Shiraz Akmal

Tweet Cloud

2009-12-17T17:54:00.001-08:00

Obama: Community Colleges can help boost ailing economy

2009-07-14T16:19:00.000-07:00

One of the driving motivations and reasons behind the LAScholars.com video game industry program - read about President Obama's overall vision for how community colleges play a central role in revitalizing the US economy:

"Community colleges are only two-year institutions, but the Obama administration says they could play a key role in helping boost the ailing economy for years to come."

"... the president unveiled the American Graduation Initiative, a 10-year, $12 billion plan to invest in community colleges."

Obama called the investment in community colleges crucial because "jobs requiring at least an associate degree are projected to grow twice as fast as jobs requiring no college experience" in coming years.

"We will not fill those jobs, or keep those jobs on our shores, without the training offered by community colleges," he said.

Read the entire article on CNN here. Sign up for the LA Scholars program here.

Twitter is for old people?

2009-07-14T15:02:00.000-07:00

Matthew Robson, 15 year old whiz-kid tells bankers that teenagers don't read newspapers, use phones to make calls or go to the cinema.

The world according to Matthew Robson aged 15 and a half:

Radio With online sites streaming music for free they do not bother, as services such as last.fm do this advert free and users can choose the songs they want instead of listening to what the radio presenter/DJ chooses.

Newspapers No teenager that I know of regularly reads a newspaper, as most do not have the time and cannot be bothered to read pages and pages of text while they could watch the news summarised on the internet or on TV.

Internet Facebook is the most common, with nearly everyone with an internet connection registered. On the other hand, teenagers do not use Twitter.

Music They are very reluctant to pay for it (most having never bought a CD) Teenagers from higher income families use iPods and those from lower income families use mobile phones.

Directories Real directories contain listings for builders and florists, which are services teenagers do not require. They can get the information free on the internet.

Viral/Outdoor Marketing ³Most teenagers enjoy and support viral marketing... Teenagers see adverts on websites (pop-ups, banner ads) as extremely annoying and pointless...they are portrayed in such a negative light that no one follows them.²

Cinema Teenagers visit the cinema more often when they are in the lower end of teendom but as they approach 15 they go to the cinema a lot less. This is because of the pricing; at 15 they have to pay the adult price. Also it is possible to buy a pirated DVD of the film at the time of release, and these cost much less than a cinema ticket.

Mobile phones The general view is that Sony Ericsson phones are superior, because of their long list of features, built-in Walkman capacity and value.

Read the full article here.

Recruiting All Video Game Companies- Summer Intern Program

2009-06-29T23:37:00.000-07:00

I'm very pleased to announce what I've been working on - the first ever, government backed career pathway internship program for the video game industry - LA Scholars.com.

I ask that each and every one of you in Los Angeles encourage your employer to participate - there is no cost and more importantly - you are investing in your community by providing life changing opportunities for highly motivated young adults from some of the most underserved neighborhoods. We will be announcing our partners in the coming weeks.

LA Scholars is sponsored by the City of LA, the Mayor's Office and backed by the Federal Government. This is a non-profit effort with the goal of creating career pathways for young adults into the video game industry. The program targets students in under-served neighborhoods by providing them training and access to some of the biggest entertainment and gaming companies in the world Read more.

LA Scholars is currently recruiting video game companies to get involved and host summer interns. The program is at no cost to the employer and provides an opportunity to companies to prepare and test out their future potential workforce while investing in the people that live in their local communities in a potentially life changing way.

Right now - What's on our collective minds? Michael Jackson meets Collecta

2009-06-25T17:07:00.000-07:00

Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Plaxo etc.. quietly.. and often politely asks, prompts or just flat out demands us to answer, update or just let everyone know "What's on your mind?" People twitter, tweet, blog, post, comment and respond to what's on each others minds.. and news spreads, grows, and evolves and mutates... in many languages, timezones from people of all different backgrounds.

With Michael Jackson's passing today - Collecta is a new search engine that gives us a glimpse and helps us get a sense of what's on everyone's mind -- all around the world, all at the same time -- from Flickr, Wordpress to Twitter.. Here's a window into our collective conscience - click here and watch what we're all thinking now.

Wordle!

