Social Gaming: Trends & Markets
Laurent Michaud
Head of Consumer Electronics & Digital Entertainment Practice at IDATE
By 2016, social games will account for nearly as 50% of the video game market
IDATE has just released its new study about social gaming: by the end of 2012 the social gaming market accounted for 36% of the online gaming market and 13% of the overall video game market. In 2016 its share is expected to rise to 46% of the online gaming market and 18% of the overall video game market. This video game market segment is entering the maturity phase. Its estimated revenues in 2012 were EUR 5.4 billion, which is expected to reach EUR 10.7 billion in 2016. Facebook is by a long shot the leading social gaming platform, with 235 million active gamers in August 2012.
World social gaming market, by geographical region (million EUR)
Source: IDATE, Market Insight "Social Gaming", February 2013
The major players in the video game industry have been slow to enter the social games fray
The traditional video game industry players are showing a willingness to adapt to new consumption habits
Publishers are seeking to make their traditional games more "social". They are also making their games available through free-to-play. Game consoles such as Nintendo and Sony are integrating social functionality in their new versions (e.g., Wii U and Xbox 720): video chat to contact friends online, various ways to get in touch with players around the world and ask for help, etc.
Nevertheless, most of the major video game firms are not on Facebook
This might be because they have not truly grasped the importance of deploying their offerings on social networks, or, rather, that they prefer to wait cautiously until the market has reached a certain maturity before entering. It could also suggest that they simply would rather not risk positioning themselves in a sector in which the recipes for success differ in every respect from their traditional sector. Admittedly, a social game's success usually has more to do with its number of players than the quality of the game per se.
In other words, the fact that the big developers who have invested in social gaming rank relatively well in terms of MAU rankings does not necessarily put them ahead of the rest.
Social gaming as a means of attracting new users to console games
The strategy of the six big stakeholders on Facebook can be explained in several ways. They may be seeking to capitalise on a new market segment that represents a growth driver at first and which could become a business sector in its own right down the road. Electronic Arts reported in 2011 that ARPU from EA Sports apps on Facebook was USD 56, exceeding net income per user from its console games.
But social gaming is also a means of bringing in new users to console games. The vast majority of social games of the traditional industry players are in fact "light", social versions of their console games meant to entice players to take it a step further and discover the "real" game.
Presence on Facebook of the major 'traditional' video game publishers
* through its subsidiary 2K Sports
** through its subsidiary Playdom
Source: IDATE, Market Insight "Social Gaming", February 2012
Project Manager Laurent Michaud
Laurent Michaud is the Head of Consumer Electronics & Digital Entertainment Practice. Laurent acts as project manager for market reports on the rise of Smart Home, Game, Music and Electronics. He adresses technological, industrial and strategic issues through a point of view of innovation. He provides his clients with expert technical-economic analysis of strategic issues relating to consumer electronics and entertainment.
l.michaud@idate.org
> More information available at: www.idate.org
World Video Game Market
Laurent Michaud
Head of Consumer Electronics & Digital Entertainment Practice at IDATE
In 2013, hardware & games will represent 60 billion EUR in revenues, against 53bn EUR in 2012
Despite the profound changes that are going through it, the global market for hardware & video games will grow up from 2013 to attain 79 billion Euro in 2016. This study follows the development of key indicators for the sector over five years and makes an appraisal of the key markets: Home consoles - Handheld consoles - Offline games - Online games - Mobile phone games.
Following the recent announcements at the CES 2013 can we believe in a recovery of the hardware market in short or mid-term?
In 2012, the home consoles market segment (hardware and software sales) could generate 37% of total video game revenues. Given the regular growth of the online games and mobile platform games market segments, the home console segment is expected to shrink in the coming years. Let us recall that the latter accounted for nearly 60% of total market revenues in 2004. In spite of the arrival of a new generation of consoles, resulting in double-digit growth over several years, the home console segment will account for a "mere" 41.1% of the total global market by 2016.
Three factors are bringing about a shift in the home consoles market segment:
1. The arrival of Nintendo's Wii U, its first new generation console – pending the likely release of competing devices by Microsoft in 2013 and Sony Computer Entertainment in 2014 – is without a doubt the most pivotal event as the year approaches its end. Like its big brother, the Wii U will deliver a new gaming experience to the fickle and much sought-after consumers, be they experienced or casual gamers. This machine introduces pioneering features, and there is no doubt game designers will put them to use and conjure up new gameplay. Nintendo's machine should prove to be a winner. Yet it is still too early to know whether the Wii U console will enjoy the same degree of success as the Wii.
Worldwide home console forecast sales (in million units)
Source : IDATE, World Video Game Market, edition January 2013
2. Competitors Sony and Microsoft will be paying particular attention to the Wii U's sales figures, given how off-guard they were caught by the Wii's success.
They now realise that their health will be determined by the level of innovation they bring to the gaming experience. The question remains as to which part of the console they will focus their innovation efforts on. 4K resolution could be an option, although this would require that gamers replace their TV sets, and 4K home cinemas are still quite pricy. The most likely path would be to beef up their machines' ubiquitous and multiscreen functionality, and rethink the interaction peripherals with an emphasis on voice recognition and motion sensing. As for infrastructures for delivering services, they have no choice but to invest in the cloud as done by Sony Computer Entertainment, which acquired Gaikai for USD 380 million in mid-2012.
3. According to IDATE, revenues from digital sales via home consoles will reach EUR 2.9 billion in 2012. These include video games, video and music. This represents one fifth of all turnover generated by the sale of content for platforms. By 2016, IDATE reckons that income from the digital sale of content via home consoles will account for 60% of income generated by these platforms.
