Essay

                                                                    
                                                             Targeting local Audiences



It is important to target national and local audiences because the makers of the game want to maximise sales, they also need to be sensitive to different cultures in different countries. Also they need to make the game in different langues for different companies to maximise sales. Examples of the things that games need to be sensitive to in different countries are the german swastika can not be used in germany if they want to sell games. Another example would be game makers could not create a game about a plane crashing into a building in america because people from america wont buy it, it is the same with any chemical warfare in japan this could not be made into a game that you would want to sell in japan.

Local audiences change the products introduced into the market like china do not allow games consoles because they think that game console corrupt the youth. Nintendo have made the game cube to sell to china, the gamecube was not selling well in america and was reduced to $50. Nintendo have created a special version of the game cube for china to protect it from being copied and made and sold cheaper. Nintendo are planning to create super mario bros in chinese language and the chinese online game market is estimated to be worth £250 million this year. An example of a game that has been changed for local audiences is the Gran Tourismo 4 remix of "Getting Away with Murder" by Papa Roach had the word "murder" removed and the title changed to simply "Getting Away". Another example would be Mario party 8, it was released in the UK with the word spastic in it which is another word for someone who has epilepcy. Every copy of the game was recalled and the game was then re-released with the word changed to Erratic.

Localisation is where national games or consoles are changed to suit different cultures or countries, there are different part of them that is changed like on call of Duty black ops and Black ops 2 Nazi zombies is taken off the whole game because it has the swastika and the zombies are all Nazis. This is done so that they can maximise sales in Germany without offending anybody from that country. They try not to offend cultures and countries because they will get bad reviews and lose money when people dont buy there game.

Game marketing changes to suit different local audiences by marketing in different places and different ways. Game marketing can be done online, on television and in game shop windows so that people will see it when  they walk past. If it is done online it will get to a wider audience than it would just in a shop window, or the television. If it is marketed on the television it will not get seen as much as on the internet but will still get seen alot. An example of this would be Grand Theft Auto 5 that is coming out in spring 2013, Rockstar advertise on the internet by releasing the trailer onto youtube, they also advertise on the television by putting the trailer on an advert and they advertise in shop windows like in blockbusters there is a Grand Theft Auto poster up in the window so that everybody that walks past will see it. Rockstar have advertised on all of these because they want the best advertisement for there game and they want everybody to know everything about it when it comes out so that they make the best profit within the first week of release.

Distributors

Distributors

The distributor for Grand theft Auto is Take two interactive, Take two interactive is an american publisher developer and distributors that make computer games. Take two interactive own rockstar games who made Grand theft auto series.

Skylanders Giants was distributed by x bec entertainment.

Angry birds was distributed by EA Chilingo, this is a game that is made for apple  iphone ipod and ipad, also made for android and can be played on televisions.

GTA V history

GTA V



Grandf theft auto is a franchised game made by Rockstar North in scotland and then published by Rockstar games. Grand theft auto V will be the fifteen game in the series. GTA V is to be set in fictional Los Santos in the state of San Andreas and its surrounding areas, Los Santos was in grand theft auto San Andreas in 2004.  GTA V's world is bigger than the worlds of Red dead redemption, Grand theft Auto San Andreas and Grand theft auto IV combined. Rockstar have said that GTA V will be the biggest open world game to date.

 The three main characters are Michael, Trevor and Franklin, criminals whose stories interconnect as they complete missions together.The main player can engage in activities such as yoga, triathlons, Jet Skiing, Base jumping, tennis, golf, scuba diving or go to the gym, when you are not in a mission you can switch characters to any of the three, you will be moved toi the location of the characters as they go about there normal business around Los Santos.

Symbiosis Halo and Mountain Dew

Halo 4 and mountain Dew are an example of symbiosis, Mountain Dew is an American energy drink and Halo 4 is an established franchise of games made by 343 studios, Halo 4 and Mountain Dew has joined together because alot of teenagers that play games spend alot of time playing these games, so they will want to have energy drinks so they will be able to play longer. They both have large markets to sell to but they have joined together to try to make more profit. Halo 4 and Mountain Dew looks right because of the illuminous bottles of mountain Dew it looks like something out of the game.



