Production is the making of a product. Games are created by development studios comprised of software engineers, artists and programmers who write the code, create the structure and animate the game making them playable for gamers. While developers create software, other companies create the hardware that the games run on. The major hardware companies in the games industry are Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony who make the Xbox360, Wii and Playstation3 respectively. Games can be played on other pieces of hardware such as phones, PC and handheld consoles such as the Sony PSP (Playstation Portable).
There are four main models of game development. The 'tent pole' business model, the Hollywood model, developing without a publisher and independent game development.
'Tent pole' business model
This method uses the resources generated from one big game to fund the production of smaller products. The first big game is usually heavily advertised and marketed in order to maximise the product's profit to help future products. There is an element of risk involved with this method because a company can't guarantee if there game will do well or recuperate its expenses. An example of this is the game Spore, which sold 1 million copies in the first 17 days, but the development costs were so big EA only expect to make their money back with 5 years of updates and sequels.
Hollywood model
The Hollywood model is where a production company splitting up the development of a game into different areas in order to lower production costs. This also allows the different areas to be carried out to a higher standard because it is usually split into specialist divisions.
Developing without a pubisher
This is a far riskier approach - having to raise the funds yourself, however, this does allow for greater artistic freedom, with less strict time constraints.
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