At the recent Game Developers Conference, IndustryGamers had the pleasure of chatting with Phil Harrison, the former Sony Worldwide Studios boss and Atari executive who went on to co-found London Venture Partners (which is supporting iPhone, location-based gaming developer Grey Area). We asked Harrison point blank if traditional publishers will now have to completely reinvent themselves for the mobile and social world or go extinct.
Here's his candid answer.
"It's probably the most important question the industry is wrestling with right now. If this conference was called 'Game Publishers Conference,' I think everyone would be in the bar crying into their beer and being just miserable.
"But because it's Game Developers Conference, I see a strong sense of innovation and passion for the change, and excitement for all of these new business models. The developers almost felt their wings were being clipped in the past, and now they've been empowered to do all these things that they've been dreaming about for years - to take control and with control comes responsibility. They have to figure out a whole number of new skills that previously a publisher provided for them.
"Without naming names, if I was a chief executive at one of the major traditional publishers, I'd be really challenging my leadership team as to how to change the company. But I don't know of a company that has successfully reinvented itself from being packaged goods, product centric to being network service centric. I don't know of an example, and if you can find one, I'd love to know about it. I don't know of a company that's successfully changed its culture - in any industry, not just in the computer gaming business.
"The chances are that the leaders of social and mobile are not going to be from traditional packaged goods game companies."
We'll have more from our interview with Harrison in the near future.
10 Comments
March 11, 2011
I wonder if we can expect this stance to influence the investments LVP will be making.
March 11, 2011
Well LVP is definitely interested in emerging companies in the social and mobile fields (like Grey Area which does some neat location based stuff). So the short answer is yes.
March 11, 2011
"But I don't know of a company that has successfully reinvented itself from being packaged goods, product centric to being network service centric."
Netflix?
March 11, 2011
Netflix has always targeted internet services to deliver their product. They have been playing the long game from the beginning.
The best example I can think of is Intel. They were the kings of memory chips when the pressure came on strong from Korea and Taiwan. They sold off almost half of their revenue to focus on high end chip design and fabrication, ceding the low/commmodity end to the asian manufacturers.
March 12, 2011
Harrison's quote doesn't seem to place much faith in EA's much lauded (admittedly through self-praise) new emphasis on the digital market in terms of both distribution and social/mobile games.
March 13, 2011
I feel like Phil has dance around the subject for a long time about his former employer and the place he became famous in the industry: Sony. It doesn't seem like he puts a lot of faith in traditional console development anymore.
March 13, 2011
Harrison was a big proponent of social already at Sony, and was a big proponent of LittleBigPlanet. But you're right he definitely doesn't seem to have a ton of faith in the traditional games business anymore. It's why his venture capital firm is looking at mobile, social, etc.
@Gene, of the traditional publishers, EA definitely seems to be doing the best job in attempting to transition to that market while still keeping a toe (or maybe a whole foot...) in blockbuster AAA development with stuff like Dead Space 2, Battlefield 3, Crysis 2, etc.
March 14, 2011
And for those who have forgotten recent history (including Mr. Harrison, it seems), he WAS recently the chief executive of a major traditional publisher: Atari. Seems to be conveniently forgotten that he shipped from Sony to there and then presided over the almost-terminal fall from grace of Atari. But maybe he learnt something this time. LVP better hope so.
March 14, 2011
"But I don't know of a company that has successfully reinvented itself from being packaged goods, product centric to being network service centric."
IBM? Went from products (hardware) to services.
March 14, 2011
The question seems loaded. Why is it either adapt or perish? Is the future set already that retail/packaged games are going extinct soon? The rise of digital/mobile gaming is amazing, and I believe there will be sizable markets for different gaming segments that will consume digital and retail.