GDC 2005

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(No Transcript)
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The Plan

• Europe?
• Definition(s)
• Territory Profile
• Market
• Business in Europe
• Licensing
• Self Publishing
• QA Special Thanks

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The Speaker

• Thomas Bidaux
• GOA.com
• NCsoft Europe
• ICO Partners
• As well as
• University Langue, Littérature et Civilisation
  Etrangère Anglais
• Shakespeare, Marianne Moore and the British and
  American Civilisations

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Europe?
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Europe?
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Europe?
Herman Moll - 1708
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Europe?
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Europe?
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Europe?
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Political Europe

• Many definitions
• Euro-zone (16 countries)
• EU (27 countries)
• Schengen (31 countries)
• Council of Europe (47 countries)

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Euro-zone
 Eurozone (16)  EU states obliged to join the
Eurozone (9)  EU state with an opt-out on
Eurozone participation (2)
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European Union
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Schengen
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Council of Europe
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Europe in Numbers (1)

• Superficy
• 4 300 000 km² (thats 1 600 000 sq miles)
• USA - 3 800 000 sq miles
• Population
• 500M in Europe
• USA - 300M
• Density
• 114/km²
• USA - 31/km²

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Europe in Numbers (2)

• Currencies
• 12
• Internet Users (tage of Worldwide users)
• 28 Europe
• 18.4 North America
• Comscore January 2009
• Consoles
• 8.4M PS3
• 8.9M Xbox 360
• 16M Wii

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Europe beyond Numbers

• Cultural particularities
• History
• Metric system
• Sports
• No Baseball
• Football is played using your feet
• Rugby
• Cricket (actually)
• Comics books

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Europe beyond Numbers

• Cultural particularities

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Europe beyond Numbers

• Cultural particularities
• Humour
• France and Germany Arte TV channel
• Personal Relationship
• North vs South
• Marriage and dating
• Moving  abroad 
• Food

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Europe beyond Numbers

• Religions

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Europe beyond Numbers

• Faith

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Europe Legal framework

• Civil law system (except in the UK)
• European Union regulations
• All EU countries tend to align their legal
  rulings (very slow process)
• Data Protection
• Extremely regulated
• Shared trust between EU states
• Consumer Protection laws
• Shared Across EU states (not 100 though)
• Tougher than the US regulations

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Europe Game ratings

• PEGI (32 countries)
• Voluntary system legally enforced in a few
  countries
• BBFC in the UK for game rated 16 or more
• Mainly for retail
• Nothing on Alcohol, Tobacco or Blood
• Very quick approval process for 12 games

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Europe Game ratings
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Europe Game ratings

• USK (Germany)
• Legally enforced
• Retail Only
• A lot of urban legends but
• No Swatiska and be careful on WW2 with references
• Quick approval process (except in the summer)
• Some examples on the cultural difference

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Leipzig Game Convention
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Some ratings examples
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Europe and Languages

• 40 different languages in Europe
• Important languages English (British), French,
  German, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Swedish, Danish,
  Norvegian, Russian, Finnish, Polish, Greek,
  Russian.
• Many minor languages Basque, Breton, Welsh,
  Gaelic, Corsican, Catalan, Slavic and Baltic
  languages
• And even Latin
• 3 different alphabets (with variations)
• Roman
• Greek
• Cyrillic

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The AZERTY (french) Keyboard
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Europe and Languages

• British VS American
• Different spelling
• Different vocabularies
• Different sensibilities
• Spaztic Mario Party 8 was removed from shelves
• Short Shag Fusion Fall (kid game) haircut
  description

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Europe and English
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Means of payment (1)

• SMS
• high rate
• popular with kids and teens
• Higher mobile phone penetration than the US (107
  vs 77 per 100 inhabitants in 2006)
• Credit/Debit Cards
• Popular with adults (different rates of equipment
  between countries, generally less than US)
• Local version very common (Carte Bleue, Swift)
• ELV
• very common in Germany
• Bank transfer (high rate of charge back)

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Means of payment (2)

• Pre-paid cards
• Paysafe 210k outlets in 16 countries, 2.7k web
  shops, 15M transactions in 2008
• Wallie XXX
• Premium landline call
• Popular with kids and for small amounts
• Direct ISP billing
• VAT in Europe
• Based on the country of operation
• Average is 20
• Listed prices are inclusive

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Means of payment (3)
Source ACNielsen Oct 2005
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Means of payment (4)
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Means of payment (5)
US 59 (US census bureau)
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European Market

• Popular Online Games

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European Market

• PC market

In 2008 laptops 70 of European PC
market Netbooks 10 of the total European PC
market 70 of netbooks sales were in Europe in
2008 Netbooks EU market expected to grow from 8M
units in 2008 to 50M units in 2012
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European Market

• Size of the Internet market

Broadband lines per 100 inhabitants. 2008
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European Market

• Size of the Market

Source idate September 2008
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European Market

• Size of the Market

WOW Servers
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European Market MMO

• Size of the Market (estimates)
• LOTRO 50/50 split US/EU
• Age of Conan 35/65 split US/EU
• Runescape 66/33 split US/EU
• Guildwars 45/55 split US/EU
• EU Estimates

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European Market

• Free to Play Market
• Driven by browser-based
• Some succesful client-based Free to Play
• EU Estimates

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European Market

• F2P vs P2P

(from 400 games currently operated in Europe or
under development)
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European Market

• F2P vs P2P

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European Devs

• Online Games Studios
• 173 studios
• 300 projects

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European Devs

• Prominent Studios

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European Operators

• Local actors
• Codemasters Lotro, DDO, Jumpgate, Archlord
• GOA.com DAoC, WAR, Goa.com
• Frogster Runes of Magic, Bounty Bay Online
• Gameforge Metin 2, Ogame
• Bigpoint Seafight, Dark Orbit
• Gamigo Level R, Last Chaos, Shot Online
• Burda IC Florensia, Ragnarok, Alaplaya
• Games Masters Cabal Online, Perfect World
• Local subsiduaries
• Blizzard WOW
• NCWest GW, Lineage 2, City of Heroes
• Club Penguin Club Penguin
• Gala Net Flyff, Rappelz
• Aeria Games Last Chaos, Shaiya, Megaten
• Nexon MapleStory, Combat Arms
• SquareEnix - FFXI

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European gameplay style

• Service expectations
• Language
• Call center
• Communication/Community

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European gameplay style

• Different play style

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European gameplay style
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European gameplay style
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European gameplay style
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Business in Europe
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Business in Europe

• First consideration
• Splitting the services
• Shards?
• IP Blocking?
• Legal consideration?
• Community Management?
• Marketing opportunities?

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Licensing in Europe

• Key points to consider
• Service splitting - required
• Business model
• Royalty mechanism
• IP management
• Localisation strategy
• Bug reporting
• Customer Support policies
• User feedback processes
• Global communication/marketing

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Licensing in Europe

• Existing actors
• Codemasters
• GOA.com
• Frogster
• K2
• Gala Net
• Gamigo
• Gameforge
• Bigpoint
• Funcom?

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Self publishing in Europe

• Expect to spend time on
• Legal
• Community management
• Localisation
• Customer Support
• Billing solutions
• Server operations
• Marketing
• Distribution (for boxes)
• Recruitment

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Self publishing in Europe

• Where to set up European operations
• France
• UK
• The Netherlands
• Germany
• Switzerland
• Ireland
• Other?
• From a US office?

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QA
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QA

• Special thanks to
• Diane
• Paysafe
• Kai Bodensiek
• Idate (Laurent Michaud)
• Global Collect (Rogier de Boer)
• Club Penguin (Emma Bullen)