Changes in digital/physical sales revenues(billion EUR)
Source : IDATE, World Video Game Market, edition January 2013
Project Manager Laurent Michaud
Laurent Michaud is the Head of Consumer Electronics & Digital Entertainment Practice. Laurent acts as project manager for market reports on the rise of Smart Home, Game, Music and Electronics. He adresses technological, industrial and strategic issues through a point of view of innovation. He provides his clients with expert technical-economic analysis of strategic issues relating to consumer electronics and entertainment.
l.michaud@idate.org
> More information available at: www.idate.org
Crises and rebounds in the games industry
Laurent Michaud
Head of consumer electronics & digital entertainment practice, IDATE
Each year IDATE conducts studies on video games and accompanies enthusiastic project developers who rub shoulders with a market that will make them no concessions. Laurent Michaud, Head of the Consumer Electronics & Digital Entertainment practice at IDATE shares it takes on this in the article below.
It is now nearly 12 years that I have observed the sector with the eyes of a player and economist. We have dealt with all the issues that have made the news: we are going to cover our third home console marketing campaign, in the early 2000s we studied massively multi-player games, the advent of video games on mobile phones, then Occasional Gamer, in-game advertising, the App Store phenomenon, Serious Gaming, cloud gaming, games on smart TV, social gaming... In the background, dematerialisation remains the common denominator for all of them.
Alongside these studies, we have helped nearly forty project carriers by providing expertise regarding the techno-economic feasibility of their games, the industrial positioning of their company, their internationalisation strategy, construction of their business model, design of their outline business strategy...
These 12 years in practice enable me to draw some conclusions on what we are experiencing today as a crisis in the growth of the on-line games sector and a more acute crisis that could become a reality for certain traditional actors (those who develop games on physical media).
Video gaming is in crisis and the companies affected are not the least known: Gameforge, BigPoint, Zynga, but also THQ, Sega, Turbine to name only those... and I am not mentioning the myriad of small companies not really known for the big hit, which were formed to develop games for mobile phones, tablets or on Facebook and which are struggling to obtain a return on quite modest investments in a market where supply is abundant and it is difficult to differentiate oneself.
What are the causes of this crisis, beyond the effects of increased competition? I count four:
1. The video game evolves in phases of growth and decline determined by the life cycle of the hardware. Game consoles register their activity in physical cycles of at least six years. We are currently experiencing a downward cycle, a transition phase between two generations of home consoles characterised by income from the sale of games for these machines down by 12% between 2011 and 2012 and by 20% for the turnover generated by console sales.
2. We observe massive player support for Free2Play on smartphones, tablets, social networks, in games on browsers or MMOs and soon on smart TVs. Controlled inflation of the price of games for home and handheld consoles maintains the income for this segment but basically players demonstrate to us that the model of the future is Free2Play, of which these are some eloquent examples:
- The British studio BossAlien published CSR Racing and quickly recorded a monthly turnover of $12 million,
- According one of its directors, the Norwegian studio Supercell recorded a turnover of $500,000 per day with Clash of Clans,
- When there is no income, there is always the level of "monthly active users" that shows the attractiveness of games carried by the F2P model - 32 million for League of Legend from Riots Games (no profit conversion rates available), 50 million for Farmville 2 (with, according to observers, a conversion rate of around 2%).
- An unprecedented wave of MMO games is passing from a subscription payment model to Free2Play: Aion from NC Soft, Age of Conan from Funcom, Star Wars, The Old Republic from EA, Gotham City Impostors from Warner Interactive, DC Universe from SOE, City of Heroes Freedom from NC Soft…
Not to subscribe to this model supported by a large majority of players may constitute a medium-term risk for publishers.
3. In the on-line games market segment the crisis generates its effect on the first generation of developer-publishers. After a successful first game, these companies have recorded considerable and sometimes dramatic growth as regards their income and size of workforce. They now encounter difficulties with their "second game" which struggles to achieve the support of players who had been seduced by the first. However, the on-line games market segment will continue to record a two-figure growth up until 2016. IDATE estimates that the on-line games market will increase from €15 billion at the end of 2012 to more than 23 at the end of 2016 and will eventually represent a little less than 30% of the global market which could rise to €60 billion. If the market continues to grow at that rate it is value creation that will very largely make up for value loss. This observation underlies reasoning on the, as yet inexhaustible, capacity of the Internet to allow innovative game experiences.
4. In the on-line games environment, the operational risk of a game rests synthetically on four elements: content, business model, technical services, marketing and communications. These four pillars necessary for success rest themselves on new skills: community management, collection, processing and analysis of usage data, business and pricing strategy, industrial intelligence... These tasks are often underestimated by development studios more inclined to create content than conceive its publishing, marketing etc.
Thus, the economic rule "adapt or perish" was never more true than today in the games industry, and never has this rule applied as rapidly as today. Production times for terminals are being reduced on many platforms (mobile phones, tablets, social networking and browsers): as a result, the "time to market" is very short as, at times, is the time that separates the developer from failure.
This statement is difficult to hear: the developer, as Peter Molyneux said so well in a recent interview on Games Industry International, "is not supposed to make games for money. He is also reluctant to talk about monetisation." The games sector is recent and, since the industrialisation of the development market segment in the mid-90s, the job of the studio has been to create a games experience, not to take on board its commercialisation, carry out its marketing or pricing. This role is still regularly seen as falling to the editor. Today you, large and small developers, should know that that era is past and that your job also consists in selling, if not in integrating upstream of the production chain some thoughts relative to the marketing of the game.
A few reasons for bounce-back
If the crisis is real, the video games sector knows how to rebuild its declining segments, renew entertainment experiences, innovate; blaze a trail beyond the beaten track. This character trait offers some grounds for hoping to see the sector rebound in the very short term.
Here are four good reasons for bounce-back:
1. The next generation of home consoles
I am not dealing at length with the arrival of new home consoles that will boost the industry and, in 2015, hardware included, represent 40% of its income.
