games:edu 09 alice taylor

Learning in leisure time

C4’s educational remit

TV wasn’t working for education

Now maybe ½ our spend is on games

Why do we games? 5 reasons.

# Because our audience loves games.

The primary findings in the survey of 1,102 youth ages 12-17 include:

› Game playing is universal, with almost all teens playing games and at least half playing games on a given day.

› 97% of American teens ages 12-17 play some kind of video game.

› 99% of boys say they are gamers and 94% of girls report that they play games.

US data = UK data

UK data = US data

# Because games can teach anything

(Games aren’t like school)

“Games teach that failure isn’t bad, and that collaboration isn’t cheating.” (Henry Jenkins)

# Because games are still evolving

# Because games can print money

# Because games are TV time

C4 Education’s game plan:

Perennial teen-centric topics +

…annual zeitgeisty themes.

Work 100% with UK indies

Go for the interesting price range

Bow Street Runner, game #1 (done)

Collaborative partnerships =

(The Great Sperm Race)

Routes, game #2 (done)

GamesHomepage

SneezeBreeder

ExperimentalRegister

FilmsProfile

PrizesFacts

TalkGinger Dawn

Life, Jim!Install Widget

Mutants

0

20000

40000

60000

80000

100000

120000

140000

160000

Column 1

Routes data

Episode: FAT

Episode: BOOZE

Routes audience types

1. Slight female bias2. 50% teen audience3. UK dominant

audience4. = beers all round

1066, game #3 (done)

Smokescreen, game #4 (September)

Privates, game #5 (Feb ’10)

The Curfew, game #6 (April ’10)

Unnamed science, game #7 (May ’10)

Cover Girl, game #8 (May ’10)

This lady is 44 years old.

How do we measure success?

Social trends coming up

› ataylor@channel4.co.uk› www.channel4.com

› www.wonderlandblog.com› wonderlandblog@gmail.com

› With thanks and apologies to Sydney Padua (www.2dgoggles.com) for borrowing her (amazing) Ada Lovelace (sl.29), and thanks and apologies to the creators of various photos found randomly on the internets.

Thank you!