Original, Sustainable  IP

One of the biggest successes of the past year has been the introduction of exciting new IP. It should also be noted that, given how much new IP came onto the market in the last year, anything less would have been a harbinger of doom for the industry.

New IP is important because it keeps the offering fresh, and because it diverts payments from IP holders outside the industry, to IP holders inside the industry – better that Epic makes money than, say, Nickelodeon or the NFL.

However, all is not as rosy as it seems. While eight of the top ten selling games in the West last year were game-industry IP, only one of them was new IP (Assassin’s Creed). The next ranked was at number 29 (Bioshock). Other notables included Rock Band (no.32), Mass Effect (no.34) and Spectrobes (no.59).

Clearly, this business lags behind other entertainment industries in its ability to introduce new IP. Worse, we are entering a period in the hardware cycle that prefers safe IP over new ideas, so risky ventures are likely to become less prevalent, not more. This is a pity. The game industry must be prepared to gamble on new IP as a matter of urgency, in order to avoid becoming boring. The game industry is good at reinventing its own IP but consumer ennui is only one misstep away.

Personalization and Viral Gaming

These have been the buzzwords du jour for so long that you might be forgiven for skipping this section altogether. Even so, personalization and sharing remain a key component in game design and marketing today.

Hardcore and casual consumers alike have repeatedly shown a desire to customize in-game characters and assets way beyond the intentions of game designers. More sophisticated online worlds, micro-payments, viral content creation and sharing are all coalescing.

Designers are being pushed to find ways to make their games appeal to he individual. It’s no accident that Spore and Little Big Adventure are such hot properties and the success of The Sims speaks volumes.

Allowing consumers to create within games and then interface with the products they use every day (Facebook, YouTube, Outlook etc.) has moved on from innovation and has become mandatory.

Piracy

It hasn’t gone away.

Polls among consumers repeatedly show lax attitudes to illegal copies of games, and this in countries where anti-piracy laws and publicity campaigns are common.

In developing markets like Russia and China, piracy is the norm. Some developers have drastically shifted their emphasis as a direct result of piracy.

Apologists for this crime – yes, it’s a crime – continue with self-serving justifications. Meanwhile, publishers and hardware manufacturers attempt to introduce new anti-piracy measures or DRM encryption solutions only to be hit with frustrated consumers and determined hackers.

But new online services such as Xbox Live and PlayStation Network offer hope through deterrents against piracy, closing security gaps faster than ever and offering gaming pricing structures that may go some way to alleviate charges that the so-called high price of games leads to piracy. Nevertheless, there will always be people who want something for nothing, and will use thievery to meet their ends.