2. The promise of games on mobile platforms
Neither am I referring in detail to what games represent on mobile platforms, smartphones and tablets that seem particularly well-behaved in terms of market and complementary, even symbiotic, uses. This segment will hold a share of some 15 % of the market up until 2016 as against some 11 % of the income accruing to games on handheld consoles.
I will, on the other hand, insist on my two crazes:
3. The smart TV game
The arrival of the television connection changes the conditions of use for this terminal. Potentially it introduces a level of interactivity that makes it no longer a passive-consumption device. The connection promises enriched experiences regardless of the nature of the content - audiovisual, social, commercial, entertainment or informative.
In this context, the video game could be an accelerator for the market development of interactive applications on smart TV. It will demonstrate its effectiveness by providing a convincing user experience (with an interaction-immersion accessory, voice recognition and motion detection), based on a viable business model.
Games on on-line TV already seem to be taking five directions:
i) The downloading of occasional games on the set-top box from the ISP. In France, Free offers such a service on its Revolution box in partnership with TransGaming:
ii) Games synchronised with live-broadcast audiovisual programmes. Visiware, (through its PlayAlong offer) synchronises the television viewer, who can be a virtual contestant, with more than 800 games and live-broadcast programmes worldwide.
iii) The deployment of an application used by the television manufacturer or by a third party such as Google: EA has just announced, and it went more-or-less unnoticed, that two of these occasional games were available on Samsung's smart TV and controllable by the South Korean company's Galaxy phones. These are Game of Life and Monopoly.
iv) Cloud gaming is a technology that can home-deliver streamed games via the Internet on a connectable TV. The games consoles were also quick in response as Gaikai, one of the most promising cloud gaming service providers was acquired by Sony Computer Entertainment in early July for 380 million USD.
v) Access to games via social networks: Facebook is a platform of omnipresent coverage, found on most connectable devices (tablets, smartphones and computers). It is also available on smart TV and will provide access to the games catalogue that it offers on computer.
These guidelines lead to or induce convergence, better collaboration between the television actors (channels, programme producers), telecommunications and Internet actors (Internet access and service providers), consumer electronics manufacturers and video games actors. It operates at the technological, content and economic level and in any event it opens a new market segment, especially with the arrival of EA.
4. The ubiquitous or continuous game
Today, one can distinguish three types of ubiquity in video games.
- The first is a ubiquity of service: the ranking, challenges, friends' games list etc. are ubiquitous. We find this feature on Game Center or Facebook.
- The second is a ubiquity attached to games. Boostr, developer and publisher of the Urban Rivals game with 25 million players, sets its strategy on ubiquity. This game is available on social networks, tablets, smartphones and on its website. I have single access available, which gives me the possibility of playing indiscriminately on any one of these four single platforms that I pick up according to my wants and the terminal that I have at hand. I also play Football Manager quite a lot, but I open a different game on each platform, which breaks the continuity of the game experience.
- The third is a ubiquity carried by connected objects. This ubiquity took shape in October 2011 under the game name Activision Skylanders. This game is based on action figures equipped with NFC technology and interacting with the home console and the game. These small figures are placed on a pedestal and are recognised and displayed on the screen. They keep in memory the experience gained during the game until the next connection to another console. 30 million figures have been sold to date worldwide.
In conclusion, video gaming is experiencing successive crises, which, in the end, are technological and industrial adjustments related to its strong ability to innovate and recreate: to me these adjustments seem necessary for a sector that, finally, seems soon set to reach economic maturity.
Laurent Michaud
Responsable de la practice Digital Home & Entertainment, IDATE
l.michaud@idate.org
More information available on ourwebsite.
DigiWorld Game Summit 2012 : SNJV
"Game Changers: Mobile, Cloud, Big Data"
L'intervention de Julien Villedieu (SNJV) au DigiWorld Game Summit 2012
Le 15 Novembre 2012 à Montpellier.
" Bonjour,
Le Syndicat National du Jeu Vidéo, réunit les entreprises qui réalisent en France des Jeux Vidéo.
Le Snjv a été créé en 2008 et il œuvre quotidiennement pour favoriser l’émergence, dans notre pays, d’un écosystème réglementaire et économique adapté aux contraintes des activités de production, mais aussi compétitif au regard de la concurrence internationale à laquelle nous sommes exposés.
Le Snjv est partenaire du DWGS depuis sa création, et depuis 2 ans nous organisons le vendredi une matinée thématique.
Nous vous donnons donc rendez-vous demain matin au Corum pour aborder la question, O combien d’actualité, des modes alternatifs de financement du jeu Vidéo avec de nombreux intervenants de qualité.
Laurent, merci une fois encore de nous associer à cet événement qui je l’espère nous donnera l’occasion, cette année encore, de prendre le temps d’analyser les impacts des bouleversements, pour ne pas dire de la révolution, que connaît notre industrie depuis 3 ans, sur nos métiers, les modèles économiques et sur les relations entre les acteurs de la filière.
Merci également de nous donner l’occasion de délivrer un message en ouverture de cette journée.
Cette année, le Digiworld Summit s’est donné pour ambition d’étudier l’impact des grandes ruptures, l’impact du changement sur l’industrie numérique.
Il paraît que c’est d’actualité et que c’est maintenant.
Ca tombe bien car les ruptures, qu’elles soient technologiques ou d’usages, ont toujours été le moteur des évolutions dans le jeu vidéo, que cela concerne les rendus graphiques, le gameplay, l’interactivité ou encore l’intelligence artificielle, pour ne citer que ces quelques exemples.
Le développement exponentiel de la puissance de calcul des consoles de jeux, par exemple, a permis le développement de jeux vidéo plus immersifs, l’apparition de la 3D temps réel ou l’amélioration des rendus visuels ;
Le développement des infrastructures réseaux (haut débit puis désormais Très haut débit) a permis aussi le développement des jeux vidéo massivement multi-joueurs online avec les succès étrangers et Français que l’on connaît et les nouvelles plateformes mobiles dématérialisées ont permis l’essor considérable des productions sur Smartphones et tablettes.
