Rockstar games:

Background: Rockstar games are a multinational videogame developer and publisher situated in New York.

Founded: In 1998

Owner/Founder: Founded by the British producers Sam and Dan Houser and is owned by Take-Two interactive.

Most successful games: Grand Theft Auto and Midnight Club as well as their open world free roaming settings in there games. A couple of more successful games are: Grand Theft Auto, Max Payne, L.A. Noire, The Warriors, Bully, Manhunt, Midnight Club, State of Emergency, and Red Dead.

Institutions:

·         The largest permit being the Grand Theft Auto series which was one of the most popular games to be sold and have had batches of at least 157.5 million alone.

·         Rockstar Games received the BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award at the British Academy Video Games Awards in March 2014.

EA (Electronic Arts)

Background:  Electrician Arts are an American developer, marketer, publisher and distributor of video games situated in California. It was formed in 1982 on May 28^th.

Owner/founder:  Founded by Trip Hawkins

Most successful games: Madden NFL, FIFA, NHL, NCAA Football, NBA Live, and SSX.

Institutions:

·         In 2011 Electronic Arts was the world's third-largest gaming company by revenue after Nintendo and Activision Blizzard.

·         EA announced that it had exceeded $1 billion in digital revenue during the previous calendar year

Zynga:

Background: Zyna games are a provider of social games and develop social games that work on mobile phone platforms such as the Apple IOS. The headquarters are situated in California, USA in San Francisco.

Owner/founder: It was founded in July 2007 by Mark Pincus

Most successful games:  One of their most successful games was The Farmville series.

Institutions: Zynga games had over 265 million monthly active users and three of the top five Facebook games.

Nintendo:

Background: Nintendo is a Japanese multinational consumer Electronics Company based in Kyoto, Japan. It was founded in 1989 on September 23^rd.

Owner/founder: The founder of Nintendo was Fusajiro Yamauchi

Most successful game: One of the most successful games was Mario Bros

Institutions:  Nintendo has sold over 669.36 million hardware units and 4.20 billion software units

Sony Computer Entertainment

Background: year formed and location

Owner/founder:

Most successful games:

Interesting fact about the institution:

Sony Computer Entertainment:

Background:  Sony Computer Entertainment is a Japanese multinational video game company specializing in a variety of areas in the video game industry. It was founded in 1993 on November 16^th and is situated in Japan Tokyo.

Owner/founder:  Nintendo is owned by Andrew House

Most successful game:

E-Media

The FIFA 14 website is completely covered with images of football and football language. For example, “Precision Movement”, “Pure Shot” and “Real ball Physics”. By doing this, anyone who loves football or the game Fifa will enjoy reading this website page.     

The Facebook page has 160K likes

Planetside 2

1. What is Planetside 2? PlanetSide 2 is a free-to-play massively multiplayer online first-person shooter published by Sony Online Entertainment and released on November 20, 2012.
2. What genre does the game belong to? Massively multiplayer online first-person shooter game
3. Planetside 2 developer/publisher: Sony Online Entertainment 
4. When was it launched? November 20, 2013

1. What are the six different player classes in the game? 

• The Infiltrator is a sniper class with special abilities of cloaking and hacking, and can use sniper rifles, scout rifles and submachine guns to deliver a devastating effect.

• The Combat Medic is a healing class. Their weapons include assault rifles, shotguns and submachine guns. The Combat Medic's special abilities allows them to heal and resurrect other players.

• The Engineer class has the special ability of repairing vehicles, turrets, and MAX Units. The engineer also has the ability to build anti-infantry and anti-vehicle turrets. The Engineer's weapons include carbines, shotguns submachine guns and battle rifles.

• The MAX class has a mobile armored suit that allows them to take significant damage before dying. However, due to the suit they are also the slowest class. They have access to anti-infantry, anti-vehicle, and anti-air weapons. Max units cost resources to use.

      7. What is the story or narrative to the game?  PlanetSide 2 is a science fiction massively multiplayer online first-person shooter set approximately 300 years after the discovery of Auraxis, although the chronology of the game universe starts a few years before. After the Earth has nearly come to ruin following a devastating war, the world's governments came to a consensus and united under one banner: the world-wide Terran Republic (TR). Some time later a wormhole, one which scientists fail to explain, appears and then disappears without a trace. Ex-President of the Terran Republic, Tom Connery, believes that the wormhole is a sign of existing extraterrestrial life and launches several space expeditions.

The three factions

The Terran Republic: Honer, justice and duty

The Vanu Sovereignty: Strengths, intelligence and wisdom

The New Conglomerates: Payback, oppression and freedom

Planetside 2: Target audience

• The target audience for Planetside 2 could potentially range from 18 - 35 years old
• 80% male and 20% female
• Social class: mainly middle class
• Students in college and university
• Towns and cities
• ABC1 demographic

The Terran Republic- Mainstream- ABC1 demographic - requires tactics

The Vanu Sovereignty- Resigned- ABC1 Demographic; requires new technology and education/employment

The New Conglomerates- Succeeder's- Age 18 - 24 - rebels especially as this game focuses on this particular aspect. Doesn't necessarily require someone to be in employment

What is the story or narrative to the game?

