Allen Varney
03-11-2008, 10:05 PM
Corey Bridges, who was in at the earliest days of Netscape AND Netflix AND ZoneAlarm, is now co-founder and CEO of Multiverse.net (http://multiverse.net), a proprietary 3D MMO gaming platform (based on the open-source Ogre engine) for indie design teams. Bridges spoke (http://www.joystiq.com/2008/03/11/sxsw08-virtual-worlds-and-indie-games-to-dethrone-publishers/) this past Saturday (March 8) at the South by Southwest Interactive Conference and Festival (http://2008.sxsw.com/interactive/) here in my hometown of Austin, Texas.
Bridges's talk had the title "Virtual World and Game Development: Rise of the Indies," but as Joystiq (http://www.joystiq.com/2008/03/11/sxsw08-virtual-worlds-and-indie-games-to-dethrone-publishers/) observed, "it soon became clear that 'Rise of the Indies' was a nicer spin on 'Fall of Publishers.'"
According to Bridges, game publishing has troubling economic issues already, like the cost of games (which discourages experimentation), their short shelf life, and the small percentage of profits that developers receive. The stress then leads to stressful conditions for employees (he cites EA Spouse here).
These problems lead to an environment that encourages indie development, as does the widespread proliferation of broadband, and the growing availability of middleware. This is happening concurrently with an explosion of popularity of virtual worlds, for which, of course, his Multiverse is a universal client and a tool for indie development.
I myself didn't get to attend his talk, but I had a pleasant lunch with Bridges the next day and thought him intelligent and informed -- even before he paid for my lunch. But I think with Multiverse.net he's targeting some kind of "indie" developer different from the self-financed solo acts who seem to form the majority on this forum.
Multiverse.net apparently does drastically reduce the cost and effort of developing an MMO, but Bridges was still talking in terms of teams of 5-10 people working for a year. That's impressive compared to the $50-80M development costs bandied about nowadays for WoW-killers, but you'd still need financing in the low- to mid-six figures unless your whole team lives on a beach in Thailand. In his talk, Bridges postulated the rise of "boutique firms," apparently sort of a mini-publisher or angel investor, who would offer development teams financing, management, marketing, and recruitment.
As I've said repeatedly in the still-active "Better than free (http://forums.indiegamer.com/showthread.php?t=12888&page=3)" topic here, indie developers at all scales should strongly consider moving to an online model -- but I still recommend a much lower-cost, browser-based approach, practicable with a small team and targeting a highly focused niche audience. That said, if you really want to design a persistent-world 3D MMO, Multiverse.net is an intriguing option.
Bridges's talk had the title "Virtual World and Game Development: Rise of the Indies," but as Joystiq (http://www.joystiq.com/2008/03/11/sxsw08-virtual-worlds-and-indie-games-to-dethrone-publishers/) observed, "it soon became clear that 'Rise of the Indies' was a nicer spin on 'Fall of Publishers.'"
According to Bridges, game publishing has troubling economic issues already, like the cost of games (which discourages experimentation), their short shelf life, and the small percentage of profits that developers receive. The stress then leads to stressful conditions for employees (he cites EA Spouse here).
These problems lead to an environment that encourages indie development, as does the widespread proliferation of broadband, and the growing availability of middleware. This is happening concurrently with an explosion of popularity of virtual worlds, for which, of course, his Multiverse is a universal client and a tool for indie development.
I myself didn't get to attend his talk, but I had a pleasant lunch with Bridges the next day and thought him intelligent and informed -- even before he paid for my lunch. But I think with Multiverse.net he's targeting some kind of "indie" developer different from the self-financed solo acts who seem to form the majority on this forum.
Multiverse.net apparently does drastically reduce the cost and effort of developing an MMO, but Bridges was still talking in terms of teams of 5-10 people working for a year. That's impressive compared to the $50-80M development costs bandied about nowadays for WoW-killers, but you'd still need financing in the low- to mid-six figures unless your whole team lives on a beach in Thailand. In his talk, Bridges postulated the rise of "boutique firms," apparently sort of a mini-publisher or angel investor, who would offer development teams financing, management, marketing, and recruitment.
As I've said repeatedly in the still-active "Better than free (http://forums.indiegamer.com/showthread.php?t=12888&page=3)" topic here, indie developers at all scales should strongly consider moving to an online model -- but I still recommend a much lower-cost, browser-based approach, practicable with a small team and targeting a highly focused niche audience. That said, if you really want to design a persistent-world 3D MMO, Multiverse.net is an intriguing option.