Video games 2: Specialized industry

What makes the games industry specialized?

Video game production can be by individuals and larger companies with at home coders being able to make and play their own games.

Video games are all interactive meaning that the user makes decisions and actions in games. For example Killer 7 at the start of the game has a starter button as most games have to show the user from the very beginning that they need to make decisions in order to play the game. Each game has different story lines and level systems as this is what makes each game different, with game genres also different each game has a different target audience and age rating. Audiences get many different use and gratifications from game interaction as users can feel a sense of escapism to another world with the avatar or character making this new world different from the real world where we all live.

The video game industry has a huge expenditure of specialized resources, each and every person is specialized in what they do and for gaming companies like Ubisoft they need to have a range of different roles to make sure that games are as good as they can be. Some workers maybe better at certain coding things or even certain genres of game therefore the company has a huge amount of resources to make their games as good and as interactive as they can. This is different to any other industry as even in for example the film industry there will be specialized roles like certain directors are better at producing certain kinds of film genres and specific producers like Tim Burton will have unique styles that make each film different.

Video games have a higher RRP than other forms of media, this is basically the price they should sell the product at. Some games like Final Fantasy VII remake can cost up to £50 when first released and considering other media forms are a lot cheaper this can make video games a really lucrative market, cinema tickets costs about £10 and that is just for one viewing of the media product so there is a real difference in format price in the gaming industry. Mainstream video games do change price rapidly and does vary as each game will be targeted at a different audience and has a different product life span than any other form of media as game releases need to have sales really high when games are first distributed then as the price drops sales might decrease as the game will be less exciting as the audience will already have the games, however when the price drops this could have a positive affect as then more people will be able to afford the game therefore more people may want to buy the game.

Video games have a different length to any other kind of  media as once the audience buy the product they have it forever then they will buy again after they have had their hours of game play and entertainment. For the film industry a media product has a certain length so for a film the product will be about an hour or 2 but for a video game it can take over 60 hours to complete so it can have a longer use than a film so the price will be higher. Games used to have to be bought on hardware so like game cartridges or floppy discs so they would have been more expensive as the cartridge would have had to be made and distributed. Due to inflation, video games are actually cheaper now than when they were first released.

The video gaming audience is meant to be hardcore and specialized as well as a distinct audience as they like certain games with specialized story lines for each different game.

Courtesy of: https://learn.g2.com/stages-of-game-development

Each step of the game making process is crucial as if any one thing goes wrong the game might not be developed well or might not be what consumers want to buy therefore no money will be made after its produced.

E3 is a trade event for the video game industry, it is one of the biggest video game expo's in the world. Many developers and publishers use this expo to advertise and introduce many new games or merchandise to do with games and things. E3 is considered the largest gaming-expo of the year by importance and impact.With the rise of streaming and online media, several of the press conferences were broadcast to the public to increase their visibility. E3 2017 expo became open to the public for the first time, with around 15,000 passes for those who wanted to go. E3 takes place every year in June at its location, the Los Angeles Convention Center in the US, obviously the 2020 expo is cancelled.