OwnershipBy William James Ellis & Georgia

Mae Churchman-Wykes

The Gaming Industry• The gaming industry is an

oligopoly, which means that it is owned by three different companies; Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo.

• It’s a mass market, and is bigger than the film industry in terms of revenue.

• The sole purpose of the industry is to make money, first party developers do this by 1) getting customers to stay loyal to them and 2) getting customers to use their platform for other things besides games and become home entertainment hubs.

How Do They Get Customers To Stay Loyal?The key to success for a first party

developer in the gaming industry is creating a franchise. Franchises are essentially sweetheart deals that then go on to create sequels. Each first party developer has developed franchises:Sony – God Of War, Uncharted, LittleBigPlanet, Killlzone etc. Microsoft – Halo, Gears Of War, Fable, Viva Piñata etc. Nintendo – Super Mario, (Best-selling franchise of all time in the gaming industry) Pokémon, The Legend Of Zelda, Donkey Kong etc. Dead Island is not a franchise as it belongs to three platforms and two first party developers.

How Do They Turn Gaming Consoles Into Home

Entertainment Hubs?Technological Convergence means that consoles now are at the heart of a lot of homes. Consumers can now use consoles to: -Download games and expansion packs-Surf web-Watch Blu-ray DVDs (PS3 only)-Download films and play films-Download and play music -Instant messaging and chat-Store personal data like photographs-Shop (buy goods online)-Update your Facebook account with stats and achievements

Blu-Ray• Blu-Ray is owned by Sony

and Sony only. • Blu-Ray has a massive

capacity of 100GB compared to DVD which has a capacity of 9GB.

• Microsoft want the Blu-Ray technology but Sony don’t want to share.

• Blu-Ray gives Sony the upper-hand in the industry as it will allow them to make bigger and better games in the future.

Past Ownership-Up until the 80s, first time game producers such as Atari and Namco dominated the Niche market. -In 1982, however, Homebrew meant that anyone could create a game in their bedroom e.g. Jet Set Willy -In 1988 Atari, Sega, Commodore, Sinclair and BBC all dropped out of hardware production. -It was only in 1990 when the industry became a mass market, as this was the year that the PlayStation 1 came out. And today it is dominated by Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony.

Case StudyDead Island

• Dead Island was developed by Techland and published by Deep Silver – Third Party Developers.

• Dead Island is a multi-platform game, meaning it is available on more than one console (Xbox 360, Ps3 and PC.)