Yes, I am conducting market research on the "Gaming Industry" and I just wanted to know; What is the offical Name for our Industry, by census and other standards. Gaming/ Video Game Industry is not available as an option. I'm thinking it's going to be "New Media" maybe? Also, for anyone who has even written a Business Plan for a game developer, what are some good sources for Market Reasearch on the industry. The main subjects of interest to me are: 1.)Industry Trend (I found that retail stores are good resources for this) 2.) Current Game Developers (Studios) 3.)Profits of current developers ( local, nationtion and international) 4.) Market Size 5.) Gaming Demographics 6.) Employees/Labor/Equipment costs ( I think I'll find this at: www.census.gov) 7.)Licenses needed for oporation. Thanx -Sage13 [edited by - Sage13 on April 16, 2002 3:22:05 AM]

I''d like to mention that I have found a great resource of many of my questions at:

http://www.idsa.com/index.html

Just incase anyone else is doing this type of research. But a few of my questions still remain.


6.) Employees/Labor/Equipment costs ( I think I''ll find this at: www.census.gov)

7.)Licenses needed for oporation.

I am also still not sure about what our industry is offically named ither.

thanx

-Sage13

Interactive Entertainment, and sometimes it falls under New Media.

There is no "official" name for the industry. It is most commonly refered to as the "games industry" by insiders but like both "interactive entertainment" and "new media" the title does not actually describe the industry as our industy does not encompass all types of game, all forms of interactive entertainment or of new media.

A far more accurate name would be "Game Software Industry" or if you prefer the slightly more open term of "Entertainment Software Industry".

On the issue of costs these depend entirely on what you are producing.

The same applies for licenses. (depending on how you are using the term "licenses").

Dan Marchant
Obscure Productions

As far as equipment goes, I''m just looking for industry average for large, medium, and small developers (seperatly). I know they work with different equipment and hire a staff based on a lot of differnt things, but I need to scope over the total picture to make good assesments for myself. I have found many sources for IR information and also plenty of annual reports for large companies and start-up game studios. That''s really what I was looking for.

Now for the licences, I haven''t gotten there yet. I referring to general business licences that maybe needed for "Game Software Developers" Specifically.

thanx

-Sage13

-Sage13
Sorry but again I can''t answer your question as you are being too vague - it depends on what you are doing.

Costs - there is no industry average because there is no average developer or average product. Equipment costs can vary from $2,000 per head to $50,000 per head depending on what type of product your doing. There are small, medium and large developers; doing small, medium and large projects; with small medium and large budgets - plus shades in between. far too many permutations for people to list here. You need to be specific on what it is you want to do so that we can make a stab at a costing case that will actually apply.

General business licenses - Never heard of any requirement for such a license. Your country may have such a system but you would certainly be the best person to know that.

If you are talking about SPECIFIC licenses such as software or hardware licenses then, once again it depends on what you are doing. Different projects require different software/hardware.

If you can give us some more detailed information on the size and type of project than we can probably offer some more solid advice.

Dan Marchant
Obscure Productions

Ok, I''ll define what our target goal is for the game and the evolution goals of the studio.
Research and Development for a medium sized 2D side scroller with acceptable animation and programming prowess that will be produced in 3 stage episodes. Our main goal during this R&D will be to secure all the resources, people, and information nessessary to build the "Arc Drive Engine" which will serve as the basis for the games episodes further down the line.
We will need (from our current estimates) an additional animator, programmer, 3 additional computers (fairly decked), seperate office space, 3 more versions of Photoshop 6.0, MSVC++, and a few more software componants. The time we are going to take in this R&D will be 6 months to 18 months (read below)
These are only preliminary estimates of what we *think* we will need. Our marjor focus is to get a demo within the next few years, (why so long?), Becasue I know how long a company/project takes to develope a clear consise plan, and that''s all we are doing for now is planning. We won''t jump into making huge games, we will spend several years evolving our systems and technology from the ground up, but we have long term plans to look after as well, so my study and research of other small-medium sized companies, I belive, will help in assesing the scope of the resources that are going to be needed between now and then ( based on the marketing research that the industry will grow an estimated 30% during that time period).
More expereinced individuals will be managing the projects that we undertake as a small time develoer(in the future), but, since we have the resources and a love for the art we want to look in the direction of creating an inhouse game developer center to incubate and advance our own technology in our current company until that time is right.

I hope that is a bit more detailed, if not, what information exactly should I cover to get a good understanding of our project and what we are trying to accomplish?

quote: Original post by Obscure

If you are talking about SPECIFIC licenses such as software or hardware licenses then, once again it depends on what you are doing. Different projects require different software/hardware.

Could you explain a little about the specific licenses you mentioned here ( or do you mean IP licenses or Hardware manufacture licences?)

Thanx

-Sage13