Big Media Investment in Games (2010)

GIC's latest report, this time for Screen Digest, charts the phenomenon of Big Media investment in the games industry, profiling how Disney, Warner Bros, Viacom, News Corp. and NBC Universal are investing heavily in games, and taking many of their properties direct to market, rather than via their old intermediary partners, the games publishers.

You can read coverage of the report and quotes from the author, Nick Gibson, in Gamasutra, Gamesindustry.biz, MCV or purchase it from Screen Digest.

Synopsis

2009 proved to be another solid year for games content revenues. While the traditional retail market for games saw some decline compared to the outstanding 2008, the online games markets and the emergence of new games platforms such as social networks and the iPhone prompted great growth in these alternative sectors. Over the last five years, games have begun to reach new demographic markets and are increasingly impacting, and in many respects threatening, the time and money spent consuming more traditional media such as TV, music and fi lm. Games have now become such an accepted part of children and young adults' lives that many of the world's largest media companies have begun to embark on vigorous and sometimes renewed attempts to gain a foothold in the games market.

List of tables and charts:

Introduction
Media companies' comparative financials
 

Disney
Disney's recent games-related transactions
Disney Interactive Studios' development investment
Disney Interactive Studios' supply chain
Disney Interactive Studios' revenue
Disney Interactive Studios' 2006 development spend, split by IP origin
Key IP owned and licensed by Disney
 

Warner Brothers
List of major group companies
Warner Bros's recent games transactions
Key IP owned and licensed by Warner Bros.
 

Viacom
Viacom's recent games transactions
Nickelodeon games sites traffic in August 2009
 

News Corp
News Corp's recent games transactions