Presentation:
This is our final presentation in Powerpoint, and our text that accompany the presentation. Hope you find our research and findings helpful.
| presentationfinal.pptx |
Jorgen:
Jorgen is presenting the part about funding and intro:
Intro:
Hi, and welcome to this presentation. On my left/right is Robin, and he chose the task to research a little about Funcom and general game company running in Norway. I'm Jorgen, and I looked into how to get that extra funding for that special game project you might have.
I'll let Robin start his presentation first.
Presentation:
My task in this assignment was to find out how to get funding for making games in Norway, but my initial findings looked grim.
The Norwegian government promised in 2008 that more funding would be given to support the Norwegian game industry.
This message that they released in 2008 had some strong points in it, and these where the key points that we could see:
· They acknowledge the importance of a strong game industry on a global stage
· That the Nordic games industry is one of the fastest growing businesses.
· That the game industry is becoming the strongest cultural influence of our time.
· That games can be a valuable learning tool for all ages.
In the first year following this statement, the funding raised significantly from around 730,000£ to 1,1 million £. But it never got any bigger from that point on.
The sitting Cultural minister of Norway in 2008, Trond Giske, also released something called "The game message", here he openly mention that he wants the Norwegian game industry to become a bigger part of the cultural life in Norway, and it promised more funding the coming years.
We sent out a few mails to different companies and key persons in the Norwegian Government that could have anything to say about this. But unfortunately we never got any answers from them.
But we didn't give up, we came over an article that covered a Norwegian government controlled association called "The Norwegian Film Fund" that once a year set aside funding for games.
This association gives out millions in funding each year, but they concentrate on already established games companies, and only give out funding for specific games.
We also came over an association named "The Norwegian Computer Association".
We sent out a mail to them, and got answer from the Board director Jarle Snertingdalen, who also works for Funcom.
Key points in this interview is:
· No easy way to get funding from the Government
· Incubators are a great way to get your company up and running, they offer things like offices and guidance
· There are a lot of private investors out there like Innovation Norway, Nordic Games and Skatte Funn.
· The Norwegian government have tried to promote a stronger focus on game industry.
· Easier to get a game sponsored if marketed towards a specific company, for example Mc Donald game.
· If you want to get funded, be prepared for tough competition.
We also found something called "The Nordic Game Program" which covers the entire Scandinavian area.
This is a association that helps fund the Nordic game industry, and the main goal is to promote games made from Nordic countries all over the world.
And they offer a significant funding to game companies, starting from £12,000 to around £70,000.
The criteria's for this funding is quite steep, and the competition is though, and many projects depend on this kind of funding to be allowed to live.
Even though the funding is made available through these kinds of channels, the earning potential for Nordic games is hard to justify, many games that get released with funding ends up in the negative numbers.
In comparison to how much it cost to develop a AAA product, this funding isn't much, but for the smaller companies like the developers of the newly released game Limbo, the funding really comes as a savior.
Intro:
Hi, and welcome to this presentation. On my left/right is Robin, and he chose the task to research a little about Funcom and general game company running in Norway. I'm Jorgen, and I looked into how to get that extra funding for that special game project you might have.
I'll let Robin start his presentation first.
Presentation:
My task in this assignment was to find out how to get funding for making games in Norway, but my initial findings looked grim.
The Norwegian government promised in 2008 that more funding would be given to support the Norwegian game industry.
This message that they released in 2008 had some strong points in it, and these where the key points that we could see:
· They acknowledge the importance of a strong game industry on a global stage
· That the Nordic games industry is one of the fastest growing businesses.
· That the game industry is becoming the strongest cultural influence of our time.
· That games can be a valuable learning tool for all ages.
In the first year following this statement, the funding raised significantly from around 730,000£ to 1,1 million £. But it never got any bigger from that point on.
The sitting Cultural minister of Norway in 2008, Trond Giske, also released something called "The game message", here he openly mention that he wants the Norwegian game industry to become a bigger part of the cultural life in Norway, and it promised more funding the coming years.
We sent out a few mails to different companies and key persons in the Norwegian Government that could have anything to say about this. But unfortunately we never got any answers from them.
