The Casual Connection

Casual gaming offers advertisers 'more opportunities than ever' [feedly]

2009-06-11T11:01:00.001-07:00

A study conducted by MTV Networks has concluded that casual gamers offer advertisers a huge and attentive audience.

You will however notice that this study is ony 60 people, but it does back up other studies done in the past.

>

[link to original | source: CasualGaming.biz | published: 1 day ago | shared via feedly]

Partnership : Habbo, Seventeen Magazine in Online Fling [feedly]

2009-06-11T07:59:00.001-07:00

Teen-targeted virtual world Habbo and young girl-focused Seventeen magazine announced a partnership today that will see the two heavyweight brands promote each other in their respective beats. The agreement, a short-term deal slated to run for three months (and one...

[link to original | source: Virtual Worlds News | published: 1 day ago | shared via feedly]

Analyst: Online Games Now $11B Of $44B Worldwide Game Market [feedly]

2009-06-11T07:55:00.001-07:00

Analyst Colin Sebastian is estimating that online game revenue has now reached $11 billion as part of a $44 billion worldwide video game market, with 2009 as the "year the pace of change accelerated."

With titles such as World Of Warcraft now bringing around $1 billion in revenue yearly to Activision Blizzard, it's easy to see why one of Sebastian's takeaways from E3, in a new analyst note, was: "Internet moving from sideshow to part of the main event."

The Lazard Capital Markets analyst particularly commented of this shift:

"With roughly one billion Internet users worldwide, the gravitational pull of the Internet is driving publishers to integrate online content and services more explicitly within and on top of traditional games.

As consumers have already demonstrated a willingness to pay to access interactive entertainment, we believe that video games are an important part of the migration of content "into the cloud."

In fact, video games account for the largest portion of paid online content, well ahead of other forms of content, such as movies/video and newsprint.

We estimate that online video games will generate more than $11 billion in revenues this year, up from $3 billion in 2005, and account for roughly 25% of industry game sales worldwide. In this respect, we continue to believe that the Internet is emerging as an important growth driver and content platform, weaving together communication, information, commerce and entertainment.

In addition, 2009 may be remembered as the year in which the pace of change in media consumption accelerated, while 2010 and 2011 may bring improved monetization and mass market adoption of web-based applications and digital content, in particularinteractive entertainment."

Elsewhere in his E3 analysis, financial analyst Sebastian also looks at what increased Internet-based operation could mean for the major publicly traded video game companies, explaining:

"For video game publishers, the Internet platform not only provides room for additional revenue streams and higher ARPU, but also greater operating leverage and economies of scale.

On one hand, the Internet offers enormous efficiency, evening the playing field in content production and distribution, and offering unlimited shelf space.

[A pictured comparison of profit margins between] U.S. and Chinese game companies [with online-only Chinese firms at much higher profit margins] partially illustrates the difference in margin profile of online, packaged goods and hybrid models.

Over time, we believe that better "Internet economics" should provide software publishers with higher growth multiples."

[link to original | source: Worlds In Motion | published: 5 days ago | shared via feedly]

TECH: NEW firefox will enhance gaming

2009-06-11T07:27:00.002-07:00

Check the demo it speaks for its self.

6 Steps to Building a Better iPhone App [feedly]

2009-06-11T07:20:00.001-07:00

Brian LeRoux is Nitobi's Software Architect, and is involved in shepherding the PhoneGap open source project. You can read his blog, or find him on Twitter.

Thanks to increasingly powerful devices and cheaper data plans, the mobile app space is growing faster every year. Apple has been at the forefront of that growth with the iPhone, by both partnering with telecom companies to provide near-unlimited web access, and redefining application distribution with the App Store, which created a new industry and market for smartphone applications.

The App Store has created a gold rush for developers, and there are now over 50,000 applications for sale, making it harder to get a newly released app noticed by users. It has become especially necessary for developers to reduce development time and put their product on the market as quickly as possible.

Here's a list of steps which should be considered when getting into the iPhone app game:

Step 1: Narrow your focus

A mobile application has precious little screen real estate, so be sure to focus on reducing screen clutter. Your application should be as simple as possible without sacrificing usability and completeness. If it has to do multiple tasks to achieve its goal, then these should be performed one at a time.

Step 2: Build a better user experience

All software depends on a great user experience to succeed. You can maximize your chances of success by experimenting with different approaches to your user interface. Quickly discard what doesn't work and build on what does work.

