[LINK] Xbox, modchips and law vs business model

[Chirgwin, Richard]

Jan - I was just hypothesising, based on how this sort of lobbying works!

I have no idea how many games developers work in Australia. In fact, I
suspect it's completely invisible to most market research; the box
developers (ie Sony, Nintendo and MS) probably keep that info to themselves.

But there are console game software developers here ... few, if not many,
and you can bet that if there's an interest at stake the number will be
somewhat amplified for press releases!

My guess, for what it's worth, is somewhere between 50 and 100 companies,
nearly all small; plus (most likely) some outposts of international shops,
some with developers on the ground in Australia.

Some games pretty much have to be developed here - like cricket or the
Bathurst 1000 for the consoles; so these might get subcontracted by an
international franchise. Others might inherit an international strategy (eg,
if the animators for the TV series are in Australia, there's probably some
work done to put their animations into the associated console game). And
there might be body-shopping here for the international industry; and so on.

(And talk about micro-specialisation, I decided to wander around some
companies and came across this inclusion in a company's portfolio: that its
work includes "creating walk cycles or death throes for various
characters.")

Richard C

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jan Whitaker [mailto:jwhit@primenet.com]
> Sent: Monday, 21 October 2002 14:33
> To: Chirgwin, Richard
> Cc: link@www.anu.edu.au
> Subject: RE: [LINK] Xbox, modchips and law vs business model
> 
> 
> At 08:11 AM 21/10/02 +1000, Chirgwin, Richard wrote:
> >(Quotes will probably run along the lines of: "The legitimate jobs of
> >thousands of honest Australians are more important than 
> protecting the
> >illegal activities of a handful of anti-social hackers".)
> 
> And which Australians might those be?  Are the games made here?  The 
> boxes?  anything at all?  Or is it equal to the Sony approach 
> which is the 
> competition and will therefore have equal anti-lobbying to 
> keep things the 
> way they are.
> 
> I'm not a games buff, so have no idea what the Sony stand might be.
> 
> Jan
> 
> 
> JLWhitaker Associates
> Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
> jwhit@primenet.com  --  http://www.primenet.com/~jwhit/whitentr.htm
> 
> 
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