Insight articles
Since 2005, GIC has written a monthly GIC commentary on the games industry, its trends, latest data, common fallacies and latest crazes. All were originally published in the games trade magazine Develop, but are reprinted for you here.
2010
June 2010 Freeing the iPhone
Rick Gibson assesses the future of iPhone games and contrasts his bleak findings about premium retail games with the brighter prospects for freemium products like ngmoco's We Rule.
May 2010 The Generation Game
Another year, another batch of Cassandras calling the current generation of consoles the last ever. Nick Gibson picks up and passes this old canard around, before putting it into touch.
April 2010 Do we still need publishers in an online world?
As the games industry inexorably moves online, we examine the myth of 'going direct' and assess the new skills games companies need to get their products to market.
March 2010 Games will subsume everything
14 years after GIC founder Nick Gibson first wrote that games would become our predominant entertainment medium, Nick revisits his radical hypothesis to uncover more evidence that his prediction is coming true.
February 2010 An offer you can't refuse
Rick Gibson examines the furore around criminal scams and the firms taken in by them, and finds a perfectly viable commercial model for social gaming.
2009
December 2009 Taking a Gamble?
An investment in an online games publisher by a huge online gambling company suggests that the games industry's often heavily regulated cousin wants a piece of the action.
November 2009 Extraordinary Games Businesses – part 4: Ankama
The fourth in our series of articles looking at cutting edge online games businesses, this time France's largest independent developer, the casual MMOG studio Ankama.
October 2009 What the industry said: the definitive survey on tax credits
A review of our findings in the latest industry survey on tax breaks
September 2009 Extraordinary Games Businesses – part 3: Zynga
The third in our series of remarkable games business looks at possibly the fastest growing games company of all time.
August 2009 Extraordinary Games Businesses – part 2: Giant
The second in our series of remarkable games business looks at the hyper aggressive Chinese MMOG operator.
July 2009 The best things in life are free: How freemium business models deliver hefty profits
An article looking at giving away games content for free and the rise of the freemium business model.
June 2009 Extraordinary Games Businesses – part 1: Artix Entertainment
The first in a new series examining remarkable and successful games companies operating at the fringes of the games industry.
May 2009 A new golden era? Innovation shortfalls in online games design
Has network gaming really introduced a new era of original IP creation?
April 2009 Funds’n’Games: Global downturn hits games investment hard
Funding for privately held games companies has collapsed in 2009 with potentially serious implications. Is this the real cost of the recession for the games industry?
March 2009 Network gaming hits the mainstream: When network gaming will overtake retail
A look at how network gaming fares next to the traditional console and retail market.
February 2009 New business models – part 2: Microtransactions
Microtransactions are here in the West and far more pervasive and widely used than you might think.
2008
December 2008 The game's not nearly up: Games Up campaign wrap
October 2008 New business models – part 1: subscription
September 2008 Beyond the Billboard: advertising inside games surges online
August 2008 German persistence: Europe’s new casual MMOG juggernauts
July 2008 How online changes everything: new paradigms for games studios
June 2008 Child's play: the new online market for children’s games
April 2008 Growing pains for global studios: how Ubisoft rides the wave of globalisation
2007
September 2007 Extreme M&A – Part Three: IGN’s acquisition by News Corp
August 2007Climate Change: Games hardware cycles extended by the new mass market
July 2007 Extreme M&A – Part Two: : the ‘failed’ disposal of Vivendi Universal Games
June 2007 Extreme M&A – Part One: DMA Design’s acquisition by Take 2
April 2007 A Long View of Original IP – Part One: rising risk aversion dampens new
February 2007 An Asian Audition: the hidden MMOG that rules the world of online gaming
January 2007 The Nintendo Method: Nintendo’s unparalleled profitability
2006 and earlier
November 2006 Developing a service ethos: Services and microtransactions to transform games industry
October 2006 £300m at the end of the rainbow: Myths about public service gaming
September 2006 Winning the war by losing the arms race: Nintendo changes the rules
June 2006 Would you Live Anywhere? Xbox Live assessed
May 2006 10 Years of Games in the City: lessons from a savvy games investor
April 2006 Outsourcing - Part 2: Next-gen consoles turbo-charge the outsourcing market
March 2006 The new Asian tigers: demystifying the Asian games market
February 2006 The Next-Gen PC games market: online is changing PC gaming forever
January 2006 Arrested development: Giant potential in the Chinese domestic games market
December 2005 Outsourcing's time has come: outsourcing is now standard operating procedure
November 2005 The times they are a-changing: the future of the games industry is mass market
October 2005 Disabusing digital distribution delusions: the industry’s digital holy grail myth
September 2005 The games M&A market: 2005’s feeding frenzy of games company acquisitions
