Week in review: Game Developers Conference 2011
3/5/11I've just spent a week in San Francisco, attending GDC (Game Developers Conference) and related events. In case you're wondering why I am at a game conference, the reason is quite clear: PremiumFanPage.
Games and social media
Even if the games itself are language agnostic, their websites are not. A game needs a web and social media presence, no matter if we're talking about a simple iPhone game or a massive triple-A title from EA. With the popularity of Facebook, this is more true now than ever before. Building web and social media presence in multiple languages has been the place where most games fail, but fortunately PremiumFanPage is here to help!
During this week, two new PFP sites were launched, a personal profile page by famed Dr. Vili Lehdonvirta, and a new website for Umbra Software, the leading provider of game optimization middleware.
Umbra Software's booth at the GDC
Guest post in Mashable
A highlight (or, one of the highlights as this has been a terrific week!) for me was becoming a guest author for Mashable when they published my first guest blog on Wednesday. The blog, 10 Ways to Turn Your Local Business Into a Global Success, resulted in lively discussion and has received over 1600 Retweets and it has been shared more than 1000 times in LinkedIn and Facebook. Thanks to the great feedback I might write another post for Mashable in the near future, and I will definitely keep blogging on my own site.
Neil Young and ngmoco
One of the most interesting talks for me during the week has been Neil Young's talk on how he quit EA, founded ngmoco (I didn't know the name stands for Next Generation Mobile Company) and selling it for $403 million USD only 2.5 years later. Neil wanted to point out that while luck has a lot to do with success, there's actually a lot we can do to improve our chances. The most important thing is to take it seriously, go ahead full steam and never look back. Recognize failures early on and change course fast.
We usually spend a great deal of energy worrying about the future and thinking about the past. However, we cannot change the past and the future will be shaped by the things we do at the present time, so we should be fully focused on the present. We can be successful only if we are fully committed to what we do.
Games industry is doing well
I'm happy to report that overall the games industry seems to be doing better than in years. All this talk about gamification and the raise of Facebook and iOS as gaming platforms has clearly spiked interest to games. Even the silicon valley investors, who traditionally don't view game companies as investment, are now investing in game companies.
The only segment that seems to be suffering are the traditional publishers. These dinosaurs have ruled the industry for years, partially by ballooning the budgets to levels where only the biggest publishers can afford to fund or create AAA-titles. All was well until about two years ago their world started to crumble.
You can now create a game for Facebook or mobile with a small team, self-publish it and make a fortune. The sales of PC games have died down years ago, and the console sales are heading lower as well. People play more games now than ever before, but much of the gaming has shifted to the internet and mobile devices, where the big publishers have no control over the distribution channels. One prominent game developer told me the publishers currently have no idea what they will do in the future. Something needs to change in their business model, but nobody seems to know what the future will be like.
Angry Birds Rio posters in San Francisco
Francisco J. Sánchez
The week ended as any great week should - with a bang. I did an investor pitch at the PlugAndPlayTechCenter for their EIR's (Executives in Residence) and received some really good feedback. Following the pitching event I got a chance to meet with Francisco J. Sánchez, the US under secretary for international trade.
I had a chance to bring up the ongoing concern the Finnish startups have with getting visas to come and launch their companies in the US. It's not the responsibility of Mr.
Sánchez's department, but it affects him as one of his goals is to help the US companies build relationships with international companies and increase exports. I was glad to hear he is very much aware of the problem (which concerns other nations and not just Finland) and that his department has stepped out of its typical boundaries to put pressure on the subject. Right now a lot of the hope lies with Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, so the matter is in good hands.
Silicon Valley
As always, a week in San Francisco and the Silicon Valley has been energizing. So many positive things have happened during just one week that I once again find myself wondering why I don't spend more time here.
It now looks like I will be coming back in just a few short weeks. The demand for services like PFP is quite hot in the valley right now as companies struggle to get international. As Mr.
Sánchez pointed out, the US population represents just 5% of the world's total and most of the economical growth happens outside of the country, so the local companies must begin to look abroad if they want to succeed. We are happy to be one of the crucial components to make that happen, but helping to remove the language barrier!
Rait Ojasaar: That's a lot of action for one week Jani! The PFP concept seems very practical and something I've always yearned for. I will surely contact you soon to test it on one of our web businesses that we will launch next month.
3/5/11
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Jani: Thanks Rait, looking forward to checking out your new product!
3/5/11
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