Two Media Secotrs Intoduction

By Jonathan Petts

In this blog post we are going to learn about many different aspects of two very similar industries:
Identify the media sectors that make up the media industry’s:
Within the media industry there are many types of sectors:
Tv & Radio
Film
Animation
Interactive Media
Computer games
Publishing
Press
Photo-imaging
Advertising & marketing

I will be focusing on Animation and Computer Games.

Computer games sectors:
Developer (develops and creates the game)
Publisher (funds and produces the game Ie advertising and production)

Animation sectors:
Freelance (self employed)
Studios (employ a lot of people to produce animations for tv and film)
Client (wants the animation made for their film)

Organisational structure and products of these industries:

The game industry has three main companies that make up the production of the games industry, Sony( playstation) Microsoft (xbox) Nintendo (wii, ds,) Although they do no directly make games, their platforms run the games that are produced and these companies fight for “exclusive” games to bring people to their console, that only there console can run. These companies do fun and own their own studios that do produce games and have ties with other games studios that produce games, I will focus on two video games makers and go in depth about how they work and function.

Computer Games:
Two of the most well-known computer games developers in the UK:
Criterion Games

Media Molecule

Both these companies have made hugely popular gamed for multiple consoles, and are both based in Guildford UK.

I will start of by talking About media molecule:
Media Molecule” was founded by a small troupe of games industry veterans, who were nurtured under the umbrella of Peter Molyneux’s Lionhead Studios.”
http://www.mediamolecule.com/about/history/ 24/05/11

Lion head studios where formed in 1997 by Peter Molyneux, which is now owned by Microsoft Game studios as of 2006. Which actually started as a break away from bullfrog studios which was also founded by Peter.

So MM(UK) is owned by Lionhead(UK) which is owned by Microsoft(USA) so this is a multinational, Privatly owned company who works with Sony Computer Games(Japan) to produce game only for the Sony console system, despite technically being under the umbrellas of rival Microsoft. They provide games for the public most famously Little big Planet 1 and 2 for the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation portable systems and their debut game Rag Doll Kung Fu. They have made 4 games exclusively for Sony to date.
They also have a series of merchandise for the game, the have made famous characters from the game into toys such as : The toy character below.

They have 47 employees, which managed to make and produce an award winning title. These roles consist of Programmers, artists, product managers and other roles, to make sure the game is made and on time. As in their description the company is comprised of game making veterans, who collaborated in 2006.

The organisational structure for this company has been descibred to be like this :
Chapter 1: The Pitch(idea for the game)
Chapter 2: We needed a team(people to make it )
Chapter 3: Building the game (making the game)
Chapter 4: Taking Shape(developing the game even more)
Chapter 5: Ship it!(make it)

They have employees from all around the UK and the world, some from other UK based companies some from Japan and even the USA.

The company gets its funding and money from the games the actually make and the revenue this makes, they also got money from Sony to make sure it was exclusive game for the PlayStation and to fund the development such as the workers and the equipment. This game can be purchased instore and online or it is also available for online download via the online PlayStation store.

Competitors, in terms of competition MM conciders itself to break away from the crowd and make new innovative games, but in many ways it has to compete with the rest of thr game industry to appeal to all ages on the Playstation console to make money and even a second game. These competitors on the Playstation 3 system could be UK Based criterion games, Infinity ward who make the very popular call of duty series and EA who make a variety of sport and action games.

Trends:
Currently in the game industry the most popular selling games are war and fighting games such as call of duty which topped $3 billion this year.

Competition is also heating up which is making prices for the developers needing to be cheaper to get the work.

Virtual items are hugely popular – certain games such as Playstation home or Life enable users to purchase in game items for their character or online home, this has made a vast amount of money of the last four years with facebooks farm ville making $60 million in one year.

Online is the future, 10 years ago online pc users could play online now in this modern day and age users from all around the world can connect their consoles over the internet and play against or with a friend or strangers. Game are now being geared towards the online section with somes games being online only as people like the competition of beating other players from all around the world.

http://venturebeat.com/2009/05/15/the-top-12-trends-of-the-video-game-industry/ 24/5/11


Criterion Games:

Criterion games which was founded in 1993, and is currently based in Guildford,surrey.

The Wikipedia states this about the company
“ It was set up by David Lau-Kee and Adam Billyard within Canon's European Research Lab. Criterion Software was a technology company specialising in the development of the RenderWare family of middleware technology, including graphics, AI, audio and physics components. Originally Criterion Games was a division within Criterion Software, set up to develop games.RenderWare is used in such games as Grand Theft Auto III, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, which are developed by Rockstar Games, and the successful Burnout series, developed in house by Criterion Games.”

It was purchased from Criterion Software in 2004 for $40 million by EA Games a very big game developer and publisher. It currently has 500 full time workers at its Surrey based studios inside an EA building.
This means that Criterion games is privately owned, and is a part of a multinational company as EA has branches all over the world from Canada to Asia. They also work in very close cooperation with this studios, such as the USA based Need for speed team who develop racing games, EA teamed both the studios to make a mix of both the game’s most famous aspects in 2010. A definition for the type of company that it is : A subsidiary, in business matters, is an entity that is controlled by a separate higher entity. The controlled entity is called a company, corporation, or limited liability company; and in some cases can be a government or state-owned enterprise, and the controlling entity is called its parent (or the parent company).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subsidiary 25/5/11

The products that his company produces games for the general public, there is currently no other merchandise but the game is famous for produce DLC (downloadable content) which is an add-on to the game, this can add new maps, new cars, new anything to the game which users must pay for to get. EA do sell merchandise but Criterion games to not see any of this money.