2009-06-07T21:05:00.000-07:00

I've just wordled my blog, enjoy!

Link to the Wordle itself:

Wave Goodbye to Sharepoint?

2009-05-29T17:28:00.000-07:00

Google's big news - Wave -- it's worth watching the video from the Google I/O conference (it's looong). Wave is essentially a new platform for communication, collaboration and interactivity (and potentially a great platform for distributing and playing video games! :-) -- it takes many products and technologies we've seen before (google docs, elements of Facebook, Microsoft sharepoint, IM, etc) but integrates them nicely.

Plus, Google plans to open-source the whole thing -- continuing to paint the very stark difference in how they view the web compared to their rival Microsoft.

Web Platform is Accelerating

2009-05-29T17:16:00.000-07:00

The types of applications/interactivity we're seeing on the web continue to become more sophisticated. I found this chart insightful showing how the underlying web technologies and infrastructure are becoming more powerful - this tied with the trend of moving more applications to cloud/server based platforms paints an exciting future for the connected world we're living in.

Read how Google is betting on HTML 5 to support initiatives like Wave while also trying to avoid mistakes made in the past by competitors (ahem Microsoft):

"Never underestimate the web," says Google VP of Engineering Vic Gundotra in his keynote at Google I/O this morning. He goes on to tell the story of a meeting he remembers when he was VP of Platform Evangelism at Microsoft five years ago. "We believed that web apps would never rival desktop apps. There was this small company called Keyhole, which made this most fantastic geo-visualization software for Windows. This was the kind of software we always used to prove to ourselves that there were things that could never be done on the web." A few months later, Google acquired Keyhole, and shortly thereafter released Google Maps with satellite view.

My favorite part of the article is when Google's VP of Engineering realized that web applications will beat out traditional client software -- do you agree?

"We knew then that the web had won," he said. "What was once thought impossible is now commonplace."

Read the rest of the article here.

15% discount for GamesBeat 2009 Conference

2009-03-20T00:14:00.000-07:00

15% DISCOUNT LINK HERE
Get in the game at GamesBeat 2009! — VentureBeat’s inaugural conference for the gaming industry’s top players will be held on March 24, 2009, at the Mission Bay Conference Center on UCSF’s campus in San Francisco, CA.

Join the Major Leagues -- The latest GamesBeat speaker line-up is a testament to our theme — All the World’s a Game — as we have covered our bases. We have some of the biggest names in the gaming industry representing the multiple ways gaming will shape our experience with the world. Here are just some of the people you will be sharing ideas and connecting with:
Chris Taylor, founder of Gas Powered Games, is co-emcee of the event — besides being a game pioneer, he’s also one of the industry’s only stand-up comedians!

Headliners include John Smedley, president of Sony Online Entertainment, Seamus Blackley, head of the games department at Creative Artists Agency and co-creator of the Xbox and Curt Schilling, founder and chairman of 38 Studios and World Series winning pitcher from the Boston Red Sox.

Industry journalists leading our discussions include: Matt Richtel of the NY Times, Geoff Keighley, head of game relations at Spike TV and the host of Game Trailers TV, N'Gai Croal of Newsweek; and Adam Sessler, co-host and managing editor of G4TV’s X-Play show.

The complete line-up can be found on our speaker list and agenda on the GamesBeat Web site.

Media Coverage -- We are also thrilled that these important discussions will be covered by outstanding members of the media, some of which include: ExtremeTech, GamersDaily News, Wall Street Journal, Spike TV, g4tv, Newsweek, Reuters, Hollywood Reporter, LA Times, New York Times, USA Today, BusinessWeek, Crispy Gamer and 1UP.com.

Independent Game Funding

2008-10-03T10:33:00.000-07:00

Here's a recent interview that I gave NotesOnGameDev.net describing the need to focus on investing in the game development "ecosystem".

On Game Career Guide's forums, Beth Dillon commented on one of the needs in the industry- lot's of independent developers are looking for funding:

So I've had a lot of people ask about how to get funding as an independent developer. I'm starting to seek more information about this, and it turns out there's a new investment firm from one of THQ's own: Shiraz Akmal. He's now Managing Director of GCube Ventures, which says it offers funding for everything from development to publishing to distribution and then some. Just an interesting thought. They refer to it as the "gaming ecosystem."

