New Rules of Codec Development It took about 10 years to launch both H.264 and HEVC, so MPEG's much more ambitious launch of VVC, EVC, and LCEVC in 2020 and 2021 makes you wonder about its chances for success. Not only does it have to effectively differentiate each codec against the other, it also has to create compelling business cases against the Alliance for Open Media's (AOMedia) AV1 and existing MPEG codecs like HEVC and even H.264, which is still going strong. Recent developments have resulted in what I am calling the new rules of codec deployment, and they will complicate the success of any standards-based codecs.