Top 20 games

Top 20 games 2012

The top game for 2012 is assassins creed 3, EA sports has a few games like fifa 13, need for speed and medal of honour. Alot of the games are already franchised games like assassins creed and fifa 13 but the only one that is a new IP is dishonoured. A new IP is a game that is not already established. The games that are made by platformers are  Forza Horizon which is made by microsoft for xbox, Nintendo has made games like proffessor layton and pokemon just for the DS. On this list Activision has younger games like skylanders and moshi monsters but they are also known for call of duty and there is the new call of duty black ops 2 is out tomorrow. Dishounered is a new IP but because it is published by Bethesda softworks people will think that it will be a good game because Bethesda has also done games like Skyrim, this will give dishonoured a better chance of selling more games than if they were using a unknown publisher.

zynga

Zynga

Zynga uses in game purchases to make money because there games are all free to play, they sell things like lives, different clothing, armor and coins. Zynga are limited in the amount of things they sell as in game purchases because nobody will spend more than £30 on them games. They also use advertisements to make more money, they let companys put adverts on before the person can start to play the game and have advertisements around the page when you are playing. Zynga are also limited on the adavertisements they are paid for because once people stop playing the game which is usually after 3 months they will not want to pay to advertise there anymore because nobody will see it. Zynga had 306 million users so people will want to advertise on there game because that is where alot of people will see it, also with 306 million users if only 100 million users spent 1 pound each it would have 100 million pound.

Case study: Farmville
 Framville 2 was realeased in september 2012. Farmville 2 has 3D graphics, you can also not add things from the first farmville to your new game which makes you want to buy things from it to speed up your progress. Also the new game is more social features like you need help to build things and you need to grow crops to make things that you need to use in the game.

Indie games 

Indipendant games are indie games, games that are made by small groups of people or just one person without using a game publisher and without the financial backing from a game publisher. They are usually low budget games and are made quite simple and basic. Indie games are usually sold using digital distribution an example of this would be minecraft Xbox 360 edition that is sold on the Xbox for Microsoft points. Digital distribution is where games, music or films are sold over the internet and downloaded straight on to a console like an Xbox or play station 3, digital distribution can also be streaming from companies like love film or Netflix where you pay so much a months and can stream anything from their website or app to you console. 

Indie games are different from normal games because a lot of normal games have big budgets like GTA so they can make everything look real with good graphics, they can also pay to put copy's of real cars with their real names in the game and can pay to put real music on the radios in the car, rockstar games paid five thousand pound for each song to put them on the radio in their cars on the game. Compared to an indie game like minecraft where everything is in blocks and the characters don't look real, this is the style of the game but there is a noticeable difference between the characters on GTA and the characters on minecraft. Also on the new GTAs when you shoot someone in the leg that is the part of the body that starts to bleed but in minecraft when you hit someone with a sword it hurts the whole body of the character. 

Case study: minecraft is an indie game, it was developed by 4J studios. Minecraft is a game where you can build anything you want and go mining for things like diamonds, iron, gold and coal. Minecraft is a large free roam map where you can do and build what you want. The things you can make from the stuff you get from mining are diamond armour, diamond swords, pick axes, shovels, and axes. You can make all of these out of gold iron or diamond, diamond is the best one to make it out of but it is a lot harder to find diamonds when you are mining. With coal you can make torches to light up dark places like when you are mining, you can also use coal to cook things like food in the furnace and to make glass from sand when you cook it in the furnaces using coal as fuel. You can also make beds on minecraft so you can sleep at night, and you can build houses out of anything but they are usually made out of cobblestone or soil. You build houses to put you bed in so you don't het woken up and killed by the monsters on the game. The monsters are zombies, skeletons that shoot you with arrows and creepers that explode when they get close to you. If you kill zombies they drop feathers and with feathers you can make arrows. If you kill skeletons they drop bones and arrows, with the bones you can speed up things like trees growing or sugar cane or wheat. If you kill a creeper they drop gunpowder and you can make TNT with it. To make a bed you need wool which you can get from sheep and wood which you can get from trees. With the newest update of minecraft there are pistons and sticky pistons. With pistons you can move blocks without digging them up and replacing them, with the sticky pistons you can make secret rooms because the sticky pistons can move blocks and pull them back this is like a door but it just looks like the wall.

