2. The Plan »Europe?  Definition(s)  Territory Profile  Market »Business in Europe  Licensing  Self Publishing »QA & Special Thanks

3. The Speaker »Thomas Bidaux  GOA.com  NCsoft Europe  ICO Partners »As well as…  University: Langue, Littérature et Civilisation Etrangère – Anglais  Shakespeare, Marianne Moore and the British and American Civilisations

4. Europe?

6. Herman Moll - 1708

7. Europe?

10. Political Europe »Many definitions  Euro-zone (16 countries)  EU (27 countries)  Schengen (31 countries)  Council of Europe (47 countries)

11. Euro-zone ██ Eurozone (16) ██ EU states obliged to join the Eurozone (9) ██ EU state with an opt-out on Eurozone participation (2)

12. European Union

13. Schengen

14. Council of Europe

15. Europe in Numbers (1) »Superficy  4 300 000 km² (that’s 1 600 000 sq miles)  USA - 3 800 000 sq miles »Population  500M in Europe  USA - 300M »Density  114/km²  USA - 31/km²

16. Europe in Numbers (2) »Currencies  12 »Internet Users (%tage of Worldwide users)  28% Europe  18.4% North America  Comscore January 2009 »Consoles  8.4M PS3  8.9M Xbox 360  16M Wii

17. Europe beyond Numbers »Cultural particularities  History  Metric system  Sports  No Baseball  Football is played using your feet  Rugby  Cricket (actually…)  Comics books :

18. Europe beyond Numbers »Cultural particularities

19. Europe beyond Numbers »Cultural particularities  Humour  France and Germany Arte TV channel  Personal Relationship  North vs South  Marriage and dating  Moving « abroad »  Food

20. Europe beyond Numbers »Religions

21. Europe beyond Numbers »Faith

22. Europe Legal framework »Civil law system (except in the UK) »European Union regulations  All EU countries tend to align their legal rulings (very slow process) »Data Protection  Extremely regulated  Shared trust between EU states »Consumer Protection laws  Shared Across EU states (not 100% though)  Tougher than the US regulations

23. Europe Game ratings »PEGI (32 countries)  Voluntary system – legally enforced in a few countries  BBFC in the UK for game rated 16+ or more  Mainly for retail  Nothing on Alcohol, Tobacco or Blood  Very quick approval process for 12+ games

24. Europe Game ratings

25. »USK (Germany)  Legally enforced  Retail Only  A lot of urban legends but…  No Swatiska and be careful on WW2 with references  Quick approval process (except in the summer) »Some examples on the cultural difference:

26. Leipzig Game Convention

27. Some ratings examples

28. Europe and Languages »40+ different languages in Europe:  Important languages : English (British), French, German, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Swedish, Danish, Norvegian, Russian, Finnish, Polish, Greek, Russian.  Many minor languages: Basque, Breton, Welsh, Gaelic, Corsican, Catalan, Slavic and Baltic languages…  And even Latin »3 different alphabets (with variations):  Roman  Greek  Cyrillic

29. The AZERTY (french) Keyboard

30. Europe and Languages »British VS American:  Different spelling  Different vocabularies  Different sensibilities:  Spaztic – Mario Party 8 was removed from shelves  Short Shag – Fusion Fall (kid game) haircut description

31. Europe and English

32. Means of payment (1) »SMS  high rate  popular with kids and teens  Higher mobile phone penetration than the US (107 vs 77 per 100 inhabitants in 2006) »Credit/Debit Cards  Popular with adults (different rates of equipment between countries, generally less than US)  Local version very common (Carte Bleue, Swift) »ELV  very common in Germany  Bank transfer (high rate of charge back)

33. Means of payment (2) »Pre-paid cards  Paysafe – 210k outlets in 16 countries, 2.7k web shops, 15M transactions in 2008  Wallie – XXX »Premium landline call  Popular with kids and for small amounts »Direct ISP billing »VAT in Europe  Based on the country of operation  Average is 20%  Listed prices are inclusive

34. Means of payment (3) Source – ACNielsen Oct 2005

35. Means of payment (4)

36. Means of payment (5) US : 59% (US census bureau)

37. European Market »Popular Online Games

38. European Market »PC market In 2008 laptops = 70% of European PC market Netbooks = 10% of the total European PC market 70% of netbooks sales were in Europe in 2008 Netbooks EU market expected to grow from 8M units in 2008 to 50M units in 2012

39. European Market »Size of the Internet market Broadband lines per 100 inhabitants. 2008

40. European Market »Size of the Market Source: idate September 2008

41. European Market »Size of the Market WOW Servers

42. European Market – MMO »Size of the Market (estimates)  LOTRO – 50/50 split US/EU  Age of Conan – 35/65 split US/EU  Runescape – 66/33 split US/EU  Guildwars – 45/55 split US/EU »EU Estimates

43. European Market »Free to Play Market  Driven by browser-based  Some succesful client-based Free to Play »EU Estimates

44. European Market »F2P vs P2P (from 400+ games currently operated in Europe or under development)

45. European Market »F2P vs P2P

46. European Devs »Online Games Studios  173 studios  300+ projects

47. European Devs »Prominent Studios

48. European Operators »Local actors  Codemasters – Lotro, DDO, Jumpgate, Archlord  GOA.com – DAoC, WAR, Goa.com  Frogster – Runes of Magic, Bounty Bay Online  Gameforge – Metin 2, Ogame  Bigpoint – Seafight, Dark Orbit  Gamigo – Level R, Last Chaos, Shot Online  Burda IC – Florensia, Ragnarok, Alaplaya  Games Masters – Cabal Online, Perfect World »Local subsiduaries  Blizzard – WOW  NCWest– GW, Lineage 2, City of Heroes  Club Penguin – Club Penguin  Gala Net – Flyff, Rappelz  Aeria Games – Last Chaos, Shaiya, Megaten  Nexon – MapleStory, Combat Arms  SquareEnix - FFXI

49. European gameplay style »Service expectations  Language  Call center  Communication/Community

50. European gameplay style »Different play style

51. European gameplay style

54. Business in Europe

55. »First consideration  Splitting the services  Shards?  IP Blocking?  Legal consideration?  Community Management?  Marketing opportunities?

56. Licensing in Europe »Key points to consider  Service splitting - required  Business model  Royalty mechanism  IP management  Localisation strategy  Bug reporting  Customer Support policies  User feedback processes  Global communication/marketing

57. Licensing in Europe »Existing actors  Codemasters  GOA.com  Frogster  K2  Gala Net  Gamigo  Gameforge  Bigpoint  Funcom?

58. Self publishing in Europe »Expect to spend time on:  Legal  Community management  Localisation  Customer Support  Billing solutions  Server operations  Marketing  Distribution (for boxes)  Recruitment

59. Self publishing in Europe »Where to set up European operations  France  UK  The Netherlands  Germany  Switzerland  Ireland  Other?  From a US office?

60. QA

61. »Special thanks to  Diane  Paysafe  Kai Bodensiek  Idate (Laurent Michaud)  Global Collect (Rogier de Boer)  Club Penguin (Emma Bullen)