value for money, or paying a premium for unfinished games and hardware? Let’s take a look.

Hardware

Let’s begin with a quick comparison between the three hardware components which are arguably going to make the most difference to gamers and developers. For now, we will just consider

The Gamification of Life and Commerce

Eleanor Morum

Switching to new horizons

Like many facing the prospect of several weeks (so we thought) stuck at home, the release of Animal Crossing: New Horizons seemed like the best-timed launch in the history of gaming. As James reported recently, gaming has fared exceptionally well these recent months. But Animal Crossing has distinguished itself as a cultural force. As lockdown went on and Zoom pub quizzes grew wearisome, Animal Crossing continued to be a place to reconnect with friends, but without the pressure of trying to find something new to talk about. Instead, visiting friends on their islands was a chance to do something fun with people again.

Since then, other games have grown in popularity. In particular, Among Us has become the rival for cultural dominance as the game that not only is everyone playing, but also talking about. I found the game through internet chatter and played just to understand what made it so worth talking about. While Animal Crossing

Is Apple entering the on-demand cloud video games arena?

James Dodd

Giving the gamers away?

It’s the question everyone is asking: is Apple entering the on-demand cloud video games arena? Or did they just force gamers to ditch iPhone and iPad for Android?

I write this as an Apple user of more than 20 years, with a passion for the games industry which spans a lifetime. There is much to be said for a desktop, laptop, tablet, phone and even a watch that work seamlessly together, take significant steps to look after user data, and allow access not just to Apple’s selection of software and services but also to those developed by third parties. In the days when I was co-developing and testing apps, it was also significantly easier to release a stable product on iOS, because the majority of Apple’s devices share a unified interface. Android, Windows Phone and Blackberry were a minefield of differing screens, button layouts and processors. So, if you’d asked me any time before last week whether I’d move from iOS to Android, the answer would have been an unequivocal ‘No.’

A lot can change in a week…

Remote hiring and onboarding: survey shows managers receive no training

Matt D'Cruz

The majority of companies across the media, information, technology and entertainment sectors are still hiring during the pandemic.
But 69% of business leaders are finding it difficult to onboard new team members remotely.
The vast majority of managers (72%) have received no training in distanced interviewing, on-boarding or remote management.

Left in the dark.

Earlier this month we conducted an industry-wide survey of how business leaders were approaching the process of recruitment and onboarding during lockdown. We surveyed business leaders across a wide range of sectors – including consumer media, business media, research and information providers, education and training businesses, software providers and entertainment companies.

While the pace of hiring has slowed, organisations are still recruiting in key positions

We found that 69% of respondents were still making some hires, although the remainder had stopped recruiting altogether. 41% were recruiting less than they had been before the pandemic, and 24% said their pre-lockdown plans were unchanged. A small number – 3% – were actually recruiting more than previously, largely

The games industry: diversity challenges, and solutions

James Dodd

Image of diversity and inclusion in games industry gamertag

Game Pride

It has been a turbulent few weeks of diversity and inclusion challenges in the video games industry: Laura Bailey received death threats for playing Abby in The Last of Us Part 2; the game streaming site Twitch started banning users following protests about abuse; and Ubisoft – one of the world’s biggest and most successful games studios – saw a number of key staff and executives step down over sexual misconduct allegations.

But should we be surprised? Whilst parts of the industry are leading real, positive change around diversity, inclusion and positive culture, there is still enormous room for improvement in the culture of many parts of the games industry.

Earlier this year, interactive entertainment association Ukie published the results of its diversity census. 3,200+ games industry workers took part (which equates to roughly 20% of the overall workforce). Of those:

Only 10% of people working in video games are black, Asian or minority ethnic (BAME).
21% of people working in video games are LGBTQ+, while 79% are heterosexual.
70% of people working in the video games industry are male, compared to 28% female and 2% non-binary workers.
Female representation in the video games workforce is significantly under the national average of those in work.

Late last year, Currys PC World also released the results of their report into diversity within the games industry. Amongst other things the report revealed “a distinct bias in favour of the young, white, straight male.” Is it any wonder, when such a high percentage of its workforce is made up of them?

Habit: a formula for success in tricky times

Martin Tripp

A roadmap to success…

Over the last few weeks we have had the opportunity to talk to hundreds of business leaders to understand how they are adapting to the current crisis. These range from global corporates to early stage start-ups across media, information, technology and entertainment – or MITE. Even with such a broad range of organisations, there’s a common thread that unites them.

It sort of works as an equation – and though it may not offer a panacea, it may be a predictive shorthand for which companies will come out of the crisis strongest.

We think you can boil it down to this: Community + Content + Delivery = Habit.

