Planetside 2

What is Planetside 2? 

• Planetside 2 is the same as Planetside, featuring the same world, fractions and taking place at the same time period. It is about territory control in an open world, large battles amongst three groups, The Terran Republic, The Vanu Sovereignty and The New Conglomerates. 

What genre does the game belong to?

• The genre is Sci-Fi/ action, Massively multiplayer online first-person shooter game.

Planetside 2 developer/publisher:

• Sony line entertainment. 

When was it launched?

• Microsoft Windows 
   
  • ^WW November 20, 2012 & PlayStation 4 
     
    • ^WW 2014

How does the gameplay work?

• the game works by having three different teams fighting for an area of the map. 

What are the six different player classes in the game?

1. The Infiltrator is a sniper class with special abilities of cloaking and hacking, and can use sniper rifles, scout rifles and submachine guns to deliver a devastating effect.
2. The Light Assault class is a scout who uses carbines, submachine guns and shotguns. The Light Assault's special ability is Jump Jets, which allow them to fly through the air for a short period of time.
3. The Combat Medic is a healing class. Their weapons include assault rifles, shotguns and submachine guns. The Combat Medic's special abilities allows them to heal and resurrect other players.
4. The Engineer class has the special ability of repairing vehicles, turrets, and MAX Units. The engineer also has the ability to build anti-infantry and anti-vehicle turrets. The Engineer's weapons include carbines, shotguns submachine guns and battle rifles.
5. The Heavy Assault class has light machine guns, submachine guns, shotguns, batte rifles, and also Rocket Launchers, which are effective at destroying enemy vehicles. They also have the special ability of shields to help them endure heavy fire.
6. The MAX class has a mobile armored suit that allows them to take significant damage before dying. However, due to the suit they are also the slowest class. They have access to anti-infantry, anti-vehicle, and anti-air weapons. Max units cost resources to use.

Phone and Tablet Gaming - Candy Crush

How much money is Candy Crush Saga estimated to make each day from its users?

• Worldwide, Candy Crush Saga is estimated to make £610,000 ($1,000,000) per day from its users, according to Appdata. An estimated £550,000 per day is earned from the game in the US

How does it make this money?

• the game forces addicted players to buy gizmos which help them progress through the more difficult levels. They buy add-ons, extra lives and access to higher levels.

How many people are estimated to have installed Candy Crush?

• 500 million people have installed Candy Crush

Where do people play?

• 60% of UK gamers play to and from work; 28% play at work or during work hours

When was the game released?

• April 2012: Candy Crush released on Facebook

• November 2012: Released for iOS devices

• December 2012: Launches on Android devices

• February 2013: Most popular game on Facebook

• September 2013: Launches on South Korean Kakao messaging service

• November 2013: Reaches 500 million downloads worldwide

• December 2013: Dreamworld expansion released

• Source: Appdata

When did it reach 500 million downloads?

• November 2013

Who is the typical Candy Crush gamer?

• the typical candy crush gamer is someone that works, this is obvious because most gamers play to and from work also they play the game for stress relief, however the typical Candy Crush Saga player is a woman aged 25-45

What percentage of gamers have spent money on Candy Crush, buying in-app purchases etc.?

• £610,000 

What percentage say they are addicted to the game?

• 30% say they are addicted to the game

What is your own experience of playing Candy Crush? Have you played it?

• Yes, I really enjoyed it, however I got bored of it and didn't really get addicted. 

How women blow £400,000 a day playing Candy Crush, the most addictive online game ever

• Game has millions of people in its grip
• Women aged between 25 and 55 are the demographic most loyal to it
• Lucy Berkley, 44, calls it 'crack candy' because she's so addicted
• Jenni Weaver, 40, plays for eight hours a day
• Steph Brophy, 37, said: 'It's taking over my life'

Case Study - Fifa 14

The poster above is a print advert for the game Fifa14. The most significant part of this poster is the name ‘Fifa14’ which is seen on the left side of the poster, this is unusual as the name of a game tends to be in the centre of the poster. The font is bold thus attracting your attention as soon as you see this poster. This is reinforced by the black and red font on a white background thus making the colours more prominent.  The image of a world famous footballer outlines the game perfectly. Additionally, the image of a world famous footballer, seen on the right hand side, attracts the target audience and promotes the game.

