Serious games Advergaming, edugaming, training and more Project manager Laurent Michaud [email protected] M83708 – June 2008 Author Julian Alvarez, PhD Science of Communication and Information Contributor Laurent Michaud, Head of the digital leisure division Copyright IDATE 2008, BP 4167, 34092 Montpellier Cedex 5, France Tous droits réservés – Toute reproduction, stockage All rights reserved. None of the contents of this ou diffusion, même partiel et par tous moyens, y publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval compris électroniques, ne peut être effectué sans system or transmitted in any form, including accord écrit préalable de l'IDATE. electronically, without the prior written permission of IDATE. ISBN 978-2-84822-169-4 Executive Summary Serious Games Advergaming, edugaming, training and more This study outlines the characteristics, uses and different genres of serious game. It examines the challenges involved in the design, development and distribution of various types of titles, while analysing the outlook for the industry and its growth drivers. 600 million to one billion potential Defining serious gaming Areas addressed users worldwide. There is a huge variety of ways to classify Today, serious games are employed in a At the end of 2007, the global video serious gaming. However, accepting the wide variety of sectors. game industry was worth 30 billion ambiguities and possible challenges in- Defence: one of the most important USD. At the same time, the serious herent in this, this study defines serious areas in terms of client investment and gaming market was estimated to be gaming as follows: orders. Serious games are also used by worth between 1.5 and 10+ billion The purpose of a serious game is to armies in Europe, though less widely than USD. get users to interact with an IT application in the USA. that combines aspects of tutoring, teach- Teaching and training: serious gam- According to IDC, 40% of the USA ing, training, communications and informa- ing has a key role to play in this market, e-learning market will employ tion, with a recreational element and/or and IDC predicts that by the end of 2008, serious gaming in 2008. technology derived from video games. 40% of e-learning applications in the USA will employ the technology. In the USA alone, the advergaming This combination aims to make prac- Advertising: serious games designed industry is expected to be worth tical, useful content (serious) enjoyable for advertising (advergames) allow clients 262 million USD in 2008. (game). It is achieved by developing to promote a particular brand or product to scenarios that are at once practical and According to a SharpBrains study, users throughout a game. In the United enjoyable. the Brain Fitness software market States alone, the advergaming industry is grew from 100 million USD in 2005 expected to be worth 262 million USD in to 225 million USD in 2007 in the The origins of serious gaming 2008. United States. America’s Army, developed for the U.S. Information and communications: army and distributed free-of-charge over though details on the information market Serious games can be classified in the internet as of 2002, is considered the are still anecdotal, advertising-related three main categories: first ever significant serious game, with communications (edumarket games) are - Message-based serious games, over 17 million downloads recorded in playing an increasingly significant role in - Training serious games, 2004 alone. The first-person shooter simu- in-game advertising, an industry currently lates military training exercises and com- worth 205 million USD (USA, 2008). - Simulation or serious play bat missions, though the main aim of the Health: Nintendo has enjoyed con- serious games. game is to promote the American army siderable success with applications dedi- and to serve as a recruitment tool for cated to brain training and fitness. Accord- young people between 16 and 24. ing to a SharpBrains study, this market Links between gaming and the army rose from 100 million USD to are far from new: during World War II, the 225 million USD between 2005 and 2007, army’s general staff were the first to use in the USA alone. "wargames", and employed them to im- Culture: though this sector only ac- prove their image with the population. counts for a minor part of the serious In the United States, many people gaming industry at present, strong growth associate the term "serious games" with is possible, particularly in the areas of "military games". cultural and industrial tourism. North American approaches are usu- Activism: this sector is unique in that ally employed to promote the serious it does not follow traditional economic game industry. models: titles are produced with little or no financial backing and have the sole objec- tive of putting across a particular mes- sage, such as that of September the 12th, Project leader based on the 9/11 attacks. Laurent MICHAUD [email protected] Edition 2008 © IDATE 3 Serious Games Executive Summary rently, in the United States and Europe,, Different type of serious game these tend to be SMEs or Bearing in mind their principal objectives, VSEs/freelancers and are generally seri- serious games can widely be divided into ous game "pure players". They do not three categories: usually have a video game background, Message-based serious games: aim but have worked in the promotion, devel- to deliver a specific message in an educa- opment or publishing of professional soft- tional, informative or persuasive fashion ware. Training serious games: aim to im- Publishers: these cover the costs prove users’ cognitive/motor skills. involved in publishing, marketing and Simulation or serious play serious packaging serious games, both for physi- games: do not aim to evaluate users. As cal and electronic sales. This group also such, they offer a wide variety of potential includes developers/publishers that pro- uses. duce their own titles internally. There are currently no serious game “pure player” Serious gaming’s target market publishers due to the diversity of applica- IDATE estimates that there are between tions. 600 million and one billion potential users Distributers: serious games often do worldwide in 2008. This number includes not follow traditional retailer-based distri- both purchasers and non-purchasers of bution models – the American army and entertainment titles. Though those under NSA for example distribute their product 25 represent the most important target directly to the public. Most titles are dis- market, serious games are aimed at all tributed via the internet, with electronic generations: sales of serious games far more common Under 15: the presence of an adult or than in other video game sectors. suitable framework is often required if serious games are to be used effectively Serious gaming business models by this group. Three segments have been identified Between 15 and 24: this group ex- within the serious gaming market. pects the highest quality in terms of video B2B: games, and uses big budget titles (AAA) The order-based model is where a client as a benchmark. Casual games should be contracts a business of some kind (though employed to encourage this group to use not a private individual) to design and serious games. develop a serious game. This is then used Over 24: within the 25-55 age group, exclusively by the client. the amount of time spent playing video The licence-based model is where titles games gradually reduces with age. Above produced by any kind of publisher, com- 55 however, the gaming audience starts to pany, independent, association or public grow again, for two key reasons: people in or private institution (though not a private this group have more free time available, individual) are made available for a fee. and they wish to form a bond with their The application is either a ready-to-use grandchildren. It should also be noted that serious game (customized or non- serious games are used to stimulate resi- customized), a piece of development dents of some retirement homes. software to produce a serious game, or a serious game integrated within another Serious game backers application or product. The biggest serious game clients at pre- The consulting/training model is where sent are the American army and govern- a public or private institution’s design- ment, which have financed the most sig- ers/developers are trained in all the differ- nificant productions and are developing ent stages of serious game development the industry as a whole. Other backers on-site. include political parties, businesses, public B2C: the publisher/developer model and private institutions and publishing is where a publisher, company, independ- houses. ent, association or public or private institu- tion designs and develops a title, then offers it for sale directly, without any prior The serious game value chain demand or order. The serious games here The serious game industry is polymor- are ready-to-use, may or may not be cus- phous as it groups together all the niche tomized, and are available to all types of areas and markets that employ video consumer. games for objectives other than pure en- B2B2C: this segment is made up of tertainment. the three B2B business models, with the The value chain is made up of the follow- difference that the backer acts as an in- ing three major groups: termediary between the developer and the developers: produce the content of user. serious games, or tailor them according to the B2B, B2C or B2B2C segments. Cur- 4 2008 edition © IDATE Executive Summary Serious Games Serious gaming distribution August 2006 and is likely to have a similar models effect. Though the publisher/developer business model may not be widely sup- There are three different ways to distribute ported in Europe, the order-based model serious games: seems to show increasing development in Free-of-charge distribution: essen- the spheres of e-learning, industrial train- tially based on web marketing, this ap- ing, and advergaming.