L’histoire du jeu vidéo se nourrit aussi d’innovations provenant d’autres secteurs traditionnels tels que le militaire, la santé ou des autres industries numériques et culturelles : internet, le cinéma, le film d’animation ou encore la bande dessinée, à tel point que certains n’ont plus qu’un mot à la bouche : le transmédia.
Ce qu’il faut retenir de cette succession de ruptures et de changements c’est que le jeu vidéo a déjà connu en seulement 40 ans (depuis sa création) plusieurs révolutions industrielles et que cela n’est vraisemblablement pas en train de s’arrêter.
Mais la période actuelle est sans doute moins celle des ruptures que celle des transitions.
Transition qui voit se confronter la progressive disparition du modèle de distribution physique à une maturité des marchés dématérialisés.
Transition entre un monde de licences à gros budgets, de blockbusters sur consoles et un univers de contenus originaux, ouverts accessibles en ligne, sur mobiles et sur tablettes.
Transition entre une relation tripartite (éditeurs, distri, dév) et un modèle intégré de production – diffusion ;
Transition entre un marché traditionnel (basé sur la rareté avec prix élevé) vers de nombreux marchés (basés sur les volumes avec des prix de vente bas),
Transition enfin entre 6 millions de consoles et de plateformes dédiées à la pratique du jeu vidéo à un équipement de bientôt 600 millions de plateformes tablettes, smartphones, smart Tv, set-top box qui offrent et offriront toutes la possibilité de jouer, partout, tout le temps.
Ce qu’il faut retenir de ces transitions est que le Jeu Vidéo a engagé sa mutation vers le divertissement grand public et qu’il se démocratise.
Mais si cette démocratisation, autrement appelée gamification offre de formidables opportunités pour les développeurs, cela s’accompagne de frictions extrêmement fortes sur les marchés :
- Le jeu vidéo a perdu une grande partie de sa valeur économique du jeu vidéo (70€ > 0,89 cts€)
- La production doit se penser en termes de catalogues, de volumes de production
- L’accès au marché est très couteux
- Il faut adapter les chaines de production aux nouveaux enjeux
- Les modèles économiques ne sont pas encore stabilisés
Cette transition industrielle est faite de promesses et de bouleversements dont l’ensemble des acteurs professionnels : éditeurs, développeurs et distributeurs et prestataires sortiront transformés et qui impactera également de façon profonde la relation aux joueurs.
Au centre de cette transition, il y a l’enjeu des contenus, de la création et de la créativité.
Car face à la raréfaction des nouvelles productions originales, il existe une alternative qui une fois encore pourrait bien permettre à l’industrie et notamment aux sociétés françaises de retrouver la vigueur du passé, j’ai nommé la créativité.
Ainsi dans cette période de transition, notre industrie doit être en capacité d’offrir de nouvelles expériences de jeux originales, ludiques, interactives, bref innovantes.
Les plateformes dématérialisée, le cloud gaming, les télévisions connectées ou encore les nouvelles consoles serviront de supports à cette créativité.
Et c’est sans doute en cela que la crise que nous traversons est différente des précédentes, mais aussi intéressante à vivre.
A n’en point douter le jeu vidéo doit sans cesse évoluer en prenant le point de vue du joueur, autour des contenus eux-mêmes et de la qualité.
La création française a donc une belle carte a jouer car à de rares exceptions récentes, cela fait de nombreuses années qu’un jeu vidéo français n’a pas figuré dans le top 10 annuel des jeux vidéo.
Les causes sont nombreuses mais la transition que traverse notre industrie est propice à l’émergence en France de nouveaux leaders européens et internationaux, à la condition que soient réunies plusieurs conditions.
Car c’est bien dans ce domaine que nous faisons et ferons la différence. Loin d’être les défenseurs et promoteurs d’une French Touch qui n’a pour seul objectif que de regarder le nombril, force est de constater que les créateurs français jouissent à l’international d’une renommée sans pareil.
Ce n’est pas un hasard si dans certaines entreprises étrangères on retrouve à des postes créatifs certains de nos compatriotes.
Mais pour que nos entreprises puissent faire la différence, il faut s’intéresser aux conditions qui permettront à notre industrie de relever les défis de cette transition et de faire face à cette concurrence internationale, mais aussi de tirer parti de ces nouveaux marchés matures.
Certaines de ces conditions tiennent à l’écosystème économique et réglementaire français dans lequel évoluent nos 250 entreprises et 5000 collaborateurs.
Car il est aujourd’hui devenu plus compliqué de produire du jeu vidéo dans notre pays que dans d’autres pays plus accueillants.
Par exemple, inexistant il y a 15 ans, le Canada est devenu, à coup de milliards de dollars dépensés par différentes provinces, le 3e pays au monde en matière de production de jeux vidéo.
Les conditions à réunir pour permettre à la France du jeu vidéo d’exister demain sur ces nouveaux marchés sont connues, elles sont pour une grande partie entre les mains des créateurs et de leurs partenaires, mais les pouvoirs publics ont aussi un rôle majeur à jouer pour que l’on y parvienne.
Pour cela nous pensons qu’il est urgent d’agir dans plusieurs domaines :
1. Soutenir le financement des productions réalisées en France
Le Jeu Vidéo crée des emplois stables et à forte valeur ajoutée. C’est dans la production que réside le plus gros effet de levier.
Mais nous sommes dans une industrie de prototypage ou le préfinancement des productions est obligatoire.
Il faut donc des moyens importants et réguliers pour engager de nouvelles productions et les diffuser sur le marché.
