You are either (a) making multimillion-dollar blockbusters and bound by capitalists and IP holders, or (b) try to do whatever you want with your friends with nearly zero chance to be noticed by the industry or consumers.
The gaming industry is changing though. A lot of iPhone games have been successful on a smaller scale. There are also several promising social gaming startups like Zynga and Playfish. And there have been a lot of game startups out of China getting funding based on virtual-goods business models. All this stuff is pretty interesting and offers the potential to make a hit game without working for EA.
Notable in that list from China are 9you and G10. Also from China there is tencent a.k.a. QQ (curious that their company names are all combinations of numbers, letters, and english words) which is not a game per se but they are making a lot of money selling virtual goods.
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You are either (a) making multimillion-dollar blockbusters and bound by capitalists and IP holders, or (b) try to do whatever you want with your friends with nearly zero chance to be noticed by the industry or consumers.
The gaming industry is changing though. A lot of iPhone games have been successful on a smaller scale. There are also several promising social gaming startups like Zynga and Playfish. And there have been a lot of game startups out of China getting funding based on virtual-goods business models. All this stuff is pretty interesting and offers the potential to make a hit game without working for EA.
Nice to know. Would you please name the startups from China or point me to articles about them?
Also, electronic distribution (i.e. Steam) may free indie developers from the shackles of publishers.
Here's a list of game & "virtual world" companies that got funded in 2008.
http://venturebeat.com/2009/04/26/second-revision-game-and-v...
Notable in that list from China are 9you and G10. Also from China there is tencent a.k.a. QQ (curious that their company names are all combinations of numbers, letters, and english words) which is not a game per se but they are making a lot of money selling virtual goods.