Video Game Maker Shoots for the Console Player

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Video Game Maker Shoots for the Console Player
A scene from Magic Pixel’s upcoming ‘Carnival Island’ game.

Mark Tsai and his team have worked together to create games for some of the industry’s biggest publishers, including THQ Inc. and Electronic Arts Inc. Now they’ve launched their own L.A. studio.

Magic Pixel Games in Westchester is about to launch its first game. The company adopted a focus on games for motion-controlled devices for “casual gamers” – those who enjoy an occasional round of Wii bowling, for example, as opposed to the core audience of gamers who prefer titles such as “Call of Duty.”

But casual games seem to be moving quickly off traditional consoles and on to mobile devices.

“The market (for casual games) is huge, but it’s not on the consoles anymore,” said Michael Pachter, an analyst with downtown L.A.’s Wedbush Securities. “It’s migrating away from the consoles to the smart phones and iPad.”

The industry veterans at Magic Pixel, however, believe there’s still a market for their games. And they’ve got the backing of industry giant Sony behind them.

The company has received funding from Sony to release its first game, “Carnival Island,” exclusively for the PlayStation Move, a motion-controller used with the PlayStation 3. Magic Pixel will work with Sony to publish and distribute the game and is collaborating with Sony’s Santa Monica studio for “Carnival Island’s” holiday release.

“Having access to the first-party folks is helpful when it’s a new technology,” Tsai said. “That’s something we’ve taken full advantage of. They’ve been a good partner to us.”

But Tsai hasn’t ruled out working on future games for other motion-controlled devices, including Microsoft’s Kinect and Nintendo’s Wii.

Pachter said the company’s publishing agreement with Sony should help it sell games.

“A publisher gives you marketing expertise,” he said. “They know how to advertise your game.”

But the company will need to move beyond Sony, too.

“Making anything exclusive for Move is pretty limiting,” Pachter said. “Magic Pixel will probably be lucky to capture 5 percent of that market. That’s not exactly a big deal.”

Work history

The Magic Pixel team began working together at Helixe, a now-disbanded THQ studio in Boston, where they developed Nintendo games based on Pixar and Nickelodeon characters. They then moved to EA’s office in Playa Vista, where they worked on motion technology research for the Kinect. But the entire team was laid off as part of the gaming giant’s staff cuts.

So last year they decided to open their own studio.

“We decided to see if we could preserve that working relationship and continue to build interesting and really accessible experiences custom-tailored to each platform,” Tsai said.

The company, which has 23 employees, chose to stay focused on creating games for motion-controlled devices and continue making family-friendly titles that appeal to a demographic of more casual gamers who aren’t likely to play a first-person-shooter title.

Motion-controlled games are attractive to people with little gaming experience, because they simulate real-life actions, Tsai said.

“When you virtually throw a ball, we can capture spin, velocity and angle,” he said. “You have more control so the game is made more accessible to you.”

Casual games surged in popularity when Nintendo introduced the Wii and games for the device such as bowling and tennis. But some of that audience has abandoned consoles for games on their mobile phones and iPads.

“A couple of years ago, there wasn’t that sort of opportunity to play mobile casual games,” said Mike Hickey, an analyst with Janco Partners in Denver. “The video game industry has said maybe we need to refocus on the core gamer experience.”

That was evident at the industry’s annual conference, the Electronic Entertainment Expo, or E3, held earlier this month at the Los Angeles Convention Center. The motion-controlled games that garnered the most attention from fans and industry insiders were titles aimed at the audience of core gamers that prefer to play shoot-’em-up games instead of rolling or throwing virtual balls.

Hickey pointed out that some games for the casual market at E3 showed signs of success.

And Tsai is confident that Magic Pixel’s family-friendly games will still find an audience.

“We feel like there’s a good-sized market for these more casual games still,” he said.

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