Gaming
UK Gaming Industry to Benefit from Launch of the UK’s First Network of Advanced Media Production Studios
Digital Catapult, the UK authority on advanced digital technology has joined forces with Target3D to launch the UK’s first network of Advanced Media Production studios. The groundbreaking initiative will revolutionise the media and entertainment industries, and will ‘amp up’ digital entertainment by democratising access to cutting-edge screen production technologies.
Drawing on Digital Catapult’s decade’s worth of experience supporting the creative industries and Target3D’s wealth of expertise in mocap for video-games, cinematics and immersive experiences for household names, the collaboration will ensure that high calibre media content can be produced at scale. Motion capture, virtual production, 5G private networks, XR equipment and photogrammetry – the creation of 3D models based on photographs, are some of the groundbreaking new technologies that the studio network will leverage to meet global demand for compelling content.
The new studio network, linking London and the North East, will offer unparalleled opportunities for creativity, innovation, and collaboration across various media formats, including music videos, video games, films, TV shows, and immersive content. With access to LED screens, graphics processing (GPU) and rendering compute power, 360 live-action filming facilities, photogrammetry, and 4D videogrammetry stages, the launch of the Advanced Media Production studios marks a new era of entertainment and media production in the UK.
The innovative new project will push the boundaries of storytelling and visual communication whilst also supporting emerging British talent in the virtual production space. Digital Catapult and Target3D’s collaboration has already established partnerships with leading educational institutions such as ScreenSkills, Goldsmiths University of London, Guildhall School of Music and Drama and Gateshead College, to support local talent and local communities, as well as accelerating research and innovation.
By leveraging cutting-edge technology and a pioneering connected network, the Advanced Media Production studios offer a comprehensive suite of capabilities, allowing creators to bring their visions to life with unprecedented precision and creativity. Utilising a sophisticated private 5G network, the UK’s first interconnected 5G-enabled studio provides a permanent facility that will enable different types of media content to be created at the same time, empowering remote content direction, fostering national and international collaboration, and improving efficiencies during the production process.
The Dock Street studio features two volumes spaces, facilitating motion capture of up to ten performers at a time. This includes full-body, finger, and facial expression capture, as well as intricate performance sequencing to enhance media production, with use-cases ranging from virtual and augmented reality applications, visual effects, and animation. The crown jewel of AMP at PROTO in Gateshead is a curved LED screen which provides seamless and crystal-clear visuals on a large 8×3.5m LED volume. The same type of technology also used in global productions such as Disney’s The Mandalorian, to be accessible to North East businesses. The network of studios adds to the 20 facilities that Digital Catapult already has across the UK, leveraging emerging technologies to drive economic growth and solve industrial challenges.
Jeremy Silver, CEO of Digital Catapult said: “For the last decade, Digital Catapult has been a pioneer of investment in digital entertainment, concentrating our efforts on the UK’s creative industries, and strengthening the relationship between technology and the arts. We are thrilled to unveil the UK’s first network of Advanced Media Production studios in collaboration with Target3D.
“Through our concerted efforts including years of direct industry engagement and the support of InnovateUK, Digital Catapult has built the case for new public investments such as the AHRC’s CoSTAR programme to secure funding, to further advance the success of the UK’s creative industries at scale. Our vision is to continue to push at the boundaries, ahead of mainstream adoption and thus ensure that UK expertise leads the world in a new era of entertainment that combines sustainability and creativity, and redefines how media is produced, shared, and experienced.”
Allan Rankin, Managing Director of Target3D has commented: “A new dawn in Advanced Media Production, where the ever closer merger of the digital and the real world, means new exciting outputs, from new techniques and skills, for ever expanding mediums and discerning consumers of content. How to make better, make faster, make smarter, make with lower impact is a continuous puzzle to be solved.
“The Target3D team, operating out of the AMP Dock Street studio, has already worked on productions featuring world-famous artists in the production of cutting-edge media content, as well as playing a pivotal role in video-game development, cinematics and immersive experiences for the likes of Sky Sports. By leveraging the latest in Advanced Media Production technologies we can go some way to answering these difficult questions through the ability to apply ourselves in the AMP facilities. From real world work to Research & Development we are able to offer the UK the very best in class in workflows and hardware.”