Minecraft is an indie game, it is a game about building anything you want and mining for things like coal,Iron, gold and diamond. You can then make things with the stuff that you have just got from mining like diamond armour, diamond swords, pick axes, shovels and axes, you can also make all that with iron, gold, stone or wood but they won't be as good as diamond. The diamonds are the hardest things to find on the game. You also make yourself a bed to sleep at night and a house to stay in, to make a bed you need to get wool from sheep and wood from the trees and make a crafting table from wood then you can make a bed. You can make bricks from clay, or just dig up cobblestone or soil to build you house out of. With coal you can make torches to give you light in dark places like in mines, or you can use coal for fuel to cook things like food in the furnace or to make glass from cooking sand in the furnace.  You can pick different skins on minecraft which changes the look of the character, you can be the normal character called Steve or there are different choices like boxer Steve or tuxedo Steve and some more. In minecraft you can play online with your friend and go on each others maps and build things there and work together to do things like stop the monster spawners, these are places in the mines where monsters spawn you have to kill the ones that have spawned and then cover the little box in torches to stop any more from spawning. Usually there is a chest in their and you get food from it and sometimes some iron. The monsters in the game are zombies, skeletons that shoot you with bow and arrows and creepers that explode when they get close to you, if you kill a zombie it drops feathers, if you kill a skeleton it drops bones and arrow, if you kill a creeper it drops gunpowder that you can make TNT with. On the newest update of minecraft they have pistons and sticky pistons, with the pistons you can move blocks without digging them up and replacing them, with the sticky pistons you can make secret rooms because the stick pistons move the blocks forward then pulls them back so it's like another door. 

Wii u 

The wii U is the new version of the wii, it will cost around £250.00 for the basic white 8GB one, and around £300.00 for the black 32GB version. The wii U will be out on the 30 /11/12. The launch games for the wii U will be Nintendo land, new super mario bros. U, ninja gaiden 3: razor edge, and Lego city undercover. You can also get the wii U console with wii U zombieU as one of the launch games. The market for the wii U should mostly be the same except they are getting more zombie games like zombieU on it, they will still have the market that applies to younger children that play mario but will also have the market for children a bit older that like zombie games.

My gaming history 

The first console that I had was the play station 1, the game I played the most on that was fifa.

I then had the play station 2 and played loads of different games on it like fifa 2005 to fifa 07, grand theft auto vice city stories and grand theft auto San Andreas, splinter cell, crash bandicoot the incredibles, and Colin McRae rally. The next console I had was the Xbox 360 and mostly played call of duty on that but it broke and I got the ps3 which I play call of duty and sometimes fifa and uncharted 1,2 and 3. I got a new Xbox and play fifa 13, call of duty mw3, halo reach, dead island, grand theft auto episodes from liberty city and have downloaded minecraft on the Xbox. I play on my Xbox and my ps3 but more on my Xbox. I have also had hand held games like the psp and the iPod touch and the iPad. 

Sky landers case study

Sky landers giants is a new version of the video game sky landers spyros adventure, this is a game where you buy the characters as littles figurines and can put them into the game using a little teleporter which puts the characters straight on to your screen. Sky landers is a very cartoonistic game and is made for younger children. The game is about a place called sky land which is full of different creatures like giants, thousands of years ago the giants were banished and now sky land is under attack again and the giants are needed to save sky land, you are the only person in the game that can get the giants back to sky land to join forces with the rest of the sky landers and keep it safe. 

This game is so unique because there are not many other games were you buy the characters as little figurines and can teleport the character that you want straight into the game in front of you. It is also unique because it has games within games like skystones which is a collectible card game within the real game, you can play against other players and win their cards from them to make your collection stronger. Another unique feature of this game is that the characters light up when placed near the portal and this done without using any batteries in the characters. This game is marketed by having adverts on kids T.V channels like nickelodeon and Cartoon Network, this is done to make sure that all children know that this game is coming out so they will ask their parents for it. Also they have given the characters their own personalities and voices of famous people so the players can make more of a connection with the characters.  The new skylanders called the series 2 skylanders have special powers in the game and these are only available for the series 2 skylanders, they are called the "wow pow." And these are updated powers that will make the characters a lot better.

The sky landers giants starter pack ranges from £55.00 to £60.00 across different consoles, in the starter pack you get three characters a portal a poster, trading cards and the game, the booster back costs between £40.00 to £45.00 on different consoles, you can also buy separate characters ranging from £15.00 for the giants to £9.00 for the normal sky landers. 

