Sustaining communities ‘key to next-gen success’

Migrating connected communities will decide who leads the next generation, says Bioware Mythic GM Eugene Evans.

The industry veteran, who has a long and colourful history in the business, said the importance of maintaining connected communities will be even greater in the transition to the next generation.

“The fascinating thing about all the current platforms is that they all have connected communities,” he said, speaking at the Develop Conference.

“I think the key to success will be how successfully they migrate those communities. The company that does that the best will be the most successful.”

Microsoft, Sony, Apple and Facebook each have game platforms and community services built around them. Those services are starting to appear on different platforms, but experiences vary.

Evans added that it was pre-requisite for community migration to happen cross-platform, as that is what consumers expect: “[They] want to be able to connect with any of these communities on multiple devices. On mobile devices, anytime, anywhere and with whoever they want.”

Evans said he was amazed by the effect communities had when he joined Mythic Interactive, creator of Dark Age of Camelot and Warhammer Online.

Xbox Live was one of the first to see the results of what a community can do for a games platform. Since then community building has been a major factor for platform holders.