(Reductive, we know: but this is a blog, not a book, and we only have a thousand words.)

First, let’s start with the right-hand side of the equation: the answer.

HABIT

All MITE businesses depend on habit. We need people to have

Unreal Engine 5 and the future of games and film tech

James Dodd

Whether you realise it or not, you probably already know Epic Games‘ Unreal. It is the engine behind ‘The Mandelorian’ on Disney+ and a plethora of games on mobile, PC or console.

Epic’s latest iteration of the engine – Unreal 5 – was revealed this week. Via a tech demo running in real time on a Playstation 5 dev kit, the world finally got its first look at what the future of gaming really looks like. Along with many, I witnessed something I’ve been dreaming of since I was a kid, and something I’ve been hearing about a lot, lately.

Epic Unreal 5 Tech Demo

I have spent the last couple of years talking to games industry leaders around the world. Our conversations have covered everything

Mental Heath and Wellbeing during and beyond lockdown

James Dodd

Steps to help you deal with remote working and social distancing.

Since the outbreak of Coronavirus began, we have been speaking with business leaders about how they are dealing with the sudden need to change the typical working practices of their businesses and their employees.

While the logistics of remote working are challenging, the real challenge lies in ensuring the health and wellbeing of home-working employees. It is important not just for their own mental health, but also to ensure your business stays productive. With this in mind, we have been attending webinars organised by our friends at Thrive, the mental health specialists. As a result, we were able

Not worth the effort: the inertia of the undifferentiated internet

Chris Sutcliffe

One of the most common criticisms of the internet as a publishing medium is, ironically, also one of its greatest strengths. The fact that anyone can publish inevitably leads onto the fact that many people do publish. That creates an undifferentiated landscape, where the value of any article or video is effectively the same as any other, with no consideration given to the amount of time or research involved in its production.

Less? More?

That is exacerbated by the fact that digital advertising has historically rewarded the production of huge quantities of articles instead of rewarding quality. If you’ve ever despaired at the idea that newspapers’ websites will indulge in churnalism, producing articles that are mutually contradictory, that’s the cause.

That is beginning to shift slightly, as many newspapers’ priorities change from chasing advertising revenue to limiting the number of articles they publish to better serve members and subscribers. However, for generalist titles who have little chance of developing subscription products (usually the tabloid papers), the age of churnalism is here to stay for the foreseeable future.

Gotta please ’em all: Nintendo and DLC

Chris Sutcliffe

I was away travelling for six weeks from August to October. While I (mostly) had an incredible time, there was a large part of me that regretted not having brought my Nintendo Switch, if only to potentially score some points with Nintendo UK’s PR team by tweeting a picture of me playing it at Thorong-La Pass.

Three amiibos

Since I returned I’ve been playing catch-up with some games that came out while I was gone. The PlatinumGames-developed Astral Chain, for instance, is a hybrid action/police procedural with a complicated action system that doesn’t quite live up to its former titles. Meanwhile, Nintendo’s own remake of Game Boy classic Link’s Awakening has been a little joy, if a little disappointing in how little it actually adds to the title beyond new visuals and physics. Daemon X Machina is a fun action game that feels tailored to those of us missing the Armoured Core franchise.

I’ve also been playing the post-launch downloadable content (DLC) characters for its flagship fighting game Super Smash Brothers Ultimate, which recently took the title of best-selling fighting game of all time. Despite that success, and the undoubted financial contribution that DLC has made to Nintendo’s bottom line, the adage that ‘you can’t please everyone’ has proven true, as each newly announced character has polarised the fanbase in one way or another.

Its most recently released fighter – Terry, a guest character on loan from SNK’s Fatal Fury and King of Fighters franchises – was subject to criticism from a proportion of the fanbase who were a) unhappy that he was

Console sales cycles may just have changed forever

James Dodd

While all eyes have been on Google’s forthcoming Stadia, it may actually be Microsoft who have just completely upended the traditional console sales cycle model.

Since the introduction of

Streaming is the future – but not for all media

Martin Tripp Associates

Streaming content is the natural endpoint for entertainment content. The many conveniences that come from streaming outweigh the concerns about a lack of ‘ownership’ for the consumer of the media they consume, data throttling once net neutrality is a distant memory, and the quite justified concerns over subscription fatigue due to the sheer amount of streaming services on offer.

The reality is that ease of use trumps all of those, particularly for casual consumers, and as infrastructure and internet penetration improves further the proportion of people using streaming services will only grow. Last year Ofcom reported that nearly half of UK households now have access to at least one television streaming service, as the number subscribing to the most popular services “increased from 11.2m (39%) in 2018 to 13.3m (47%) in 2019”. That doesn’t take into account the number of households that also subscribe to a music streaming service like Spotify, either.

