Sterotyped characters in TV drama

Tom Branson
Tom Branson is a character from Downton abbey, he is an Irish man who is stereotyped through the show. for instance when his brother comes to visit him they start to drink, when they are then drunk they are stereotyped as aggressive. he is also portrayed as working class and coming from a poorer background.

Dev- coronation street
Dev is of Indian background, he is stereotyped by owning a corner shop in the programme. He is also seen as arrogant and thinks alot of himself.

The Masood family
they are an Indian family from Easterners, they are stereotyped throughout this soap. for instance they own a Indian restaurant in the programme, called the Argee Bhajee. they are also portrayed as very religious and are very serious about their religion, this is shown when they disown their son due to him being a homosexual.

Audience localisation Essay

Audience localisation has brought out the debate whether a game developer should target an audience on a international level or on a localised level. a national audience being whole countries with them only really changing the language and localised being taking social issues into account before they are released into that specific country. i believe that developing a game for a localised audience would be a lot better than targeting on a national scale as it means that a lot of controversy will be avoided as they have taken the social issues into account that would have caused them problems, for example if a game was released in America that involved a plane crashing into a building it would not be very popular, therefore by targeting on a localised scale they will make a larger profit and have less problems surrounding the game on release.

When a new game is released it has to take in to account the social issues that the game may cause, to prevent these issues occurring they have to focus on the audience and were the game is being introduced. for example the game 'call of duty world at war' involved the Nazi party being main part of the game with a part of the game being Nazi zombies, this therefore resulted in this part of the game being banned from all copies in Germany. another example being that in the PC version of the game wolfenstein was withdrawn from circulation in Germany in 1994. this is due to the Nazi swastika being a large part of the game, with the Nazi anthem being the background music also. this was banned due to the social issues that the game may cause due to these offencive emblems. Another example is that in china all consoles are banned as they are thought to corrupt the minds of the youth. they have been banned in china since 2000, this is ironic as china are the largest manufacturer of games consoles such the xbox 360, PS3 and wii and they are not sold in china itself, whereas the government have allowed consoles that have games built in to be sold, as they are seen as not bad. even though game consoles are banned, online and mobile device gaming is permitted. Although Sony have found a way around this console ban and made a more =basic version of the PlayStation 3, this has been allowed into china and will potentially increase Sony's profits as they are the only platform holder allowed to sell in china. localisation can also create a lag time between release dates as if the game is being released nationally they may have to spend longer on a certain nationality, as of the in game content such as final fantasy VII which had a lag time of 7 months between its release in japan and in America.

games marketing also has to change if localisation has to happen, as such things like the Nazi swastika, this is illegal in Germany and is not allowed under any circumstance. this means that games such as call of duty world at war and wolfenstein posters will have to be edited so that they did not show this offensive emblem, that would cause social outrage to occur. game localisation also means that marketing has to be very specific to the certain nationality, for instance they may have to follow a certain lifestyle when creating game adverts or trailers. for example they may put different celebrities in trailers so they relate more to that country.

in conclusion i still stand with audience localisation as even though it may take longer it means that the audience will not be offended by the game and it will therefore attract a larger audience as it has been specifically designed for them. I also believe that it is needed in the sense of the Internet and digital download as anyone can download the game but without localisation and adaptations such as language they will not be able to play the game properly, so localisation is needed foe digital download to take place. I believe that in today's climate this is needed as there are many social issues in separate countries and if they aren't assessed properly they can cause huge social problems, so targeting on a local level is better than targeting a national level as it avoids social problems and it may bring in more profit due to this.

Distributors

Distribution in the games market

The distributors for GTAV will be Take-two interactive, this will be good as it is using vertical integration meaning thay will get all profit from the game sales, also as they own all aspects of the games development they will not have to pay other distributors etc which will cut the cost. Skylanders giants will be distributed by XPEC entertainment, they are a video games developer and publisher based in taiwan. they have distributed other games such as Hello kitty roller rescue. Going from the large well known established franchise of GTA, angry birds has been distributed on a smaller scale, they were originally distributed by chillingo. this is not using vertical integration as rovio are using a different distributer, this will therefore result in them not making as much of a profit.

