Video Games are an amazing addiction for millions of people. With an increase in the number of video gaming companies, the number of games that are designed and produced every year is also increasing. The companies fulfill their user’s needs stand as the most popular choice for obvious reasons.
Each day, video games are becoming more and more advanced. In this world of advancement, closure is not an option. Neither is staying stagnant for a long time. People eventually grow out of the older video games and crave for more high definition games and better graphics.
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Video Games Development
Video game development is the process of creating a video game. The effort is undertaken by a developer, ranging from a single person to an international team dispersed across the globe. Development of traditional commercial PC and console games is normally funded by a publisher. And it can take several years to reach completion.
Indie games usually take less time and money and it can be produced by individuals and smaller developers. The independent game industry has been on the rise, facilitated by the growth of accessible game development software such as Unity platform and Unreal Engine. And new online distribution systems such as Steam and Uplay as well as mobile game market for Android and iOS devices.
Outsourcing Video Games
Several development disciplines, such as audo, dialogue or motion capture, occur for relatively short periods of time. Efficient employment of these roles requires large development house with multiple simultaneous title production or outsourcing form third-party vendors. Employing personnel for these tasks full-time is expensive, so a majority of developers outsource a portion of the work. Outsourcing plans are conceived during the pre-production stage; where the time and finances required for outsourced work are estimated.
The music cost ranges based on length of composition, method of performance (live or synthesized), and composer experience. In 2003, a minute of high quality synthesized music cost between 600 to 1500 USD. A tile with 20 hours of gameplay and 60 minutes of music may have cost 50,000 to 60,000 USD for its musical score.
Nintendo is a Japanese multinational consumer electronics and video game Company headquartered in Kyoto. Nintendo is one of the world’s largest video game companies by market capitalization. They have created some of the best-known and top-selling video game franchises of all-time, such as Mario, The Legend of Zelda, Animal Crossing, and Pokémon.
Nintendo was founded in 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi and originally produced handmade hanafuda playing cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as cab services and love hotels, without major success. Abandoning previous ventures in favor of toys in the 1960s, Nintendo developed into a video game company in the 1970s. Supplemented since the 1980s by its major divisions, Nintendo of America and Nintendo of Europe. It ultimately became one of the most influential in the video game industry and one of Japan’s most-valuable companies with a market value of over 37 billion USD in 2018.
Nintendo was in the gaming business long before computers were invented, making playing cards, and later on, toys and arcade games. It entered the console game industry in the 1970s when it distributed the Odyssey console in Japan. In 1981, it developed and released Donkey Kong, the game that spawned the signature character Mario.
Nintendo is perhaps better known for the consoles and gaming devices it has created rather than its games. The company produced a console in 1977 before launching the Famicom, NES and Game Boy systems later.
Rockstar Games, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in New York City. The company was established in December 16998 as a subsidiary of Take-Two Interactive, and as successor to BMG Interactive, a dormant video game publisher of which Take-Two had previously acquired the assets. Founding members of the company were Sam and Dan Houser, Terry Donovan and Jamie King, who worked for Take-Two at the time, and of which the Houser brothers were previously executives at BMG Interactive. Co-founders Sam and Dan Houser head the studio as president and vice-president for creative, respectively.
Since 1999, several companies acquired by or established under Take-Two have become part of Rockstar Games, such as Rockstar Canada (later renamed Rockstar Toronto) becoming the first one in 1999, and Rockstar India the most recent in 2016. All companies organized under Rockstar Games bear the “Rockstar” name and logo.
Rockstar Games predominantly published games in the action-adventure genre, while racing games also saw success for the company. One of such action-adventure game franchises is Grand Theft Auto, which Rockstar Games took over from BMG Interactive, which published the series’ original 1997 entry. The most recent game in the series, Grand Theft Auto V, has shipped over 110 million copies since its release in September 20123, making it one of the best-selling video games of all time. Other popular franchises published by Rockstar Games are Red Dead, Midnight Club, Max Payne and Manhunt.
Rockstar without a doubt should be in the top 10. They do not release a video game unless it is going to be Massive. With ground breaking titles under their belt, such as Grand Theft Auto series, Red Dead Redemption, Max Payne, LA Noire and their upcoming title, Grand Theft Auto V, Rockstar never ceases to amaze.
Game Factory is a mobile game development company headquartered in Taiwan that provides the absolute best CP value for mobile game outsourcing. They have the top management team in Taiwan with over 20 years of experience in game development responsible for the full outsourcing of Myanmar’s top technical talent. What they offer to their customers is an international quality product that costs only a fraction of the cost.
