Revision - essay terminolgy

Gaming Industry

Publishing - the game genre, narrative and target audience all come under publishing

Development - the process of creating a game and its design.

Marketing - how the game is advertised

Distribution - how the game goes from the publishers to you

Cross media convergence - the coming together of media. Eg: the cinematic experience of modern games

Technological convergence - the coming together of media technologies. Eg: games consoles being able to play movie, apps, Internet as well as games

Crowd Funding - people pledge money to fund a game. Eg: Double Fine adventure was funded by kickstarter a crowd funding company.

Passive audience - the audience just receive the media product

Active audience - the audience have input into the media product

Revision - Assassin's Creed 3

Here is a few, well quite a few points that you can put in your essay for publishing, production, marketing and distribution.

Publishing

• The franchise first attracted a younger audience with the first Assassin's Creed hence the rating was 15+ while Assassins Creed 3 is an 18+. The franchise has grown up along with the audience to maintain its faithful fans.
  
•  It is popular with older men. Mr Croft likes the game. They were the first generation to grow up with the gaming industry and experience all the changes from tetris all the way to this new Assassin's Creed.

• The PSVita version has the main character as a female. The target audience for this version is aimed more at females as they would be able to relate with the character.

• The new character is bigger, stronger and better at fighting which appeals to boys that are "obsessed" with war.

• Assassin's Creed 3 is very much a multi-genre game. Fantasy, adventure, strategy, beat em up, sandbox, sci-fi, puzzle, stealth and racing. This makes the game very immersive and allows the gamer to explore and spend many hours completing the missions, collecting or just enjoying this virtual world which in this new assassin's Creed that is much larger than previous games. 

•  The game is mostly third person which means that the camera is behind the character.

• The multiplayer in the assassins creed has been included since Brotherhood and has been mostly successful. It is a different concept from the usual team deathmatch on most first person shooters and includes players hunting each other. The genre of the multiplayer is very much stealth and is popular for its inventiveness.

Development

• The game engine is Anvil next and it can do weather cycling, create crowds of at most 2000, the world changes over time to do things like growing plants or making damage to buildings permanent. The characters in the game have artificial intelligence. In the crowds each person has their own personality, wind and water simulation is so accurate you use the actual naval techniques to aim at the enemy, when the character walks through snow his footprints are remembered for the duration of the mission. This encourages sales because the player wants to see how the game improves.

Game design

• Characters - The characters have stayed quite similar. The protagonist in each is strong, athletic man who kills men via some fluent fighting style. Also the women in each game are thin and have two impressive features. Anyway the protagonist moves are more fluent and smooth compared to previous games.

• World – How one interacts with the surroundings and in the case of Assassin’s Creed 3 how the free running system works. This is evident when one runs free as Connor. As well as buildings we start free running through trees and up cliffs. This makes the long time player want to continue playing as it shows the evolution of skills from the easy buildings to the intricate branches. It also makes the player feel like they are achieving something as they have been playing through the evolution so they feel they have got better at controlling it.

JOKE WARNING

 

There are also hunting regions but they are very expensive. They're dear

 

• Game Software - this is how the hardware is used. The software is the content of the game in its basics. This involves the graphics and how they improve. In Assassin’s Creed the graphics are ahead of its time but we focused more on the buildings and looks. Now in Assassins’ Creed 3 we focus more on the character and the background. An example of this is the first protagonist Haytham. His face is uncovered unlike the previous games and we see how the better graphics affect his face. Also in the background there’s new motion for example people passing by windows.

Marketing

• On 28th September 2012, Ubisoft announced that they were to spend £4million on marketing. This is the largest spend on the promotion of a product by the developer, in a big push to sell as many as possible to cover large costs.

• This helps sales figures in an obvious way, the more people who see it across the TV, radio, advertising boards.The more people are aware of it, and then they look into it, find a large network of exciting "exclusive reveal" videos on the Internet and get excited for the game, and want it when it comes out.

 

• On You tube, you can find a wide range of videos showing interviews and new features of the game. These helped build up anticipation for the game from fans, without revealing too much. This is a good way of promoting something as it comes at absolutely no cost  but is a great way of building up excitement and draw in more people who preorder because they are watching the videos and want the game as a result.
  
