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| 06.06.2006 |
| A trip to London brought an order. Game machines purchase 3D services |
| gazeta |
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"St Petersburg Business" Galina Astashenkova
The demand for 3D graphics amongst producers of games machines enabled the small multi media company, ALS Group to double its turnover each year.
The company, founded in 1999 originally developed websites and consisted of three people. Now 54 people work in the company and the turnover is doubling each year. The number of deals and the earnings of the company are commercial secret but market experts estimate the annual turnover to be at least $1.5 million.
“At the end of 2002 the market for internet projects collapsed. The future in this sector looked bleak and we started to look for new paths to develop,” tells the President of the ALS Group, Anton Zailinger. For a period of time the company created advertising presentations. Then it switched to three-dimensional graphics for computer games manufacturers and has been successfully doing this for a number of years.
“This direction was more profitable than advertising, but we wanted to develop further, and in this market the possibilities were very limited. During the last 3-5 years in St Petersburg several big and small 3D studios have appeared: “Crate Studio”, “Lesta” (76161)*, and Render.ru, which worked in this sector,” advises Stanislav Svarichevsky, General Director of the ALS Group.
The idea
In the process of looking for a promising niche, the management had the idea of offering its services to the producers of games machines. “There’s a huge amount of money circulating in this sector, and intense competition between the producers. We decided that they potentially should be interested in new ways of attracting customers,” tells Anton Zailinger, “A games machine is really a computer. What difference does it make which computer you make 3D graphics for – a desk top, or inside a games machine.
” The management of the Company went to Moscow to an exhibition of games machines. The first contact was unsuccessful. The Russian representative of a big foreign producer, with whom the Company was interested in co-operating, viewed the idea with great scepticism.
Then Anton Zailinger set off for an exhibition in London to get to know the foreign producer without any intermediaries involved. The Europeans reacted with great interest. After only 2 weeks, agreement was reached about a pilot project. “It was necessary to develop graphics for a game based on a “one-armed bandit”. At that time we used subcontractors, as there were only three people in the company,” tells Stanislav Svarichevsky. “To undertake the projects we had to quickly get a team together.” The western customer liked the result, and the game with 3D graphics of the St Petersburg team was put into production. After that the ALS Group received an order for production of graphics for subsequent games.
There is a point of view
Ilya Varlamov, co-founder of iCube Visualisation:
“The experience of the ALS Group is well known in the multi media market. This company has found its niche and its client. Not all graphics studios could follow their example. Offering your services in the West is risky. To implement a pilot project you have to invest your own money and time, and the result is not guaranteed.” |
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