This year, more than any other, will see the an influx of new breed, self-publishing developers at San Francisco’s GDC event. Their reasons for being there will be varied, but I’m pretty certain that some will be looking for ideas on how to promote their own games to a worldwide audience. Some of the British independent developers we represent are on a US media tours as I write this, and some will be flying onto LA shortly afterwards for more of the same.

If our GDC diary is anything to go by, then this will be a busy show for PlayReplay, continuing our very successful start to 2010. To pre-empt our visit to the US we decided to make an announcement about our new clients and their projects. A copy of the press release can be found below.

So it will be radio silence from the PlayReplay blog for a while (no change there then!), but we will follow up with a post about the event itself and what we thought of it.

Press release

As digital distribution models in the games industry gather commercial pace, independent studios, developers, games and content creators are now entering the digital download arena with a new set of challenges.

PlayReplay, the marketing agency formed specifically to tackle arguably the biggest of these challenges has seen an unexpected level of growth over the past six months.

PlayReplay Director, Oliver Birch comments:

“Increasingly, developers are willing to take market risk and all the associated issues that presents. The creative talent of this industry wants to connect with consumers in a way that has previously been impossible within the current retail publishing structure. Consumers are also increasingly interested in connecting with the people behind the games they consume. We’re in business to support the developer and we’re delighted that what we do seems to be so popular.”

2010 has seen PlayReplay pick up a number of new clients including:

- Relentless Software for the US launch of Blue Toad Murder Files on PSN.

- Indie mavericks, Beatnik Games for the PC download launch of ninja robot title, Plain Sight .

- Industry veterans, Strawdog Studios for the launch of their 80’s styled arcade game, Space Ark on Xbox LIVE Arcade.

- Sabarasa, the Argentinean developer of Save The Turtles on DSiWare soon to be availabe in Europe.

- VEEMEE, the games and virtual world developer for the global launch of their London Pub space in Sony PlayStation®Home.

“Developers create games because they love games, not because they want to spend their time executing international marketing campaigns across multiple media platforms.” continues Birch. “They want to take control and in doing so, have to find a way to talk to their audience. PlayReplay is growing because we understand both sides of this problem.

PlayReplay was set up in 2009 to cater exclusively for the promotion of digitally distributed games products and associated content. The agency offers a flexible range of specialist marketing and PR services allowing clients to communicate product information directly to digital download audiences.

More on that in a later entry when we make some exciting announcements about the new clients & games we have started working with in 2010. Watch this space.

Before we start the blog entry on PC game downloads, I want to squeeze in a shameless plug for www.OneBigGame.org who releases www.chimegame.com on XBLA this week for a jaw dropping 400 MS points. We hope you like the website, which is full of interesting content provided by the studio?

Check out the tutorial video here

The game has been created by www.ZoeMode.com and is the first music game on XBLA. It features music tracks from artists such as Moby, Phillip Glass, Paul Hartnoll from Orbital and others, but importantly, 60 percent of the purchase price of Chime will be donated to Save the Children and the Starlight Children’s Foundation, so go and BUY IT NOW!!

Anyway, normal service is now resumed….

The buzz word “download” of 2009, in the games industry at least, has only be been mirrored by words such as “Social Networking”, “Motion Control” and more recently “3D”. Do we stand at the edge of a revolutionary change in interactive entertainment and software development; well we seem to be poised for a dramatic change in the distribution models that have shaped the industry as a force to be reckoned with in the entertainment arena.

Even Sir Clive’s mail order home computers don’t seem that far away when looking at the relationship between customers, computers and gaming, although 30+ years of inevitable technological advancement has now began its new phase of innovation.

Although a grandchild of the Spectrum legacy, the PC is still one of the elders of gaming and has found extra gears with online connectivity, benefiting and growing handsomely alongside the internet’s popularity.

Now it seems that PC download is the hot topic of digital distribution and with a focus on discovering new opportunities via PC gaming business models, there are decent number of developers using the platform in hope of a commercial payoff as a part of their business objectives.

A number of PC digital distribution service providers are presented to any budding programmer or team of seasoned professionals. Here are few of the alternatives to Steam and Direct2Drive to get your teeth stuck into:

www.blitz1up.com/
www.greenmangaming.com
www.digitalriver.com
www.gamersgate.com
www.gamesload.co.uk
www.gamestreamer.com
www.impulsedriven.com
www.metaboli.co.uk
www.gog.com

No commentary on PC download can be without mention of Valve’s popular digital distribution network Steam. As reported by MCV recently:

“Steam now has over 25m members and Member numbers surged 25 per cent in 2009. The peak number of concurrent users hit 2.5m during December, taking Steam’s average monthly player minutes to over 13bn in the process.”