You can see more at, of course, Game Development Ecosystem.

- Beth

Interactive entertainment + User Generated Content = Potential to create the next media giants of the future.

2008-09-04T22:35:00.000-07:00

Spore is the next game from Will Wright, designer of SimCity and The Sims that represents a new breed of games being developed by companies large and small across the video game industry. These user generated content oriented games allow players to create and share their own content including characters, worlds and other user generated content as well as play with other peoples creations.

The ability to connect with other people online, share content and communicate with other users have created some of the largest and well known companies such as FaceBook, YouTube, MySpace and LinkedIn.

The content and ability to share with others increase the overall experience of these types of social networks, where the content and experience actually improve over time proportional to the number of people actively connected, creating and sharing with each other.

With Spore and other games such as LittleBigPlanet, the fundamental design change is centered around the concept that the game developer provides the framework for the players to build what they want, how they want and with who they want to.

This transforms the game from merely being a static, repetitive experience to one where the game becomes the distribution platform for never ending, evolving stream of user generated content and social interaction (much like Facebook, etc).

Ultimately game developers have the opportunity to create companies that rival the success of the YouTube’s and FaceBook’s of the world – adopting many of the same principles those platforms have been built with and integrating them into the actual games.

As the premier investment firm focused on the game ecosystem, we are actively investing in innovative ideas. As we see the traditional US markets move toward a more online centric business model – moving away from retail – we are seeing publishers and developers alike exploring alternative revenue models, game designs that support sharing of content and connectivity between game players. Spore and games like it represents an evolutionary step towards that and the potential to accelerate and fuel the growth of the overall interactive entertainment ecosystem – this is just one of many sectors that GCube Ventures actively invests in.

Video Game Investment Firm - GCube Ventures

2008-07-08T00:35:00.000-07:00

Many, many months in the making... and an industry first -- my new firm GCube Ventures is 100% focused on investing in all ideas and companies that fuel the growth of the game industry worldwide -- investing in all aspects of the "global gaming ecosystem".

GCube is the first investment firm to focus solely on the global game industry, one of the fastest-growing markets. GCube injects capital into its portfolio companies, and also provides value-added resources and strategic ongoing guidance -- acting as a “growth-engine” for promising companies. GCube provides its portfolio companies with an end-to-end business platform, which includes best-in-class human capital, cutting-edge business intelligence, industry-leading expertise, and a strong global co-investor network.

Reaching Nirvana

2008-03-13T16:09:00.000-07:00

There are so many reasons to share this video - gives insight into many things. Take from it what you wish.

A neuro-scientist named Jill Taylor gave a short talk at TED that was probably the most profound depiction of the "deep right brain experience" that I'd ever heard. After her talk, the vibe of the entire conference changed - people were more open, deeper, clearer. Truly remarkable. This video just went on-line today. There is an essential message here for all humanity on acknowledging just how closely connected and related we all are.

http://www.microclesia.com/?p=320

Eric Schmidt Defines Web 3.0

2007-08-08T00:00:00.000-07:00

I was invited to attend the Seoul Digital Forum where I listened to Google CEO Eric Schmidt answer a question posed by my friend Ken Rutkowski: What is Web 3.0?

Here's Eric's answer - BTW, the camera focused on me towards the end of the clip.

"During the dot-com bubble, you needed $5 million to do stupid ideas. Now you can do stupid ideas for 12 grand." - Guy Kawasaki

2007-05-20T12:58:00.000-07:00

He has an interesting way of looking at the things -- this quote certainly underscores the cost of doing business in the web2.0 world compared to 5-10 years ago. Here's a full article that discusses investment , success and competitive trends related to technology startups: The cost of failure falling...Success remains elusive.

Keynote: THQ's Akmal Talks Game Outsourcing

2006-08-14T01:00:00.000-07:00

You'll find a fantastic summary of the GDC Outsourcing Summit keynote I had the privilege to share with an audience of a few hundred people CLICK HERE.

Outsourcing: The Next Evolution in Game Development

2006-08-14T00:01:00.000-07:00

During my 2006 keynote presentation (Outsourcing: The Next Stage of Evolution in Game Development) at the Game Developers Conference - "Game Outsourcing Summit" I explored the evolution of game development and discussed how the industry has shifted to converge on a distributed approach to development. I also covered the benefits of outsourcing and shared insights on how globalization is helping to raise the bar leading to better games - the transcipt follows:

Thank you Jamil.