• Other editions with extras are also available and help the franchise develop sales figures as collectors and "hardcore gamers" will buy a number of, or at least the most expensive edition. This helps bring in much more money to the franchise, at little extra cost to them. It also helps the franchise establish itself as it shows the commitment from the developers and designers

JOKE WARNING

There's a new series of games that are all about herbs. It's a new franchive

 

Distribution

• Assassins Creed III has been distributed across many different platforms including Xbox-360, Playstation 3 and the all new PS Vita. AC3 has tried to reach as many customers as possible.

• An example of a store that is on the highstreet and on the internet is Game. On the online store customers can order and even pre-order the game for bonus features. The store allows the exact same capabilities in both pre-ordering and buying the game directly.

• With Assassins Creed III being a sequel in the popular Assassins Creed franchise, most game stores and most supermarkets now sell the game. As well as been sold widely throughout stores, the most common distribution for the game is online. Also companies such as Amazon and Play.com are distributing the game widely because of their trusted customer base. This allows the game to be distributed on a huge scale.

• When the game is ordered online the customer can either pick the game up from the store that they purchased it from or they can choose to have the game delivered directly to their home.

JOKE WARNING

Have you heard of the killer that looks back on his murders and thinks about them. Apparently he follows the assessing creed

Essay success criteria


Plan

• Use four boxes and work out how you will structure your answer before attempting to write it
• Work out what the question is asking you to do.
• Use correct terminology.
• Cross it out afterwards

Essay

• Use appropriate terminology as much as possible
• Be consistent and sustain your analysis. Your essay is only as good as your worst paragraph
• Clear and sophisticated style
• Well argued
• Always link back to the question and directly answer it in every paragraph
• Include facts and figures when appropriate
• Try not to repeat
• Balance your argument
• Don't repeat

JOKE WARNING

Even if the question doesn't involve the solar system you still have to plan it.

Revision - Gaming Industry Facts and Figures

General facts
 
These facts are from http://www.esrb.org/about/video-game-industry-statistics.jsp
 

• the average age of a gamer is 34
• the average number of years adults have been playing games since is 12
• 67% of US households play video games
• percentage of gamers - 25% are under 18, 49% are 18-49 and 26% over 50
• the average gamer spends 8 hours a week playing video games
• 40% of all gamers are female
• 64% of parents believe games are a positive part of their children's lives

Assassin's Creed 3 facts
 

• Assassins Creed 3 is an 18+
• Developed by Ubisoft
• Work began in January 2010
• The PSVita version has the main character as a female.
• Assassin's Creed 3 is very much a multi-genre game. Fantasy, adventure, strategy, beat em up, sandbox, sci-fi, puzzle, stealth and racing
• the game engine is anvil next
• spent £4million on marketing in anticipation of the release of Assassin's Creed 3.
• On You tube, you can find a wide range of videos showing interviews and new features of the game.
• Available across 4 consoles, there are 7 different editions of Assassin's Creed 3.
• The Standard Edition is available on Xbox 360, PS3, PS Vita and PC.
• It has online Multiplayer
• Ubisoft announced that the game is the most pre-ordered game in the company's history
• It was the best selling game in the United Kingdom in the week of its release, with 3.5 million units sold

Double Fine Adventure facts
 

• largest crowd funded game
• Kickstarter project initiated on February 8, 2012
• set the goal for the project at $400,000, with $100,000 allocated to the film production and $300,000 for the game
• within nine hours, the Kickstarter project had exceeded the $400,000 goal and by 24 hours, it had surpassed $1 million
• raised $3.45 million from more than 87,000 backers through kickstarter
• various incentives were given to those that pledged $15 or more, including the game itself
• a digital download available on Android, Linux, iOS, Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows
• started in
• uses Moai as its game engine
• Tim Schafer is the face of the game and has uploaded lots of videos on You Tube
• uses 2D computer graphics
• will have voice acting for the English version, and include text localisation for French, German, Italian, and Spanish languages

Crowd Funding Essay

How is crowd funding affecting the relationship between institutions and audiences at the publishing, design, marketing and distribution level? Answer with specific reference to Assassin’s Creed and Double Fine Adventure

 
Double Fine Adventures is different from Assassin’s Creed 3 in the publishing of the game, their design, how they are marketed and how they are distributed and these differences have been influenced by crowd funding. Double Fine Adventures has been financed by Kickstarter giving more freedom to the game developers, while Assassin’s Creed 3 has had the backing of Ubisoft that will have influenced the game against the developers wishes. The two games differ greatly and they’re advantages and disadvantages to crowd funding.

