Model employed by Massive Inc Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Model employed by Massive Inc - Essay Example It will also help publishers offset the skyrocketing costs of video game development, which can in turn benefit gamers, keeping game prices affordable and opening the door to free game play, free content, tournaments and other possibilities that add realism and entertainment value to the overall game experience. The gamming industry in Australia stretches decades of years back. Over time and again games industry has earned a reputation for quality in a vast wide world market hungry for the new content. The government on the other hand has been very supportive by realising that digital games create growth and generate jobs for many people including developers, hardware manufacturers, publishers and retailers, it has resorted to developing a large and thriving 'high-tech' sector by funding strategies through providing Sony PlayStation 2 and Xbox Development Kits to local companies that would usually not be able to afford them and grab a bigger share of the market. This has been promulgated funding local game content through Film Victoria's Digital Media Fund. In a nut shell the Australian games industry is made up of over 40 companies employing more developers. 2The amalgamation encompassing local branches of large international publishers, established larger local companies, plus smaller and newer companies that only have a few employees is also a monumental key driver in the Australian game industry since three quarters of these companies are in the business of developing games. A growing number of tertiary institutions that offer Diploma and Degree courses in games development are meant to create a bridge in the technical expertise in the gaming industry by focussing and teaching strictly on the design aspects of games while others take an IT and programming-based approach. Potential Vulnerability. The worst anathema facing games industry, according to trade body the Interactive Entertainment Alliance of Australia (IEAA), is piracy. Which represents 15 of the top game platform holders and publishers, including Electronic Arts, Vivendi, Sony Computer entertainment, Nintendo and recent joinee Nokia Research commissioned by the IEAA in 2002, estimated the cost of piracy at $100million a colossal figure that was growing with the economy. The widespread availability and low cost of CD burners had clearly facilitated the growth of these sources of pirated product, the IEAA claims. The impact of computer markets on the games retail channel varied across Australia, according to retailers contacted by. One publisher that confirmed it would ship unclassified games to Australia is running with Scissors, a small US game publisher whose game Postal was banned in Australia in 1997. Any local publishers did not pick up the sequel, Postal 2, and thus it was not submitted for a rating through t he OFLC. Popular web auction site eBay is another avenue in which buyers can obtain banned games, either domestically or from overseas. And the infiltration of illegal games. Hot spots for the sale of pirated games and mod chipping in Sydney include Liverpool, Campbell town and Flemington, says distributor Tech Pacific's games category manager Nathan Dingle. Description & analysis of the online market in