It’s truly a privilege for me to be here this morning.

When I was given the opportunity to speak with you all, I have admit that I spent a lot of time deciding how to spend the next half hour with an audience that is already at the forefront of this field.

In many respects, we are all -- pioneers working together -- to establish a production process that will scale to match our industry’s unprecedented growth.

To me, this summit truly symbolizes what outsourcing is ultimately about –establishing relationships and dependencies between groups of people, you and me, the person sitting next to you – linking all of us together, which has the potential to transform our industry and streamline the game creation process.

As Jamil shared earlier

Today, we’ll hear from all sorts of experienced folks in this space– covering outsourcing do’s and don'ts, case studies, logistics of setting up an offshore business, the demographics of outsourcing and so forth --

My goal is to touch upon these 3 areas…

By the end of the day, I’m hoping that we all come away with a stronger perspective and more defined context to integrate outsourcing into our development culture.

Also, I’ll be sure to share with you how outsourcing relates to ----Starbucks ---- Skeletons ---and Wasabi!

All of us by now have probably heard the news.

The ESA announced that it “is no longer necessary or efficient to have a single industry ‘‘mega-show’’ – E3 is “evolving” into smaller meetings spaces, distributed across multiple locations.

This is really an example of globalization and its impact on our industry.

E3 started 12 years ago – and represented the epicenter of our game industry. The industry has evolved and matured since then.

We now see that the evolution of the game industry has led to an expanding global market – spawning major events in different regions, such as the German Games Convention, the Tokyo Game Show, China Joy, Korea’s GStar, and company-specific events , and others around the world.
The fact that it’s no longer necessary or efficient to have a single industry mega show symbolizes in some ways why it’s no longer necessary or efficient to develop games entirely in one location…

Let’s look at the evolution of Game Development – to understand why this might be the case..

In the beginning, there was Pong. Just as Pong was played with two players, many games were created the same way – by two people.. Sometimes even one person was enough!

I remember publishing my first game for the Apple IIGS – with 2 other people contributing to the music and graphics…– we were fuled by pizza and coke –– all out of a one room office until it was released.

Then came the 8-bit console storm, and development teams found themselves having to ramp up in the dozens in order to meet the demand of the technologies.

But the biggest impact to development was -- 3D graphics! And that changed the way we made games forever.

Art teams ushered in specialists, such as animators and modelers and texture artists. Programmers found the need for specialists like AI and graphics experts.

After the Playstation and N64 hit the markets, and PC users were faced with a multitude 3D graphics cards to choose from, Game Developers found themselves chasing their tails trying to keep up with the phenomenal demand for bigger and better. And after 10 years since the PS1 was first introduced, that growth hasn’t stopped, especially now with next gen consoles.

The technologies being employed in current games have advanced to the point where computer game companies are now leaders in graphics research. Along with that, we’ve seen the advent of the mega teams in some cases – hundreds of people working on large scale productions.

With every advancement in gaming hardware – we find more memory, higher resolution graphics, greater storage capacity, internet connectivity– all of this -- allowing developers to create richer, more immersive gaming experiences..

As the sophistication of next-generation videogames accelerates and the number of assets requiring management increases --

we see that Outsourcing is already common – it is estimated that 60% of games studios outsource today --- with this figure projected to rise to 90% by 2008 .

Companies are already accustomed to outsourcing localization, movie cinematics, sound and music --- and game compatibility testing. In some cases, companies have been outsourcing these areas all the way back to the early 90’s.

This afternoon, Ben Wibberly from Babel Media will share with us outsourcing best practices related to some of these areas.

As far as engineering - we have seen just the tip of the iceberg so to speak– currently outsourcing is confined to porting and tools development, but I suppose that engineering outsourcing has been rampant, disguised as middleware --- (for example, you can now license physics engines and rendering engines and plug them into your games – when in the past, these were things you’d create yourself).

Today, you’ll find that the majority of games in development use middleware in one way or another.

Beyond those areas we are seeing significant growth in art and animation outsourcing, primarily due to the transition to the next generation systems.