 
Publishing is different for Assassin’s Creed 3 (AC3) compared with Double Fine Adventure (DFA). AC3 is a multi-genre game, that covers adventure, sci-fi, fantasy, sandbox and more, which means it appeals to a wide target audience which it has to do to make as much money as possible because the game cost much more to make than to DFA which is able to have a specific genre – point and click – that is becoming less popular of late because the cost to create the game is far less, so it doesn’t need a wide audience. Although the target audience of DFA is limited, it has managed to gain large support – over $3.5 million was donated by 87,000 people. The target amount of $400,000 was raised in 8 hours which shows how popular the genre is. Ubisoft have funded AC3 because it is part of a successful franchise that is growing with this new game while DFA was funded through kickstarter and donations from fans of the game genre in return for rewards and a copy of the game. This makes DFA different form AC3 because Ubisoft will have controlled some of the decisions and the direction the game took compared to DFA, which has been able to design the game how they want along with feedback from the people that donated to improve the game. AC3’s audience have no input to how the game is made and are therefore passive and only receive the final product.

 
Crowd funding also affects how the game is designed and developed. AC3 uses anvil next as its game engine. It is a modern game engine that is incredibly advanced and as well as producing better graphics, it can handle up to 2000 characters on screen, cycle weather patterns and cope with complex physics to make the game as realistic as possible. DFA uses Moai as its game engine and compared to anvil next it is far less advanced. It is 2D and has been chosen so the game developers can concentrate more on the actual game story and other aspects rather than complex programming. It is also far easier, meaning a smaller team can work on the game. Tech director Nathan Martz said, “We wanted to experiment with some 2D games, some mobile games, and as we looked around for solutions Moai jumped out at us as a really simple, lightweight, quick-to-get-into technology.” Crowd funding also has benefits when designing the game because there are less restrictions on the developers. AC3 would have been altered so that its characters, environments and story line are how Ubisoft want them to be. Crowd funding gives individual developers no restrictions and freedom to design the game how they want it to be. Another advantage of crowd funding is that the gamers that have pledged money towards the game have the opportunity to play the game and offer feedback. The consumer has an active role in how the game is made rather than being passive.

 
Crowd funding affects how the game is marketed. Without the backing of a large company such as Ubisoft DFA can’t afford a large marketing campaign. AC3, backed by Ubisoft, does have the financial capabilities for a large marketing campaign. They announced they would spend £4 million on which is the largest amount spent by a developer to market a game. It has to reach out to the widest audience possible to cover the huge costs of the production of the game. This money goes towards advertisements on the TV, magazine, radio and billboards. YouTube videos have also been uploaded that contain exclusive content and gain great interest. Crowd funding has enabled DFA to gain customers before the game was built by encouraging gamers,  that are interested in the point and click genre, to pledge money in return for the game. Another way that DFA has been marketed is by using YouTube and Tim Schafer as the face of the game. Tim himself has attracted interest because of his personality and successful previous games.  Other incentives to buy into DFA are exclusive game art etc.

 
Distribution is different for crowd funded games. AC3 has been distributed across many different platforms including Xbox-360, Playstation 3 and the all new PS Vita. This has enabled the game to be distributed on a much wider scale which allows customers to get hold of the game very easily. Examples of stores where AC3 can be purchased are Game, HMV and most supermarkets such as Asda or Sainsbury’s. The game can also be bought from online companies such as Amazon. AC3 is widely distributed to make as much money as possible to cover all the costs and to sell to the wide target audience. It is also a franchise that is becoming more popular so more stores are willing to stock the game if they have already done the same with previous games in the franchise. It could also be pre-ordered for extra content and be the first in the country to play the game. DFA on the other hand has a narrower distribution. It can be bought as a digital download available on Android, Linux, iOS, Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows. Because it isn’t available on the mainstream consoles it isn’t widely available for audiences.