GTA and Call of duty

In an interview  at the 2012 technology conference take two boss said that if rockstar released a game every year like call of duty it would not do very well in sales. he said that if they did the audience may fall out with the franchise. this may be true as a game such as GTA is a wildly anticipated game that builds up tension over the years, this keeps the game popular as they are not making GTA predictable which keeps people interested and when it comes to release more people will buy the game as they have been drip fed for years and the excitement and anticipation has built up. also games such as COD are very predictable and while GTA are  not releasing a yearly game activision are carrying on the game which reduces its popularity, this is caused by people not feeling this excitement about the game which will cause people to maybe put off buying the game. they have compared GTA sales numbers with COD numbers and have stated that they sold 125 units with GTA IV and that with each GTA this number grows. whereas with COD the sales number's from COD black ops 2 were not as high as its predecessor modern warfare 3 this therefore proving his sales tactics as it showing how people are falling out of love with the franchise.

UGC in the games market

User generated content, UGC is content created within the game that has been made by the audience/consumers rather than the game developers themselves. an example of this in the game industry is little big planet, this is because when playing LBP you create levels yourself, which can then be played by other players.
UGC can have some negative effects on the game industry as it may leave things such as DLC pointless as they will not be bought due to the amount of UGC that has been development meaning that people will not feel the need to purchase the dlc as they have everything they want from creating it themselves. also it may cause games such as call of duty that releases a game every year to become less popular as they don't follow this creative side which allows the player to get what they want from the game and not what is handed to them which cannot be changed. However this can have some positive impacts as it prolongs the games life as it makes it more popular also if a popular mod is created that requires the game to play it people may buy the game to play it therefore generating a bigger profit over time.

PEGI-Age Ratings

PEGI, Pan European game information, is a European game content rating system. It was produced to give European video game consumers information about whether the game is suitable for the age of the user, they do this by putting different age logos on different boxes. It was developed by the Interactive Software Federation of Europe (ISFE) and came into use in April 2003. the PEGI system is now used in more then thirty countries and is based on a code of conduct. The PEGI system has 5 seperate age categories and 8 content discriptors that show if the game is suitable for a certain age, this is affevted by the in game content. these identify the age that the game is aimed at, they have been colour coded so they are easier to see and understand, this was introduced after 2009. the colours may represent green from friendly, orange representing getting more violent and red representing danger and theres alot of violence. As of December 2011, PEGI has rated more than 18,000 games, 50% of the games were rated 3, 10% were rated 7, 24% were rated 12, 12% were rated 16 and only 4% were 18.



Prior to pegi the majority of game ratings were made by the BBFC the british board of film classification. buit due to pegi now becoming legally enforced they do not have much influence over the age ratings for games in the present day.

For the developers of todays games this has had some negative impacts, for instrance it has resulted in the game developer not being allowed to put as much of something in to a agme that they wish such as violence being toned down. this is due to the game having to be able to fit into a certain category so it can fit clearly into a rating category. this may also have effects on their profit as it may cause peoploe to put off buying the game as it may not feel the same, such as if it was part of a series such as GTA. the publishers will also face problems such as because the game is now only permitable to a certain age group it means that the consumer cannot go and buy a game if they are to young, which may result in them not buying the game, also because people who are aged around 12/13 do not have a presentable form of identification they will be sold the game from what the person at5 the checkout thinks they look like and this may prevent the right aged person from buying a a game which can have a fine of £5,000, this sort of fine will put the retailer under alot of prerssure and may result in many consumers being refused when buying a game.

The PEGI system does have some problems for instanse there is nothing stopping the parent of the child from purchasing the game for them, this therefore meaning that the system is easily avoidable by the consumer. also with the introduction of digital download there is nothing stopping them from purchasing the game online which requires no form of ID. these are the problems that PEGI have to overcome.

Guild Wars 2

Guild wars 2 is a fantasy game that involves you exploring the world of tyria. when you start you pick one of the characters out of a combination of five races and eight professions, the five races are the humans and charr, the asura and norn, and the sylvari, a race exclusive to Guild Wars 2. The professions, three of them are new to guild wars 2 and did not appear in Guild Wars, are divided into Armour classes: "scholars" with light Armour, "adventurers" with medium Armour, and "soldiers" with heavy Armour.

