Spil Games’ vision for the future – integration through HTML5

Despite several traditional console video game developers having gone bankrupt in the last year, it is the far less sexy but financially attractive online casual games industry which is thriving nowadays. However, the environment most of these online casual games organizations are facing also is subject to severe user driven changes which need to be anticipated upon. Social networks are on the rise and people spend more and more time on playing games on their mobile devices. Worldwide market leader Spil Games with 130 million unique monthly visitors intends to acts upon these changes and wants to lead the way for other companies.

A vision of integration

After a few less successful attempts to conquer the Appstore, Spil has developed a vision for the future revolving around the integration of platforms using HTML5 for cohesive binding. In a world where people increasingly communicate and play games through social networks such as Facebook and do so both at home as well as on the road using their mobile devices, having a webbased game portal just isn’t enough anymore. In their new vision for the future, Spil Games attempts to integrate the use of game portals such as www.games.co.uk on both desktops as well as mobile devices. And while they are at it, Spil tries to incorporate communication through social networks in their games. Thus, a player should be able to play a game on her desktop, continue playing on her mobile phone and talk about this experience using social networks. HTML5 will act as technological backbone for this vision to become reality.

Why HTML5?

HTML5 is the soon to be released successor of HTML4, currently in its  final stages of development. As a standard for structuring and presenting content on the World Wide Web, HTML5 has an open standard, meaning that it is easy to use for and by game developers and that it is applicable across devices. The markup language in development by Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group (WHATWG) works on PC, iDevices and Android phones amongst others. This is an advantage over these separate entities since their markup languages only work for that particular category of devices. Apart from this advantage, as a markup language HTML5 is pretty interesting for video game developers to work with. It is graphically advanced and can handle demanding applications running in the browser itself. This means that the user does not have to install anything before playing a game. A game like Quake can thus be played in the browser without having to be installed  first.

Adoption by developers through contests and game jams

To ensure that not only Spil Games is enthusiastic about HTML5 but that the development community also will be, the company organizes six monthly video game development contests from this month on. Independent video game developers are asked to put their skills to the test by developing video games using HTML5 and uploading them onto Spil’s servers. The best games are rewarded a financial fee and get exposure on one of the company’s HTML5-ready game portals. Another way Spil is trying to enthuse game developers for the latest version of HTML as a language to write game code in is by presenting a ‘Game Jam’. In cooperation with Google, who is also an advocate of HTM5, a game jam is being organized on October 9th at the Spil Games headquarters. Within a day and a half, game developers are challenged to make something worth playing. Developers can sign up and meet likeminded people as well as the likes of Spil and Google who might be interested in the games to be developed at the event.

Through these events Spil wants to increase the adoption rate for HTML5 as an innovation from the input side. As HTML5, and subsequently Spil’s portals, are accessible from virtually every internet enabled device, be it desktop or mobile, the most critical success factor for the technology to succeed is content. Spil is offering a clear and attractive proposition; ease of use and online communication by integration of platforms through HTML5. Yet without proper and plentiful games to be played on these platforms, this would be a proposition without weight. As such, Spil is reaching out to the indie game development community in order to secure content for its platforms.

Spil vs. the indies

Spil reaching out to the indie community to secure content seems like a logical thing to do. Indie developers are usually amongst the first to try new technologies, they tend to take larger risks than major publishers do and are often characterized by a short- to midterm vision; these are the innovators so to speak. This matches with Spil’s objective of using HTML5 as a markup language to write game code in as well as the onetime financial fees offered to those winning the contests mentioned earlier. Also, indies seem to like game jams a lot. Still, this is no match made in heaven.

Spil Games is a large publisher whose main goal is income, being made from advertisements on the company’s portals whereas indie developers are more in it for the love of the game. Secondly, indie developers are asked to learn a new markup language and make an interesting game with it in only a month time, or even in a day and a half in case of the game jam. Obviously, this is quite challenging! Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, I see a discrepancy between the type of games being developed by the indie community and the target audience Spil is aiming for. Spil aims for the new gamer as a target audience; moms and girls playing video games as a means of spending time, also known as casual gamers. Indie games on the other hand, are characterized by a certain degree of innovativeness and obscurity.

Vision brought to reality?

Despite the notified differences between Spil’s input recruitment and output demands, the future vision sounds appealing and thoroughly thought of. A situation in which we are able to play the same games on multiple devices while bragging about our high scores on social networks sounds rather attractive. I think that this is a future not so far away from us either. All signs point to a degree of integration between social, mobile and webbased games. HTML5 could be that final push for the integration to happen. Apple, Microsoft and Google all support the markup language which is both critical for the technology’s success as that it could well be an indicator of the technology’s potential.

For Spil Games, the integration made possible by HTML5 serves as an opportunity to adapt and act upon an ever changing environment. For 2010, the company estimates to earn 30 million euro’s in revenue, mainly made by selling advertisement slots on proprietary game portals. Despite this fact, the organization’s management sees the need to change and readjust their business model due to the advent of mobile gaming and games on social networks. The newly found vision of integration must lead the company towards change in the benefit of these developments. For a company that is big enough to actually shape the industry landscape but still can lean back and trust its tried and true business model to change in such a way is quite a big thing.

This article is partially based on a interview I had with Scott Johnston, Global Media Relations Manager of Spil Games.

A Dutch interpretation of this article can be found at Bashers.