The design process can be as simple as drawing on a whiteboard, but if you are pitching ideas to your colleagues or clients, using a mockup tool will give your designs more polish. For the Mac, the OmniGraffle diagramming software has iPhone stencils, or for Photoshop design firm teehan+lax has created an iPhone GUI PSD file. However, for web applications, the easiest solution may be to create the mockup in HTML.

Whether you decide to paper prototype or take the 37signals approach of skipping the mockup step completely, you need to respect your audience and their goals. You've decided on a focus for the application in Step 1 and now it's time to make sure that your app is not just useful but usable. If you're unclear on the definition of usable, Apple has done a lot of this thinking for you with their Safari Dev Center (which requires the free Apple Developer Connection membership to access).

Step 3: Choose your approach

The development framework you choose will determine the speed and ease of creating the application, as well as what iPhone features are accessible from your application. You have three options: web technology, Objective-C or a combination of the two.

Build in the browser: The easiest option for creating an iPhone, BlackBerry or Android application is to build it in the browser using web development languages like HTML and JavaScript. Web developers already familiar with HTML and JavaScript can build iPhone applications that run in the browser, without having to learn Objective-C, the native iPhone app development language. On the whole, browser-built apps are easier to build and distribute. They're portable and accessible from multiple devices, which helps them spread. Further, browser-built apps update instantly, generally load faster, are easier to read and update and offer more flexibility for future feature updates. Popular browser-built iPhone apps include mobile versions of Gmail and Facebook.

Create a native app: Native applications built in Objective-C make full use of all the iPhone features: GPS, accelerometer, local storage, camera, and more. This approach works especially well for robust applications, like 3D games. If your goal is to sell a complex, full-featured application, building a native application is your best bet.

Take the hybrid approach: If you're not ready to take the plunge and learn Objective-C, there's another option that combines the browser-built approach with the benefits of native development. Hybrid development tools, like the open source PhoneGap or RhoMobile frameworks, provide a set of tools and libraries that enable web developers to build iPhone applications with HTML and JavaScript, but also provide access to many of the native iPhone features. The obvious benefit here is that there's no need to learn yet another programming language. You can build apps using the technologies you already know.

Step 4: Use the right tools for the job

To build native iPhone apps you need to have a Mac OS X computer and obtain an Apple Developer Connection membership (which is free, but to submit to the App Store there's a $99 fee) in order to download the latest version of Xcode and the iPhone SDK.

If you're taking the web application or hybrid development route, then WebKit is a great resource. jQTouch and XUI are JavaScript frameworks for WebKit specifically designed for creating iPhone interfaces. You can also use Dashcode (bundled with the iPhone SDK), which has iPhone app templates.

No matter which approach you've chosen for product development, you must be able to test your application on real iPhones (and iPod Touches), because the iPhone emulator in Apple's iPhone SDK doesn't exactly mimic the hardware's performance.

Step 5: Test first, test again, test some more. Also: test

While it is always important to thoroughly test software before releasing it to the public, the App Store's format has made the need for bug-free code a make or break situation. Users who have downloaded your iPhone app can rate it using Apple's 5-star rating system and write reviews. Your application's average rating and review count will appear alongside the title and developer name in searches and the app's listing, and the reviews are accessible from your application's page in the store.

A major bug will inevitably result in a number of poor reviews and ratings from current users, which will discourage some new users even after the bug has been fixed. In addition, the App Store has a thorough submission system and submitting a bug fix often takes several days to be processed and get your application updated, further exacerbating any problems.

It is better to spend extra time testing your application than to publish it early and risk saddling it with a bad reputation from the start.

Step 6: Real artists ship: submitting to the App Store

How long does it take to get an app into the iTunes App Store? While we've seen some estimates of up to 20 days to have your app approved, we've had apps accepted in as few as five. The app review process is notoriously fastidious. Readers will recall, for example, how the Eucalyptus ebook reader was initially rejected because phone users could use it to read the Kama Sutra.

Both Niall Kennedy and Adeem Basraa have written great reports and instructions about the submission process to the App Store.

Reviews: Android, Facebook, Gmail

Tags: developer, iphone, iphone app, iphone application, Lists

[link to original | source: Mashable! | published: 20 hours ago | shared via feedly]

TECHNOLOGY : All the 3rd Generation iPhone rumours in one handy image [feedly]

2009-06-03T06:04:00.001-07:00

With less than a week until Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference, rumours about the third generation iPhone are kicking into overdrive. This image compiles them all into one handy graphic, with a colour code for just how likely each rumour is.

More details and sources of the rumours can be found over at The Green Room.