The Google Stadia proves streaming works for games – in precisely the right circumstances

However, that isn’t to say that streaming is necessarily a good fit for every medium. It works well for low-data, passive mediums like audio and television. Even Netflix’s ambition Black Mirror special, Bandersnatch, which was effectively an experiment in interactive television content in the vein of an adventure game, was possible through Netflix’s infrastructure. But the reality is that the technology and infrastructure to stream many video games isn’t there yet – despite some serious investment from big players.

The interactive future for theatres

Martin Tripp

Virtually engaged

In 2019, experience trumps product. Retail outlets are retooling their spaces to make the experience of shopping, the so-called ‘retail journey’, as attractive to the consumer as the items they hold in their arms as they leave the shop. Many media companies are attempting to emulate Time Out’s food market success and transition into events and experience businesses, the better to appeal to the Millennials and cash-rich Boomers who prioritise making memories.

A lot of that is driven by the rise of consumer technology that enables brand new experiences, from portable 3D printers that let you take away a physical model of your own face at the end, to venues dedicated entirely to esports, to the ever more interactive experiences offered by theme parks. Many savvy media companies and retailers

Who is investing in esports and why?

James Dodd

The play’s the thing…

Global esports revenues are expected to hit $1.1bn this year. Over $155 million in prize money was awarded in nearly 3,500 esports tournaments last year, playing games like Dota 2, League of Legends and Counter-Strike: Global Offense. $11.47m of this prize money went to just one team: OG, a European professional team which is famed for playing Valve’s Dota 2. With teams like Team Liquid racking up overall earnings of over $26m, and global esports viewers projected to total 453.8m this year (representing a year on year growth of +15%), competitive gaming is becoming a money-making phenomenon for both players and investors. So where is the money coming from, who is investing and what’s in it for them?

Esports is still in its infancy, comparatively, so the medium represents a new, current and exciting opportunity for traditional investors, looking for growing areas, to maximise return on

Why challenges to China’s video games industry matter in Europe and the US

James Dodd

Your Tencent’s worth?

China’s video games industry is experiencing its slowest growth in at least a decade and a half, despite evidence that the country’s gamers are spending more of their time playing games (see graph below). The world’s largest games market, worth some $32.5bn a year, is in the midst of a huge shake-up. Beijing has sought to limit the industry, alluding to growing concerns

Could AI be used to save lives in the real world?

James Dodd

DeepMind AI image of Video Games recruitment

AI and Video Games

On Sunday 18^th March 2018 a 49 year old woman in Arizona was killed by an autonomous Uber car, which struck her as she pushed her bicycle along the roadside. The death was blamed on defective software. Two years prior to this, the first of multiple Tesla driver deaths occurred. There is significant evidence

Technology advances spell ‘DOOM’ for high street video game retail

James Dodd

Colossal yet minuscule 128TB SD cards, advances in digital game delivery services, and a digital-only future for video game sales. Is technology finally spelling the end of specialist high street video game retail? This week Piper Jaffray published a report indicating revenue

Four facts we learned about the future of the gaming industry from E3 2018

Chris Sutcliffe

Every year, the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) churns out enough news, analysis and memes to keep the content-hungry gaming press happy for at least the next quarter. 2018’s conference was no different, with strong showings for games like Cyberpunk 2077, Devil May Cry V, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and tons more.

But underpinning all those flashy reveal trailers and lengthy gameplay demos are some trends that demonstrate where game devs and publishers believe the future of the industry lies. Not just in the genres they think are going to be popular, but in where the money to support multi-million dollar game development is likely to come. Here are a few of those trends:

E3 – Has Microsoft Done Enough?

James Dodd

With PlayStation and Nintendo holding most of the cards when it comes to popular video game exclusives, people have not only been questioning the worth of owning an Xbox, but whether there was any point in Microsoft making another one. So, all eyes were on Microsoft’s E3 conference last night. Some considered it a do or die

Show me the video games!

James Dodd

We have long argued that the video games industry should be treated as seriously as those other pillars of the entertainment business, film and music. Government seems to be getting the message, and – as we reported last month – the figures certainly stack up.

But perhaps the BBC is still struggling with the idea of video games as a grown-up industry in its own right. When the industry does get coverage (on the Today show, for example), the presenters are typically as well informed as, say, a US senator facing a Facebook Chief Executive.

picture of Bafta Games video games Awards

Show Me The Video Games

And then there was last week’s broadcast of the BAFTA Games Awards ceremony. If there is one thing

What can news publishers learn from the success of the Nintendo Switch?