 
The relationship between the institutions and audiences is greatly affected by crowd funding. In the publishing stage crowd funding can allow target audiences to be more specific and the genre less popular. The game design can actually be influenced by feedback from customers but often the funds mean that there is less money to create complex graphics. Marketing is less varied and costs far less. The distribution is much narrower. In conclusion crowd funding changes the way audiences receive, play and now have a say in designing games.

Assassins Creed 3 Study

Publishing

Target Audience

The franchise first attracted a younger audience with the first Assassin's Creed hence the rating was 15+ while Assassins Creed 3 is an 18+. The franchise has grown up along with the audience to maintain its faithful fans. This new game has been marketed as the perfect time to buy into the Assassins Creed franchise and has tried to widen its audience. You would expect the main audience to be teenage boys but the game is also popular with middle aged men that were the first generation to grow up with the gaming industry and experience all the changes from tetris all the way to this new Assassin's Creed.

The PSP version has the main character as a female. The target audience for this version is aimed more at females as they would be able to relate with this female. As a female it goes against the normal stereotype and instead the character is fighting and killing men. All the stereotypes are subverted unlike the other versions that follow the stereotypes. The game includes lots of different genres and because of this appeals to a wide audience. The new character is bigger, stronger and better at fighting which appeals to boys that are "obsessed" with war. Assassins Creed has captured the imagination of many people as the picture on the right shows.

The game will has been released along side other popular franchises such as Call of Duty, Halo and Forza Horizon all competing over the same target audience so by widening this audience with the PSP, online gameplay and multi-genre. These aspects make it competitive in the market against other games.

Narrative

                                      Taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassin%27s_Creed_III

The story starts with Connor. After Charles Lee informs a young Connor that he wishes to speak to the elders of his village, he returns to find the village burning, causing the death of his mother. Later, a teenage Connor is told by a village elder that the reason no one is allowed to leave the valley is because they are there to protect the Temple. After showing the wise woman the symbol of the Assassins, she tells him to leave the valley, finding Achilles Davenport, an Assassin, and convinces the elder embittered fighter to train him.

After collecting supplies to rebuild the decaying homestead, Achilles presents Connor with the Aquila, a ship Connor can use to patrol the Eastern seaboard. Connor soon is taken to Boston, where he is finally dubbed Connor Kenway, after Achilles' son.

As Connor learns the art of being an assassin he is brought into the cities of Boston and New York as well as a large open area called The Frontier. After being made a full-fledged member of the Brotherhood by Achilles, Connor sets out to eliminate the Colonial Templars. William Johnson is first assassinated after he attempts to purchase the land in which Connor's people reside on. Connor next targets John Pitcairn, who leads the British forces at Bunker and Breed's Hills. After he is dealt with Connor next targets Thomas Hickey whom Connor discovers is plotting to assassinate George Washington.

Upon travelling to the Caribbean and pursuing a boat, Haytham and Connor find Church and kill him. The two then travel to meet Washington. Here, Haytham discovers a letter revealing that Washington has ordered the removal of all the Indigenous tribes from the land as a number of which have supported the British. One of the lands to be removed is Connor's own despite the tribe being completely neutral. Connor severs his ties with Haytham and Washington and takes off to protect his tribe's village. Connor finds the village safe, but the wise woman has dispatched several tribesmen to turn back the Colonials sent to purge the village. Connor neutralises them to avoid conflict, however he is forced to sacrifice a good friend mentally blinded by Lee.

Connor becomes torn in his mission to eliminate the Templars with the thought that he could possibly turn his father for good. Connor sets off to pursue Lee who has been disgraced by Washington and taken refuge in Fort George. Connor infiltrates the fort only to find Haytham. Haytham reveals Lee has escaped (with the medallion) again and he and Connor engage in battle. Now accepting that his father will not turn, Connor kills Haytham, who refuses to repent in the end.

As Desmond plays these events out in the Animus he is occasionally taken out in order to find power cells crucial in the process of exploring the temple. The efforts take Desmond to locations including Manhattan and Brazil. During these trips, he encounters Daniel Cross, an Assassin-turned Templar who was responsible for nearly wiping out the Assassins in 2000 by killing their Mentor. While exploring the temple Juno tells Desmond the events leading up to the first cataclysm. It is during one of these lectures that Desmond reveals that him killing Lucy was no accident and that he chose to after the Apple revealed to him that Lucy was a double-agent and intended to take the Apple to Abstergo.