[link to original | source: TheNextWeb.com | published: 1 day ago | shared via feedly]

VIRTUAL WORLDS: IMVU elevator pitch

2009-06-01T11:06:00.000-07:00

Very good and short presentation from IMVU

video platform
video management
video solutions
free video player

Virtual Economics: Q&A with Gambit Co-founder Noah Kagan

2009-05-29T05:31:00.001-07:00

I wanted to share this great Q&A from inside facebook guys:

As we continue our in depth look at leaders the Facebook Platform payments ecosystem, today we turn our attention to Gambit, a new virtual currency monetization and payment service for social apps and games that went public for the first time here on Inside Facebook back in March.

We recently spoke with Gambit co-founder Noah Kagan (formerly of Facebook) about the opportunities he sees inside Facebook apps and games, and the approach Gambit is taking to help developers monetize.

Inside Facebook: When did you realize the business opportunity in providing payment services to online gaming communities?

Noah Kagan: We've been building applications for the past year and a half. Through that process, we developed our own payment tools. We wanted more transparency, analytics, and customization. These values maximized profit for our own games, and we found that we were doing better than our competitors. To see if it was a fluke, we let other game developers experiment with our payment tools. The results were consistent, and so we closed down our games and focused on providing payment solutions to online gaming communities.

Gambit is a payment solution for online games, and our services vary based on what clients need. We help clients find the best way to implement a virtual economy, structure price points, and use analytics to maximize ARPU.

What geographic markets is Gambit in?

We focus on the U.S., U.K., Australia, and most of Western Europe. We are the leader in these countries for monetization and competitive in South American and Southeast Asia. We are powering the #1 app on MySpace, #1 app on Facebook, and many other small and large properties. The U.S. is five years behind in virtual monetization, but a lot of consumers are willing to pay for virtual goods. I don't spend much on anything, but I care for game consoles. The market is only going to grow: the question is, how do you make it easy for people to pay?

Discuss the value chain of your business model: Who are the key players, and how is value created for each one?

From the developer's standpoint, the tradeoff is between focusing your time and energy on game development or monetization, which includes aspects such as customer support, fraud, callbacks, tech, API, etc. Developers can spend a small percentage of their budgets on PayPal, or a little bit more on us and take advantage of more services. It's a cost benefit analysis. Gambit provides developers with a buffet of payment options that empower them to make decisions based on statistics that show how much revenue they get from advertisers. We value transparency. Other providers give you numbers, but with no certainty.

Users get phone and email support with us – no one else does this. Then there are advertisers that are making offers, as well as payment companies. Our advertising relationships are pretty well developed.

In terms of competition in the payment space, how would you distinguish your products?

We've innovated with our behavioral ad targeting, complete payments customization, fraud reduction technology, and our transparent analytics. Our business is built on what developers want and how to make more money for them: if they want certain metrics, we will make them available if possible. Because we come from a developer background, we know how our clients feel, whereas other companies are coming from a sales and marketing perspective. We emphasize results and performance, and how to build better products and code.

Across the board, all developers have problems with customer support that they are not aware of. This is a huge challenge long-term that most people discount. The common problems are that users aren't getting their credits or didn't complete all the requirements, and technical problems. We have a full time staff, direct phone support and provide a CRM solution for our clients to see what their users are saying.

What's your reaction to Facebook's virtual currency test?

Competition breeds innovation. Facebook has a lot of inherent value to bring, but how will they provide value specifically to game developers? I'm curious what additional value Facebook can produce that we can't.

How is your company doing from a financial perspective?

Gambit has been profitable since December. We've raised some funding in 2007. Since we have not fund-raised large amounts like our competitors, and we do not have unrealistic growth expectations from a venture capital firm - so that's an advantage.

What kinds of developers are most attracted to your products, and what kinds of virtual goods have been most successful for them?

We are serving over 20 million users across our hundreds of clients a month. Social networking applications, online communities, RPG and flash-based MMO games do very well with us.

Where is the virtual goods economy headed in the future?

There will be an increase in online virtual goods spending in the Western world. Regarding online offers, they need to be more relevant and user friendly: for example, a girl who likes frozen yogurt can signup for free frozen yogurt and get credits at the same time. Right now, some users have a bad experience with offers. We will move toward using more social information – age, gender, geography, and a few other factors in improving offer relevancy. In general, the payment solution that will win is one that helps converts users to paying customers as easy as possible.

Thanks, Noah. Anything else you'd like to share with our readers?