Video Games are leading global Entertainment growth – estimated to reach $42 billion in worldwide sales -- by the end of the decade – that’s almost doubling in the next few years!

Why the growth?

For one, we’re seeing significant growth opportunities in Europe and Asia Pacific. The Asian Pacific Market – some say will be the biggest market by 2009.

Expansion of Gamer Demographics – people playing games as they get older (it’s hard to tell, but he’s really holding a nintendo DS, ok – well not really)– but new products like Nintendo’s brain age are attracting more mature gamers (and frankly I’m hooked on it as well).

And we see that people are starting to play at younger ages – like these children in Korea.

We also see that -- New gaming platforms continue to bring more consumers into the fold. Each console cycle has seen a broadening demographic of video game consumers.

Another exciting development is the chance to expand revenues through a variety of downloadable content and in-game advertising.
These are all good signs for all of us here today. --- Which means, opportunities for Outsourcing will only increase!!! The global market for games outsourcing is estimated to reach $1.1bn by the end of 2006 and is set to grow to $2.5bn by 2010

Let’s take a closer look at globalization

It’s pretty fascinating to look at how the internet --- technology and personal computing --- have been a catalyst for an incredible amount of change in the last two decades.

Just looking at the last 10 years - we’ve seen ---- a technology revolution take place – all across the world (this map above is generated from gamedevmap.com – a site that plots the location of game related companies – check it out).

Technology, the internet and growing worldwide capitalism are transforming and reshaping the world in front of our eyes,
Technology has ---- and will continue to create millions of new jobs and industries --- while reinventing old ones – all over the world – companies are now competing in a global market place..
An entire new class of entrepreneurs have emerged, like Rajesh Rao, head of Dhruva Interactive who we’ll meet later today.
These entrepreneurs are embracing new technologies, leveraging the internet and moving forward with new processes and improved ways of working and collaborating to drive this WORLDWIDE transformation – this media age, web 2.0 or whatever you want to call it.
It’s been practically impossible --- to AVOID – hearing about how outsourcing and globalization has transformed industries –such as Medical imaging, tax preparation, application development, tech support, R&D, animation, and film– all have been transformed and optimized by outsourcing.

"What is really fueling global growth?"
Well, I discovered the answer – after traveling around the world to Beijing China– the answer was right across the street from Tiananmen Square...
That’s right – Star Bucks. It costs $4 for a grande sugar free non-fat vanilla latte –just like here in Los Angeles!

Seriously, it's important to pay attention to China and India – and Asia Pacific. I call it “The Law of More People” – and it’s kicking in. What I mean is that –every business simply cannot ignore the fact that practically overnight – 40% of the worlds population are waking up and embracing capitalism, entering the global workforce.
All of this combined - will drive the most significant changes yet to come! "

Just like Starbucks

We’re seeing game development studios and related businesses sprouting up all over the world – not just in North America or Europe – but now seeing an emerging game industry in Asia and Eastern Europe.

Today, you can go almost anywhere in the world, any place – and you’ll find teams of people programming, animating, designing and creating video games – all --- drinking --- Starbucks!

Governments and educational institutions are also helping to fuel this growth by
setting up schools and universities to teach students about game development and
production.

In India, there are animation schools popping up
everywhere -- producing several thousand graduates a year – that are entering
the growing animation industry.

The last thing I expected to see -- as I walked down the street -- in a neighborhood in Mumbai– was an advertisement for an animation/art school.
Here are some photos of classrooms you’ll find in Beijing, Mumbai, Seoul– in this classroom in Korea – you’ll notice that there are PS2 development kits for each student! Now, that’s hard core.

And of course, here in Los Angeles – USC’s computer science program offers advanced degrees in gaming!
Gaming has come along way since the days of pong –
-- just look at the complexity involved in game programming and design these days
-- USC’s curriculum is hard core
-- but it’s really a reflection of how much science there is in game development.
-- and why specializing is becoming more of a trend – there’s just soo much to learn

With so much growth projected for the game industry

IT’s not surprising that government trade organizations are recognizing that the game industry is good for their economies – and they are working hard to build partnerships with game development and publishing companies.
Never in a million years did I think that I’d be sitting with members of the Korean parliament – discussing ways to foster relationships between American and Korean game companies --- and feeling very underdressed

If we look at all the things discussed, we see:
1. We have a growing global market
2. Rising game development costs
3. Technology and the internet allowing people to work and collaborate from remote locations
4. The Law of More People fueling an already growing development work force
5. And economic incentives and support from government agencies

BOOM - all of these trends converging together at relatively the same time – have created an environment ripe for outsourcing.