Guild wars 2 is sold in 3 different packages:

1. £49.99 for just the game
2. £64.99 for the digital deluxe edition, this includes the game and some in game add ons
3. £129.99 for the collector edition, this includes the game, in game add ons, a collector figures of in game characters, making of guild wars booklet and a few other things

The developers behind the Guild wars series are ArenaNet, this is a video game developer  founded in 2000 by Mike O'Brien, Patrick Wyatt and Jeff Strain and located in Bellevue, Washington. the publisher of Guild wars is NCsoft, a South Korea video game development they have produced games such as Lineage, City of Heroes, WildStar, Guild Wars and Aion.

The main plot of guild wars 2 is to the members of the disbanded Destiny's Edge, a multi-racial adventuring guild whose members' struggles and eventual reunion,whose combined strength is needed to effectively combat Zhaitan, the undead Elder Dragon.

Guild wars 2 is different from console games as the decisions that you make in game decide which path you follow during the story whereas on console games you follow a set story and you cannot change how that story plays out and how it ends. this is similar to console games as this does not require a membership fee to play online similar to console mmorpg's such as borderlands.

 

Guild wars 2 has a main website, the guilds wars 2 forum, this includes info on the in game game play, prices and much more such as a a news board that shows all new events or add ons that are being released.

 

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/community/community-news/

 

 

GTA V trailer analysis

rockstar released the second GTA V trailer on 14/11/12 this trailer involves many different pieces of information about the game and the characters that are involved in the game. Before the trailer even begins there is a standard age warning that shows that this trailer is only allowed to be viewed by people aged 18+. this also warns how the trailer will contain violenc and bad language which is typical for GTA games.
as the first part of the trailer begins it uses an establishing shot of the GTA world of los santos, they have also made it so you cannot see way off into the distance, they have done this to show the sheer size of the GTA world by showing that you cannot see all the way across the world. this would not be in the actual game as the graphics would be able to handle this, so it is purely to show the size of the city of los santos.
throughout the trailer they use the song Skeleton by Stevie wonder this is used heavily during the first frames but is then is used as a sort of background music during the frames which involve the character speaking, this song involves the words 'skeletons in your closet' this meaning that there may be a history of the characters that is not so pleasant. the trailer then switches to a low angle shot of a Mercedes, this showing wealth and fortune which may represent rockstar itself. they have used this cinematic type shot in this part as it gives a sense of luxury and realism as the car is seen as desirable. we are then introduced to our first protagonist. he is shown to be a man of luxury and comfort, but they also show two women fighting in his house which shows that his family maybe having problems.
we are then introduced to our second protagonist, this character is a complete binary opposite to the first as he is shown  in the poorer regions of los santos, he is also shown as violent as the entire frame is full of drunk people and fights. he is then shown throwing a Molotov cocktail into a house which is then shown blowing up as the character walks away. this showing the chaos that is involved in all GTA games. there is then a voice over from the character that then leads to more of a press filming of the character which makes the character seem less like a fictional character and more like a real person.
the third character is presented when he is asking were somebody is this may fit in with the violent side of GTA as he may be looking for them to beat them up, he is also shown to have family problems when he is shown having an argument with his possible wife.
we then see the first character again in which he is told that his son is a good kid, it then cuts to a clip of his son dangling from the barrel of a tank going along the road. this shows the chaos surrounding GTA as a whole as it is full of these crazy things that would never happen in the real world, it also shows the humerus side to GTA as it is showing what his family think hes like and what he is really like, which may create a more realistic atmosphere as teenagers will act different around their parents rather than when they are with their friends etc.
the trailer goes on to show possible in game missions as it shows a bank robbery which may be part of the story. it also goes on to show the crazy things included in GTA as it shows one of the characters driving a jeep out of a plane then jumping out of it, this showing the dangerous and action packed atmosphere created in GTA games.
it then shows the three characters together shaking hands which may show that they may have only just met. they are then showing the phrase see no evil speak no evil hear no evil. this showing a philosophical element to GTA. it then cuts to the end GTA V emblem with the release date of spring 2013.