Sky landers was published by Activision , and is for all platforms like playstation 3, Xbox 360 Nintendo wii, wii u on the 18th of November 2012 and the Nintendo 3DS. Activision is known for publishing other games like call of duty black ops and modern warfare 3 which are both good games, with the first version of the game being a success and being published by Activision people that are going to buy it will trust that it will be worth what they have paid for it because Activision are a trusted game publisher and the first game was very good.

Synergy and symbiosis

Synergy- Synergy is when more than one product work together to sell more than they would be able to on its own. An example of synergy would be where a wii remote was sold with the wii play game, this will get more of both products sold quicker because it is cheaper to buy them together than it is to buy them seperate.

Symbiosis- symbiosis is where two different companies work together to benefit each other, an example of this would be the playstation 3 working with the makers of uncharted 3 so people who have a ps3 will buy uncharted and people who want uncharted will buy a ps3. Sony working with naughty dog who made uncharted 1,2 and 3. 

Rockstar Studios

Rockstar Japan started in 2005, rockstar japan is based in tokoyo in japan.

Rockstar Leeds was started in 2004 and based in leeds. It was founded by Mobius entertainment in 1997 then took over by rockstar in 2004 to make rockstar leeds.

Rockstar Lincoln was stareted in 1997 as tarantula studios but then was took over in 2002 as rockstar lincoln. Rockstar lincoln is located in lincoln in England. Rockstar London started in 2005 after rockstar Vienna closed, when rockstar London opened it took over the development of manhunt 2. Rockstar New England was started in 2008 and is based in Massachusetts, rockstar New England took over from mad doc software and developed parts of bully for the Xbox 360 and the PC.  Rockstar north took over from DMA designs in 2002 in Edinburgh, Scotland. Rockstar north is famous for grand theft auto. Rockstar San Diego started in 2003 and was previously known as angel studios. Games like red dead redemption were developed in rockstar San Diego. 

my essay

Digital distribution is where everything is digital, media can be delivered without the use of physical media usually over the internet or through online delivery services.  Also digital distribution can be add-ons for other content like downloadable games. Digital distribution took off in the 2000s so it is still very new.

A few examples of digital distribution are:

Xbox live zune marketplace for films, song and games. All of these can be downloaded through zune using Microsoft points or just money on pay pal. With zune you can rent or buy films instantly or download full games or just add ons for the games that you already have, you can also download demos for new games that will be coming out soon this is also a way of advertising for game companies. Songs can be downloaded from zune which can then be added to your music library on you Xbox 360 console. There are games that are only available for download like minecraft Xbox 360 version.

PSN for the PlayStation 3 is also a way of digital media, you can also download films games and add ons just like the zune marketplace on Xbox live, you can download add ons like zombie maps for call of duty or just full games off the PlayStation network. You can get some free downloads which are mostly demos so you can see if you like a game before you but it.

ITunes is another type of digital distribution, everything about ITunes is downloadable from films to music, games and music videos, you have to pay for some games all songs and all films and television programmes using ITunes vouchers. You can get some free versions of games on iTunes but you still make in app purchases to buy better things to improve at the game, in app purchases are when you pay for things even after you have the app. 

Lovefilm is another website that uses digital distribution, lovefilm is for streaming films and television programmes when you pay a monthly fee. Lovefilm has a lot of new films and programmes on it, they also rent out games for the PlayStation and Xbox but this is not digital distribution this is done by post. You can also get lovefilm on your iPod, iPhone, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 with all films streamable to these devices.

Netflix is another service just like lovefilm where you can stream films and television programmes straight to a device that has this feature.

Content that is digitally distributed may be streamed or downloaded online, streaming is downloading and the using the content when it is needed but downloading to a hard drive will allow easy access in the future if you want to watch it again.  Services like Netflix and lovefilm must offer a consistently high performance and availability or people would not use these services.

Digital distribution makes everything quicker and easier if it works properly, some games publishers will not use digital distribution because they think that it will lose them profit because some people that would usually buy the game might not understand how to do it digitally so this will stop them from buying it.  Digital distribution cuts sales games and CDs, the sale of CDs where nearly cut in half when digital distribution first started.

Another reason for the decrease in sales of CDs is piracy; it was made very easy to get music for free instead of going out and buying them so a lot of people chose to illegally download it which contributed to the drop in sales of CDs. Also for television digital distribution was bad because all the main television channels have been put on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 which most people have got now, these stops a lot of people watching television.

introduction

my name is sean and this is my media studies blog