Now, of course THE game industry is pretty badass

–after all, IT’S invented lot’s of great things --- pushed technology and hardware – and is full of extremely creative and technical people

– plus – it’s brought entertainment to millions of people.

Seriously, the Game industry IS USED TO – no actually –thrives on change – and has BENEFITED and LEARNED from previous transitions (such as learning to use middleware)

--- just like we are getting better learning how to use outsourcing.

And when I say “outsourcing” I’m referring to all the different flavors– from offshoring, onshoring, insourcing, build operate transfer, distributed development and coventures – and all the other hybrid business models we hear about.

If other industries are any indication of what’s to come-- outsourcing is gonna lead to one of THE MOST DRAMATIC changes in how we develop our games
– possibly as significant as a role that mass manufacturing had in remaking the industrial revolution
– well, ok – maybe that is a bit of an exaggeration – BUT

HERE we are… an entire industry –revisiting the fundamental assumptions of our production model.

One might benefit from examining how other industries have successfully integrated outsourcing into their workflows.

In some cases, it may be prudent to seek insight from experts that have extensive experience helping companies evaluate their options when it comes to outsourcing
– consultants like Amritt Ventures --- sponsor of this event --- comes to mind as a potentially valuable resource.

As an industry, we already manage large teams, develop games on multiple platforms and release them in a bazillion different languages – all at the same time..

Outsourcing will only improve those very same project and resource management skills.

I love this quote –- it really defines some of the key benefits of outsourcing –

“Outsourcing rattles the skeletons in the closet”.

What does it mean??

Well, it means that when you look at distributing development between multiple locations

Bad processes will rear their ugly heads, things will stop working that worked in the same location --- forcing you to address process issues that were generally “hiding in your closet” - things that you weren't even aware of.

This is one of the many reasons why we're seeing a growing number of companies embrace outsourcing -- so that they can gain efficiencies and competitive advantages in the marketplace.

Later today, Paul Steed will get into all sorts of detail about “knowing when to outsource” – we’re definitely looking forward to hearing about his thoughts and experiences.

Now, I’m not gonna stand up here and plug a new game -

BUT - THQ is releasing “Saints Row” for the XBOX 360 August 29th!. Developed by one of THQ’s premier studios, Volition

– this game features a truly open world environment

– where players can do anything they want, whenever they want.

Let’s check it out:

[PLAYS VIDEO]

The team at volition married old school - traditional game development with outsourcing, to produce a game world that is incredibly large and deep - for the XBOX 360.

The decision to outsource allowed Volition to raise the bar
– by allowing them to add a tremendous amount of content in parallel to the development of the game.

Looking at these images from the game
--- the player would never realize that many of the exterior landmarks were outsourced
--- and the final assets were seamlessly integrated back into the game.

In some ways - the developer acted as a “city planner” or architect – designing the layout, the game areas, etc
– while having the outsourcing company “construct” aspects of the environments.

Outsourcing can create all sorts of competitive advantages -- BUT The challenges of realizing those competitive advantages are significant.
Chief among them is the need to communicate accurately and unambiguously across the barriers imposed by firewalls, distance, time zones, national borders, languages, and cultures -- or all of these factors.

-- Speaking of the importance of communication--
I’d like to share an example, a colleague of mine, was having an animation created, where in one scene, a bunch of goofy characters in the kitchen squirting mustard at each other, and off course they provided story boards, and concept drawings, technical specifications. --- So, they were completely surprised when the final renderings came back. Everything looked right, except one thing, the mustard that was getting squirted all over the place was green and not yellow, like what we Americans are familiar with. Turns out in some cultures mustard is associated with wasabi, which is quite green.
Obviously, this was not a major problem, but really underscores the importance of what can happen.