GTA V so far

Grand theft auto 5 (GTA V) is the newest addition to the Grand theft auto series. It has been developed by Rockstar North and is published by Rockstar Games. The first GTA game in the series was published in 1997, this was the original Grand theft auto. The first GTA game is a lot different to GTA V as it did not have a third person view point it was a birds eye view, but the same atmosphere has been carried through the series even though the game play may have changed. GTA V is one of the most anticipated games of 2012, as the audience we have been drip fed pieces of information regarding the release and game play involved in the game itself. The information that they have released may be small but alot can be taken from it, this is a tactic by Rockstar to make the game build up a hype that will linger until the game is finally released in April/May 2012.
Grand theft auto is a third person shooter that involves an atmosphere of gang warfare and the life of criminals. It is a free roam game that involves a main story line as well as small side missions that are irrelevant to the main story line. This GTA is said to be the largest of them all with the world being the size of GTA IV, GTA San Andreas and red dead redemption worlds combined. GTA V is played in the fictional city of los Santos in the state of San Andreas, which is based on the American city of los Angeles in south California.
From announcments made by rockstar we have found out small parts of the in game features such as vehicles and the characters that you play as. The single player has changed from other GTA games as you can now play as three separate characters that have entwined story lines which you can switch between, these will all contribute to the main story line and play differnet roles. These characters are Michael, Trevor and Franklin, they have also added the feature that when you are playing as one of the characters the others dont just freeze they carry on normally as if they a civillians, they have also made it so they take part in activities such as yoga and tennis to fill the time. They have also added new vehicles and will have a larger variety than any other, this will include; BMXs, mountain bikes, road bikes, dirt bikes, huge variety of cars and trucks, helicopters, planes, All TerrainVehicles (eg quad bikes), Jet Skis and Fighter jets.
Rockstar have also brought out a cinematic like trailer. This trailer gives us little clues on were the game is set and what the game involves and the story line.cross media convergence is used here as it uses a cinema/film like trailer to promote a game. they have done this to appeal to more people who aren't necessarily into games and by doing this it shows them that GTA is not like a normal game and that it has a sum what film type feel to it. cross media convergence is used alot in the GTA series as the game is not meant to be a normal game it is meant to shop a real life aspect that relates to the real world. also they have produced merchandise for other games in the GTA series such as with GTA IV they have released merchandise such as t-shirts posters and much more, this will mean alot more publicity and advertisment will come out as people will use these products and which will promote the game to even more people.
Rockstar have also released some screanshots of cinematic versions of ingame events, such as they relleased a picture of a man riding a jet ski while holding a gun. this small screen shot that does not give much away to the first glanse can have deep in depth meaning to them that show the setting, story line, weapon types in game and many more. this creates a feeling of excitmient as people can find out so much more about the game that they havent been allowed to know easily, so they could potentially find something out that they are not meant to.
at the moment shops and other companies that will distribute GTA V will be the usual places such as amazon, game, blockbusters etc. from amazon GTA V will cost £39.99, this is quite a cheap price for the anticipation that the game is being sold for, also this may be a cheap price as they have kept many secrets about the game that they will not release until the game actualy hits the shelves. games such as the new Call of duty black ops 2 are sold for a price of £47.99 in blockbusters and the yrelease many secrets about the game months before release so people basically know the game inside out and it will not be as anticipated whereas people will be pulling their hair out to get a hold of the new grand theft auto as they have only seen very small snipits of the game and the only way to find out what is in the game is to buy it, so they could sell it for more as they will most definately get a larger amount of sales and have an ever increasing profit. call of duty could be sold less than GTA aswell because they have events in which the public can play the game before release whereas GTA do nothing like this.
in conclusion i think GTA will be the biggest selling game of 2013 as it has alot of patriotic and devoted fans that will pay anything for it. It is a good tactic by Rockstar to sell it for cheaper as it means more people can afford it therefore resulting in an increase in sales numbers.

Symbiosis - Mountain dew

This mountain dew stand is a perfect example of symbiosis as they are promoting the same game but with different formats such as this mountain dew stand which is promoting halo 4.
Also from this i can see that they have based the colour of the drink to look like something from halo, in game, this makes you feel like it is more to do with the actual game than what it seems. also by linking it to an energy drink would link more to a video game as they are exciting, whereas if it was advertised on washing up liquid it would not have the same effect.

Top 20 Games Analysis

from the top 20 list of games at the moment i can see that it is the typical games such as Fifa and WWE are at the top, this is expected from games such as these, as they are released every year and have a huge audience that are expecting what the game will be like and as they are already fans they will want to buy it.  games such asFifa are alsofirst party games   which means it is directly owned by the developer, this may make it more popular as it is available to more people as it has the potential to be published on all consoles. 