The Advanced Media Production network is now available for businesses and educational institutions to harness the power of technology and creativity to entertain, inform, and inspire audiences while reimagining the possibilities of storytelling and visual communication. This transformative venture from Digital Catapult and Target3D is poised to shape the future of media production and further elevate the UK’s status as a global leader in entertainment innovation.
Those interested in booking the facilities, R&D collaboration or becoming part of the Advanced Media Production Studio network, should visit this website.
Gaming
Mobile Games Index: Analysis of 95M Game Interactions Reveals Shifting Engagement Trends, Available Now
The anticipated fourth edition of the annual Mobile Games Index, powered by adjoe and Statista, is now available.
The latest report offers a clear look into the current state of the mobile gaming sector, analyzing the past 12 months of the first-party data from 95 million app interactions across 27 million users. The MGI 2024 reveals what people choose to play on their mobile devices, filling the gap in industry knowledge and enabling game developers and user acquisition specialists to benchmark their products and ultimately target the right audiences with the right content.
Moving forward, it is up to the industry decision-makers to analyze the findings and promptly adapt to the newly-emerged engagement trends from MGI 2024, effectively engaging desired audiences.
A Peek at Shifting Engagement Trends to Capitalize on
Based on predictions from Statista, the overarching trend in the market is its robust growth with a forecasted expansion from $166.1 billion in 2024 to $227 billion by 2028.
Remarkably, Card games are expected to grow the most dramatically at 13.8% a year, nearly doubling their global revenue by 2028. Judging from the engagement charts of MGI 2024, the main driver of growth in this category is Solitaire games. The audience is showing a clear preference for Solitaire – these games hold 7 out of 10 positions in the top list of card games worldwide by time spent with titles from MobilityWare, Gimica, Scopely, and Playvalve, among others.
What allows the market to show revenue growth is the positive changes in global daily time spent. After the dip in engagement highlighted by the last year’s Index, adjoe confirms that average daily sessions have rebounded to 21.5 minutes from 17.3 minutes reported last year, marking a 22% increase.
The most engaged demographic of mobile gamers globally is the 40-49 age group, which has experienced a remarkable 33% increase in daily gaming time, now at 23 minutes daily. The strategies targeted at older demographics over the past 12 months can be deemed successful. However, this has led to a loss of focus on engaging Gen-Z, which has shown only modest growth in time spent.
The MGI also reveals that women are outpacing men in daily gaming time across most genres – as reported for the 4th edition in a row. This consistent and high performance makes the female audience a continuously safer bet when it comes to user targeting.
Another continued trend is the dominance of top publishers such as Supercell, Garena, King, and Playrix, while there’s still space to occupy for smaller publishers. For instance, ForgeGames tops the engagement charts with their game Special Forces Group 2 – capturing over 43 minutes of average daily engagement.
The insights continue in the MGI 2024, going granular to segment and visualize global mobile game engagement data from adjoe by genre, region, and demographic. At the same time, Statista’s extensive market research provides a macro-view of the current and future industry, offering figures for global downloads and revenues with forecasts extending to 2028.
Mobile Games Index 2024 Is Available in Open Access
The MGI 2024 goes deep below the surface of market data and creates a comprehensive snapshot of the mobile gaming industry today. Inside are
For developers and marketers, this report is the green light to benchmark performance against industry leaders and align their products with the rising expectations of mobile gamers. This comprehensive tool is now available for free to inform decision-making and help optimize strategies for short- and long-term actions.
Gaming
4Players and ODIN deliver cutting-edge voice chat for Gray Zone Warfare
The globally operating software company 4Players GmbH announces its partnership with MADFINGER Games, the developer behind the highly anticipated tactical first-person shooter Gray Zone Warfare. The collaboration aims to level up in-game communication by integrating 4Players’ next generation Voice Chat SDK, ODIN, into MADFINGER Games’ upcoming title.
MADFINGER Games’ goal is to create a complex and realistic gaming experience that allows players to embark on an adventure alone or in a team. To ensure excellent communication during tactical approaches, ODIN was the best choice for MADFINGER Games’ Technical Director Johanny Clerc-Renaud:
“Selecting ODIN as the voice chat in our upcoming title, Gray Zone Warfare, was a pivotal decision driven by both technical and business considerations. Technically, ODIN ticks a lot of our criteria with its support for spatial audio, a ready-to-deploy Unreal Engine 5 plugin and the ability to meet any player load thanks to their cloud hosting.