Now, these issues are further compounded by the need to manage all dimensions of the software development lifecycle -- requirements, change and assets, testing, coding, etc. -- in a distributed environment via a repeatable process, while maintaining effective security. -- Ok, that was a mouthful --- Outsourcing is difficult, challenging and deceptively straightforward.

Having realistic expectations is critical in engaging in outsourcing – since adopting it cannot happen overnight – but requires a long term commitment and fundamentally requires organizations to evaluate ones own strengths and weaknesses..

Companies should view outsourcing as a long term initiative

Why? The decision to distribute development -- is also a decision that affects your company culture, work flow and forces a reevaluation of its focus – all of which should not be taken lightly.

What am I trying to say, it’s as important as choosing your spouse –– ok, well – not THAT important.

Really, embracing outsourcing means that you’re willing to invest the time and effort in seeing it work -- company’s top executives need to embrace and support the production model.

Investing in outsourcing must include the involvement of all employees and partners – fueled by a commitment from the top to setup a process that will ensure the long term success of seeing it through.
THQ established the External Development Group – XDG to spearhead the company’s outsourcing initiative.

Earlier this year we Announced the Formation of XDG
– a team focused on making a deep strategic impact for our company
– by streamlining development outsourcing needs for the entire corporation.

With more than 15 studios and divisions - XDG’s ultimate goal is to increase our production capabilities and efficiencies across the entire studio system – by knitting together people, processes and platforms to ultimately allow our core teams to focus on delivering the innovative game play consumers expect.

I wasn’t sure where to put this slide – but It’s worth mentioning some interesting variations on outsourcing that folks are experimenting with – generally outside of the games industry.

In some ways, User Created Content could be considered “outsourced work” – which may begin to play greater roles in augmenting content needs for various types of entertainment. This Is already happening on the internet - YouTube is now one of the most visited portals – which caters to user created content.

And then - there’s a relative new concept of crowd sourcing -- Amazon.com’s Mechanical Trunk is a platform that enables thousands of micro freelancers to do a tiny bit of work (such as identifying items in a photograph or writing short product descriptions).

... and peer to peer production networks allow people with certain areas of expertise
– linked together through a social network (similar to LinkedIn or MySpace) -- to work together to create something big – like we see in the open source development communities.

All of this is certainly worth keeping an eye on.

So what have learned today – really?

No matter where you are - The Law of More People hasn’t had an effect on the price of a cup of coffee at Starbucks.

Skeletons?? -- well, prepare get rattled – outsourcing is coming to get you

And most importantly – if you want YELLOW mustard make sure you don’t get wasabi!

...and once again thank the conference organizers for bringing us all together.

I’m happy to answer any questions.

Web 2.0 - Software as a Service

2006-07-24T00:02:00.000-07:00

Tim O'Reilly writes:

I spoke last week with Debra Chrapaty, the VP of Operations for Windows Live, to explore one of the big ideas I have about Web 2.0, namely that once we move to software as a service, everything we thought we knew about competitive advantage has to be rethought.
Operations becomes the elephant in the room. Debra agrees. She's absolutely convinced that what she does is one of the big differentiators for Microsoft going forward. Here are a couple of the most provocative assertions from our conversation:
1. Being a developer "on someone's platform" may ultimately mean running your app in their data center, not just using their APIs.
2. Internet-scale applications are pushing the envelope on operational competence, but enterprise-class applications will follow. And here, Microsoft has a key advantage over open source, because the Windows Live team and the Windows Server and tools team work far more closely together than open source projects work with companies like Yahoo!, Amazon, or Google.

The Age of Peer Production

2006-07-08T00:27:00.000-07:00

Chris Anderson writes:

"Now we have armies of amateurs, happy to work for free. Call it the Age of Peer Production. From Amazon.com to MySpace to craigslist, the most successful Web companies are building business models based on user-generated content. This is perhaps the most dramatic manifestation of the second-generation Web. The tools of production, from blogging to video-sharing, are fully democratized, and the engine for growth is the spare cycles, talent, and capacity of regular folks, who are, in aggregate, creating a distributed labor force of unprecedented scale."