Chris Sutcliffe

Modern media, to some extent, is just a series of stunts and marketing materials.

News publishers have to compete with digital outlets who, by nature of the race to scale, sell their content with hyperbole and screaming rhetoric of the sort we used to call ‘clickbait’. Even BuzzFeed, whose news wing is consistently breaking some of the biggest stories of any given week, used to indulge in this.

Switch your thinking…

Consequently even the legacy publishers find themselves dragged further towards that hysterical drive to be noticed. Take The Atlantic, the US-based publication whose work and business model other publishers look upon with envy. Last month, it appointed the arch-conservative columnist Kevin Williamson, as a stunt intended to broaden its appeal, though it was dressed up as an attempt to provide balanced coverage. Unsurprisingly,

New opportunities amid falling TV ad spend

Chris Sutcliffe

The US linear television industry has hit ‘permanent recession‘ in terms of the proportion of the total ad spend it commands, according to Magna. The rapid rise of digital ad spend has necessarily come at the expense of other areas and television, despite its reputation for delivering the best ROI of any medium, is no longer looking quite so unassailable. Mediapost’s Joe Mandele writes:

“‘National television ad sales will decline between -2% to -3% going forward,’ Magna concludes.

The picture is not any prettier for the local TV ad marketplace, and with the exception of election years, Magna does not expect any growth for local TV at all.”

The same is true to a lesser degree in the UK, where AA/Warc predictions in January put the % YOY change in television ad-spent at -2, even including the 11.4% increase in ad spend against VOD. That’s despite

At last, good news for the entertainment retail industry

James Dodd

In a recent blog, we looked at the threat Brexit represents to the future of the UK creative industries, focusing mainly on the games industry – and for a very good reason: the UK games retail market is now a £3.35bn industry, its sales now almost equal to that of home sales for music and video combined.

Other cards are available

But this blog perhaps missed the wider, refreshingly positive story about the state of the entertainment market as a whole. For many years, reports have suggested

How Brexit uncertainty threatens the future of UK creative industries

James Dodd

Last week, it was reported that there are more unfilled job vacancies than ever before in the British economy. As of November 2017, there were 810,000 unfilled vacancies in the UK – an increase of 60,000 on the previous year.

For all employers, that deserves a moment of reflection. But for employers of highly skilled workers, such as programmers, the current situation threatens to become a crisis as uncertainty over the direction of Brexit creeps in.

Global Talent Competitiveness Index.

The challenge of attracting talent to the UK is underlined by the latest Global Talent Competitiveness Index (GTCI), which shows the UK has dropped from 3^rd place in 2017, to 8^th place this year. The rumours and uncertainty surrounding our future relationship with the European union are evidently making the UK a less attractive place to work.

How Improbable’s SpatialOS may revolutionise your business

James Dodd

By now, you have probably heard about Improbable, the virtual simulation start-up that raised $502m from Japan’s SoftBank – but what you might not have considered is how its technology could be of interest to your business.

Founded in 2012 by a pair of Cambridge University computer science graduates, Improbable is now valued at more than $1bn thanks to the investment by SoftBank, which represents the largest-ever venture financing round for a private British company.

The business employs 170 computer scientists, engineers and designers who are all attempting to recreate the most detailed version possible of the real world in digital form.

BAFTA Games Awards: What’s changed in the last five years?

James Dodd

Can crowdfunding help media businesses?

James Dodd

In my last blog on gaming consoles, I asked whether anyone would be brave enough to launch a new Nintendo magazine in light of the projected success of the Nintendo Switch console. Well, it turns out they have been…

Just days after I wrote that piece, SwitchPlayer magazine received a limited release after funds were raise for its launch through crowdsourcing platform Patreon.

Nintendo Switch: what could launch mean for the console – and publishing – markets?

James Dodd

Since the release of its Game and Watch in 1980, Nintendo has dominated the handheld console market. The Game Boy and Nintendo DS are remembered fondly by people who played them in their youth while latest Nintendo 3DS had sold around 60m units by June 2016.

What’s more, a national survey in the 1990s found that Nintendo’s character, Mario, was ‘more recognizable to American children than Mickey Mouse’.

When it comes to home consoles, however, it’s a different story.

Does Gaming still need digital disruption to secure profits?

James Dodd

Earlier this year, the overall value of the UK games market ‘soared’ past £4.1bn for the first time – so we are overdue a look at how publishers and developers achieve growth in the face of a prosperous secondary games market.

For the uninitiated, the secondary market covers the resale of second-hand games and trade-in (often for store credit). Retailers including Amazon, GAME, and HMV re-sell and, historically, this has been considered to the detriment of developers and publishers.

Category: Games

Hardware