The Business of Video Games
Dr. Robert Macy, professor of entrepreneurship in the Smeal College of Business, passed along information on a new course that he will be teaching this fall for the first time. The course will cover the business side of video games. Macy said, “There are classes across this and other campuses that cover art, programming and development; but I see a real gap from the business side. I want to try to fill that void — as much as I can in only 15 weeks.”
It sounds like it should be an interesting course for those students interested in building businesses based on video games. Considering that video game developers are always looking for new strategies to profit from gamers, this should prove to be an interesting study.
Macy also said of the course, “The plan is for it to be platform agnostic. The focus is on the business end of things. The synergy between business model and game development documents. As far as game examples, it would be along the scale from mainstream to boutique, from the huge standards such as Halo 3, to causal mmos such as Puzzle Pirates. I will try to cover the spectrum so we can examine the market dynamics that ’should’ drive development choices.”
For interested students who would like to register for the course, here are the SOC details:
MGMT 497A: The Business of Video Games
125683 T R 08:00A - 09:15A
The course is designed to bridge the gap between the design and business of game development. Students will develop the skills to identify and manage the design, development, commercialization, and launch of game products and services. Topics will include: business formation, market analysis, managing game development, human resource issues, business models, distribution and harvesting the venture.
Startup Weekend Date Change
Due to the fact that Penn State scheduled Parents & Families Day for October 3-5, we needed to move the dates for Startup Weekend in State College.
The event will now begin the evening of Friday, October 24 and conclude on Sunday, October 26. Please update your calendars! Registration will be opening soon.
Growing an Entrepreneurial Community in Philadelphia
Growing an entrepreneurial community seems to be moving higher on everyone’s priority lists. A recent article from Innovation Philadelphia talks about some of the new initiatives in Philly with regard to supporting and connecting entrepreneurs. In the article, the author mentions a handful of the groups emerging in the Philadelphia region to bolster the entrepreneurial community: Philly Startup Leaders (PSL), Entrepreneurs’ Forum of Greater Philadelphia (EFGP), and Philly Meetup.
The article also mentions Independents Hall, a new non-traditional workspace in Center City increasingly used by creatives and entrepreneurs. (Interestingly, the founder of Independents Hall, Alex Hillman, has some Chicken and Egg thoughts of his own pertaining to culture.)
It’s good to see the entrepreneurial community growing in Philadelphia, but we still have a ways to go. Boulder is one city making great strides in becoming a hot spot of entrepreneurship.
Prototype Invest - Other Alternative Investment Models
Continuing on the subject of alternative models for investment in early stage startups, ReadWriteWeb recently covered the launch of Prototype Invest. Prototype Invest is interesting because they don’t invest money into early stage ventures - rather, they provide the venture with technology in exchange for equity. As they state on their web site, “Think of us as a Venture Capital firm providing software, web applications and guidance, instead of money.”
Founded by Denmark web developer Michael Christensen, according to ReadWriteWeb, the company has a network of developers and designers to provide prototypes and products based on the ideas submitted by entrepreneurs. The article also provides additional details on their services:
“Along with development services, Prototype Invest also offers to help entrepreneurs pitch their idea (and newly minted prototype) to investors, which makes sense given that Christensen and team will only make money if the app is a success. At some point in the future the team is also considering offering Y Combinator-style microfunding.”
This is not the first time design and development firms have tried this approach. Well known design firm Adaptive Path has a New Ventures program that offers services to seed/early stage-ventures for equity. According to their site, they select three to four ventures per year “and offer … help working through ideation and design, implementation and subsequent iteration. [They] provide sustained support through the rapidly changing life of an early-stage venture.” A few portfolio ventures are listed on the site, as well.
It will be very interesting to see how many entrepreneurs take these firms up on their services-for-equity model, especially considering the ever decreasing costs of deploying web applications, through outsourcing models.
NYC Seed
CNet.com and the New York Times are announcing the launch of the latest seed stage funding engine for early stage ventures: NYC Seed. Spurred by New York City Mayor Michael P. Bloomberg, who was a technology entrepreneur himself, the fund has approximately $2 million and plans to provide up to $200,000 per venture in early stage capital. There isn’t much information available on their web site, aside from a PDF application, but it will be interesting to see how quickly they are able to build a portfolio of ventures and what markets they gravitate towards.
In addition to funding, it appears NYC Seed aims to provide the networking element, as well: “NYC Seed provides guidance from notable entrepreneurs, technologists and venture capitalists. We also connect companies to potential initial customers and when ready, we help companies move to their next stage of development.”
NYC Seed is a public-private partnership between the New York City Economic Development Corp. the New York City Investment Fund, the Partnership for New York City’s economic development arm, Polytechnic University, the New York State Foundation for Science, Technology, and Innovation and the Industrial and Technology Assistance Corp.
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Through this blog, we're working to connect students, faculty, alumni, and local entrepreneurs who are interested in building a community centered around Penn State-entrepreneurship. Please explore the previous posts, join in the discussion by posting a comment, and let us know if you would like to contribute!
