Game distribution
Miscellaneous Forums/General Discussion/Game distribution
Hi,
well after you've heard the online strategies of both microsoft and sony i was just wondering how this will affect the distribution for offline played casual games which are offered online in the future.
Are there any reasonable estimations how much games are beeing sold via the game portals or smaller private sites in a sum? I can't resist the feeling that this kind of distribution will be getting smaller and smaller over time as consoles are getting so widespread and the console makers open their distribution channels for indie content and already sell huge amounts so that the pie of the potential consumers is getting smaller.
For sure portals and indies will make deals with them to deliver their content also there or as an exclusive one which means less games offered in the net and also a more satturated market which is left.
Beside of this you have the traditional full price games, browser games which are ruled by flash and shockwave content due to their huge installed user base and those (crappy) handy games. Then you've got all the old games which run on emulators for your computer as well as for the consoles.
Furthermore i've read that younger people tend to play less video games.
Games, games, games...wow, who's gonna play all this stuff? *just wondering*
From my Press Release yesterday.
"We've been investigating the 'Pay per Play' and 'Ad funded' models for some time," said Tim Fisher, Managing Director at Indiepath, "igLoader is the enabler; it allows our customers to lock down games for 'on-line only' play, and to further monetise game plays by enabling the integrated Ad Module. Our research shows that a significant percentage of consumers are just not ready to spend $20 on a single game, but are willing to subscribe to 'Pay per Play' and have their sessions subsidised by advertising. Furthermore, with igLoader we can take virtually any game off the shelf, and have it on-line and delivering revenue in less than 30 minutes!"
The flexible advertising model enables advertisers and igLoader customers to work together to increase the effectiveness and relevance of campaigns. And with sponsors prepared pay premium rates per impression, igLoader games have the real potential of becoming self-funding.
The release of igLoader V2 is a pre-cursor to the impending launch of eXigo, a 'Pay per Play' solution built upon igLoader, iNet and PlayBucks technologies. eXigo will be unveiled in the summer of 2006 and promises to make the world of digital distribution a better place.
That's my take on it, basically "video game content on demand", people will pay for the time they play, no more no less.
Maybe as a general model but not with the content you can deliver. Please don't misunderstand this as an offence but i personally hardly have the time to play the games which i'm really after, my own games and so on...
Secondly it still feels strange to me not to own a game i play. I think there are games which i simply want. Maybe a mix would be the best. Buy games you desperately want and with the others pay for as long as you play. By the way if someone plays a game on demand and exceeds the price for buying it, it would be nice if this would automatically be recognized so that the status changes and he actually owns the game, can play it offline and get's charged no longer. This would feel just right. Also that the time he already played it will be taken into account when he decides to buy it.
But then again i do have all the different providers with exclusive content. What if i wanna play FFXIII and Alan Wake? No one will deliver this without that i'm forced to stepping into two worlds no matter if it's gaming on demand or not. Games are still not working like music...
I really dislike the per per play thing personally. I want to buy the games and then play them at my leisure. Remember how much money you could spend on arcade machines?
Me too Grey but a) are we the majority? and b) you could offer them as i suggested above so that it won't hurt...also our feelings. ;O)
That's what I feel about Nintendo's download library for the Wii... I'm not too sure if they're going to charge you every time you download a game, due to this issue, or is it going to be a monthly fee for that distribution? Well, this may or may not go along with this topic, but at least this does bring up, due to a post about Microsoft or Sony doing this.
Personally I think the Pay per play thing is great as long as the option of buying it outright is also available.
With games done through IGLoader, for instance, its the adverts which are paying for it...just like watching ITV or somthing :D (correct me if im wrong)
I'm not too sure if they're going to charge you every time you download a game, due to this issue, or is it going to be a monthly fee for that distribution?
HMm, I'll wait for someone to enable Emulators on it. If its a popular system, they will. (Linux on GC anyone?)
http://www.gc-linux.org/wiki/Screenshots
just like watching ITV or somthing :D
Eugh. :)
I really dislike the per per play thing personally. I want to buy the games and then play them at my leisure. Remember how much money you could spend on arcade machines?
Would you rather earn $5 for the time someone played your game or earn $0 because $20 was too much for them?
I know what I would want to earn, and I'm not alone.
I think Grey was commenting from an end users' point of view. I don't doubt pay per play is great for developers, but what about the users?
Of course it's great for the end user, they get to play as many games as they want within their budget.
Or they just play one of those hundreds of games which are free...
Indiepath: I see the two things a separate. There's me wanting to own games and not pay every time I want to play them, then there's IGloader which is cool because it's still free for the players but the advertisers pay and the developers make money, so it gets my vote :-)
hmm, thinking about this a bit more, I'm worried about pay per play as I know I used to play games tons. However, if that's the way things go, then as a developer, I'll follow it but also offer a buy outright option too.
Watch >this< space.