Archive for July, 2010

1. I’m confirmed as a speaker at the EIEF on “Whales, power laws and the future of media”

   July 27, 2010

   I’ve been asked to speak at the Edinburgh Interactive Entertainment Festival. I’ve never made it to EIEF before, and I’m honoured to have been asked. My topic is Whales, power laws and the future of media. The emergence of free-to-play games has revealed new truths about media consumption. Not all users are created equal. Some [...]

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   Posted in: Past Events

   Tagged with: conferences, eief

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2. Be careful what you wish for: UK games industry gets parity with films as government abolishes the Film Council

   July 26, 2010

   The video games industry has long cried foul that it is not treated equally. We are upset that Canadian companies get better tax breaks than British ones and we whinge that film is treated with respect by government with tax breaks and a Film Council and quangos galore. “We want parity with film,” we cry. [...]

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   Posted in: Opinion

   Tagged with: film, film council, politics

   3 Comments

3. Developers: stop trying to be like publishers

   July 26, 2010

   I am a strong proponent of self-publishing for developers (and any content creators in fact). So I keep getting asked “why do you hate publishers so much”. And the straight-forward answer is that I don’t. Publishers are still the best way of getting your creative content into retail stores. They are the best way to [...]

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   Posted in: Opinion

   Tagged with: self-publishing

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4. Filesharing, copyright and my attempt to change the attitude of the music industry

   July 23, 2010

   This is a lightly edited transcript of a talk I gave at the Westminster eForum on Filesharing, copyright and the digital consumer on 14th July. I was pleasantly surprised by how open the music industry seemed to be towards changing the role of copyright. We are winning. Further information on the Westminster eForum (and the [...]

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   Posted in: Distribution, Featured, Opinion

   Tagged with: digital rights management, music, music business, piracy, starred

   1 Comment

5. Kuju’s Headstrong makes half its staff redundant

   July 22, 2010

   Citing declines in the Wii market, Kuju has made half the staff of its Headstrong subsidiary redundant as the studio refocuses to also support Sony platforms. According to GamesIndustry.biz (registration required), Headstrong had 70 staff at the start of the year and that number has been reduced by 50%. 35 job losses added to the [...]

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   Posted in: Opinion

   Tagged with: headstrong, job loss tracker, kuju, redundancies

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6. “One more go” doesn’t work anymore

   July 22, 2010

   Game design has long had the objective of making users want “just one more go”. With more than a passing nod to the arcade business models of yesteryear, much design thought has gone into making users keep playing till the wee small hours of the night. In today’s world, that’s bad design. It used to [...]

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   Posted in: Featured, Sales

   Tagged with: game design, starred

   3 Comments

7. My first live broadcast for 25 years – One Life Left

   July 22, 2010

   Simon Byron was kind enough to invite me on One Life Left, the award-winning radio show on the games industry.They’ve had 122 episodes and I confess I hadn’t listened to the show before. My loss. I really enjoyed the show and Ste, Simon and Ann have a lot of fun while also making a great [...]

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   Posted in: Sandbox

   Tagged with: gamesbrief, one life left

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