Le CIJV existe mais touche une faible part de la production car il est extrêmement restreint sur les critères culturels exigés pour l’éligibilité des productions, il est soumis à une classification obsolète et inadéquate et son taux est faible au regard de la compétition internationale.
Nous sommes dans un contexte favorable à une évolution profonde du dispositif :
- Un Crédit d’impôt plus fort a des effets importants et durables sur le secteur (cf Canada en 15 ans et la réplication du modèle à Singapour)
- Le CNC a démontré que la mesure a un impact positif sur notre économie et sur l’emploi
- Les plus grosses réussites commerciales françaises de ces dernières années sont exclues du bénéfice du CIJV alors qu’en en bénéficiant les entreprises auraient non seulement recrutées mais également créer de la richesse dans notre pays.
2. Créer les conditions favorables à l’investissement privé dans les entreprises de production, d’édition et de diffusion de jeux vidéo en France
Le Jeu vidéo désormais diffusé par les entreprises de créations elles-mêmes sur des marchés de volumes avec un modèle économique basé sur l’acquisition de communautés, requiert des moyens considérables pour accéder au marché.
Or les entreprises ont peu de chances de lever de l’argent pour financer leurs productions si elles ne maitrisent pas l’accès au marché.
Confrontées à l’augmentation des coûts d’acquisition clients lorsqu’elles diffusent leurs productions, elles ont besoin de fonds pour déployer les moyens marketing nécessaires.
Nous pensons donc urgent d’autoriser la constitution de Sociétés de financement du Jeu Vidéo (SFJV) sur le même modèle que les Sofica dans le cinéma et de créer en parallèle une incitation fiscale pour l’investissement des particuliers et des fonds dans les entreprises de jeu vidéo
3. Favoriser les conditions de diffusion du jeu vidéo dans le monde en luttant contre la fraude et le parasitisme auxquels est confrontées la diffusion des jeux
Le jeu vidéo est l’un des contenus culturels parmi les plus largement distribués en ligne et partant, parmi les plus fraudés, recelés, copiés, piratés…
Or, les moyens disponibles mis en place en France pour lutter contre ces activités qui parasitent la diffusion sont totalement insuffisants.
4. Promouvoir la créativité française à l’international
Les professionnels du secteur et plusieurs ministères et agences ont lancé au début de l’année 2012 un label consistant à promouvoir la créativité de la France dans le jeu vidéo, à travers le monde.
Ce dispositif, basé sur une volonté politique et industrielle ne dispose aujourd’hui d’aucun moyen de promotion, ni ressource permettant d’engager une véritable action consistant à attirer des studios étrangers en France et à faire rayonner nos entreprises auprès de décideurs internationaux.
On le sait, le jeu vidéo est devenu en quelques années la première industrie culturelle au monde et en France, la première à avoir accompli la transition numérique en ligne, une industrie extraordinaire qui génère des innovations, des emplois qualifiés et qui fait rayonner la culture à l’international.
Face à ce constat et dans le contexte international actuel, le rôle des états devient primordial pour assurer les conditions favorables au développement de l’industrie.
Alors, au Gouvernement qui a engagé récemment une action de fond sur la question de la compétitivité et de l’emploi, nous disons : regardez avec attention l’industrie du jeu vidéo en France. Elle est source d’emplois qualifiés durables et de création de valeur et d’exportations.
Il est donc temps d’engager enfin une véritable politique de soutien à la croissance de ce secteur industriel.
A défaut il faudra se résigner à accepter que dans notre pays on ne produise plus de jeu vidéo, ce que le Snjv ne saurait accepter.
Je vous remercie."
Julien VILLEDIEU
Délégué Général
SNJV
DigiWorld Summit 2012
"Game Changers: Mobile, Cloud, Big Data"
Opening day of the 34th Summit: The future of the digital economy according to its leaders
This morning IDATE Chairman François Barrault opened the 34th edition of the DigiWorld Summit in Montpellier. The Summit has become one of the must-attend events each year for playmakers in the telecom, Internet, television and video game industries. It will bring together more than 1,200 participants and 130 speakers from over 20 countries around the world.
IDATE and the members of the DigiWorld Institute are putting the spotlight on “Game Changers: Cloud, Mobile, Big Data” for this year’s Summit. The objective of the event is to discuss the factors that will lead to the emergence of the next decade’s digital leaders.
Executives from device and cloud heavyweights as well as content providers and telecom operators will present their views on these subjects over the next two days.
John Chambers, CEO of Cisco, affirms that the pace of innovation today is the fastest it has been in the past 25 years.
Hans Vestberg, CEO of Ericsson, stresses the need to combine a strategy of vertical integration and openness to “capture the innovation of other players.” For Ben Verwaayen, CEO of Alcatel-Lucent, Europe should speed up LTE rollouts despite the economic uncertainties. Qualcomm Chairman Paul Jacobs, riding high on the success of the firm’s technology, which is used in many smartphones and tablets, predicts a “sixth sense, in that everything will be connected around us.
In addition to such distinguished speakers, the DigiWorld Summit is also recognized for its detailed preparation of the themes and the series of sessions based on IDATE analysis. During the opening session the Institute’s experts will each present an overall analysis of their focus sectors. They will highlight the dominant role of three game-changing factors applicable to all the links in the value chain:
- Mobile’s irresistible momentum, with the battle of the OSs and then LTE, which is expected to be central to the new differentiation strategies to break out of the price wars.
- The Cloud, which for IDATE is not limited to externalized enterprise computing (“cloud computing”) but includes application distribution architectures (including for audiovisual content), shaking up traditional roles.
- Big Data, an asset that all players will be looking to capitalize on through real-time applications, aiming to enhance their services and offerings (devices, content, connectivity services, storage and application platforms, etc.).