“The more you play, the more the game evolves into a nigh-on perfect footballing dream”

(Playstation Official Magazine – UK)

“FIFA 14 oozes style, authenticity, and bold design from start to finish. It looks and feels better than ever”

(Official XBOX Magazine)

“Scoring is still too easy, with any on-target shot from within 40 yards finding its way into the net.”

(The Apps Magazine Website)

In the three reviews above, we see a mixture of good and bad reviews. The first and second review, presents Fifa 14 in a positive light thus encouraging you to play the game. However, the third review suggests that the game is slightly unreal and isn’t better than playing real football.

Magazine Reviews are effective as they can sometimes have two views – the good and bad thus allowing people to decide whether or not they would like the game.  Additionally, the magazine reviews often have screenshots of game play thus allowing people to decide whether they like the graphics and whether they think the game is worth its money.

In my opinion, e-media is very effective as people do not have to go out of their way in order to buy a magazine just to read one item. The reviews on the internet are two sided and contain people’s opinions.  Furthermore, there are many more reviews on the internet in comparison to a print review.

Broadcast

In the Fifa 14 advert, we see people from many different cultures and people of many different ages play together. Amongst these ordinary people are celebrities thus suggesting that people who play Fifa 14 are equivalent to celebrities. Also, the use of scenes of game play show what the game involves and presents that the game is fun.

The advert begins with Lionel Messi driving a van this is significant as almost immediately the audience are aware that this advert is about Football. Also, Lionel Messi is a world famous footballer and therefore the fact that he is playing Fifa would encourage others to Fifa too.  

The advert starts with a van with the number 14 thus introducing the year of the game. Towards the end of the advert the slogan “we are Fifa 14” appears, the slogan is short and catchy therefore easy to remember. The main star in this video would be Lionel Messi as he is the first character on screen, however, there are other celebrities in the ad.

E-Media

The FIFA 14 website is completely covered with images of football and football language. For example, “Precision Movement”, “Pure Shot” and “Real ball Physics”. By doing this, anyone who loves football or the game Fifa will enjoy reading this website page.     

The Facebook page has 160K likes

Institution

Rockstar games:

Background: Rockstar games are a multinational videogame developer and publisher situated in New York.

Founded: In 1998

Owner/Founder: Founded by the British producers Sam and Dan Houser and is owned by Take-Two interactive.

Most successful games: Grand Theft Auto and Midnight Club as well as their open world free roaming settings in there games. A couple of more successful games are: Grand Theft Auto, Max Payne, L.A. Noire, The Warriors, Bully, Manhunt, Midnight Club, State of Emergency, and Red Dead.

Institutions:

·         The largest permit being the Grand Theft Auto series which was one of the most popular games to be sold and have had batches of at least 157.5 million alone.

·         Rockstar Games received the BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award at the British Academy Video Games Awards in March 2014.

EA (Electronic Arts)

Background:  Electrician Arts are an American developer, marketer, publisher and distributor of video games situated in California. It was formed in 1982 on May 28^th.

Owner/founder:  Founded by Trip Hawkins

Most successful games: Madden NFL, FIFA, NHL, NCAA Football, NBA Live, and SSX.

Institutions:

·         In 2011 Electronic Arts was the world's third-largest gaming company by revenue after Nintendo and Activision Blizzard.

·         EA announced that it had exceeded $1 billion in digital revenue during the previous calendar year

Zynga:

Background: Zyna games are a provider of social games and develop social games that work on mobile phone platforms such as the Apple IOS. The headquarters are situated in California, USA in San Francisco.

Owner/founder: It was founded in July 2007 by Mark Pincus

Most successful games:  One of their most successful games was The Farmville series.

Institutions: Zynga games had over 265 million monthly active users and three of the top five Facebook games.

Nintendo:

Background: Nintendo is a Japanese multinational consumer Electronics Company based in Kyoto, Japan. It was founded in 1989 on September 23^rd.

Owner/founder: The founder of Nintendo was Fusajiro Yamauchi

Most successful game: One of the most successful games was Mario Bros

Institutions:  Nintendo has sold over 669.36 million hardware units and 4.20 billion software units

Sony Computer Entertainment

Background: year formed and location

Owner/founder:

Most successful games:

Interesting fact about the institution:

Sony Computer Entertainment:

Background:  Sony Computer Entertainment is a Japanese multinational video game company specializing in a variety of areas in the video game industry. It was founded in 1993 on November 16^th and is situated in Japan Tokyo.

Owner/founder:  Nintendo is owned by Andrew House

Most successful game: