Crowdfunding, eine Option für Europa?

Crowdfunding, eine Option für Europa?

Artikel aus der Gamesmarkt

 

Crowdfunding ist in den letzten Jahren immer stärker und zu einer realistischen Finanzierungsoption für Spieleentwicklung geworden. Dabei ist Crowdfunding auch mit der Gamesindustrie gewachsen, denn die Games- Projekte machen einen signifikanten Anteil der Crowdfunding – Initiative aus. Insgesamt wurden im letzten Jahr bereits über 2 Milliarden Euro mit Crowdfunding eingesammelt,
davon etwas mehr als 1 Milliarde in Nordamerika und etwas weniger als 1 Milliarde in Europa – immerhin Crowdfunding scheint in Europa angekommen zu sein.
Dabei hört sich Crowdfunding so unscheinbar an. Im Internet werden Projekte vorgestellt und Dritte, Fans oder Investoren steuern den Projekten finanzielle Mittel bei. Für jeden Einzelnen sind die Beträge überschaubar, in der Summe werden sie relativ groß – Micropayment lässt grüßen. Die europäische Gamesindustrie nutzt bislang in der Regel heute vornehmlich US amerikanische Platformen, allen voran Kickstarter. Man geht davon aus, dass mit der Anzahl der Projekte auch die Qualität steigt, ähnlich einer Currywurstbude – auch dort schmecken die Würste in der Regel dort am Besten, wo bereits viele verkauft werden, denn alles ist frischer. Hier ist bereits eine Investitionskultur entstanden. Der eindeutige Nachteil ist jedoch, dass der Kickstarterregelement vorsieht, dass sich nur US-amerikanische Firmen bewerben dürfen. Das führt zu seltsamen Konstruktionen.

 

Der komplette Artikel kann als PDF-Datei heruntergeladen werden.

Crowdfunding Artikel Gamesmarkt

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European Online Game Survey 2012

European Online Game Survey 2012

A short excerpt:

 

CNG (Community Network Game project)
Massive Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs) are growing exponentially due to advances in the generation of engaging immersive content and the availability of high speed and capacity networks. One of the main characteristics of the MMOGs is that they enable users to become members of active communities with common interests, shared adventures and common objectives. Enabling
thousands of users to communicate with each other in a 3D online world creates large network demands, in terms of required bandwidth and low latency for the users to have a rewarding experience.

CNG intends to enhance collaborative activities between online gamers by developing new tools for the generation and distribution of UGC within existing MMOGs. CNG team will research and develop in-game community activities using in-game graphical insertion technology (IGIT) and a P2P (peerto-peer) architecture for the distribution of video and other UGC. Current MMOG architecture typically relies on each object within a game being stored on central servers. These servers therefore host millions of items and share them to users upon request. The key innovation within the CNG project is the development of an architecture to run in parallel with the current MMOG client-server architecture. The new architecture will share a high volume of user generated content between multiple users of an MMOG game via P2P.
This UGC P2P content delivery will occur without interrupting the MMOG data flow and the need to upload the user generated data to a MMOG server.
Since UGC may be a heavy multimedia content, the network indirectly benefits from the use of P2P to distribute this content which is not streamed through the MMOG server..

 

The whole PDF can be downloaded.

CNG-Brochure-Final

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EGDF Response on public consultation on the green paper of the European commission, concerning preparing for a fully converged audiovisual world, gross, creation and values.

EGDF Response on public consultation on the green paper of the European
commission, concerning preparing for a fully converged audiovisual world, gross,
creation and values.

A short excerpt:

 

Question 1: What are the factors that enable US companies to establish a successful presence in the fragmented EU market despite language and cultural barriers, while
many EU companies struggle? What are the factors hindering EU companies? The main factors behind the strong position of US companies in the European audiovisual markets are by their nature historical. They relate to post world war considerations. Some years after the Second World War Europe started to support film productions and introduce public TV, but they never managed to interrupt the strong position of US companies. This development was mainly connected with network effects that are properly and well described in the document. In a digital networked environment, the role of government as trust holder of cultural diversity becomes even more important, as network effects will only increase. Thus the role of government is to make sure that a strong variety of content – in our case games – continue to reflect the cultural values and traditions of the member states. A strong computer games industry is important in Europe because game development is by its nature economic, cultural and technological at the same time. Consequently, it promotes the cultural, psychological and economic perspectives of the creative position and it is an innovation catalyst in the information society.

Therefore games could be seen as a model here. The EU could do a lot in supporting development here.

 

The whole response can be downloaded.