Although still known as a colossus in the market, Steam is not yet the Apple of PC downloads. From a marketing perspective it is challenging to achieve a sustained visible presence on Steam, as the marketplace inevitably becomes more crowded. Other PC download services can provide a gaming company with alternative, unique and niche offering that can penetrate wider and possibly deeper into online gaming communities.

This year, 2010, and all that it promises in a rich vision of the information world, is set to be most exciting in the land of PC gaming, and we welcome that. We believe the inclusion of digital sales to GfK ChartTrack PC games sales reports in the UK will reveal a slowdown in the PC gaming market more recent demise. This transparency can only be a good thing for games producers and the PC gaming market as a whole. Mice at the ready…

PlayReplay is working with the marketing and product team at the studio to initiate a full marketing and PR programme in the US, UK and across Europe. Watch out for a 4 page feature on the studio’s gaming IP, Mistbound, in january’s issue of EDGE magazine, plus plenty of other coverage from now until launch in early 2010.

If you want to know more now , then please visit www.mistbound.com, sign up to the studio’s facebook page or the twitter feed

Nikki Kuppens, one of W!Games talented artists outside their front door.

I have copied the press release below that announces our partnership, but before you get to that take a look at one of the great trailers produced by the studio for Greed Corp.

Greed Corp gameplay trailer (PSN, XBLA and PC)

Here is the press release:

PlayReplay, the marketing agency for download games, is proud to announce a new partnership with one of the Dutch development communities hottest talents, W!Games.

This new partnership sees a strategic and tactical collaboration between marketing teams from both companies in the release of W!Games’ anticipated gaming world IP, Mistbound, and the studio’s first download release and highly anticipated turned based strategy game, Greed Corp, on PlayStation®Network, Xbox LIVE^® Arcade and PC Download, due early 2010.

Oliver Birch from PlayReplay commented on partnership, “The opportunity to work with the creative geniuses at W!Games on the marketing strategies for their core download gaming proposition is an impressive long term project, matched by PlayReplay’s appetite for digitally distributed games.”

“We have developed a full programme of media tours, PR activity, social media and platform marketing that will be difficult to miss. The output from this studio is second to none, and it is our job to let everyone know.”

W!Games MD, Guy Melis shed further light on the deal;  “Our relationship with PlayReplay started early in the development thought process, and their on-going support throughout our launch plans allows us to concentrate on our core business of creating engaging IP and  making great games.”

“PlayReplay has extensive experience promoting digitally distributed console and PC titles and as a studio with a lot of ambition, we wanted to mirror our aspirations by working with the kind of informed expertise that PlayReplay can provide, safe in the knowledge that our games will be in the mind’s of a worldwide gaming audience.”

Now it is by no mean feat that these services will find a “natural” home on the Xbox console, as this is as strategic move that brings sizeable social, film and music communities together with one of the largest current online gaming communities.

PlayReplay was invited to a sneak preview of this service update, which goes live tomorrow, and the consensus was that gaming, profile updating, tweeting and general entertainment media sharing go hand in hand with consumers in this connected world. All part of a virtual buzz that sees opinions and thoughts posted all over the web. How very clever!!

We particularly liked the fact that you can watch movies with friends whilst you are in your own homes, by inviting to share a film with them through the Zune service – very neat!

We will be certainly keeping an eye on how many Tweets come from Xbox consoles as the weeks go by and dont forget to follow us at twitter.com/PlayReplay and let us know about your download games, or anything else your compelled to virtually shout!

As an industry we are sometimes untied and dragged out on a piece of old rope and presented as a scapegoat for all manner of reasons – this is something we have to accept.

Today is not that day. OneBigGame shows the world why we, as an industry, have feelings too.

OneBigGame is a games industry charity initiative supporting Save The children and The Starlight Children Foundation by the release and sales of some rather compelling games.

The first game in the series is “Chime“, soon to be available on Xbox LIVE Arcade and created by Zoe Mode. PlayReplay is proud to have been involved, alongside a number of other contributing companies.

I have added the announcement press release below, detailing Chime the game and OneBigGame’s involvment. For more information visit www.chimegame.com or www.OneBigGame.org Play, so others can.

You can’t go too far in the games industry at this current time and not hear about the potential impact of digital download games on the games market as a whole.  This is probably why this event was a sell out.

Having said that, the variety and quality of key speakers and panels had drawn in a mixed crowd from across the industry. The audience was made up with platform holders, distributors, developers, publishers, high street & online retailers, boxed product manufacturers, QA, media production agencies, research agencies, consultants, solicitors, even a politician.