Three important voices offer a counterpoint to IDATE’s analyses: Ben Verwaayen, the boss of Alcatel-Lucent, Léo Apotheker, former chief of SAP and HP, and Carsten Schloter, CEO of Swisscom. Overall the messages converge, with all three insisting on one point: Europe has a lot going for it. However, these pluses are particularly concentrated in the telecom industry, which is currently suffering multiple ills: the economic situation, its relative disintegration and the constraints of a world where traffic is exploding but applications tend to lean in favor of over-the-top (OTT) players.
The sessions on November 15 will be devoted to sketching a potential next-generation telco. Presenters include Terry Denson, Vice President of Global Strategy for Verizon, Stéphane Roussel, CEO of SFR, Jean-Ludovic Silicani, Chairman of ARCEP. The heads of Ericsson and Orange, Hans Vestberg and Stéphane Richard, will close the debate. Some big names in traditional content (the BBC) and new online platforms (like Netflix) will also be present. A conclusion will be given by players that hold promising futures in platforms with IBM, Amazon, BT and Cisco.
Also note that five executive seminars will be presented on November 14 and 15, on the following topics:
- Impacts on privacy, with the input of Google and CNIL.
- Key issues for next-generation networks: FTTx, LTE, etc.
- Expectations surrounding the rise of smart cities.
- Perspectives related to the concept of smart TV.
- New business models for video gaming.
> Follow live the plenary sessions: Live streaming DWS12 !!!
> More information about our program and our speakers on the website DigiWorld Summit 2012
DigiWorld Summit 2012
Christine BARRE
Responsable DigiWorld Summit, DigiWorld by IDATE
A l’approche du DigiWorld Summit 2012, l’IDATE livre son analyse de la situation de l'économie numérique européenne
A l’occasion d’une conférence de presse organisée à Paris ce jour, le DigiWorld Institute by IDATE a livré son analyse de l’avenir de l’Europe des Télécoms et de la Télévision.
Quelques mois après la publication du DigiWorld Yearbook et quelques semaines avant le DigiWorld Summit, le DigiWorld Institute by IDATE, Institut spécialisé dans le domaine des télécommunications, médias et Internet, livre son analyse de la situation de l'économie numérique européenne à travers la situation exemplaire des secteurs des télécommunications et de l'audiovisuel. Cette conférence a également été l’occasion de présenter le programme du prochain DigiWorld Summit. Alors que la dernière édition du DigiWorld Yearbook avait été l'occasion d'attirer l'attention sur l'accentuation des faiblesses de la zone, le DigiWorld Institute by IDATE revient sur les grands enjeux auxquels l'Europe de la télévision et des télécommunications doit faire face.
Télécoms et Télévision européenne : Le point de basculement ?
Côté Télécoms, Yves Gassot, Directeur Général de l’IDATE, affirme : « Après avoir globalement réussi l'introduction d'une concurrence effective favorable au consommateur et dans une certaine mesure à l'innovation, l'Europe doit prendre en compte la situation inquiétante du secteur ».
Cela se traduit notamment par :
- une récession qui s'accompagne d'une pression sur les marges et l'investissement, à un moment où il faut accélérer les déploiements des réseaux fixes et mobiles à très haut débit et supporter l'explosion des trafics,
- un contexte peu favorable pour définir de nouveaux business models, lesquels sont pourtant indispensables pour répondre aux challenges lancés par des géants de l'Internet,
- une difficulté pour progresser vers un "single European market" tandis que s'accélère la consolidation aux Etats-Unis et que s'affirment des opérateurs de taille mondiale à partir des économies émergentes.
Côté audiovisuel, pour Gilles Fontaine, Directeur Général adjoint de l’IDATE, « ce serait une erreur de sous-estimer les points forts de l'industrie européenne ». En effet, la part de marché des chaînes de télévision et des distributeurs reste élevée alors que la production cinématographique est, dans une certaine mesure, le garant, d'une création autonome originale. Cependant, compte-tenu du poids des studios hollywoodiens, il serait illusoire de vouloir construire ex-nihilo un ou des champion(s) européen(s) des nouveaux services vidéo. La dissociation des droits « à la demande et linéaires » favorisera en effet les services nord-américains. Ce sont les raisons pour lesquelles il apparaît indispensable de favoriser une gestion des fenêtres, intégrée au sein des groupes de télévision dans un contexte où la SVOD est l’outil d’entrée des chaînes en clair sur le marché du péage.
Si les marchés de la télévision vont encore rester nationaux, une certaine internationalisation est cependant possible, voire indispensable. Pour cela, il faudra réviser le rôle respectif des chaînes et des producteurs dans la production de télévision (et non de cinéma). Par exemple, il faudrait également étudier la possibilité de lancer une chaîne jeunesse publique européenne disposant d'une base commune aux différents services publics européens.
DigiWorld Summit 2012 : Quelle place pour l'Europe au moment où l'émergence d'un nouvel ordre économique numérique mondial se met en place ?
Durant cette conférence, François Barrault, Président de l'IDATE, a présenté le programme du prochain DigiWorld Summit 2012. Ce sommet abordera le contexte mondial d'évolution des différents maillons de la chaîne du numérique avec des sessions plénières de haut niveau traitant des Smart Devices, des industries du contenu, des telcos et des plates-formes, des villes numériques,…
Le DigiWorld Summit est un rendez-vous incontournable qui permet de prendre la mesure des enjeux économiques et stratégiques pour les acteurs du secteur. Seront abordés des thèmes clés à travers une série de séminaires portant sur :
- Les Villes numériques
- Les contenus dans le Cloud
- Les réseaux de nouvelle grenaison (fixe et mobile)
- Big Data et protection des données personnelles
Le DigiWorld Summit est également l’occasion de mettre en avant le potentiel exceptionnel du territoire au cœur duquel cette conférence se tient depuis sa création :
- Les jeux vidéo seront à l’honneur durant une journée complète de conférences et de rencontres professionnelles organisées en partenariat avec le Montpellier in Game, événement que Montpellier Agglomération propose pour la troisième année consécutive.