We'd love to chat with anyone interested in optimizing or growing their online economy. Check out more on our blog.

[link to original | source: Inside Facebook | published: 18 hours ago | shared via feedly]

Business: Playdom Accelerates Hiring

2009-05-29T04:24:00.001-07:00

Playdom, a company staking its future on the fast-developing area of social gaming, is on a hiring binge, and its looking for a CEO. Today, the Mountain View, CA-based company announced two key hires -- and an evolution to its internal organization. First, the company says...

[link to original | source: Virtual Worlds News | published: 9 hours ago | shared via feedly]

Business: Infogrames Is Now Atari

2009-05-29T04:19:00.001-07:00

Atari? Strong brand name. Infogrames? Um, yeah. No wonder Infogrames want to switch its corporate identity to the company Nolan Bushnell founded and made famous.

"The Board agreed to change Infogrames Entertainment's name to Atari," the company announced today. "This decision will enable us to make the best use of the Atari brand, capitalizing on worldwide strong name recognition and affinity, which are keys drivers to implement the Company's online, product and licensing strategies."

In March 2008, France's Infogrames bought out and took over Atari Inc.

[link to original | source: Kotaku | published: 1 hour ago | shared via feedly]

NEWS: Free Realms Reaches 2 Million Players

2009-05-29T04:17:00.000-07:00

It seems that sony are having more success with this than Cartoon networks Fusion Fall, more on this soon.

Sony Online Entertainment's family-friendly PC MMO Free Realms is now up to two million unique registrants, the company announced today.

75 percent of these are under the age of 17, and 46 percent are younger than 13, SOE says, adding that nearly a third of players are female. The company it plans to celebrate the milestone by awarding all its users with a special bundle of in-game items.

The game, which is free-to-play but has optional microtransaction and subscription elements, lets users play, socialize and battle, and interact on a social networking site alongside the game.

It ties into a trading card game playable both with physical cards and inside the game via digital codes. SOE says the virtual cards are "sales leaders" inside the game's digital store.

"In less than a month, Free Realms has captivated a core player base of tween and teen gamers, while also strongly resonating with MMO gamers," says SOE president John Smedley. "We wanted to create a game to play with our families and are excited to have hit the mark with our intended audience."

[link to original | source: Worlds In Motion | published: 1 day ago | shared via feedly]

RESEARCH: Visual short history of video games

2009-05-27T07:40:00.000-07:00

A Short Visual History of Videogames from Kyle Downes on Vimeo.

Rockstar Co-Founders Confirm New Social Gaming Studio [feedly]

2009-05-25T05:45:00.001-07:00

It wasn't going to be long before the big guns sat up and gave social networks some serious attention. The good thing is the crap that is on Facebook is going to have to get better. I can only say this is a good thing as Facebook has opened up gaming to a new type of player, but now they have got an appetite for gaming they will want better quality.

Two of Rockstar Games' co-founders, along with a former facial animation exec and longtime entertainment industry vet, have formally announced New York City-based 4mm Games, a privately-funded web-based game developer.

The announcement of 4mm finally confirms rumors that have circulated the web for nearly two years.

Jamie King and Gary Foreman, co-founders of Grand Theft Auto house Rockstar Games, will act as president of 4mm and CTO, respectively. At Rockstar, King was VP of product development, and Foreman was CTO.

King left Rockstar in 2006, according to his LinkedIn business networking profile. While 4mm games is just emerging today, he founded the company in January 2006. Rumors of 4mm's existence originally surfaced on the blog of former Rockstar designer Jurie Horneman.

King's LinkedIn profile describes 4mm as a "web-based service provider of digital entertainment across a digital distribution delivery platform." He said the company intends on targeting "multiple age demographics."

The studio's website adds that it is creating "online worlds that will define social gaming."

Leading 4mm as CEO is Nicholas Perrett, former general manager with facial animation company Image Metrics. Serving as EVP is Paul Coyne, former VP for NBC and SVP for Warner Music Group.

A statement from 4mm said that it has already secured a "significant title-based investment" through a strategic partnership with CEA Autumn Games. 4mm said it has "ambitious goals" to create "high profile properties." The company is keeping the exact amount of funding under wraps.

4mm plans on making more announcements about its projects in the weeks to come.

[link to original | source: Worlds In Motion | published: 2 days ago | shared via feedly]

AT&T First Android Phone HTC Lancaster Leaked [feedly]

2009-05-25T05:44:00.001-07:00

AT&T First Android Phone HTC Lancaster Leaked>

Engadget apparently hit upon the motherload of AT&T powerpoints: Slides detailing the Palm Eos, a new HP iPaq and probably most thrilling, HTC Lancaster (aka the Android phone we've been waiting for).