Also from this chart i can see that new IP such as dishonoured are not as popular as it is 10th in the chart, this may be because people do not know what this game is like so people may refrain from buying it as it may be a waste of money. Where as established franchise such as EA are expected to be good so they will be more popular.all of the top games apart from dishonoured are established franchises this therefore showing that established franchises are more likely to sell, but new IPs that get through have the potential to be successful as dishonoured is 10th which shows that it is still quite popular.

From the list there is  a PC game football manager that has come third this is showing that sport games are popular on console a PC. Also games that are published by Activision are games aimed at children, this therefore showing that in today's market games for children are becoming more popular.
from the chart you can also see that FIFA 13 is still available on the playstation 2, this is because of countries such as brazil which is a bit behind  in the gaming world. This is showing that EA are generating a larger audience as they are still appealing to the people who have not caught up to the more modern consoles.

GTA 4/5 Conglomerate map

Skylanders conglomerate map

Farmville 2

FarmVille 2

Farmville 2 was announced on6 June 2012, it is said to be more 3D and that new ways of playing the game have been added such as items that have been farmed in game can be used to create other items. this in turn creates a more realistic farming experience.

how is it marketed?

farmville is unlike any AAA games as it is not advertised on the television or in magazines etc. it is advertised through the social network sites such as facebook, it may be advertised on your facebook homepage. To advertise farmville 2 to the people who are interested zynga look at the persons history of games like farmville and they then advertise it on the persons homepage. or they advertise it on the app centre on facebook.they also advertise farmville through other zynga games with adverts by the side or on it may pop up with an option to download farmville 2 as the game is loading.

zynga- how do they make money?

Zyga uses 2 business models, using credit card payments or partner business. firstly they make money through these free games using credit card payments as there are parts of the game that if you want them you have to pay. also they have points in game that you have to pay for so you can buy items in game. or you can buy game credits directly from Zynga for example it would cost $5.00 for 21 points. also in 2012 they started selling prepaid cards with game points on in 12,800 stores across America.

They can also use advertising sponsorship which involves some games having advertisement for films etc. they have partnered up with Hasbro that is based on zynga properties and brands. they have also joined with facebook and are now running facebook advertisement and sponsored stories. they have also decided to start a new platform of social gaming which has published other developers to the new platform.

Skylanders Giants

Skylanders giants was developed by toys for bob and was published by activision. It is the second in the series, the first being skylanders spyros adventure.

 Skylanders giants is a game for console which is aimed at the younger audience. it involves you playing out the game but instead of the game giving you everything you have to buy the characters for certain parts, for example if you have to climb something that's to tall you have to buy another character to be able to do that part.

This game is unique as it is the only game out there were you have to buy the characters separately. As you have to buy a figure of the character which you put on a pedestal, called "the portal of power", which then downloads into the game. it is also unique as it has made a link between the physical toy and the in game character.

 From amazon it costs £52.47 for the starter pack, this contains 3 characters from the game the portal and the actual game. you can also buy characters separate which cost in the region of £17.00. you can also buy other merchandise that is linked to the game such as strategy guides and stickers of the characters.

this game is an example of symbiosis as it involves the toy which can be used separate from the game as well as in the game. also other companies have created merchandise such as toys and trading cards.

Synergy and sybiosis

Synergy:
This is the  production of a product by a group of different developers that could not be made independently. Regarding video games this may mean two or more sections of the same organisation working on one final idea that could not be possible if worked on alone.

Symbiosis:
This is when a group of companies use the same idea to promote it in different ways for example McDonald's bring out toys from films which will advertise the film. The original developer of the game takes a small profit from this.

An example in the game industry is angry birds which was originally created by rovio has allowed other companies to use there idea to create merchandise, such as plush toys which promote the angry bird game.

Rockstar Studios

Rockstar Japan:

Became part of rockstar in 2005 and was known as the Japanese localisation headquarters of Rockstar Games. It has worked in conjuction with capcom. 

Rocklstar leeds:

Became part of rockstar in 2004. they were previously called mobius entertainment amd they are based in lower wortley, leeds, England. they have sreated games such as Grand theft auto: liberty city and chinatown wars, max payne. Recently they have worked on L.A. Noire.

Rockstar north:

they became part of rockstar in 2002. It is located in edinburough, scotland and was previously called DMA Designs before rockstar took over.they are well known for thetre Grand theft auto series which was the best selling series of 6th generation consoles.