So was it useful? With such a wide spectrum of attendees I’m certain that there was something for everyone. There was a strong focus on the PC download sales, probably because it is the most open of platforms in terms of this kind of information www.develop-online.net/news/33136/LGC-09-UK-PC-chart-to-include-downloads

The panel session with Jagex CEO, Mark Gerhard and Kristian Segerstrale, Co-founder of Playfish was very revealing to an area of the industry that is somewhat overlooked. It seems the industry may underestimate the vast size of their engaged audiences and the contribution of these organisations to the overall consumer gaming experience and games space. www.mcvuk.com/news/36270/Beware-the-death-of-the-disc

The other sessions were also useful, with interesting FIFA DLC and Battlefield 1943 facts from Keith Ramsdale at EA, and futuristic opinions from PlayStation Home’s Pete Edward and Xbox Live General Manager, Jerry Johnson. Even though there was only enough time to scratch the surface on these console led communities, notably there was no Nintendo presence.

In general the event has got the industry talking, which in itself is a good thing – we don’t want to have the same painful experience as our musical cousins. From my own personal view the focus was slightly heavy on boxed products and AAA titles (although granted these titles do make up the majority of the market), and less about the challenges faced by a new generation of self publishing titles from a developer’s perpective.

Happily though Marketing in this digital space was recognised as a specialism by most, although the browser based companies freely admitted to no or little marketing. Shame on you for allowing that missed opportunity!

The digital market has a long way to go to maturity, with the iPod moment or tipping point seen as anywhere between 2012 and 2014 www.mcvuk.com/news/36266/Half-of-games-market-will-be-downloads-by-2014, that said it is rapidly becoming a major talking point by all involved.

All in all LGC was a successful networking event that has created a lot of thought provoking digital chatter. As an industry we seem to be embracing digital distribution, one of the most influential technological advances of our consumers’ experience. Now that’s written and posted, I’m off to walk my virtual pet!

OB

PlayReplay will be attending the London Games Conference on Tuesday October 27th, so please get in touch with us if you would like to meet up during the flow of networking drinks to tell us about your latest digital download project.

Speakers on the day will address the topics of Digital Distribution and the Future of the European Games Market.

The full list of sessions and speakers are:

Opening Address
Ed Vaizey – Shadow Minister for Culture
The man who may well be the games industry’s next voice in government talks directly to the trade

The Future of Digital Distribution
Nick Parker – Parker Consulting
One of the games market’s most respected analysts outlines the current digital distribution landscape and offers up exclusive pointers to the future of the sector

Daddy, What’s a Disc?
A discussion on the death of physical media and the business models that will rise up to replace them

Chairman: Phil Harrison – Former president of SCE Worldwide Studios
Panelists:
Kristian Segerstrale – CEO and Co-Founder, Playfish
Mark Gerhard – CEO, Jagex
Thomas Bidaux – CEO, ICO Partners

The New Food Chain
Games will still be made, sold and distributed. But not like they have been. This session looks at the new lines of demarcation.

Chairman: Andy Payne, ELSPA
Panellists:
Charles Cecil – CEO, Revolution Software
Nick Pili – Network Director, SEGA
Gian Luzio – Product Director, The Hut
Rich Keen, Marketing Director, Direct2Drive

Charting the Progress of PC Downloads
Dorian Bloch – GfK-ChartTrack
The man behind the games industry’s charts (and holder of vast amounts of sales data) how digital distribution is the future of the PC market – and makes a forceful case for a download chart

Outside the Box
Key figures from the market’s three established format holders discuss their roles in the brave new digital future

Chairman – Tony Mott, Edge
Panellists:
Pete Edwards – Director, PlayStation Home, SCE
Neil Thompson – Head of Xbox, UK & Ireland, Microsoft
TBA – Nintendo

According to Rockstar’s founder Dan Houser in a recent USA Today article cited by CVG, he is more comfortable at the moment downloading music than games.

No controversy there then, as one of the world’s top games publishers emphasises the importance of the retailer’s shelf in comparison to the platform holders’ digital download mechanisms, in the release of its latest blockbuster edition of GTA4’s episodic content.

The controversy is apparent though when reading the many posts across the web from fans of the series who argue whether the first episode The Lost & Damned being available on a disc with The Ballad of Gay Tony has ultimately left them feeling cheated about downloading games.

This coupled with fanboy rumour posts that Microsoft won’t have exclusive rights over Sony on this DLC series is making sure that there is little harmony about simultaneous digital and retail launches.

As with the music industry, digital distribution in the games industry is here to stay, but still consumer opinion and demand will keep us all guessing about how that future will be delivered.

OB