I was very interested in the search for global programming talent and team management. What methods of recruiting have been the most successful in finding talent in your target countries, and once talent is hired, what types of initiatives are you undertaking to retain it in light of the many alternative employers? Regarding global team and project management, what tools do you use to coordinate the development process?

Thank you.

Really great speakers.

For the benefit of the class, please find below a synopsis of the discussions of Chris and Jason-

Chris Kenji Beer – President and Co-founder, Media Lead

• Mobile gaming business publishers only around a dozen now and his company is one of the survivors because of the international business. Japan is the largest market.
• Company has a very diverse team and is geographically well spread
• International business has been a recession buffer
• Industry will transform from casual to “more serious” due to technological innovations – haptic response (touch)
• The US is behind the curve as compared to Asian countries like Japan, Korea. Samsung recently displaced Motorola from #2 spot (in mobile manufacturing)

Jason Robar – Founder, AristoDigital

• Located in Issaquah – has grown from 3 employees to 35 employees.
• Microsoft and others ignored Asian video game market because of reputation of piracy.
• South Korea – once world leader (they invested in local technology companies and had their own video game manufacturing); dominated the Chinese market at one point in time
• World War Craft – only US game to be in top 10 games list in China. The piracy helped by providing free “publicity” to the game before it was officially released. Also, for this game, one pays for the service (not the product), so pirated copies are ineffective
• Video game market consists of-
1. Services
2. Developer
3. Publisher
4. Distributor
• ARPU (average revenue per unit) in Asia is approximately $14 per month; same as in the US but this is noteworthy considering the average person there makes 1/7 of the revenue that an American makes.

During the Q/A, both were of the opinion that although it may have started of as cost savings, possessing workforces in Asia (primarily China, Korea, India) actually enhanced their talent pool and provided them a perspective on the kind of gamers in those regions so as to develop a better suited product.

Thank you again, speakers, for a very informative and involving panel discussion.

Vasudha

To highlight Karl De Gama Campos’s presentation, Karl explained that he focuses on a 3-5 year strategy when working with enterprises to develop their business internationally. The top reasons he gave to consider going international were to…
• Diversify
• Gain economies of scale
• Counter domestic conditions
• and, gain competitive advantage

He stressed that international business in Washington is here to stay, specifically that the gaming industry is growing the fastest outside of the U.S., and that exports contributed ½ of Washington’s jobs over the last 30 years. He explained that the Washington exports market was worth approximately $66 billion, with the following countries ranked by current market share below…
1. China
2. Japan
3. Canada
4. India

In his work at the CTED he assesses whether enterprises are ready to go international. He pointed out that there must be a strong management commitment, adequate initial cash flow, and that the company must have capacity, capability, and adaptability, to be successful. The crux of his work is based on business matchmaking (conducting international partner searches), and generating leads. He also suggested a website for further information: http://www.export.gov

Kristina Hudson shed light on local statistics in the gaming industry, and highlighted that there are more than 150 companies involved, which employed over 15,000 people, and which brought nearly $4.2 billion in revenue to the state. Combined with an extraordinarily high growth rate, the industry looks promising.

She also gave an extra resource for further information: http://www.washingtoninteractivenetwork.org

Chris Beer and Josan Robar’s discussion will be outlined in another posting.

Thank you again to our speakers!

I am wondering how closely the video game industry follows economic fluctuations here in the states? I’m sure sales drop when the economy goes south, but is there a mitigating factor that some people would actually buy more video games, or switch to video games, as a cheap form of entertainment when they are trying to save money (ie as opposed to going out on the town for a night, or traveling, etc)?

Thanks much,

Jon Oakdale