Their engineers are familiar with leading engines, including Unreal and Unity, which enable them to provide a powerful gaming experience and provide full production of mobile versions of these engines. They are focused on creating high quality games, which offers a full services range including design, programming and art creation.
Game Factory’s team have completed the full level art production many games, form the analysis of the placeholder, the planning and design of every modular set and concept art in early production, to the 3D assets and VFX creation in middle production, then the engine integration in the post production.
The character production team of Game Factory who are good at creating high-end realistic characters on next generation platform, have been working with many AAA developers in high-end character production projects. Game Factory have the extensive project experience in creating the stylized hand-painting characters.
Sony Computer Entertainment, also known as Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), is a multinational video game and digital entertainment company that is wholly owned subsidiary of Japanese conglomerate Sony Corporation, managed through Sony’s American hub, Sony Corporation of America. Its main headquarters is Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC (SIE LLC), based in San Mateo, California, United States. Sony Interactive Entertainment Inc. (SIE Inc.) is based in Tokyo, Japan. SIE Inc. was founded as Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE) in Tokyo in November 1993 to handle Sony’s venture into video game development for the PlayStation systems, while SIE LLC was founded in San Mateo in April 2016.
Since the launch of the original PlayStation console in 1994, the company has been developing PlayStation home video game consoles, accessories and services lineup. Expanding into North America and Europe, the company quickly became Sony’s main resource for research and development in video games and interactive Entertainment, carrying over the operations and primary objectives from both companies. The same year, SIE moved its headquarters from Tokyo to San Mateo, California.
Sony Interactive Entertainment handles the research and development, production, and sales of both hardware and software for the PlayStation video game systems. SIE is also a developer and publisher of video game titles, and operates several subsidiaries in Sony’s largest markets: North America, Europe and Asia. By August 2018, the company had sold more than 525 million PlayStation consoles worldwide.
Valve Corporation is an American video game developer, publisher and digital distribution company headquartered in Bellevue, Washington. It is the developer of the software distribution platform Steam and the Half-Life, Counter-Strike, Portal, Day of Defeat, Team Fortress, Left 4 Dead, and Dota Series.
Valve was founded in 1996 by former Microsoft employees Gabe Newell and Mike Harrington. Their debut product, the PC first-person shooter Half-Life, was released in 1998 to critical acclaim and commercial success, after which Harrington left the company. In 2003, Valve launched Steam, which accounted for around half of digital PC game sales by 2011. By 2012, Valve employed around 250 people and was reportedly worth over 3 billion USD, making it the most profitable company per employee in the United States. In the 2010s, Valve began producing hardware, such as the Steam Machine, a brand of gaming PCs, as well as the HTC Vive and Valve Index virtual reality headsets.
Valve made the source engine which has been continuously powered their games since half-life 2. They never bend themselves down to trends and continue to push the limits of what they can do. Half-Life is not a game franchise like Call of Duty, Tony Hawk, or even Mario. Half-Life is a revolution, and so is Portal, and so is Team Fortress and so is Left 4 Dead. The Orange Box was a testament to their loyalty towards their fans, and the fans respond well to them because of that Valve rocking.
Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. It is the second-largest gaming company in the Americas and Europe by revenue and market capitalization after Activision Blizzard and ahead of Take-Two Interactive and Ubisoft as of March 2018.
Founded and incorporated on May 27, 1982, by Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer games industry and was notable for promoting the designers and programmers responsible for its games. EA published numerous games and productivity software for personal computers and later experimented on techniques to internally develop games, leading to the 1987 release of Skate or Die! The company would later decide in favor of abandoning their original principles and acquiring smaller companies that they see profitable, as well as annually releasing franchises to stay profitable.
Currently, EA develops and publishes games of established franchises, including Battlefield, Need for Speed, the Sims, Medal of Honor, Command and Conquer, Dead Space, Mass Effect, Dragon Age, Army of Two, Titanfall and Star Wars as well as the EA Sports titles FIFA, Madden NFL, NBA Live, NHL and EA Sports UFC. Their desktop titles appear on self-developed Origin, an online gaming digital distribution platform for PCs and a direct competitor to Valve’s Steam and Epic Game’s Store. EA also owns and operates major gaming studios such as EA Tiburon in Orlando, EA Vancouver in Burnaby, DICE in Sweden and Los Angeles, BioWare in Edmonton and Austin, and Respawn Entertainment in Los Angeles.
