Component one section b - industry and audience - Assassin's creed III: Liberation

 Assassin's creed franchise

A history of video games

-computer space - 1971
- the plato system - computers linked up around american universities - playing online versions of dungeons and dragons with people around the country
- the japanese arcade boom - while early computers were too expensive, games were exhibited in arcades for people to play - first popularised in japan 
- 100Yen to play games 
- space invaders, one of the first games to have character, strips of plastic put over the screen to put colours - 1978 
- called invader halls 
-early 1980s - early video game arcades - atari - in america
-bedroom coders and UK micros - zx spectrum - micro computers as they didnt fill an entire room
- early experimentations and generic fluidity - no limit to who made videogames at this stage - no one knew or cared about target audiences, not really an industry yet 
- 1980's videogame crash - E.T supposed to be the game to bring up atari didnt, because it was buggy and confusing and brought the industry down
- japanese imports - dragon quest , japanese industry grew
- regional differences - jpn VS rest of the world, they were higher quality than rest of the world
- the japanese console boom - NES / famicom in japan - super mario
- Street fighter II 1991
- arcades and consoles - divide in quality - arcades a superior product, had to pay more 

-1994 - sony enters the market - self depreciating advert - dangerously good - advertised in the ministry of sound nightclub and set up a playstation in the nightclub 
- ff 7 and fallout - jpn vs rest of the world 
- indies and majors 
- controversies surrounding production - LA noire 
- controversies surrounding representation - Tombraider - "camera behind her then we wouldnt be able to look at her ass"
- digital distrubution - playstation store, steam

-sony changing things by targeting an older audience - disposable income 


In what ways do videogames represent a specialised industry? how do they differ from other media?
- videogames cannot be enjoyed by themselves, they need a console and controllers to play with - huge expenditure of resources
- you can interact with the media, you play it and are part of it, while tv shows/magazines you are observing it - interactivity 
- allow audiences to compete against eachother 
- genres differ - openworld / sandbox cant be found in other media 
- huge player choice - can be played multiplayer or single player 
- puzzle games , mmos, simulation games, 
- much higher RRP
- games developed for specific hardware or released multiplatform 
- a dedicated, core target audience 
- ALL DEBATABLE 
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