I've always wondered what Android would be like on a Touch Pro, that's basically Lancaster. There is the dreary little note that "Initial Lab Entry dates were based on Google Mobile Services (GMS) UI, AT&T standard UI has been requested, which puts schedule in question" meaning AT&T could muck it up with their own UI, and take longer putting out the phone in the process. Its target date is Aug. 3, and it'll be AT&T-exclusive for six months it looks like. Update: Oops, didn't notice at first the screen resolution is a bit too squee for our tastes (240x320). Bummer.

The Palm Eos slide basically just confirms everything from before: emaciated WebOS phone with 4GB storage and AT&T all over it.

Update: Oh look, a whole bunch of BlackBerrys are now confirmed for AT&T too—Onyx, Gemini, Magnum and a 3G Pearl.

AT&T's fall lineup is looking pretty unassailable at this point: With iPhone 3, a WebOS phone, and a solid Android piece, all of their bases are covered, with the exception of a touchscreen BlackBerry, but um, who really wants one of those now? Good thing AT&T's network blows, since the other carriers have their work cut out for them. [Engadget]

[link to original | source: Gizmodo | published: 13 hours ago | shared via feedly]

NEWS: London Studio celebrates five years of SingStar [feedly]

2009-05-21T05:04:00.001-07:00

Wake up people........if you do it right you can build a brand that is sustainable......

London Studio celebrates five years of SingStar

And Sony studio prepares for another five years with user-generated content hint

[link to original | source: Develop | published: 10 min | shared via feedly]

Micro-transactions: Q&A with Twofish President Lisa Rutherford #feedly

2009-05-20T14:10:00.001-07:00

You need to take a look at this Q&A, if you are seriously getting ivloved in micro-economies, virtual items then this is good information.

President Lisa Rutherford

[link to original | source: www.insidefacebook.com | via: feedly]

RESEARCH: Panel on Casual MMO and immersive worlds

2009-05-19T07:21:00.000-07:00

Its from the Summer of Last year but its well worth a watch as it allows you to see how things have evolved from a year ago, also the panelists provide some great stats and insight.

RESEARCH: The top 12 trends of the video game industry

2009-05-19T06:29:00.001-07:00

An Great report from Login that I had to share he does a great job of looking back at trends. I have always said one of the best routes to success is to look to the past..... well here is a little help.

Report By Dean Takahashi from the Login Conference

It's good to step back and get a good look at the various cross-currents in the games landscape. Over the last few weeks I've been surrounded by game developers at the Login online games conference in Seattle and the Quo Vadis game developers event in Berlin, both events where I was invited to speak, and have seen several trends emerging — some good, some bad. Here they are:

1. Game startup financings have slowed from last year. Everyone in the game industry is aware that sales for U.S. console games in March slowed by 17 percent and another 17 percent in April. That's not too alarming, since a year ago the launch of Grand Theft Auto IV was a huge event, and it's hard to beat the numbers from a year ago. But it's the first sign that the game industry can't work miracles in the midst of a recession.

Along with that, financings have slowed. So far this year, 25 companies have raised $126 million, according to our calculations. Game and virtual world fundings for 112 companies hit $936.8 million in 2008 by our count. That compared to $613 million raised by 62 companies in 2007, according to Jussi Laakkonen.

It looks like 2009's game venture fundings are not going to exceed last year's totals. The biggest funding so far this year was Offerpal Media, which monetizes social games with special offers for users. It raised $15 million. By comparison, the biggest funding last year was $100 million raised by China's 9You. While the funding environment's not as good as a year ago, it isn't so bad that game fundings have dried up.

2. The broader game industry continues to expand, command more respect, and draw outsiders. This isn't a contradiction to No. 1, in part because game startups are still a relatively small slice of the overall industry. Pricewaterhouse Coopers says the global game market will grow from $42 billion in 2007 to $68 billion in 2012. DFC Intelligence says online games will grow from $3 billion in 2005 to $12 billion in 2011. There's no question games are gaining market share on other forms of media, which is why the industry is drawing big investors, from USA Network to Time Warner.

While funding may drop for game startups this year it's interesting to see how far they've come. Five years ago, no respectable VC wanted to make a bet on hit-driven businesses. They stayed away from it the way they stayed away from Hollywood movies. But now the active VCs this year include some of the best-known in the venture capital industry: Charles River Ventures, Mohr Davidow Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, Norwest Venture Partners, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, D.E. Shaw, and Oak Investment Partners. Among those actively looking are Trinity Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Blue Run Ventures, and many others.