Connor now pursues Lee again. After pursuing Lee into a burning ship the two come to a stalemate after falling through a section of the ship. Connor is impaled in his side by a piece of the ship. Lee asks him why he continues to persist even though the Templars only rise again and again. Connor replies, "Because no one else will", and shoots Lee in the chest. A mortally wounded Lee escapes in a ferry across the lake with a badly injured Connor in pursuit. Connor finds Lee in a pub taking one last drink and finishes the job by stabbing Lee in the chest.

Connor takes down the portraits of the Templar members in the secret basement and burns them, signifying the end of his journey. In addition, his return to his home village (shown before) is detailed further- upon arrival he spoke to a hunter that had been camping there, who revealed that the new U.S. Government had sold the land his village rested upon to settlers in order to settle war debts.

He also travels to the pier in New York, seeing the last of the British Redcoats leave America for good. However, at this same encounter, Connor sees the beginnings of the slave trade present in the newly formed nation- right next to the pier of citizens cheering at the departure of the British there is a stand where a slave trader is peddling three of his "wares".

Genre

Assassin's Creed 3 is very much a multi-genre game. Fantasy, adventure, strategy, beat em up, sandbox, sci-fi, puzzle, stealth and racing. This makes the game very immersive and allows the gamer to explore and spend many hours completing the missions, collecting or just enjoying this virtual world which in this new assassin's Creed is much larger than previous games. One minute you can be tearing apart some guards the next collecting collectibles. This makes the game incredibly varied and diverse. The game is mostly third person which means that the camera is behind the character.

My stupid joke

Not many games have this multi-genre so Assassin's Creed 3 doesn't have many competitors and is different from other popular franchises such as Call of Duty, Halo and Need for Speed. The multiplayer in the assassins creed has been included since Brotherhood and has been mostly successful. It is a different concept from the usual team deathmatch on most first person shooters and includes players hunting each other. The genre of the multiplayer is very much stealth and is popular for its inventiveness.

Development

 

From http://www.jacobsnewmediastudies.blogspot.co.uk/

Game engine - Anvil next;
Can do weather cycling (random weather), Create crowds of at most 2000 , the world changes over time to do things like growing plants or making damage to buildings permanent. The characters in the game have artificial intelligence. In the crowds each person has their own personality, wind and water simulation is so accurate you use the actual naval techniques to aim at the enemy, when the character walks through snow his footprints are remembered for the duration of the mission. This shows continuing sales figures because the player wants to see how the game improves via the small details like weather and crowds. An example of this is when people pass by the shop windows.

Game design

Characters - The characters have stayed quite similar. The protagonist in each is a healthy thin attractive man who kills men via some fluent fighting style. Also the women in each game are thin, big breasted and appealing to men. However the way in which the protagonist moves is more fluent and smooth compared to previous games, like in Assassins Creed where Altair would only run left after stopping running forward.
World – How one interacts with the surroundings and in the case of Assassin’s Creed 3 how the free running system works. This is evident when one runs free as Connor. Instead of the dilapidated buildings we start free running through trees and up cliffs. This makes the long time player want to continue playing as it shows the evolution of skills from the easy blocky buildings to the intricate branches. It also makes the player feel like they are achieving something as they have been playing through the evolution so they feel they have got better at controlling it.

Game Software

This is how the hardware is used. The software is the content of the game in its basics. This involves the graphics and how they improve. In Assassin’s Creed the graphics are ahead of its time but we focused more on the buildings and looks. Now in Assassins’ Creed 3 we focus more on the character and the background. An example of this is the first protagonist Haytham when he boards a boat. His face is uncovered unlike the previous games and we see how the better graphics affect his face. Also in the background there’s new motion (a sea moving or people passing windows). The long time players will wish to play the new game to see how the graphics have advanced. 

Marketing

From http://www.joe-cockburn-media.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/how-do-franchises-establish-and-develop.html

On 28th September 2012, Ubisoft announced that they were to spend £4million on marketing in anticipation of the release of Assassin's Creed 3. This is the largest spend on the promotion of a product by the developer, in a big push to up intake compared to the losses of the previous game, despite its 9 million sales.
This helps sales figures in an obvious way, the more people who see it across the TV, radio, advertising boards etc, the more people are aware of it, and then they look into it, find a large network of exciting "exclusive reveal" videos on the internet and get excited for the game, and want it when it comes out.

