Crashes, triumphs and near-misses

Aug 13 2008 by Alex Turner, Liverpool Daily Post

This may sound like mayhem, but, as Alex Turner discovers, gaming industry is big business

MILLIONS of people, probably tens of millions, have raced through Monument Valley in the last two years.

It’s the scene of high-speed, foot-to-the-floor racing with spectacular crashes, triumphs and near-misses.

But you are probably unaware that Monument Valley is in the shadow of the Runcorn Bridge. That’s because Monument Valley is the location for the video game MotorStorm, which is the third highest-selling game for the Sony PlayStation3 (PS3).

And this global success was developed by Runcorn-based Evolution Studios.

The PS3, which launched at the end of 2006, had sold 12.85m units to March, and it expects to pass 20m by the end of this year.

MotorStorm has been its big success story, selling 3.4m copies. Only 15 games have sold more than 1m copies for the PS3 and MotorStorm is only behind the latest, fourth, releases from franchises Grand Theft Auto and Call of Duty.

Evolution Studios, which was also responsible for the World Rally Championship series, was bought by Sony last September.

Sony itself has a substantial presence in the city with its Studio Liverpool, a development studio and its quality evaluation department at Wavertree Technology Park.

For more than 20 years, Studio Liverpool has been at the forefront of innovative games development.

Founded in 1984 under the name Psygnosis, it was Studio Liverpool which brought futuristic anti-gravity racing in 1995 with Wipeout, a game that marked a shift in video gameplay. The studio is also responsible for the Formula One series.

Racing is a key theme in games produced in the city. Liverpool-based Bizarre Creations has developed the Project Gotham Racing franchise for Microsoft’s XBox and the later XBox360, which so far has generated combined sales of more than 6m.

The first in the series is the sixth-best selling XBox game while the later incarnations have also been hugely successful. Bizarre Creations, which was recently acquired by the global games publisher Activision, employs more than 160 employees at its purpose-built development studio in Liverpool.

Sarah Chudley, commercial director of Bizarre Creations, said: “Games are a serious industry nowadays, with top titles costing millions to make. And the UK has been doing really well.

“We’ve been the third largest producer of video games worldwide in recent times – pretty impressive, given the competition.”

The video gaming industry is estimated to be worth £500m to the UK economy, and Liverpool is a significant player in this market.

“Games development in the UK is big business, and a great success story in our area,” she added.

“In Liverpool alone, there are more than 500 people working in development with two large multi-national publishing companies.”

Magenta Software, based at the Albert Dock, in Liverpool, is another award-winning digital firm. In its 14-year existence, it has worked with some of the industry’s top publishers, including Sony, Disney, Atari and Vivendi.

Last year, it won a children’s video game BAFTA for the Buzz! Junior franchise which it developed for Sony.

The company is a first-party developer for both Playstation 2 and 3, as well as registered developers for Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii.

The digital and gaming industry is providing a new platform for Liverpool’s creative sector to showcase the local talent.

IT IS an industry where the companies are often not well-known – some, in fact, prefer it that way – but what they produce is.

“I think people are surprised to learn that a lot of the successful digital companies and the creative teams behind popular computer games are based in Liverpool,” said Enda Carey, head of games and digital content at Northwest Vision and Media, which works on behalf of the TV, film, radio, games and digital content industries across the North West.

“There is a huge amount of digital and gaming talent in the city. Many people are unaware that Liverpool’s gaming companies were instrumental in the development of the industry we know today.”

It is not just the developers that are putting the region on the video games map. Digital art production facility 3D Creation Studio, based in Liverpool, has produced the vehicles, characters and environments for many games.

3DCS’s core business is dealing with outsourced artwork from some of the world’s top studios.

Although it was only founded in 2006, the company has already produced content for major players including Microsoft, Sega, Codemasters, Sony, Electronic Arts and Disney.

Outsourcing artwork is already extremely common, and it is estimated to represent over 40% of the total cost of creating a video game.

3DCS currently has 12 artists on-site and more than 15 freelancers on the books with plans to increase on-site capabilities.

Steve Donovan, art director and owner of 3DCS, said: “3DCS exist as a resource for video game publishers and developers, wherever their location. Relationships are blossoming with many of the UK’s top publishers and developers.

“We’ve got a highly skilled team who are engaged in creating graphics at the cutting edge of console gaming.”

AND digital artwork is not just restricted to the gaming sector. Images of the recently transformed St Pancras Station, in London, were brought to life by 3D visualisation company, Neat 3D, as part of the station’s marketing campaign.

The Liverpool studio has clients in a variety of sectors including architects, designers and property developers.

Neat 3D recreated the well-known station in a number of formats, including still images, animations, green screen compositing, live/CGI footage and interactive 3D route planner.

alex.turner