The ecosystem is healthy, and the reason is that games are constantly expanding their borders. The Wii has done a great job recruiting new gamers. But the monthly NPD sales numbers haven't captured the explosion of games on the iPhone, Facebook, casual games on the web, and PC online games. Even more immeasurable is Funware, which refers to the use of game mechanics in non-game applications. Other industries are recognizing that games are so engaging that they're trying to make their own products more game-like.

As Jordan Weisman, founder of 42 Entertainment, once said, "Games are like oxygen. They are part of every activity, from reading to toys to TV to any kind of experience. They can be played on any kind of platform," beyond the consoles. The broadening of the game market is why games can be somewhat resistant to the recession, even as other retail products suffer.

3. Competition is heating up and driving prices toward zero. Of course, if too many competitors enter the market, profits can tank and prices can crater. One of the bad things about having so many fundings last year is that, if you're raising money this year, you're going to have to compete with those 112 companies who, because of the way the recession is playing havoc with pre-recession business plans, are likely going to have to raise new rounds of money.

Even scarier is the rise of free games. There are a couple of thousand free games on the iPhone. There are thousands more on social networks and casual web portals. Perhaps 90 percent of players on the web are choosing to play games for free when they have a choice between a free version or a paid version. And the quality of the free games is getting better and better.

What happens when the user decides that free is best? This is the same problem that newspapers, movies, music, and other producers of content are facing as the Internet undercuts the traditional barriers that have kept prices high, as conveyed in Chris Anderson's recent book, Free.

4. Advertising in games has taken a hit. Free gaming was supposed to be supported by advertising. In-game advertising, where the ads run inside a game as players play, got off the ground in 2004, picked up momentum in 2006 when Microsoft paid a lot of money for Massive. A bunch of rivals entered the market, including Google. The peak of the market had to be when the Obama campaign ran ads on billboards inside a racing game. Then the recession hit. Ad budgets began to dry up. Now IGA Worldwide, an in-game ad company, is up for sale, and Microsoft's Massive in-game ad division just laid off 28 percent of its staff.

In-game advertising may turn out to be a great market. But this is what happens when expectations race too far ahead. Back in the days of the building of the transcontinental railroad, everyone was optimistic about railroad companies. But many of them went bankrupt, just like a lot of the companies that poured money into the dotcom market. From the point of view of venture investors, the in-game ad market has "jumped the shark," a phrase I'm told means passed its peak. It just means that the people who are going to make big money here have already invested, and there's no way you can make money by chasing their exhaust. Or so the thinking goes.

While in-game ads may be suffering, other ad-based game businesses can still grow. Video-based wrapper ads are growing so much for Wild Tangent that the company posted 65 percent growth in its ad-based revenues in the first quarter. Analyts Edward Hunter of market researcher comScore disagrees with me that in-game ads are sinking. He notes that in-game advertising will show faster growth if it's measured properly by independent media trackers. And he notes that while total ad views on the Internet dropped 20 percent in December of 2008, in-game ads saw a rise of 8 percent. Once the advertisers catch on, they may pile into this sector, he says. But in the meantime, the layoffs suggest there is a big reset in expectations happening.

5. Virtual goods are benefiting from the weakness in ads. Virtual goods businesses are taking off on Facebook and at other companies such as China's Tencent. My colleague Eric Eldon estimates that virtual goods micro-transactions could generate $500 million in revenue for game and app makers on Facebook this year. Zynga, which makes games such as Texas Hold 'Em Poker, has become the top third-party company on Facebook. It looks like such games are creating real, sustainable businesses on Facebook. Zynga is reportedly on a run rate to make $50 or $60 million. Playfish and Playdom are likewise on track to make tens of millions of dollars. Their games get real cash, albeit in small chunks of change, from users. They're spending real money on virtual items like poker chips or a better weapon. When you have 12 million active monthly users like Texas Hold 'EM Poker, the change adds up.

PlaySpan has stepped into the market to provide everything from a payment system to handle virtual goods to in-game virtual goods sales processing to retail game cards that let kids who aren't old enough to have credit cards purchase virtual goods. Some of the games are getting pretty clever at integrating virtual goods. You can buy a virtual race car in Upshift Strike Racer, a racing game on Gala-Net. Then, after you put some miles on the car, you can sell it as a used car to another player. PlaySpan's chief executive, Karl Mehta, predicts the company will handle a billion transactions, worth a total of $100 million, this year.