On Youtube, you can find a wide range of videos showing interviews and new features of the game. These helped build up anticipation for the game from fans, without revealing too much. This is a good way of promoting something as it comes at absolutely no cost whatsoever, but is a great way of building up excitement and draw in more people who preorder because they are watching the videos and want the game as a result. The videos have over 1 million hits each. As well as those, there are numerous trailers for different parts of the game, such as the new storyline, the new character "Connor", the new weapons and various others.

In total, across 4 consoles, there are 7 different editions of Assassin's Creed 3. The Standard Edition is available on Xbox 360, PS3, PS Vita and PC. The Limited Edition, which includes various extras which come with the game disc, including a belt buckle and a large embroidered colonial flag, and is available on Xbox 360 and PS3. The Digital Deluxe Edition is available just on PC, but comes with various add-ons from past versions of the game, like favourite missions and a "Best Of" soundtrack. Available on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC- the main 3 consoles the game is available on- are the Special Edition, the Join Or Die Edition, the Freedom Edition and the UbiWorkshop Edition. These each come with their own arrangements of extras, including exclusive lithographs, an encyclopedia and rare prints, among others.

This helps the franchise develop sales figures as collectors and "hardcore gamers" will buy a number of, or at least the most expensive edition. This helps bring in much more money to the frenchise, at little extra cost to them. It also helps the franchise establish itself as it shows the commitment from the developers and designers.

Distribution

 From http://www.bradmatt.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/assassins-creed-iii-research.html

http://www.gem.co.uk/

Assassins Creed III has been distributd across many different platforms including Xbox-360, Playstation 3 and the all new PS Vita. This has enabled the game to be distributed on  a much wider scale which allows customers to get hold of the game very easily. The marketing for the game shows an advertisement of the game and also advertises the fact that it is sold at the Game store.
 

The Game store itself has both a physical store and an online store. On the online store customers can order and even pre-order the game for bonus features. The physical store allows the exact same capabilities in both pre-ordering and buying the game directly.

With Assassins Creed III being a sequel in the popular Assassins Creed franchise, most local game stores and even some supermarkets now sell the game. Aswell as been sold widely throughout stores, The most common distribution for the game is online, not only can big retailers that have physical stores sell the game online, but companies like Amazon and Play.com are distributing the game widely because of their trusted customer base. This allows the game to be distributed on a huge scale for customers and shows how the game is getting to the audience.

When the game is ordered online the customer can either pick the game up from the store that they purchased it from or they can choose to have the game delivered directly to their home which allows the game to be sold to more and more people that can't get out to a physical store

Assassins Creed 3 Trailer

Assasins Creed Brotherhood

It is a multi genre game. This means that it combines several genres and puts them into one game.he genres assassins creed brotherhood has are; sci-fi, platform, beat em up, stealth,strategy, RPG (role playing game) and adventure.

The games is a continuation of Assassins Creed II. The storyline continues where the previous games ended with the same protagonists (Ezio and Desmond). Brotherhood has not been numbered unlike Assassin's Creed II because players, and even developers themselves would have expected a new setting and a new ancestor while this is only the continuation of Ezio's story. The game uses the same engine as ACII (anvil) but the main difference is that the game now has a multiplayer game mode with on line capabilities. The game play in multiplayer mode is similar to the core game play of the series, as players are required to use their assassination and stealth skills. The players must hunt down targets while being hunted themselves.

It is a very immerse game as you follow the story that takes off from ACII. The player has to solve problems, complete missions or just do what they want. The multi genre has a lot of positives and a wide audience.

Here is a review from IGN

 http://uk.ign.com/videos/2010/11/16/assassins-creed-brotherhood-video-review?objectid=57511

Assasins Creed Francise Overview

Assassin's Creed II

Formats

Assassin's Creed II is a historical action-adventure open world stealth video game developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X. The game was released for video game consoles in November 2009, and for Windows in March 2010. It uses the anvil engine that was created by Ubisoft.

