Valley is Home to High Profile Game Developers

The blaring notes of “Guitar Hero,” the combat soldiers of “Call of Duty,” and warring gang members in “Saints Row” are well known on television sets throughout the world. Less known is that those popular game titles originated in the San Fernando Valley region. Located along the 101 Corridor, from Glendale out to the Conejo grade, are large and small game developers and publishers. Some are privately-funded independents while others are corporate subsidiaries. The major players of EA and Activision Blizzard Inc. have their presence in Los Angeles but when it comes to the multi-billion gaming industry the Valley has its share. A growing one at that. This summer two gaming companies relocated from the other side of the hills one operating in the traditional console game segment; the other making inroads in the multiplayer online gaming arena. What the two have in common is the reason for relocating. Both Ignition Entertainment in Glendale and Trilogy Studios in Sherman Oaks wanted to be closer to where their employees live. It’s all about creating the best work environment possible for those involved in the physically and emotionally demanding studio life of game making. “We all want to have the shortest commute possible,” said Joseph Olin, president of the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences, a professional association for the gaming industry based in Calabasas. In coming to the Valley, Ignition and Trilogy join the interactive divisions of Warner Bros. and The Walt Disney Co., both in Burbank; THQ Inc. (“Saints Row”) and NovaLogic in Agoura Hills; Spark Unlimited in Sherman Oaks (“Turning Point”); Emergent Game Technologies in Calabasas; Insomniac Games (“Resistance: Fall of Man”) and High Impact Games, also in Burbank; and Activision subsidiaries Infinity Ward (“Call of Duty”) and Neversoft Entertainment (“Guitar Hero” and “Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater”). In addition, there are advertising and marketing companies used by the gaming studios. 822 Digital Inc. in Sherman Oaks, for instance, makes trailers for Ignition’s games. Games for the popular console systems made by Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo remain the focus of the publishers and studios. Gaming industry research and analyst firm DFC Intelligence forecasts worldwide sales of 180 million to 210 million units for the three systems by 2012. Trilogy Studios founder Michael Pole, however, staked the success of his company on the migration of players away from the consoles and to online play with greater interaction between players. The casual online gaming business model is disruptive to traditional gaming and allows Trilogy to compete in markets the company might not otherwise enter, said Pole, who, like many at Trilogy, comes from a console game background. Whereas the big gaming publishers will spend tens of millions on a single title, the cost of an online game can be in the $3 million to $7 million range. Designing the games can be more complex because they take place in detailed worlds requiring daily management. If designing a console game is like making a movie, Pole said, a casual online game is like a television show that lives as long as the audience keeps coming back. “While we are focusing on (casual gaming) this is not something that is a priority to the traditional gaming companies,” Pole said. The traditional companies aren’t ignoring it, though. Last year, Disney paid $350 million for New Horizon, the studio behind Club Penguin, a virtual world in which teen users create a penguin avatar to interact with other users and play games. In September, THQ announced a joint venture with Chinese company ICE Entertainment to develop and distribute online and packaged games. The first offering is a free online version of “Company of Heroes” for the Asian market for release later in the year. In a recent report, DFC Intelligence pegs the worldwide revenues from online gaming at $19 billion by 2013. The generation whose socializing already takes place online through MySpace or Facebook pages maintains that same interaction with friends when it comes to gaming. “The (massively multi-player online) environment lends itself to that perhaps more so than a traditional console game,” Olin said. UTV, the Indian entertainment company that is parent of Ignition, has made acquisitions in the online games space and its next generation of console games will have online capabilities, said Ajay Chadha, president of Ignition USA. Casual gaming is a big market but a hard one to crack. Players often won’t take part unless they know someone already enjoying the game, Chadha said. Offering the casual games for free will only go so far. “Business is business; you need to generate revenue to stay afloat,” Chadha said. “There are a lot of casual gamers out there but a lot go out of business,” Ignition is a relatively new entrant in the region’s gaming industry, operating from offices in Marina del Rey for a year before relocating to Glendale. The style, freshness and new approaches to bringing products to market that Ignition can provide results in the firm designing games that in the past may have gone to larger studios. “That has allowed us to bring in stronger product,” Chadha said.