From a business perspective, the agility and openness of partnering with a company like 4Players meant we could work hand-in-hand to tailor the solution to our specific needs. This includes a seamless integration with Wwise, allowing us to modulate voice data for a more immersive and engaging player experience. Together, these factors made ODIN the undeniable choice for Gray Zone Warfare, enabling us to make our game even more memorable.”
By natively integrating ODIN Voice Chat into Unreal Engine 5, MADFINGER Games’ developers could focus on creating ultra-realistic game content instead of managing complex data sets. By leveraging ODIN’s scalable cloud hosting, MADFINGER Games can also ensure seamless service delivery to players worldwide, improving accessibility and the gaming experience.
With features such as real-time 3D spatial audio – including audio occlusion and ambient effects – for the global voice chat as well as full-volume radio communication, ODIN sets a new standard for multiplayer engagement and promotes immersive and crystal-clear interactions between players. This level of immersive communication not only enhances gameplay, but also strengthens the social fabric in the gaming community.
“ODIN represents the future of in-game communication. We combine cutting-edge technology with decades of expertise in the gaming industry to create a product that is fun and designed to improve gamers’ communication,” says Phillip Schuster, CEO at 4Players GmbH. “We are excited to be working with MADFINGER Games to further optimize the immersion of Gray Zone Warfare. The partnership highlights our shared goal of driving social interaction and creating a unique gaming experience.”With the release of Gray Zone Warfare for Early Access on 30th April 2024, players will experience unparalleled realistic gaming communication with ODIN.
Gaming
Phoenix Games acquires PopReach Games along with its impressive games portfolio and over 100 employees
Phoenix Games, a global gaming enterprise specializing in the acquisition and enhancement of game studios, is thrilled to announce the acquisition of PopReach Games, a live operations studio based in Bengaluru, India, from Ionik for a total aggregate purchase price of up to US$9.8 million, financed from cash reserves. Together with the studio, Phoenix takes over a broad portfolio of free-to-play games that boasts more than 420 million lifetime downloads.
This transaction substantially diversifies the Phoenix portfolio by including globally recognized IPs and beloved free-to-play titles on different platforms, such as Smurf’s Village, Smurf’s Magic Match, Gardens of Time, Kitchen Scramble games, Kingdoms of Camelot, and War of Nations as well as the Brain Training app Peak..
The acquisition of PopReach Games India strengthens Phoenix Games’ global presence and adds a dedicated workforce of more than 100 employees from the Indian studio.
“The acquisition of PopReach Games signifies a remarkable enhancement of our portfolio, introducing not just a team of 100 passionate professionals but also a suite of globally acclaimed IPs and games that continue to captivate millions,” states Klaas Kersting, CEO of Phoenix Games. “We look forward to elevating these games to new heights with our proprietary Uplift platform and exciting new game experiences that we can craft around them.
Echoing this sentiment, Jairaj NS, General Manager at PopReach Games India, shares, “I am excited about joining forces with the stellar team at Phoenix Games. This marks the beginning of an exciting journey we can’t wait to embark on with Phoenix as our new home. This is great news for all the stakeholders, especially for the millions of our loyal players across the globe. I am happy we have found a new ideal home for our globally acclaimed games. This partnership enables us to continue pouring our hearts and souls into creating unforgettable experiences for our players worldwide and create value for stakeholders.”
Ted Hastings, CEO of Ionik, adds: “It’s truly remarkable that we’ve discovered the perfect home for our former games division, PopReach Games India, with Phoenix Games, ensuring a promising and successful path ahead. This strategic move enables us to turn our full attention to our core responsibilities”.
Based in Karlsruhe, Germany, Phoenix Games boasts an impressive lineup of studios, including Upright Games, Sixteen Tons Entertainment, Well Played Games, Smileygamer, and the recent addition of Canadian developer Sad Panda Studios in November 2023.
Utilizing its proprietary Uplift platform, Phoenix Games enhances the financial performance and reach of the titles of acquired game studios, providing their expertise in user acquisition, ad monetization, and live operations to ensure an economic upswing.
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