Sales Figures

It sold more than 1.6 million copies in its first week, beating expectations set by the company and industry analysts. Sales of the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 game were up by almost a third compared with sales of the original title, released in 2007, over the same time frame. Both games have received critical acclaim for their immersiveness, backed by graphical and audio artistry. Analysts expected sales to be lower because of the tough economic climate and because Assassin's Creed 2 is targeted at the same audience as Activision's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, which was also in the same month. Overall about nine million units have been sold. Despite the success Assassins Creed 2 actually lost money - $54.02 Million


Game Play

Assassin's Creed II takes place in an open world with nonlinear gameplay, allowing the player to roam freely within several regions throughout late fifteenth-century Italy such as Venice, Florence, Forlì, San Gimignano, and the Tuscan countryside. The Animus 2.0, a new version of the machine of the same name present in Assassin's Creed, provides in-game context for changes and additions to several game elements. A database is also available, providing extra historical information about key landmarks, characters and services that the player encounters.  Ezio's headquartersand the surrounding property can be upgraded, drawing income for the player's use. The missions in the game now have an expanded variety, with different structuring. For example, a mission may have the objective to escort someone, but may change to a chase and assassination. Investigation is less explicit, and instead missions may follow people and/or a narrative


Assasins Creed Revelations

From http://jacobsnewmediastudies.blogspot.co.uk/#!/2012/10/assassins-creed-brotherhood-homework.html

Genre- It is a mixed genre game. This means that it combines several genres and puts them into one game. For this game these involve; sci-fi, fantasy, platform, beat em up, stealth, multiplayer, puzzle, strategy, shooting game, slightly RPG and adventure

Development from previous games- Probably the most important development is that for the first time the player can play online multiplayer. This takes the form of various missions where one tries to kill other players without being killed themselves. The hard part though is that you have a certain target and if you kill an innocent then you lose points. Also in the one player game mode the player can actually order other assassins about from the brotherhood. For this they have to find people in trouble, save them and then recruit them into the order. From here you level them up to the rank of assassin via sending them on missions all over Italy. You can also own buildings and claim money from them.

The way the player interacts- Instead of controls for actions the player is given the four buttons that represent parts of the body. This means whenever you want an action to do with that body part you press that button. There are three ways a player can play the game; kill the target silently through stealth then sneak away. Kill the target through stealth then fight your way out. Or my personal favorite walk in and out whilst killing everything that moves. This adds a personal touch to each person you kill, an almost modus operandi.

The Video Game Industry is Changing

Recently new technology has forced changes within the video games industry. Mobile phones, tablets, facebook, apps have all altered not only the way we play games but the way they are produced. This link goes into further detail of the impact this has

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/video-game-industry-continues-shift-122000746.html

This link explains the impact this is having for the producers of the consoles such as the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3

http://beta.fool.com/tdalmoe/2012/06/06/changing-face-video-game-industry/5449/

The increase in portable gaming is clear and it has continued to grow since 2009 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Call Of Duty Black Ops 2

 

Call of Duty: Black Ops II is an upcoming first-person shooter video game, developed by Treyarch and published by Activision to be released on November 13, 2012. Black Ops II is the ninth game in the Call of Duty franchise of video games and a sequel to the 2010 game Call of Duty: Black Ops. Black Ops II is the first game in the Call of Duty franchise to feature future warfare technology and the first to present branching storylines driven by player choice, in which the player's choice affects both the current mission and in turn, the overall course of the story. Known as "Strike Force missions", these branching storylines will appear during the 2025 storyline and will feature permanent death. The success or failure of these missions can have ramifications for the wider campaign storyline. Choosing one of the missions locks out the others unless the player begins a fresh campaign

Zombies will make a return and is the third time for the Zombies mode to appear in a Call of Duty game, and the first time to have its own campaign along with the main story. Treyarch has also confirmed that Zombies will implement the multiplayer engine, allowing for a deeper community experience along with new game modes. It has also been confirmed that the Zombies mode will support 8 player co-op.

In developing Black Ops II, Treyarch introduced several revisions to the gameplay mechanics for online multiplayer that have been a hallmark of the Call of Duty franchise. These include the introduction of "multi-team" games that allow matches to host three or more teams of players, in counternance to the traditional two factions. Treyarch have also unveiled a matchmaking system designed to pair players up based on their skills within the game to ensure that online games are relatively equal in terms of player skill. They also announced what they termed "CODcasting", a form of live streaming that allows users to stream their games directly onto YouTube from their gaming console.

