Today kicks off a week in review for [a]list daily, where we look back on the top features, news and videos of the year, take a look at the entire year, and then look forward in to 2014. Join us as we go over the best of the last year and look forward to the future!
It’s been a momentous year in the gaming industry, which has grown massively in revenue and in its reach both demographically and geographically. [a]list daily hunted down some of the movers and shakers that made this happen, and here we’ve collected the most popular features of the year for you. It’s a good chance to catch up on things you may have missed, or review some of the key insights from industry leaders.
One of the major areas of growth in games has been in the eSports arena, and we documented one of the milestones achieved this year when American Express forged a sponsorship deal with Riot Games’ massively popular League of Legends. We also took a look back at the rise of eSports and where it all started when early eSports star Dennis Fong talked to us about the early days.
We went inside some of the most interesting games around this year, with inXile Entertainment’s upcoming Torment: Tides of Numenera and its massively successful Kickstarter campaign. In a completely different direction lies the Kerbal Space Program, and we talked about the game’s unusual marketing and PR in an in-depth feature. The story of how Rovio has been handling the success of Angry Birds and beyond is a compelling one about the interaction of marketing, brand development and game design.
During this period of rapid change and evolution of the gaming industry, insights from thought leaders are especially valued. [a]list daily sat down for an in-depth chat with industry veteran Ed Fries, who helped launch the original Xbox, who warned that game publishers may vanish in the future. Ubisoft VP of sales and marketing Tony Key discussed how marketing has changed in this new era of blockbuster games, while Trion Worlds marketing SVP Noah Maffitt talked about the transmedia marketing challenge. Longtime industry veteran Brian Fargo gave his insights on the indie revolution that’s transforming PC, mobile and console gaming.
Finally, check out what we said about Microsoft’s Xbox One strategy and what Microsoft could do to come out on top in the latest round of the console wars. We also had some strategy ideas for Sony and daring options for Nintendo as well.