 

EGDF responce on public consultation on green paper of the European commission, concerning preparing for a fully converged audiovisual works

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Interview mit der GamesMarkt Herbst 2013

Interview mit der GamesMarkt Herbst 2013

 

Auszug aus dem Interview:

 

Herr Behrmann, oder muss ich jetzt Herr Professor Behrmann sagen?
Das können Sie gerne. In der Tat bin ich seit dem 1. Oktober dieses Jahres Professor. Die BBW Hochschule ist seit sieben Jahren eine private FH. Dort habe ich eine halbe Stelle im Bereich „Entrepreneurship“ angetreten. Ich unterrichte zur Zeit Medienwirtschaft und internationale Wirtschaftskommunikation.
Aber Sie sind doch Jurist?
In der Tat werde ich auch Jura-Kurse geben. Aber da ich auch einen französischen Management-Abschluss habe, bin ich dort breiter aufgestellt worden. Ich unterrichte ja seit vielen Jahren die Producer in der Games Academy und auch in Frankreich an einer Universität. Ich habe über die Jahre viele Talente gesehen, und es macht mir große Freude Ihren Parcours weiter zu verfolgen. Der eine oder andere hat einige meiner Hinweise beherzigt und ist sehr erfolgreich geworden.

 

Das komplette Interview kann als PDF-Datei heruntergeladen werden.

Interview Vermächtnis Malte

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The future of the European mobile game ecosystem

27. Februar 2014 Kommentare ausgeschaltet

Auszug aus der Broschüre:

The Mobile Game Arch project

The penetration of mobile telephony had reached 95% by the end of 2010 in Europe and approximately 80% globally. Consequently, mobile content has emerged as the lead medium of communication. However, for the European mobile content industry, the lack of mobile standards (e.g. for mobile Application Programming Interfaces (API’s)) is becoming one of the main factors hindering growth. At the same time, Europe is losing       ground to non-European mobile technology manufacturers and mobile content developers.
The Mobile Game Arch project supports European actors from both the content and technology sides of the mobile games industry to join forces in tackling this barrier to growth. By making significant contributions to global standards, the project intends to create a base for a new generation of mobile games technology that will allow European content to flourish globally and to narrow the digital gap in Europe. The Mobile Game Arch project attempts to reinforce the position of the small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) working in the European ICT and digital media industry and to increase the accessibility of digital media/service platforms’ aggregators.

 

Die vollständige Broschüre kann heruntergeladen werden.

The complete brochure can be downloaded.

MGAfinalbrochure

 

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Vortrag von Prof. Dr. Behrmann vor der Konrad-Adenauer Stiftung am 15. 05.2013

26. Februar 2014 Kommentare ausgeschaltet

Auszug aus der Rede zu dem Thema:

ERZIEHUNG IN DER WOHLSTANDSGESELLSCHAFT

AUFWACHSEN MIT KONSUM UND MEDIEN   “[...]Ich bin dankbar als Vertreter der Herstellerseite zu dieser Veranstaltung eingeladen zu sein und ich möchte nicht verschweigen, dass ich auch selbst Vater von 2 Kindern im Alter von 4 und 6 Jahren bin. Viele der Gedanken, die Sie sich machen, mache ich mir auch, nicht nur als Verbandsvertreter, sondern auch als Vater. Vielleicht sollte ich in diesem Zusammenhang, und das stelle ich gerne zur Diskussion, meine ganz persönliche Medienerziehungsstrategie offenbaren. Ich verbiete meinen Kindern nicht fernzusehen, sondern ich sehe mit ihnen vor allem Tierfilme, die ich bei T-Home aufgenommen habe. Das hat den Effekt, dass die Kinder diese häufig etwas langweiligen Tierfilme mit mir ansehen, aber auch nicht so gern sehen. Wir wissen ja seit langem, dass das Medium selbst die Message selbst sein kann und aus meiner Sicht ist es wichtig, dass wir unseren Kindern frühzeitig beibringen, dass sie lernen, dass es nicht um die Nutzung des Mediums an sich geht, sondern um den Inhalt, der über dieses Medium transportiert wird und dass es eben auch so etwas gibt, wie einen langweiligen Fernsehfilm, der nicht schon deshalb, weil er ein Fernsehfilm ist, spannend ist. In diesem Zusammenhang möchte ich offen legen, dass ich auch mit meinen Kindern Computerspiele spiele, sowohl auf dem I Phone, als auch mit der Kinect, die ich zu Hause habe, also diese Spielekonsole mit dem, meiner Meinung nach, sehr innovativen Controller vom Microsoft.[...]”

 

Die vollständige Rede kann als Pdf-Datei heruntergeladen werden.

