It’s worth noting that Hollywood is also in a ‘Creativity Crisis’, to which is attributed the slumping dvd and box-office sales. I think that the constant comparison to the movie industrie has led the game industry into exactly the same predicament. The game industry isn’t going to become the next Hollywood, and pretty soon people will begin to realize that video games are a different type of thing, and don’t have to follow the same rules.

Entertainment property developers should always be striving to produce the highest quality work that they would be proud to show off in their portfolio.

Morgan — I think that goes without saying. I think what Breath was trying to say is that episodic could lower up-front development costs at least somewhat (certainly not 80%, but not 0% either) and, as a result, permit a little more experimentation. Experimentation and “the production of low-quality products” are not necessarily the same. ;)

Then we could break the cycle of ‘every game has to be a hit’.

I don’t think so. Look at film and television. For the most part, the focus in Hollywood is on generating blockbuster properties whereas in television the focus is on generating the highest rated programs. The films and shows that bomb are simply cancelled. Episodic content is not an excuse for low-quality and/or unsuccessful products. Episodic content that sucks will still get cancelled. Entertainment property developers should always be striving to produce the highest quality work that they would be proud to show off in their portfolio.

Ironically, it’s middleware companies like Epic that are enabling episodic content. With so much functionality right out of the box, developers now have the financial freedom to create a ‘pilot’ episode without losing too much time and money. Then we could break the cycle of ‘every game has to be a hit’.

For example, the Steam distribution platform does not appear to differentiate customers and consumers. Where are the "gift order" features? How would I purchase a subscription to a game delivered by Steam for a friend or family member? If I could order gifts, would my friend or family member need to be registered with Steam too? Or could I send the subscription via e-mail? Or via snail mail? Or via an instant messenger? Or perhaps even via MySpace?

By the way, Dallas-based Ritual Entertainment is the developer of SiN Episodes, which is episodically purchased and delivered to customers via the Steam distribution platform.

You aren’t necessarily “selling for less”. There is potential to earn significantly more dollars per hour of content (re: my comments about utility at the end of the post.) It depends on the franchise, the developer, and the fan community.

If we’re talking about episodes for hard-core games, you’ll either have a few mass-marketed titles or more niche titles selling on word of mouth and brand-recognition. Mass marketing will more likely be reserved for established titles, whose brand recognition might be better off focused on annual complete products to get the largest price tag. Niche titles might sell off word of mouth, but that’s still risky as there are few proven methods to generate it — we’ve all seen the figures suggesting no link between game review scores and actual sales.

If you’re talking about episodic games for the casual masses, then you need to make it easy and centralized. Casual gamers don’t want to explore a jungle for their episodes. Just look at how mobile games are suffering because they rely on unorganized virtual stores. And once a centralized network wins an audience to sell these titles, margins are going to get hit hard by an aggregator and once again you’re losing a portion of sales to a controlling “retailer”. Perhaps this creates an opportunity for a publisher to act as an aggregator?

For a developer, where’s the added value of removing the retailer and selling less for less (although you hopefully can develop for much less as well)? You lose your distribution model, lose an established point of contact with your customer, and lose a higher price tag. In exchange, you have to find a new way to distribute without hitting margins, and have to find another way to get the attention of prospective customers. Some can do it, and with a name and audience that Half Life has, it may be easy. But for a little guy, one might be better off with the status quo.

At the same time, as you hinted, episodic gaming could be great for new types of games and new players. Bundling a first episode with other products (in other industries as well) could be a great way to create a strong unique audience. Episodic games with free user-generated content could create a compelling user community that could step over the marketing of the industry titans of today. In the end, maybe it all depends how you attack it.

Write a post quickly, get sloppy with your word choice, and what does it get you? Back-talk. *grin*

Thanks for forcing me to clarify. I didn’t mean to collectively downplay all marketing forms; in fact, I’m more interested in the positive case for episodic gaming (i.e. maybe it can help developers and publishers do a better job of capturing mindshare, ala TV).

Mr. Rein hasn’t been keeping up with research studies that show how relatively ineffective most game marketing is (vs. word of mouth, which is profoundly important.)

The Magid study suggests that advertising, not marketing, is a costly and ineffective brand-building tool. Advertising is a function of marketing, but they’re not the same. Marketing is much wider and deeper in scope than currently practiced in interactive entertainment. Word of mouth and branding, for example, are marketing and public relations practices. Today’s typical marketing practices for games are underdeveloped. That makes sense to the age of this industry.

Unfortunately, there seems to be little growth in game marketing, no thought leaders, and few advocates for better marketing practices. Thankfully, the MI6 Game Marketing Conference provides us an outlet from which to push for change. I’m also working on establishing another channel from within the IGDA…