Thanks to all those who emailed me direct about our blog on the future of online gaming. As I booted up Burnout Paradise: Big Surf Island over the weekend, to again hammer down the ski jump, (you gotta try it), it really made me think about Criterion Games’ online strategy and how they have been the industry pioneers and led the charge online and introduced innovatory new business models.
Burnout Paradise shipped in January 2008….yes 2008! But we are still playing the game 18 months on—that is remarkable and testament to some revolutionary ideas by Criterion and their building of a loyal community. How many games in your collection are you playing 18 months after release? Pioneering means taking risks, going out on a limb and sticking to a vision…..hence this story is so fascinating as many of the new ideas discussed below are now accepted norms in the industry. Funny how innovation quickly turns into the accepted norm isn’t it!
At the time of release Burnout Paradise was critically acclaimed and was a revolutionary title, especially the way it introduced the seamless integration of online racing into the game with no need for laborious online menus and waiting around in stark cold lobbies. But as we all know in gaming, shelf life is limited and competitors flatter by imitation and seek to drive the market on….the market is savage in moving onto the next great big game. Some games have shelf lives of 2 months, some have a longer tail. Criterion wanted to change this perception of shelf life and keep gamers in their world. This would have fundamental changes to their strategy, especially retail strategy. With a booming play and trade / pre-owned market, Criterion also sought to ensure that gamers wanted to keep their game in their consoles and not trade in 2+ months later.
Criterion were the first to recognise the changing times. They wanted to build and engage their community of gamers. And engage is the key word. Direct communication, 2 way between gamers/fans with the game developers. Not only to share game experiences but listen and understand what the fans wanted. How they were playing the game. What they enjoyed. And then building Paradise up and around their wishes and the creative ideas from the team. In a time when Social Networks were really taking off, Criterion were the first in the industry to recognise the importance of community and engagement.
Criterion first set out to understand how people were playing their game. This involved complex telemetry, allowing them to see what gamers were doing, how they were engaging with Burnout Paradise. Were they completing licenses? How many licenses did they get through? How long were they spending online? Where on the map were people enjoying spending their time? How many people were 8 player racing? How many online challenges were being completed? How hard was the game? What times were being posted? What were the favourite modes? What times of day were people playing? This in depth analysis really allowed Criterion to understand their market and what gamers were enjoying in Paradise City.
So Criterion now had the data to understand what their gamers were doing and their goal was to build a loyal community, which seamlessly could interact directly with Criterion. They identified that to build a community they needed to build loyalty and trust with their gamers. This led them to embark on releasing FREE DLC. At the time some industry commentators questioned why Criterion was releasing FREE content to gamers when they could monetarise it. Some thought it crazy not to charge for DLC. As pioneers, Criterion ‘got’ that to build loyal communities, loyalty was a 2-way street. Hence they embarked on releasing not just bug fixing and slight enhancement DLC, but game changing DLC for free, including, in their 2nd DLC release 70+ new freeburn challenges, 3 freeburn online modes and a new 1st of new liveries from online competition winners. This DLC was followed up by the first time inclusion of bikes into Burnout and a new day/night cycle, with dynamic weather. They were the first, in September 2008, to introduce online DLC for Trophies for the PS3 for a game released prior to trophies. This was all FREE game changing content, which the community went wild for….but all this was building loyalty and Paradise City was still conjested with racers months after release….
The community lapped this up. FREE DLCenhanced the game but ensured that the shelf life of the game was being extended. Few copies were to be found in the pre-owned market as people held on to their copies to continue playing the game. But critically Criterion recognised that DLC was only 1 part of building a loyal community. They had the vision that direct engagement and communication was critical. Hence they took a number of steps. They devised a fresh web site www.criteriongames.com This became THE portal that fans could get deeper information about the game. Blog style news and exclusive announcements were seen first on this site. Again, this was another milestone in their philosophy. Rather than follow the traditional PR route of a press release or media interview to announce new features, Criterion said NO…our fans must know first and hence they communicated directly to them on any fresh news….and the media sites fed off CriterionGames.com for their news feed. Again a shift in the way things have traditionally been done in gaming.
Continuing this direct communication, Criterion introduced a ‘live news feed’ into the Console games in July 2008. This was cool for gamers as again the team released news but they introduced competitions for gamers via the online calendar. All devised to engage and keep people coming back. This was the foundation to Criterion Games Network, where early in 2009, the game on PS3 boots immediately to a browser that has a personalised player web page at the start, thus allowing gamers even more news and the ability to communicate with their friends and compare achievements and stats.
Continuing this unparalleled access to news and development, Crash TV was a vital player. Born initially as an iTunes podcast, the game team quickly moved to a video pod cast which was fun, fresh and unmissable. Hence, TheWebsterHoff, IslandPete, SargeSullivan, CrashTVJez were born. These alter egos for key team developers added a fresh feel to communication and was critically fun…..games are entertaining and so should the way we communicate about them was Criterion’s mantra.
As Twitter took off, Criterion were again in at the start with their own Twitter feeds and gamers in the world of Burnout Paradise were feeling part of a well developed community where they could engage with each other, share ideas, share experiences, compete and importantly do all this with the developers of the game. Which other developers can claim to have such relationships and 2 way access with their fans?
With a developed community, Criterion now released monetarised DLC….DLC the fans wanted, nay demanded. Burnout Party, with 8-player pass the pad gameplay challenges, the great way to spend an evening, especially back from a night out with friends. Legendary Cars, with Criterion paying homage to classic cars, which fans lapped up. Toy Cars….cute cars in Paradise…which had real muscle and speed, again another new dimension for gamers. That leads us to Cops & Robbers, a favorite of mine, where gamers could chase as the Police or be chased as robbers, again enriching online gaming and a real fan favourite. What can be more appealing than the classic movie police chase scene….
That leads us up to today with a whole new island. Big Surf Island. Criterion, with all the telemetry data at their disposal, knew what gamers enjoyed doing and what would appeal to them. They heard from gamers over their blog site, via Twitter, via the game, what gamers wanted in a new island. And they delivered.
All industry pioneering. All impressive. But Criterion were not finished yet! They recognised that an Online Shop was needed. Gamers are more likely to buy content online—when they are enjoying the in-game experience. Hence gamers could access Burnout’s online store, in-game, and purchase DLC to enhance their enjoyment of the game. Simple, easy and instantly accessible…key to retail transactions.
So credit to Criterion. Many of their ideas are now imitated, (the sincerest form of flattery), many are now taken for industry norms. But they deserve our credit. Pioneers, for going out on a limb, taking risks, going where others had never been but sticking to their vision..they have demonstrated the way forward in online gaming, building a community and extending the life of a game…..it will certainly be interesting to see the next creative ideas from their visionary creative team.
Oh…and yes they are recruiting……….. www.jobs.ea.com As they say….only the best need apply.
EArl
© 2009 Electronic Arts Inc. All rights reserved. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners
What a great, well written blog. Thank you.
I love Criterion—Big Surf Island is the best.
Run Forest run!!!
Paradise is the BEST racing game by far.
Graet development team