Reality is Broken

 

1.  Globally, the online gamer communityincluding console, PC and mobile phone gamingcounts more than4 million gamers in the middle east, 10 million in Russia,105 million in India, 10 million in Vietnam, 10 million in Mexico, 13 million in Central and south america, 15 million in Australia, 17 million in South Korea, 100 million in Europe and 200 million in China.
2. A typical gamer plays for justan hour or two a day, there are now more than 6 million people in China who spend at least 20 hours a week gaming which is the equivalent of a part time job.
3. We have turned digital games for our computers, for our mobile phones and for our home entertainment systems into what is expected to be a $68 billion industryannually by the year 2012.
4. The scientific journal cyberpsychology, behaviour and social netwotking reported that in 2009 61% of surveyed CEO's, CFO's and other senior executives say they take daily game breaks at work.
5. Some recent relevant statistics from entertainment software associations annual study of game players - the largest and most widely respected market research report of is kind says: 69% of all heads of households play computer and video game, 97% of youths play video games, 40% of all gamers are women and one out of four gamers is the age of 50.

Indie games: Minecraft

Independent games: Minecraft

Independent video games also known as indie game are video games created by individuals or small teams of game designers that are without larger publisher support. Indie games are often innovative and creative and mainly depend on digital distribution. Indie gaming has seen a rise in popularity in the last few years, this mainly due to new online distribution methods and digital download. Depending on the complexity and size of the project. These games may take years to be built from the ground up or if they are quite simple they can be completed in a matter of days or even hours.

Minecraft is an example of an indie game. Minecraft is an independent video game originally created by Swedish programmer Markus Persson also known as NOTCH and as now developed by his company, Mojang. In 2011, Jens Bergensten, also known by his pseudonym Jeb, took full creative control over Minecraft.

Minecraft is a game that involves using a variety of different blocks to create structures. Minecraft was originally a PC game which is sold for around £15.00. It has recently been made available due to digital download on the Xbox 360; it is sold for 1600 Microsoft points which are around £17.00 in money. There are also other indie games such as angry birds created by Rovio which sells for £0.79 as an ios app on android and smart phone.

The Hot coffee mod

The Hot Coffee Mod

1) the hot coffee mod was when a modder called Patrick windenborg (38 years old) from the Netherlands messed with the coding of San Andreas. It released a patch that involved a mini game that included you being able to enter your girlfriends house, which was not in the original game, and engage in either fully clothed or nude sexual intercourse. It also gave you full control in the way your character performed the mini game. at first this was meant to be in the actual game but at the last second it was taken out but it was not taken out completely is was just hidden in the coding so it was the fact that it was not removed completely that allowed patrick access to the hot coffee mod.

2) the hot coffee mod changed the age rating was originally rated Mature (M) to 18+ but in 2005 rockstar released a "clean" version of the game with the hot coffee codes removed and those scenes removed, which allowed the game to be marketed as mature 17+.  (Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas 1.01)

3) in the united states 85% of the game's market in the country, removed the PC and console versions of the game from their store shelves. Rockstar were also forced to remove the game and bring out a clean version. in December 2005, the 'Family Entertainment Protection Act' was passed which gave federal enforcement on ESRB ratings. Along with the government and Rockstar, Take-Two interactive were also extremely annoyed.

are games consoles becoming swiss army knives

Technological convergence – Game consoles becoming Swiss Army Knives – How have consoles evolved from purely game consoles and what has been the impact on the industry?

In the present day 7^th generation consoles are changing from purely consoles to play games to a multimedia device with lots of media types such as video, music and internet browsing. In this essay I will look at how games consoles have turned into swiss army knives and how this affects the gaming industry.  Technological convergence is the tendency for different technological systems to evolve toward performing similar tasks. Convergence can refer to previously separate technologies such as voice, data, and video that now share resources and interact with each other synergistically (this meaning two or more things functioning together to produce a result not independently obtainable)

I will firstly look at how games consoles can now use the internet. For example the PlayStation 3 has access to  internet  browsing, this means that more people will buy the PlayStation as it no longer just attracts the gaming audience it attracts others audiences that are looking for computer but can get a PS3 instead and also have access to gaming. The internet also allows consoles to use multiplayer services such as the Xbox, with Xbox live and the PS3 with PlayStation network this allows the user to play online with other gamers and produces a social gaming community. The use of internet also allows things to be downloaded onto the console such as DLC which allows the player to add new levels or characters to a game. So overall the internet allows people to search the internet just like a computer and it produces an online community that is not necessarily linked to gaming. On June 6, 2011 at the E3 convention, it was announced that the XBOX 360 dashboard will be updated again to include the Bing search engine, this allows users to search for games, trailers, movies etc. this therefore means it’s even easier to use.