Other companies in the larger space of monetization include Twofish, LiveGamer, Fatfoogoo, Offerpal, Super Rewards, Viximo, and Jambool. Outspark, which is importing free-to-play games to the U.S., has said 10 to 13 percent of its users are buying virtual goods. And of those, the average revenue per user is $45. That's so high that those players would be better off paying a subscription. This virtual goods wave has swept through the whole world. It's wonderful that the game industry is returning to that micro-transaction currency that's served it so well in the past: the quarter.

6. Don't believe too much of the hype about Chinese game companies taking over. Will the rise of new business models in Asia, and the rise in game company valuations, enable them to take over those in other territories?

Virtual goods started thriving as a business model for companies such as Shanda in China a few years ago. Online games thrived in China because they enabled operators to authenticate users and thereby beat rampant piracy. World of Warcraft did great in China's Internet cafes, but the free-to-play model is taking over, according to market researcher Niko Partners.

Will this become a global advantage for the Asian companies that have embraced this business model first? It was a couple of years ago that Shanda said it would switch all of its games to virtual goods models. And now Shanda is the biggest online game company in China with $500 million in revenues. In my speech in Berlin last month, I brought up the topic of geographic arbitrage. I noted that a couple of books by Annalee Saxenian, Regional Advantage, published in 1996, and The New Argonauts, published in 2007, showed how differences between regions could make a big difference in terms of who thrives and who doesn't.

Geographic arbitrage means that you exploit your region's advantage. For a time, the French stock market overvalued game companies. That gave rise to Infogrames, which used its valuation to buy other game companies. One of the most symbolic occasions of the French invasion of the video game industry happened when Infogrames bought Atari. DFC Intelligence has noted that much of the profits of the game industry have migrated from the money-losing Western companies to the Far East.

In Berlin, I all but predicted that the Koreans and Chinese would take over here. But we've seen some abortive attempts at crossing borders. NCSoft made a fortune with Lineage in Korea and tried with Destination Games in the U.S. But NCSoft's Tabula Rasa failed and was shut down. And Perfect World has launched a couple of games in the U.S. but hasn't yet acquired anyone. The whole Chinese online games market is expected to be $3.8 billion in 2009, according to Niko Partners. It is growing at a rate of 38 percent.

But here's the reality check. The revenues for Shanda are still only about an eighth of the revenue at Electronic Arts. ChangYou had one of the only IPOs in the past few months. The Chinese company raised $200 million in its debut on the NASDAQ. The Chinese companies are not yet in a position to come into the U.S. market and take over. The wave could happen someday, but not just yet.

The market capitalization of the top eight Chinese game companies is about twice that of EA's That will get bigger. The Chinese companies are scouting now in anticipation of buying more later. Maybe they'll do better than the Koreans. But troubled U.S. companies can't look to the Chinese as saviors.

7. Social gaming is spreading beyond the borders of game platforms. Social gaming has caught on along with virtual goods because it's a lot of fun to play with your real friends with real identities on social networks such as Facebook. There are now more than 5,000 games on Facebook.

Companies such as Zynga, SGN, and Playfish are thriving on Facebook. They're taking advantage of the ability to spread games in a viral fashion to stand out. If you can get your users to spread your game for you, then you don't have to worry as much about marketing costs. Thanks to viral marketing, it's possible for small titles to get noticed in the long tail of thousands of games all competing on the Facebook platform, which has 200 million users.

Zynga, SGN and other Facebook companies are moving to the iPhone. Playdom is moving from MySpace into Facebook games. One of these days, somebody is going to build a cross-platform social games empire.

8. Creative destruction rules the game job environment. Are these new businesses with new business models going to grow up and threaten the big console companies? Michael Pachter, an analyst at Wedbush Morgan, said he thought there were a lot of cool companies in the space. But he doubts that the startups will overtake the traditional console startups anytime soon. It will be interesting to see if jobs created at the new companies can compensate for jobs lost at the old ones.

Wanda Meloni of M2 Research came up with some interesting data about this last week. She said that since July, 2008, 60 game companies/studios have publicly announced layoffs that have eliminated 8,450 jobs. Most of those are in North America, where there are an estimated 53,900 people working at game companies, according the Game Developer Census. She calculates that roughly 12 percent of the whole game industry has been hit by the layoffs. That sounds awfully depressing.

