How was your 2012? Good? Bad? Indifferent? Inexplicably awesome? We may never know (unless you kept your friendly neighbourhood Scottish Games Network up to date with the latest, greatest news, releases and updates).
The Scottish Games Network did quite well, thank you. Lots of new views, lots of new friends, lots of great interest. The number of companies, development teams and independent games creators grew to an astonishing 80+ (check out the Company Directory).
But check the quality. All of the major organisations in Scotland – cultural and business-focussed are now reading the blog, as well as many of the wider industry websites and publications (hi guys!) for the most up-to-the-second and exclusive news. We became part of the News Now network and are now part of the service’s UK digital media newsfeed.
The major social networks played a part too. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and even Google+ are all now contributing to user numbers and expanding the reach of the Scottish Games Network into entirely new audiences – globally. The US and Europe are now just behind the UK in terms of readers.
So, given all of that, we have MAJOR plans for 2013…
More editorial. More analysis. More opportunities to cross-promote your games through this fairly significant number of studios. More journalist visits. Regular networking events. More participation in existing events. Maybe even awards. Oh and the whole convergence thing with the rest of the creative industry. We’ve got that planned too.
Watch this space.
Did you know we had over 100,000 views? That’s quite a lot of people, given we’re an industry blog. Maybe YOU can benefit from all of these eyeballs and visitors. Job adverts, banners, editorial opportunities – it’s all here for the taking…
But don’t take our word for it. The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
19,000 people fit into the new Barclays Center to see Jay-Z perform. This blog was viewed about 100,000 times in 2012. If it were a concert at the Barclays Center, it would take about 5 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.
Click here to see the complete report.
So we need to thank you all. Seriously and sincerely. Without you guys there would be no Scottish Games Network. In 2013 there’s going to be an even greater focus on the games and digital media sector in Scotland. More opportunities and more interest in the companies, the creators and the creativity of making games as a business. This is going to be the place everybody will be looking.
In the meantime, have a very happy, merry and prosperous new year. We love you all.