- Les entreprises et start-up innovantes seront mises à avant à l’initiative de La Région Languedoc-Roussillon qui organise des rencontres B2B au travers du Networking by Sud de France Développement
Le DigiWorld Summit en bref
- Plus de 1400 participants attendus
- Plus de 130 intervenants
- Les présentations des analyses des consultants de l’IDATE
- Plus de 20 nationalités représentées
- Des sessions plénières de très haut niveau et 5 séminaires et conférences spécialisés
- Une sélection d'une trentaine d'exposants proposant des démonstrations et présentant leurs innovations
De très nombreuses occasions de networking durant une soirée d’ouverture à l'Opéra Comédie et une soirée de gala exceptionnelle sur le site d'IBM
> Découvrez le nouveau site internet du DigiWorld Summit 2012
Cloud Gaming
Laurent Michaud
Head of consumer electronics & digital entertainment, IDATE
What will change for the video game industry
Recently, IDATE has published its in-depth study of Cloud Gaming. The gaming industry has been gradually making the shift to digital over the last decade and cloud gaming is the next step in the process. This study examines the challenges facing the industry-wide and commercial deployment of cloud gaming in terms of technology and services. It also identifies the major industrial challenges across the value chain and the growth engines that will encourage development of this new market segment.
Cloud gaming: Another step forward in the game industry’s shift to digital
For 40 years, the video game sector has been considered a market with two distinct yet interdependent sides:
- the hardware side, which is subject to Moore’s law and governed by a life cycle characterized by the integration of:
- innovative technologies in the video game sector promoting innovation in gameplay,
- features related to video games that can target an audience beyond just gamers,
- service and consumption innovations related to the game sector but also to building user relationships;
- the software side, which is wholly dependent on the equipment side, from design and development to distribution and consumption.
Beginning in the 2000s, online gaming practices and digital distribution began slowly taking over market share. Ten years later, this share continues to grow, today representing more than half of the revenue generated by this sector. Every single market segment in this industry is affected by the digitization of practices and distribution, from home consoles and handheld consoles to smartphones, tablets and connected TVs.
In this context, cloud gaming represents another giant step forward in the game industry’s transition to digital distribution. Sony Computer Entertainment’s purchase of Gaikai demonstrates—and may even strengthen—cloud gaming’s role as a disruptive technology.
Cloud gaming may eventually eradicate (or at least mitigate) this hardware/software division by limiting the impact hardware has on gaming software. In other words, with cloud gaming, video games are likely to become less and less dependent on the device they are being played on. At the same time, we should begin to see more and more game accessories on the market because the accessories are quickly becoming the key element in providing users with the best immersive and interactive gaming experience possible.
With that in mind, IDATE has identified a number of challenges related to cloud gaming’s deployment and commercial success in the video game market. These include technological challenges related to network infrastructure, bandwidth, latency and remote computing and processing; and challenges related to services, their business and pricing models, the need for cross-platform and ubiquitous services, and their user-friendliness, especially on connected TV, where video games seem to have great potential (especially when they are tied in to TV programs).
Finally, IDATE has identified ten market challenges across the value chain. These challenges also represent growth drivers for this new market segment and will affect many players—not just cloud gaming service providers (CGSPs), but also game developers of all genres, AAA and casual game publishers, distributors, physical and digital retailers, console manufacturers, consumer electronics manufacturers, peripheral manufacturers, major Web players, TV channels and telecommunications operators.
Laurent Michaud
Head of consumer electronics & digital entertainment, IDATE
l.michaud@idate.org
> More information about this study available on our website
DigiWorld Summit 2012: Another step towards the event!
In continuity with IDATE's Yearbook 2012 presentations in London, Brussels, Paris and Casablanca, it is now time for us to present you the DigiWorld Summit 2012 Pre-program and brand new website.
Discover the new website of the DigiWorld Summit!
- Follow the digital markets burning issues,
- Learn more about IDATE and the event,
- Find out our 2012 speakers soon
- Register online now to benefit from our early bird special price
Stay connected! The website will be updated every week
Many thanks to Bientôt La Péniche (website & graphism), Let's Comm To The World (digital communication) and Weezbe (referencement) for this new website!
DigiWorld Summit 2012 program
Most of the tendencies that are currently impacting the digital world can be highlighted by three major disruptions, three real Game Changers: Mobile Everywhere, Content in the Cloud, and Big Data.
Taking place on 14 & 15 November 2012, in Montpellier, South of France, the DigiWorld Summit Plenary Sessions will be devoted to the transversal exploration and study of the current changes and their consequences on the ICTs sectors, while the Executive Seminars will focus on a specific market. Telecom, Internet and Media markets will be analysed by the most influent decisions makers and the keynotes speeches, panel sessions and round-tables will help us understand the future of the digital world.
Plenary Sessions
- Smart Devices vs. Open Cloud?
The smart devices ecosystems in the Cloud era - NextGen Access vs. Next Gen Telcos
Telcos emergent business models and strategies - Content facing distribution in the Cloud
Impacts of the Cloud on content delivery - Platforms and shovels of the next Gold Rush
Competitive advantages of the leading platforms providers and strategic enablers
Executive Seminars
- NextGen Access Networks : Fixed/Mobile convergence & competition
- Content in the Cloud
- Internet Economics, Big Data and Privacy
- Smart City and Digital Living
- DigiWorld Game Summit : Games in the Cloud (in association with MIG by Montpellier Agglomération)
The DigiWorld Summit in brief
The place to be
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The right mix between
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Associate Events
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2011 key data
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Contact
Christine Barre
Head of projet DigiWorld Summit
c.barre@idate.org
World video game market
Laurent MICHAUD
Head of consumer electronics & digital entertainment
The video game software market will grow from EUR 41.9 billion in 2011 to almost EUR 60.6 billion in 2015
IDATE publishes every year a market report providing its readers with an analysis of the world video game market (hard- and software) that is currently changing shape, assessing the key technologies to accelerate such a development of this promising market, along with the key issues to be addressed and market forecasts up to 2015.
