Q&A: FROM SONY TO STARTUP

David Jaffe, Eat Sleep Play's co-president and co-founder.

DAM: David, talk to me a little bit about your pre-Eat Sleep Play years at Sony.

David Jaffe: Well, I was a Sony employee for 14 years, which was the first game job I ever had right out of college, and I worked my way up from tester to the creative director of Sony Santa Monica where I did a bunch of games, namely the "Twisted Metal" and "God Of War" series, and a few others. It was there that I had a good working relationship with Scott [Campbell, president and co-founder of Eat Sleep Play] who had started Incognito Studios and then ultimately sold it to Sony.

DAM: So when he sold Incognito to Sony, you decided to go with him? How did that work?

Jaffe: What happened was that he sold Incognito to Sony and became a Sony employee. Then, eventually, his contract as part of the buyout ended at around the time that I finished "God Of War." At that point, I said I've done all I'm going to do at Sony as an employee, he decided that he wanted to be independent again, and together we said that we'd worked together on and off for 13 years and it just seemed like a really good time to join up and start a company.

DAM: What is most surprising, I believe, is that both of you left really cushy jobs at Sony to go back to being a small developer. How do you explain that?

Jaffe: All I can say is that …

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GAME DEVELOPERS EXPECT CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE

"Rockstar Games literally pretended that the studio that made 'Manhunt 2' never existed."

Now imagine working on a hit video game for 2-1/2 years and no one -- not you, not anyone in your team of 55-plus developers -- appears in the credits.

Unfortunately, in an industry where this is not all that uncommon, where there are no unions, where there are few contracts, very little has been done to prevent it.

Until recently.

This coming February, at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, developers will be asked for their feedback on the beta version of a "Game Crediting Guide" developed by the International Game Developers Association (IGDA) and designed to give game makers "accurate, complete, and fair credits."

While no statistics exist that would quantify how frequently games go uncredited, or improperly credited, according to Jason Della Rocca, the IGDA's executive director, "anecdotally I can tell you that it happens all the time. One of the most extreme examples is what happened with 'Manhunt 2' where a publisher, Rockstar Games, literally pretended that the studio that made the game never existed. It's the perfect example for why this industry needs crediting standards."

Rockstar did not respond to multiple calls for comment.

Jurie Horneman was a producer at Rockstar Vienna (Austria), part of the team that reportedly created about two thirds of "Manhunt 2," a single-player survival-horror game released on Oct. 31 for the PlayStation 2, Wii, and PSP.

The following day, Horneman recalls that he was angry to find
that …

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NBC UNI'S MOVE INTO VID GAME ADS AUGURS TREND

NBC Universal has agreed to start selling ads into IGA's inventory of video games, including "Trackmania Nations."

What is far more stunning is that this last summer the venerable NBC Universal invested in Massive's competitor, IGA Worldwide, and it has just agreed to start selling ads into IGA's inventory of video games. That makes NBC Uni the first non-gaming media giant to join the fledgling in-game ad business. But it certainly won't be the last, say industry observers.

"This is definitely important for the in-game ad industry," says Michael Cai, director of broadband and gaming at Dallas-based research firm Parks Associates. "At least the major guys are now paying attention and are taking some action instead of just going to conferences."

While only about $54 million was spent on ads (both static and dynamic) within PC, console, and mobile games in 2006, that rose by 66% to $90 million in 2007 and will climb to $150 million in 2008. Within five years, it is expected to top $804 million, according to Parks Associates data.

In July, General Electric/NBC Uni's investment fund, Peacock Equity, was the lead investor, enabling IGA to raise $25 million in Series B funding. Last month, NBC Uni's digital media division signed a pact allowing the NBC sales team to sell ads into IGA's inventory of retail PC and console games, currently numbering 50 but expected to reach 200 within the next two years.

"What we've done is …

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January 17-19, 2008
Toronto Independent Games Conference
Toronto, Canada
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January 23-24, 2008
Mobile Games Forum 2008
London, UK
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February 6-8, 2008
D.I.C.E. Summit 2008
Las Vegas, Nevada
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GDC 2008
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March 29-30, 2008
Indie MMO Game Developers Conference
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Online Game Development Conference 2008
Seattle, Washington
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12th International Conference on Computer Games: AI, Animation, Mobile, Educational & Serious Games
Louisville, Kentucky
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September 5-7, 2008
GDC Austin
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