Ubisoft is a French video game company headquartered in Montreuil with several development studios across the world. It publishes games for several video game franchises, including Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, Just Dance, Prince of Persia, Rayman, Raving Rabbids, and Tom Clancy’s. As of March 2018, Ubisoft is the fourth largest publicly traded game company in the Americas and Europe in terms of revenue and market capitalization, after Activision Blizzard, Electronic Arts, and Take-Two Interactive. Ubisoft makes wide open games and even some pretty cool applications. The smooth play on their games is incredible.
Square Enix is a Japanese video game developer, publisher, and distribution company well known for its Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, and Kingdom Hearts roleplaying video game franchises, among numerous others. Several of them have sold over 10 million copies worldwide, with the Final Fantasy franchise alone selling 144 million, the Dragon Quest franchise selling 78 million and the Kingdom Hearts franchise selling 30 million. The Square Enix headquarters are in the Shinjuku Eastside Square Building in Shinjuku, Tokyo. The company employs over 4300 employees worldwide.
The original Square Enix Co., Ltd. was formed in April 2003 as the result of a merger between Square and Enix, with the latter as the surviving company. Each share of Square’s common stock was exchanged for 0.85 shares of Enix’s common stock. At that time, 80% of Square Enix staff were made up of former Square employees. As part of the merger, former Square President Yoichi Wada was appointed as the president of the new corporation, while former Enix president Keiji Honda was named its vice president. Yasuhiro Fakushima, the largest shareholder of the combined corporation and founder of Enix, became chairman.
In October 2008, Square Enix conducted a company split between its corporate business and video game operations. Square Enix reorganized itself as Square Enix Holdings Co., Ltd., a holding company, while its internally domestic video game operations were formed as a new subsidiary called Square Enix Co., Ltd. During the 2014 fiscal year, the company made over 1.36 billion USD.
In addition to its flagship subsidiary, Square Enix Holdings owns the arcade gaming corporation Taito, known for games such as Space Invaders, Bubble Bobble, and Darius. Square Enix also owned British publisher Eidos Interactive, which was absorbed into Square Enix Europe to publish Eidos Interactive titles such as Tomb Raider, Deus Ex, and Hitman under Square Enix brand.
Konami is a Japanese entertainment and gambling conglomerate. It operates as a product distributor (which produces and distributes trading cards, anime, tokusatsu, slot machines, pachinko machines, and arcade cabinets), video game developer and publisher company. Besides those, it has casinos around the world and also operates health and physical fitness clubs across Japan.
Konami’s video games include Metal Gear, Silent Hill, Castlevania, Contra, Frogger, Gradius, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Suikoden and Pro Evolution Soccer. Additionally, Konami also owns Bemani, known for Dance Dance Revolution and Beatmania, as well as the assets of former game developer Hudson Soft, known for Bomberman, Adventure Island, Bonk, Bloody Roar and Star Soldier. Konami is the twentieth-largest game company in the world by revenue.
The company originated in 1969 as a jukebox rental and repair business in Toyonaka, Osaka, Japan by Kagemasa Kozuki, who remains the company’s chairman. The name Konami is a portmanteau of the names Kagemasa Kozuki, Yoshinobu Nakama, and Tatsuo Miyasako.
Konami is currently headquartered in Tokyo. In the United States, Konami manages its video game business form offices in El Segundo, California and its casino gaming business form offices in Paradise, Nevada. Its Australian gaming operations are located in Sydney. As of March, 2019, it owns 22 consolidated subsidiaries around the world.
Xbox Game Studios, previously known as Microsoft Studios, Microsoft Game Studios, and Microsoft Games, is a division of Microsoft based in Redmond, Washington. It was established in March 2000, spun out from an internal Games Group, for the development and publishing of video games for Microsoft Windows. It has since expanded to include games and other interactive entertainment for the namesake Xbox platforms, and web-based portals. As the studio grew, it has acquired and relinquished ownership of several studios, and is the parent organization of fifteen other studios.
Video Games are an amazing addiction for millions of people. With an increase in the number of video gaming companies, the number of games that are designed and produced every year is also increasing. The companies fulfill their user’s needs stand as the most popular choice for obvious reasons.
Each day, video games are becoming more and more advanced. In this world of advancement, closure is not an option. Neither is staying stagnant for a long time. People eventually grow out of the older video games and crave for more high definition games and better graphics.