After growth stalled for a time in 2009-2010, since then the video game sector received a new boost, due to:
- two segments entering a new generation (home and handheld consoles),
- two segments now set to draw wide audiences (online games and games for mobile phones).
- the emergence of two highly promising segments (tablets and connected TV)
Over a period of five years, the video game software market will grow from EUR 41.9 billion in 2011 to almost EUR 60.6 billion in 2015. Two factors explain this performance:
- the market arrival of a new generation of handheld consoles in 2011 and emergence of a new generation of home consoles from 2012.
- the extraordinary growth of segments for games on mobile phones and online, particularly in Asia/Pacific and more specifically in China, where both segments combined will be worth EUR 8.6 billion by 2015.
“Growth of the video game market is still influenced by the life cycle of home consoles. As such, the commercial launch of new generation machines from 2012 on will inject renewed growth into the sector, with video game software generating potential revenues of some EUR 60 billion by 2015.” explains Laurent MICHAUD, project manager of this study and IDATE’s Head of consumer electronics & digital entertainment.
Seven key industry trends for 2011
IDATE has identified seven trends which marked the past year:
- In 2011, in the game software market, one out of every two euros is generated from digital distribution or income from online practices (item selling, etc.).
- 2012-2015: the advent of a new generation of home consoles. With the imminent release of Wii U next year, Nintendo’s competitors will clearly have to rethink their schedules for rolling out their next gen consoles.
- By end-2011, smartphones and handheld consoles will eventually converge, with the commercial launch of the Playstation Vita (PS Vita), available in two versions: with a wireless or 3G connection.
- Tablets: likely to take off in 2011-2012. A new device creating new usages within the digital home, the tablet provides an ideal interface for video games, now the most popular type of application on this device.
- Facebook, the most recent game platform to date! The social network has pursued its casual gaming endeavors, broadening the base of gamers and converting general consumers to video gaming. The gamble seems to have paid off, although only time will tell at what pace games will be exploited in this segment.
- The age of ubiquitous games: increasingly asynchronous access to the same game via several interoperable platforms. Gamers ultimately have just one centrally-managed account, regardless of whether sessions are played on Facebook, a smartphone, developers’ websites or connected TV, etc.
- The emergence of games on connected TV: Onlive and Playcast Media are the most prominent companies to invest in games on this platform. However, this nascent segment is also drawing the interest of a wide number of Internet, TV and video game players, as well as ISPs, manufacturers of consumer electronics, smartphones and set-top-boxes, and telcos, etc.
World Video Game Market, 2011-2015
Laurent MICHAUD
Project Manager
l.michaud@idate.org
> Visit our website for more information on this topic
Digiworld Summit 2012
Game Changers: Mobile, Cloud, Big Data
The new DigiWorld building up through today’s Game Changers
How can we approach this new digital world, going beyond today’s topical issues of the digital industries?
IDATE’s teams suggest we could detect the key innovation and transformation factors of the markets, focusing the debate on three Game Changers’ combined implications.
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• Mobile Everywhere (The Broadband Mobile Momentum)
- Is there a limit to the speed of the new cellular Gen?
- Broadband Mobile monetization: the revenues and pricing issues to face the investments
- Mobile Internet Ecosystem and the battle of the platforms: the migration to the cloud
- Mobile Internet & Big Data: who knows what about you in a Mobile World? The new business models and the privacy issues…
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• Content delivery in the Cloud
- What online distribution scenarios are emerging for TV in the era of the cloud? What changes in viewer behaviour are driving these developments?
- What interplay between managed and cloud services?
- Is quality of service still a critical issue with fibre systems?
- How to manage a multi-screen environment, DRM, audience measurement and payment issues?
- What impact will all this have on the top video industry players?
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• Big Data
- From traffic to data explosion…
- Who knows what on the customers’ habits and profiles?
- What is the usage and place of these data in the business models of the digital players (fixed and mobile telcos, apps & transaction platforms, search engines, social platforms, eCommerce and payTV…)?
- What is called to change with the ‘Big Data’ era?
- Privacy: How the customers’ perception is evolving? Is there room for value creation in the personal data monitoring and storage?
The DigiWorld Summit in brief
The place to be
• To understand the next disruptions and their impacts on the Telecom-Internet-Media markets
• To benefit from an international benchmarks and open visions
• To enjoy opportunities of stimulating debates and networking … outside of Brussels, Paris and London day to day activities
The right mix between
• Overviews and analysis by the DigiWorld institute by IDATE’s experts teams
• Visions of few Top level Executives
• Large commitment of the digital sectors and public players
• Original contributions from high level academics and economists
Satellite Events
• International Business Forum – B2B meetings (by Sud de France Développement)
• Montpellier In Game (by Montpellier Agglomération)
• S@tcom (by CNES and DigiWorld by IDATE)
2011 key data
• 1 400+ participants
• 175+ speakers
• 25+ nations
Next Steps
• DigiWorld Summit new website: early May
• Pre-program: early May
• Program: early September
Language
Categories
- Digital Content
- DigiWorld
- DigiWorld Economic Journal
- FTTx
- Internet
- LTE
- Mobile
- Satellite
- Telecom
- TV & Video
- Video Games
Recent Posts
- Next Gen Access in Europe
- Africa and Middle East LTE forecasts
- World Telecom Services
- Interview with FRANK PILLER Aachen University, Germany / MIT Media Lab, USA
- Residential LTE vs. Satellite broadband