Video on the Internet: You Tube

2006-05-01T20:29:00.000-07:00

YouTube is to video what Flickr has been to photos. The Economist writes:

In December people were uploading 8,000 clips a day, and watching 3m a day. This month they were uploading 35,000 a day and watching 40m a day. With such amazing growth -- almost all by word of mouth, e-mail and hyperlink -- YouTube already has four times the traffic of Google Video, the online video market of the world's largest search-engine firm, and the nearest thing to a rival....
The success of YouTube points to another development. People are spending an average of 15 minutes on the site during each visit, enough to view several short, funny clips. This is because they are using YouTube for little breaks during a dull workday. And it is a lean-forward experience, as people sit in front of computer screens. This clip culture, as Mr Hurley calls it, is quite different from the lean-back experience of enjoying a half-hour show while reclining on the sofa.
About 80% come from rank amateurs, and another 10% from dedicated amateurs, such as young comedians hoping to use internet celebrity as a way into a career. Unlike the big media companies looking to recycle their film libraries, Google Video and YouTube are simply giving ordinary people a way to share clips.

YouTube has become an online giant overnight. It is now the dominant sources for streaming video on the internet.

THQ Announces Formation of XDG

2006-03-14T23:46:00.000-08:00

THQ's XDG (External Development Group) is a new internal THQ team division created to streamline development outsourcing needs for our company.

I had several goals when putting together THQ|XDG -- the main one is focused on increasing THQ's internal production capabilities and cost efficiencies across our entire studio system and external development partners. Check out XDG and read the Press Release.

Software Power vs. Simplicity

2006-02-26T22:05:00.000-08:00

I generally agree with this perspective in designing/programming interfaces for users (whether it be games or productivity applications)

"Software is providing power, but software has got to provide simplicity..."
Bill Gates, 2006 International
Consumer Electronics Show

The "Media Age" is upon us

2006-02-20T18:30:00.000-08:00

Found this interview with Paul Saffo where he explains that the "Information Age" is a "profoundly wrongheaded description" of our times. He goes on to explain that it's the "Media Age".

Another interesting comment relates to how traditional Media is blind to the media revolution occurring right now.

"This is why I think it's been so hard for traditional media to cover what's going on. I can't imagine how you can find the discipline to be emotionally detached reporting on a revolution, the winds of which are blowing right down the hallways of the publication you work for. That's like an orthopedic surgeon trying to perform arthroscopic surgery on their own knee. It's possible, but it's hard to see through all the pain. "

Apple Expo Paris Keynote - The Incredibles!

2006-01-19T20:14:00.000-08:00

One of the greatest opportunities and memories I've had was the privilege to give a keynote speech at the annual Paris Apple computer keynote address.

I joined Philip Schiller, Apple Computers Senior Vice President minutes into his presentation -- to demonstrate the The Incredibles video game -- in front of 5000+ people in the audience. Jeff Berting, my art director for the game was at the controls!

Speaking to a sold out audience at the Palais De Congress ...

and here I come...

Myself, Rich Hernandez from Apple and Jeff Berting.

The "incredible" team from Apple team who made this event a success!

Rule of PowerPoint

2006-01-03T11:42:00.000-08:00

The 10/20/30 Rule of PowerPoint
Guy Kawasaki writes:

A PowerPoint presentation should have ten slides, last no more than twenty minutes, and contain no font smaller than thirty points. While I’m in the venture capital business, this rule is applicable for any presentation to reach agreement: for example, raising capital, making a sale, forming a partnership, etc....

The ten topics that a venture capitalist cares about are:

1. Problem
2. Your solution
3. Business model
4. Underlying magic/technology
5. Marketing and sales
6. Competition
7. Team
8. Projections and milestones
9. Status and timeline
10. Summary and call to action

Decision Making

2005-12-02T14:07:00.000-08:00

Very basic, but sometimes worth reminding yourself -- a quote from HBS Working Knowledge on decisions:

A decision has not been made until people know:

the name of the person accountable for carrying it out;
the deadline;
the names of the people who will be affected by the decision and therefore have to know about, understand, and approve it-or at least not be strongly opposed to it and
the names of the people who have to be informed of the decision, even if they are not directly affected by it.

A few makers of The Incredibles Video Game

2004-07-16T15:37:00.000-07:00

Daniel (Lead Programer), Alex (Lead Artist), Kirk (Lead Designer) and myself (Director)