New era predicted for gaming industry

he games industry is about so much more than just the PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo Wii, the web industry is being told at the South by South West Interactive Festival in Austin, Texas.

Every day millions of people play a video game without switching on a games console.

From Facebook to the web browser, and from to casual games on a PC to games on a mobile phone, the independent games industry is enjoying a renaissance.

"I am looking forward to the Blair Witch Project of gaming," Gareth Davis, Facebook's head of games platforms, told BBC News.

"Just like movies such as Blair Witch and Sex, Lies and Videotape broke out of the independent film scene into the mainstream the same will happen with independent gaming."

Mr Davis added: "We are seeing a new rise in independent gaming. The games industry started off as individuals creating games, now it takes hundreds of people, millions of dollars and many years to make some games.

"But we are also seeing the return of the independent games programmer."

Mr Davis predicted a breakthrough hit that cost thousands of dollars to make rather than the millions of dollars poured into some blockbusters.

'No constraint'

One of the closest things the indie games scene has had to a Blair Witch is World of Goo, a deceptively simply puzzle game that has become a breakout hit on PC, Mac, Linux and the Nintendo Wii.

Made by two ex-Electronic Arts staff for less than $10,000 it went to sell thousands of copies, and many more than that figure in pirated copies.

And it was built using free, open source tools, such as Simple DirectMedia Layer and the Open Dynamics Engine.

Games are the most popular type of application on Facebook, which now boasts more than 175 million users, and 50,000 applications.

The top 10 games on Facebook have more than three million users each and the number one game Poker has more than 10 million active gamers in a single month.

"People who create games on Facebook can create inherently social titles that can be shared with family and friends," said Mr Davis.

"The internet means there is no constraint on who can create and publish games. A lot of our developers are students in dorm rooms or lone programmers who are able to quickly create compelling game experiences, put them on Facebook and get millions of players very quickly."

There is now a growing number of platforms and tool sets available to games developers that can help transform an idea into a working game played by users in a matter of days.

Source: BBC NEWS