 

KAS Referat 150413

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NEW VAT RULES FOR DIGITAL SERVICES

Electronic services (=games), are in general, taxed at the place where the customer is established or resides. Where the supplier is established within the EU and the customer is a non-taxable person (= the gamers), the supply is, however, currently taxed at the place where the supplier (=game developers/distribution platform holders) is established. From 1 January 2015, all telecommunications, broadcasting and electronic services will be taxable at the place where the customer belongs (unless the rule on effective use and enjoyment applies), even if the customer is a non-taxable person. Thus for non-taxable persons, EU and non-EU suppliers will need to identify:
• where the customer is established,
• has his permanent address
• or usually resides.
Without a VAT identification number (which is usually reserved for taxable persons) for guidance, the supplier  will have to rely to some extent on information from the customer. To ensure legal certainty, and avoid double taxation or non-taxation, suppliers need clear and binding rules on how to do this.
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The European legal framework for state aid for audiovisual industries

All aid schemes have to follow all relevant provisions of the Treaty of Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), not just ones related directly to the state aid. On the other hand, this means that principles prohibiting discrimination on the grounds of nationality, freedom of establishment, free movement of goods and freedom to provide services have to be respected. On the other hand, state aid regulation defines specific forms of discrimination that are accepted (e.g. territorial requirements). In order to be non-discriminatory, it is particularly important that a state aid scheme (major exceptions are introduced later in this report):
• is not directed to national exclusively or require beneficiaries to have the status of national undertaking established under national commercial law. All establishments of European undertakings that operate in
Finland by means of a permanent branch or agency, irrespective of their legal structure, should be eligible for the aid. Furthermore, the agency requirement should only be enforceable upon payment of the aid.
• does not impose discrimination based on the nationality of the personnel employed or the location of the eligible expenditure in side the Union.
• do not require workers of foreign companies providing filming services to comply with national labour standards.
A general framework for aids granted by Member States is set in the article 107 of TFEU. According to it, aid to promote culture and heritage conservation, where such aid does not affect trading conditions and competition in the Union to an extent that is contrary to the common interest, may be considered compatible with the internal market. In addition to the general framework, some audiovisual sectors have their own legal guidelines. As there has been only one case focusing on the state aid for video games, so far the European Union has not created specific recommendations for state aid directed to them. Public service broadcasting has its recommendations in the so-called Broadcasting Communication.
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Future Networks Research and Innovation in Horizon2020

Subject: Future Networks Research and Innovation in Horizon2020
Executive summary
European Games Developer Federation (EGDF) represents about 600 game developer
studios from 12 European countries. EGDF can actively bridge the gap between new,
innovative, creative and content driven ventures and the existing European research
community.
As a part of the first truly integrated digital ecosystem of the entertainment sector,
games markets that are around $100 billion globally, these companies are placed ideally
to be the focal point of the coming Transmedia Era. Consequently, these companies are
cultural, economic and innovation drivers in the digital markets. And there is a huge need
for cross sector synergies uniting technological innovation with cultural creation and
economic development in the area of content and media businesses.
Europe is falling behind the rest of the world when it comes to the state of its network
infrastructure. Therefore the introduction of higher bandwidth should be one of the main
research focuses. However not only the network drives the content, it happens both
ways: the content also drives the requirements of the network. A digital Europe needs to
be a strong, content driven, Europe.
Game developers are more and more considering self-publishing, and thus starting to
distribute their own content. As the distribution of computer games has now shifted from
boxes to online new distribution modes emerge. In the context of the “internet of the
future” network and social network based games and game-like applications should be
regarded as leading indicators of future requirements on the cloud based distribution
structure.
The aim of the games industry is to perform rich, interactive 3D content in platforms that
are integrated with people’s everyday computer usage through multiplatform delivery.
Thus it is crucial that networks are able to switch between streaming mobile content and
fiber based online content. This is the only way to enable the full potential of
multiplatform delivery of digital content.
The mobile units, smart-phones, handhelds, and related embodiments of ICT technology
are likely to be the next-generation personal computers. Especially the area of human
machine interface is an area of high strategic importance, and the world’s leading mobile
unit developers and the world’s leading developers of interactive content should be very
strongly encouraged to join forces. As the example of location based games
demonstrates, the research questions associated with this no more are connected only
with the interface of the hardware but with the whole network.
As the innovation in digital markets is more and more user driven, it is vital that research
projects will be more user-oriented. This means that in addition the needs of the
companies trying to exploit the research results also the needs of the end-consumers
have to be taken to account. It is also important that research itself is adapting more
user driven models in order to maximize its impact.
The Finnish Tekes has actively broadened the definition of innovation from purely
technological innovation related to content, services and business models. Games
industry is one of the most potential constituencies maximizing the impact of the
research based on the broad definition of innovation.
As in the Digital Era innovation happens in small entities instead of large corporations.
Therefore it is crucial that public support is directed to many small projects with about
four consortium partners (two at the minimum and five at the maximum) and a clear a
SME-quota for EU RTD projects so that at least 50% of the funding goes to SMEs is set.

EGDF response on Future Networks Research and Innovation in HORIZON2020

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2006: Statement on the reform of the directive “TV without frontiers”

Abstract
As an audiovisual medium, online games will be covered by the regulatory scope of the new
TV directive. Hence, the protection of independent game developers in their corresponding
function as independent producers needs to be guaranteed. The widening of the scope of the
TV directive has positive and negative aspects: A possibly premature regulation of an
emerging market ruled by definitions subject to rapid changes could cause trouble. The
attribution of games to the audiovisiual sector can be rated positive. The systematic
regulation of product placement has no support.

TWF_ EGDF_PAPER

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