Criterion Games, gets it funding and makes money through EA. EA will help to fun the next game such as Need for speed Hot Pursuit where they teamed up two studios to produce one game, they would of funded them for materials and flights to go to locations and get data, advertising would have also helped from publicising the game to make people want to buy it, this consisted of TV and billboards.
In terms of the market standings Criterion games are very well known for their Burnout Series which sold very well. They are not as big as US based companies like Infinity Ward which made 3 billion dollars from the CoD series, but they are a very influential company and make a lot of money form their games and have a very loyal and devote community.
In terms of competitors:
“Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit debuted at number three on the UK All Format Gaming Chart on its first week of release, beaten by Activision’s Call of Duty: Black Ops and Ubisoft’s Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood. The second week was it dropped down to number six. However, the fourth week, Hot Pursuit sales jumped 48 percent, which boosted the game from seventh to third”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Need_for_Speed:_Hot_Pursuit_(2010_video_game) 25/5/11

Showing the game didn’t have any direct racing competitors but it had to content with other hugely popular game franchises Call of Duty and Assassins Creed. So they would need to compete just to attract the reader as no other racing games where released during this period.


Animation:

Like animation companies in the United States and other countries around the world, each animation company in England is unique. Some are motion picture studios that focus soley on animation production, but some of these also produce animated web graphics, commercials, short films, and webisodes. Other animation studios offer animation plus post-production services and website development.
There are many UK based Animation studios, that do all types of animation even production and film companies have branches of animation.

The first animation company I am going to talk about is the London based animation studios called Tadem which was formed by two directors, Daniel Greaves and Nigel Pay, who were later joined by producer Mike Bell.
They are owned privately by Daniel and Nigel provide a public service but is mainly provided for companies such as tesco’s , William hill and other big UK based companies providing short animations for TV and film.

The have produced a number of bafta award winning productions and have made a lot of viral videos such as the famous Simons Cat which can be found on youtube. They have currently won two academy awards and 2 BAFTA’s.

Some of their most well-known work was the thunderbirds Specsavers advert, and multiple nokia and butter adverts and coco pops adverts.

They get their funding through their paid jobs, so they will be commissioned by the client ot produce the animations then once they are complete they will get paid, this money can be put towards new equipment and pay the employees, the directors have put money into the company as well from the start for software and computers enabling them to create the animations.

In terms of competitors for this company it can be global, because these companies could out soruce to America and have these animations made as they do not have to be in direct contact, as the files can be sent over the internet and ca be verified, so they had to compete with the competition with reputation, such as the BAFTA’s and other awards make the noticed and known that they produce very good products. They also produce showreels a short video of all their best work to show off to clients who come and look at their website.

Global trends:
Here is a list of some of the current factors and trends in the animation industry:

The rapid advancement of computer technology has made computer animation available to the masses.

- The major animation markets include the United States, Canada, Japan, France, Britain, Korea and Germany.

- The emerging animation countries are China and India.

- The outsourced computer animation production market is increasingly being tapped by North American film and television program producers.

- The major factors behind outsourcing of animation content to the Asia/Pacific region are the availability lower labor rates.

- The bulk of the outsourcing happens for 2D animation content with some amount of 3D content.
http://callcenterinfo.tmcnet.com/news/2010/04/22/4744678.htm 25-5-11

Also in the past animations was considered for small children up the age of 9. But now due to the progression of animation with technology this ager range as been raised ot being most popular with teenagers and young adults. Although there is now a huge variety of animation based films around form Avatar to Toy Story to War films with explosions. This industry is multi sector form adverts to Film and TV and comes in all shapes and sizes for whole animated films to animated explosions and gun shots to 30 seconds YouTube clips. This industry is very accessible to anyone and anyone can make an animation with the right tools.
The demand for animated entertainment has expanded with the increase in broadcasting hours by cable and satellite TV along with the growing popularity of the Internet. TV stations have been producing animation series for teenagers, adults and the whole family. Animation series like The Simpsons and King of the Hill have been successfully aired on TV. The major markets include the United States, Canada, Japan, France, Britain and Germany. Licensing operations for T-shirts, caps and other items have also been a major source of revenue for animation companies.







The next animation company I will talk about is Blue Zoo.

The company’s website says they are “a creative led independent animation production company based in the heart of London. We combine the skill, experience and resources of a large studio, with the passion, ambition and friendliness of a small studio, enabling us to take on projects of all sizes to the highest quality.”
Their structure is very well suited to how they work with clients asking to produce an advert the the whole design process commences and each employee has their own task to complete it is a small team of around 17 people who work very hard to make these animations.
The have provided animations for BBC, ITV, BSkyB, Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, Disney, AMV BBDO, Leo Burnett London, Kellogs, Barclays and Lego. For TV, film and Web.
They have won multiple BAFTA’sand are a Privately owned animation company that provide a public services to any client who wishes to use their services. They mainly provide animations for UK based companies but recently have been noticed by companies from the USA and Asia. Meaning more notoriety and ultimately more funding.

This brings me onto how they fund all their projects. It is through payment and the directors. Once they get paid this will go towards wages and reinvestment, and the directors have obviously put money in to the company at the beginning. In the market they are at the top they produce for a lot of very big companies, but they are not on the scale of film animation like avatar they are mainly for TV and Web as they produce a lot of TV shows and adverts.
Their products are very diverse, they don’t choose one style to animate for, they produce for a lot of different companies with different styles and tastes which is very unique as they can fit to the customer’s needs which is very important for the business showing you can adapt to any situation not just do one type of animation.