 

Top 5 most important computer games

Space Invaders

Space Invaders first burst onto the scene in 1976 and was a huge success. The inventor, Tomohiro Nishikado, had to create custom hardware to support the game. After the first few months following its release in Japan, the game became very popular.Speciality arcades opened with nothing but Space Invaders cabinets, and by the end of 1978, it had installed over 100,000 machines and grossed over $600 million in Japan alone. It was the best selling video game and highest grossing entertainment product of its time with comparisons made only to star wars, the highest grossing film of the time. It was so popular that there was a coin shortage.

 In 1980, the game was licensed  by Midway for production and use in the United States. The mania wasn’t quite as intense - no coin shortage - but Space Invaders was still a phenomenal success. The same year, it was released on the Atari 2600, making it the first ever home conversion of an arcade game. Several dozen thousands 2600 consoles were then sold only for playing Space Invaders Eventually Space invaders lost its arcade supremacy to give way to games such as pac man, asteroids and centipede but without Space invader it is likely that these games wouldn't exist.

Super Mario Bros

Released at the launch of the original Nintendo Entertainment System, Super Mario is also largely responsible for the NES’ initial success. It was the best-selling game of all time for over two decades. It revived the industry at a time when it was struggling and Mario has gone on to become Nintendo’s flagship character with each new system they release.
Super Mario Bros. popularised the side-scrolling genre of video games and led to many sequels in the series that built upon the same basic premise the game has sold 40.24 million copies, making it the best-selling video game in the Mario series and the second best-selling game in the world.

Almost all of the game's aspects have been praised at one time or another, from its large cast of characters to a diverse set of levels. One of the most-praised aspects of the game is the precise controls. Mario is still going strong today with games such as Mario kart and remakes of the original.

 

The Sims

The Sims is a strategic life-simulation video game developed by Maxis and published by Electronic Arts. Its development was led by game designer Will Wright also known for developing SimCity. It is a simulation of the daily activities of one or more virtual persons in a suburban household near SimCity.The Sims was unlike any other game because there were no enemies to defeat, no game to win, and no high score to achieve. After being launched in 2000 the Sims became the best-selling PC game of all time in 2002 and by February 2005, the game has shipped 16 million copies worldwide.It was developed for use on games consoles in 2003. The Sims is one of the most heavily expanded computer game franchises ever, with a total of seven expansion packs produced each  generally adds new items, characters, and features.

Critics praised it with positive reviews. It has been a success in many ways by attracting casual gamers and female gamers that actually make up almost 60% of players. On May 25, 2007, it was announced that The Sims film rights had been purchased by 20th Century Fox It will be written by Brian Lynch, the writer of Angel: After The Fall. The film will be produced by John Davis, who has worked on films such as Norbit




Wii Sports

Wii Sports came packed with the Nintendo Wii console when released in 2006 and because of that it enjoys the status as being the best-selling video game of all time with over 75 million copies sold. But more importantly, Wii Sports became the greatest social video game, allowing friends and families to compete in sports. Wii Sports has bridged generations becoming the game to have a strong following among senior citizens. Wii Sports has thrived in retirement communities. It also became the game that resulted in the most player injuries due to its physical game play. It totally changed peoples views on gaming with the stereotype of gaming is only for teenage boys being proven wrong when your grandma gets up and beats you in a boxing match (I'll never bounce back)


Need for Speed

The Need for Speed was released in Japan in 1994 first released on the 3DO and ported to other systems, developed by Electronic Arts Canada and published by Electronic Arts. It is the first title released in the Need for Speed series. The premise of the game involves racing in sport cars, including several exotic models and Japanese imports. The game was noted for its realism and audio and video commentaries. Electronic Arts teamed up with automotive magazine Road & Track to match vehicle behaviour, including the mimicking of the sounds made by the vehicles' gear control levers. The game also contained precise vehicle data with spoken commentary, several magazine style images of each car interior and exterior and even short video clips highlighting the vehicles set to music.

It was the first "realistic" driving game which has lead to many more today which include the Forza motor sport series - my personal favourites
 

 Other important games include the call of duty series notably Call of duty 4 because of the online gameplay. Also the Pokemon games, tetris, world of warcraft and pac man