But we didn't give up, we came over an article that covered a Norwegian government controlled association called "The Norwegian Film Fund" that once a year set aside funding for games.
This association gives out millions in funding each year, but they concentrate on already established games companies, and only give out funding for specific games.
We also came over an association named "The Norwegian Computer Association".
We sent out a mail to them, and got answer from the Board director Jarle Snertingdalen, who also works for Funcom.
Key points in this interview is:
· No easy way to get funding from the Government
· Incubators are a great way to get your company up and running, they offer things like offices and guidance
· There are a lot of private investors out there like Innovation Norway, Nordic Games and Skatte Funn.
· The Norwegian government have tried to promote a stronger focus on game industry.
· Easier to get a game sponsored if marketed towards a specific company, for example Mc Donald game.
· If you want to get funded, be prepared for tough competition.
We also found something called "The Nordic Game Program" which covers the entire Scandinavian area.
This is a association that helps fund the Nordic game industry, and the main goal is to promote games made from Nordic countries all over the world.
And they offer a significant funding to game companies, starting from £12,000 to around £70,000.
The criteria's for this funding is quite steep, and the competition is though, and many projects depend on this kind of funding to be allowed to live.
Even though the funding is made available through these kinds of channels, the earning potential for Nordic games is hard to justify, many games that get released with funding ends up in the negative numbers.
In comparison to how much it cost to develop a AAA product, this funding isn't much, but for the smaller companies like the developers of the newly released game Limbo, the funding really comes as a savior.
Robin:
Robin is presenting the part about Funcom and the final conclusion:
I’m going to talk about Funcom, and how they work in Norway.
Funcom was founded in 1993 by 4 Norwegians, and is currently Norway’s largest Game Company with over 300 employees. Their Main office is in Oslo. Funcom has for a longer period been the only Norwegian Game developer that are established on the international market
For my Primary Research I contacted 2 people in Funcom, Erling Ellingsen who is the Director of Communications and Jan Brikeland who is the Communication Manager. Erling was kind enough to reply back to me:
These are the most important points I learned from the interview:
-Because Norway is really small with less than 5 million inhabitants, it is much harder to find good talent there. This is one of the reasons why they have offices in other countries.
- There are few benefits from working out of Norway. The few companies there do however get extra media attention since there are so few of them.
- In addition to this the costs for developing games in Norway are very high compared to several other countries. It is also hard to get people to move to Norway and to find people with enough skill and the correct talents.
-The Norwegian Government doesn’t give much support, but the last few years it has been improving, especially for smaller companies. They still have a long way to go match for example Canada.
- The game industry in Norway is growing, but very slowly.
- Funcom is opening offices in other countries to save money and to get more access to talented employees.
- Future expansions in Funcom will be mainly in Canada, but their headquarters will still be Oslo.
- Getting a job in Funcom, Oslo is hard at the moment because of limited recruiting. Requirements depend on position, but an impressive portfolio is more important than any education.
- The Dreamworld Engine is something that Funcom are really proud of.
Many of the things Erling talked about where also confirmed in my 2ndary research. In an interview Trond Arne Aas talks about the high costs in Norway, and that moving to Canada can cut their costs of creating a game by 50%. Aas also criticizes the Norwegian Government for not doing more to compete with the other countries that are trying to get Game Companies to establish there. If they don’t give more support, Norway will never have a decent sized Games industry. I have more but can’t go into detail.
It is very obvious to me why Funcom moves to Canada when they can cut their expenses to half by doing so. One thing that is extra worrying is that this also was the case almost 10 years ago. Back in 2002 the small company Razorwax moved to Greece because of high costs and the lack of support from the Norwegian Government. The employees in Razorwax openly criticize the Norwegian Government for their lack of interest and understanding in the Norwegian Games industry. Even though things have changed since this, most of the issues and reasons that Razorwax had for moving to Greece are still there today. Darkfall is also a fairly successful game now, and would be good for Norway’s reputation if it was produced here, and not in Greece.
One of the few positive developments in the Norwegian Games Industry the latest years is that in 2007 the Norwegian Game Awards was started. Even though the prizes are rather minor it is still an excellent chance for small and unknown companies to show what they are working on, get support and recognition from several places.