Consoles now offer a lot of multimedia such as music. On 17 November 2009, Microsoft released a downloadable Zune application for the Xbox 360. This application allows the user to download music directly from the Xbox. Although the application is free to download you have to pay to download the music, they offer 3 packages to pick from which are a 30 day music pass trial which is free, a 14 day pass which is also free but if you want access to all aspects of zone you must buy the 1 month music pass for £8.99 but this must be renewed every month to keep downloading your music. This means that Microsoft will get money from the consumer and from Zune themselves as they pay to get Microsoft to advertise their application on the XBOX 360.

Also consoles now offer a lot of video applications and services such as the YouTube application which is free to download on the Xbox and PlayStation this allows the user to watch videos while on their console. On the Xbox 360 you can also watch live TV or catch up TV through applications such as sky player, I player and 4OD this allows the consumer to watch TV on their console rather then there television. Netflix is a movie service that allows the person to watch any of the most recent movies from release. In 2008 at the E3 premiere Microsoft released that they had signed a deal with Netflix over the Xbox live subscription, the application was released on Xbox live in November 2008 and it allowed subscription owners to stream movies directly from the Xbox. This changed the industry as it meant film fanatics now wanted the console as it meant they had an easier access to movies. Also In October 2009, Sony and Netflix announced that the service would also be available on the PlayStation 3 from November 2009. This was similar to Microsoft’s deal, allowing Netflix owners to stream the newest releases on the PlayStation. The future of consoles has also followed with video media as Nintendo president satoru iwata announced that the Wii U would also make a deal with Netflix and have a games console with video access. Video as an extra feature has changed the industry as it has opened games console to a wider audience even though it may not be for gaming.

In conclusion games consoles can be compared to a Swiss army knife as they now offer many different services within one place, this has impacted the video game industry as people may now buy the console as it offers more media services that may appeal to them, and they will then buy games which will increase game sales.

The Wii U

Wii U

Wii U the next generation of games consoles

At first people believed that the Wii U would be called the Wii HD and that it would focus on high definition and have a built in Blu-ray, but Nintendo president satoru iwata stated that there was no reson for this. The release date for the Wii U in europe is the 20th November 2012 and is the 18th in the US

Prices for the Wii U in europe has not been announced as retailers, by law, are allowed to set their own release price. In the US they have set it at $249.99 for the 8GB version and $349.99 for the 32GB version.

Retailers such as amazon UK are selling the 32GB premium black Wii U for £299.00 and the 8GB basic pack for £249.00

Games

Games such as Black ops 2, assasins creed 3 (priced at £49.99) and New super mario brothers UK (priced at £44.97) will be released for the Wii U opn release and other ports such as Mass effect 3 and batman arkham city will be released.

Multi media

Nintendo is working with companies such as netflix and youtube, this aims to bring digital movie and television to the Wii U.

Network capabilities

the Wii U aims to follow in in the speps on PS3's Playstation Network and XBOX's XBOX live by introducing Nintendo network. This provides a multiplayer service, video chatting and digital downloads,

my gaming experience

My gaming experience

My first games console was the PS1 but i never really played it as i wasn't big on gaming. then when the PS2 came out i got more into gaming, games such as star wars battle front were my favourite games. i then took a break from gaming and eventually got my PS3 a few years after release, i loved playing my PS3  and at this time favourite game was Modern warfare 2 i played this game a lot after say 2 years playing PS3 i decided i wanted an xbox 360 mainly for social reasons as most of my friends played on the xbox so i felt left out so i decided to get one. i got the new xbox slim and i play this now instead of PS3, at first i carried on playing call of duty. i then reached out for a wider variety of games such as Skyrim, Mass effect 3 and minecraft. i still play the xbox now as i find it enjoyable and easy to talk to my friends

mass effect 3

mass effect 3

developers: bioware

publishers : EA

how much does it cost : £39.99

how is it distributed : physically