Planetside 2 is a re-imagining of Planetside, featuring the same world, factions and taking place at roughly the same time period. As in the previous game, it features territory control in an open-world, large battles featuring up to 2000 players per continent on foot or in land/air vehicles. The territory system differs greatly from that of the original, being more free-form and based on a hexagonal territory control system. SOE has been taking into account balance issues from the first game. As stated by creative director Matthew Higby, they reward combatants on lower population empires through mechanics such as proportionally increased advancement rates and resources to aid the balance of overall empire saturation on each server as much as possible without force-restricting players from being able to play with their friends.

Business:

1. How much does Planetside 2 cost to play? PlanetSide 2 is free-to-play and includes a cash shop for players to purchase in-game convenience items and cosmetic changes using real money.
2. What does a subscription offer to players? The game also offers a subscription which provides players with increased experience, cert points, and extra resources, which are used to acquire things such as grenades and medical kits.
3. What can the in-game currency be used to buy? Increased experience, cert points, and extra resources, which are used to acquire things such as grenades and medical kits.
4. Why do some players dislike games in which users can buy additional weapons or health? No denying it. Is that 'buying power'? Well, that depends on your definition.

fifa 14

This poster which is promoting FIFA14 for Xbox shows a famous footballer Lionel Messi as the central image holding up a pair of car keys with a keyring of a controller. He is wearing casual clothes which shows the audience that anyone can play the game. The slogan is in the top left corner in the standard Fifa font which is used for all Fifa games.

2. What key conventions of print adverts can you find on the FIFA ad? Product name? Font? Slogan? Central image? Colour

Product name: FIFA14

Slogan: We are FIFA14

Central image: Lionel Messi

Colour scheme: Red and blue

Broadcast

The TV advert attracts the audience by using different people playing the game. Lionel Messi is driving the van because he is the world’s best footballer so it makes sense to see him driving it and not the president of United States for example.  There is a combination of footballers that have been used that come from different countries. This is because they appeal to people from a specific place.  There are also regular people that have been used that are having fun and running around to show that this is a game that everyone can play with their friends and family.  The FIFA 14 trailer is so much different to the advert. The trailer shows you in depth game-play and shows you knew content for example new game mechanisms ad new ultimate team. The trailer is effective in promoting the game because it shows you a sneak peak of the game-play and shows the new things that are going to be released.

Print

This print advert promotes this game by using a footballing star – Lionel Messi.  He has been used because he is the best footballer on the planet earth. Many people admire Messi so it’s a good way advertising this game. The title FIFA stands for Federation International de Football Association. They are international governing body which is responsible for organising international football matches that take place. The font is a big, black and bold font surrounded with a white stroke which makes it stand out. The colours that have been are red, white and black which makes it stand it out further. The positive reviews are as follows: ‘’Game mechanics updated and the gameplay feels more real. 9/10’’ and ‘’FIFA 14 is amazing It’s the best football game till date. Much more things, improved game-play than FIFA 13. Awesome game much slower, which makes it more realistic.

E-media

The FIFA 14 website contains detailed information about the game. It catches the audience by having pictures and gives links to go to specific areas for example Fifa Ultimate Team.

phone and tablet gaming

How much money is Candy Crush Saga estimated to make each day from its users?

• Worldwide, Candy Crush Saga is estimated to make £610,000 ($1,000,000) per day from its users, according to Appdata. An estimated £550,000 per day is earned from the game in the US

How does it make this money?

• the game forces addicted players to buy gizmos which help them progress through the more difficult levels. They buy add-ons, extra lives and access to higher levels.

How many people are estimated to have installed Candy Crush?

• 500 million people have installed Candy Crush

Where do people play?

• 60% of UK gamers play to and from work; 28% play at work or during work hours

When was the game released?

• April 2012: Candy Crush released on Facebook

• November 2012: Released for iOS devices

• December 2012: Launches on Android devices

• February 2013: Most popular game on Facebook

• September 2013: Launches on South Korean Kakao messaging service

• November 2013: Reaches 500 million downloads worldwide

• December 2013: Dreamworld expansion released

• Source: Appdata

When did it reach 500 million downloads?

• November 2013

Who is the typical Candy Crush gamer?

• the typical candy crush gamer is someone that works, this is obvious because most gamers play to and from work also they play the game for stress relief, however the typical Candy Crush Saga player is a woman aged 25-45

What percentage of gamers have spent money on Candy Crush, buying in-app purchases etc.?

• £610,000 

What percentage say they are addicted to the game?

• 30% say they are addicted to the game

What is your own experience of playing Candy Crush? Have you played it?

• Yes, I really enjoyed it, however I got bored of it and didn't really get addicted. 

How women blow £400,000 a day playing Candy Crush, the most addictive online game ever

• Game has millions of people in its grip
• Women aged between 25 and 55 are the demographic most loyal to it
• Lucy Berkley, 44, calls it 'crack candy' because she's so addicted
• Jenni Weaver, 40, plays for eight hours a day
• Steph Brophy, 37, said: 'It's taking over my life'