In 2003 Norway published 3 games total, however now the numbers continuously growing. In 2007 the number had grown to 11, which is a positive development, but there is still a long way to go.
CONCLUSION:
Based on this research, we now see why there is a lack of newly established game companies and big game projects in Norway, and why many of companies start offices in places like Montreal in Canada, which offer better terms and funding for developing games. Funcom is a good example of this. They are continuously expanding outside Norway’s borders because of the condition in Norway. It is worrying to see the issues of high costs and little support from the Norwegian government have seen little improvements over the last 10 years. Even though things have gotten a little better, it's not nearly enough to keep the game industry in Norway optimistic about the future. So we see that more and more companies start seeking elsewhere for funding, and luckily a lot of private investors have started to emerge from the broken promises of the Government.
I’m going to talk about Funcom, and how they work in Norway.
Funcom was founded in 1993 by 4 Norwegians, and is currently Norway’s largest Game Company with over 300 employees. Their Main office is in Oslo. Funcom has for a longer period been the only Norwegian Game developer that are established on the international market
For my Primary Research I contacted 2 people in Funcom, Erling Ellingsen who is the Director of Communications and Jan Brikeland who is the Communication Manager. Erling was kind enough to reply back to me:
These are the most important points I learned from the interview:
-Because Norway is really small with less than 5 million inhabitants, it is much harder to find good talent there. This is one of the reasons why they have offices in other countries.
- There are few benefits from working out of Norway. The few companies there do however get extra media attention since there are so few of them.
- In addition to this the costs for developing games in Norway are very high compared to several other countries. It is also hard to get people to move to Norway and to find people with enough skill and the correct talents.
-The Norwegian Government doesn’t give much support, but the last few years it has been improving, especially for smaller companies. They still have a long way to go match for example Canada.
- The game industry in Norway is growing, but very slowly.
- Funcom is opening offices in other countries to save money and to get more access to talented employees.
- Future expansions in Funcom will be mainly in Canada, but their headquarters will still be Oslo.
- Getting a job in Funcom, Oslo is hard at the moment because of limited recruiting. Requirements depend on position, but an impressive portfolio is more important than any education.
- The Dreamworld Engine is something that Funcom are really proud of.
Many of the things Erling talked about where also confirmed in my 2ndary research. In an interview Trond Arne Aas talks about the high costs in Norway, and that moving to Canada can cut their costs of creating a game by 50%. Aas also criticizes the Norwegian Government for not doing more to compete with the other countries that are trying to get Game Companies to establish there. If they don’t give more support, Norway will never have a decent sized Games industry. I have more but can’t go into detail.
It is very obvious to me why Funcom moves to Canada when they can cut their expenses to half by doing so. One thing that is extra worrying is that this also was the case almost 10 years ago. Back in 2002 the small company Razorwax moved to Greece because of high costs and the lack of support from the Norwegian Government. The employees in Razorwax openly criticize the Norwegian Government for their lack of interest and understanding in the Norwegian Games industry. Even though things have changed since this, most of the issues and reasons that Razorwax had for moving to Greece are still there today. Darkfall is also a fairly successful game now, and would be good for Norway’s reputation if it was produced here, and not in Greece.
One of the few positive developments in the Norwegian Games Industry the latest years is that in 2007 the Norwegian Game Awards was started. Even though the prizes are rather minor it is still an excellent chance for small and unknown companies to show what they are working on, get support and recognition from several places.
In 2003 Norway published 3 games total, however now the numbers continuously growing. In 2007 the number had grown to 11, which is a positive development, but there is still a long way to go.
CONCLUSION:
Based on this research, we now see why there is a lack of newly established game companies and big game projects in Norway, and why many of companies start offices in places like Montreal in Canada, which offer better terms and funding for developing games. Funcom is a good example of this. They are continuously expanding outside Norway’s borders because of the condition in Norway. It is worrying to see the issues of high costs and little support from the Norwegian government have seen little improvements over the last 10 years. Even though things have gotten a little better, it's not nearly enough to keep the game industry in Norway optimistic about the future. So we see that more and more companies start seeking elsewhere for funding, and luckily a lot of private investors have started to emerge from the broken promises of the Government.