But there are thousands of people now jumping into iPhone game development, or development of games for smart phones. Moblyng just announced last week that it developed games that could be quickly and easily ported across all smart phones. Just as some big companies die, new ones are being born.

People call it creative destruction when one thing collapses and another takes its place. The big companies cut back, and the game startups form to fill the void. 3D Realms, the maker of Duke Nukem, closed its doors the same day WonderHill announced it raised $7 million. The lesson of 3D Realms is, don't take more than 13 years to develop your game.

9. Apple and Nintendo are at war. There were only 1,500 games on the iPhone in December. Five months later, there are more than 9,000. Clearly, some of those unemployed game developers are trying their hand at striking it rich by uploading a game or two to the AppStore. At the very same time that many companies are crumbling, we're witnessing a Cambrian explosion of indie game companies. These companies are all capital efficient, which is music to the ears of recession-ravaged investors.

Nintendo has sold more than 100 million DS units since 2004. Apple has sold 37 million iPhones and iPod Touches in little less than two years. At that rate, Apple is likely to overtake the Nintendo DS. Maybe that's why Nintendo lowered its forecast for DS games in the coming year. I don't know. But it's worth pointing out that DS games sell for $30, while at least half of Apple's games sell at 99 cents. Jeremy Liew of Lightspeed Venture Partners estimates that the whole AppStore has generated no more than $45 million in revenue for Apple. As you can see from the price difference, it's going to be a long time before Apple knocks out Nintendo.

The difference in approaches is going to be a fascinating experiment in capitalism. Nintendo deliberately limits its own games on its platforms and closely regulates what games can be published for the Wii and the DS. There are only dozens of WiiWare downloadable games on the Wii, whereas Apple has opened the floodgates. Apple clearly offers its consumers more choice in games, but iPhone developers may have a terrible time getting noticed on the iPhone and keeping hits alive for more than a couple of weeks. Nintendo says it prefers to have healthy developers on its platform. The suggestion is that Apple's platform won't truly take off until it provides ways for developers to make money. If you know who's going to win, tell me.

Apple has a popular and fast-growing platform. With the iPhone 3.0 software, it's going to have new game-friendly features such as virtual goods. But it is leaving the game development to its developers. At some point, it would be great to see dueling keynotes between Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata and Apple's Steve Jobs at E3.

10. Gesture-based control systems will spread industry wide. Just about everything Nintendo starts turns into an industry-wide trend. The company started the wave of brain-training games with Brain Age. And then it started the fitness craze with the launch of Wii Fit. Now everyone from Lumos Labs to Electronic Arts with EA Sports Active is piling into those markets.

With the Wii, and soon the Wii MotionPlus, it has redefined the game controller and inspired a wave of gesture-based technology companies that include PrimeSense, 3DV Systems (acquired by Microsoft), Canesta, Softkinetic, Omek Interactive, and others. Microsoft is rumored to be working on its own gesture-control system, and Sony will likely go farther with this technology as well.

11. Backfill strategies may work. Companies such as Quick Hit are trying to take on Electronic Arts' Madden franchise by launching a free-to-play online football game. The plan to attack Madden via the online route reminds me of a strategy I call backfill.

It's like in real estate. A whole neighborhood gets built out, but there are a few empty lots. Some companies just move on to new neighborhoods because they figure the game is over in the old ones. But then the backfillers go back to the empty lots and build houses on them.

I thought of this strategy when I heard about Virtual Families. This game from Last Day of Work is focused on taking on The Sims, which has sold more than 100 million copies. This category of people simulation has been dominated by Electronic Arts. Most people would, and have, stayed away from this neighborhood. But Virtual Families is shooting to produce a much more casual experience than The Sims.

Along the same lines, Thriller New Media, headed by Wild Bill Stealey and Fred Schmidt of MicroProse fame, are trying to do a backfill in the military simulation space. The market moved away from the hardcore military games as the console market broadened. It no longer made sense to make games that only 100,000 people played. But so many companies left the space that Thriller is trying to go back and replant on old soil. They're applying new tricks, such as social networking and free-to-play business models, to online military simulations. There is even a generational play here, just like how Disney creates movies that appeal to both kids and their parents. The parents get a kind of retro nostalgia while the kids enjoy something they haven't seen before.

12. Digital distribution is gathering steam. GameStop has more than 4,000 stores across the country. But retailers had better pay attention to the gathering momentum of Valve's Steam service, which distributes games direct to users over the Internet. OnLive, meanwhile, dispenses with the downloading. When the company launches its video games on demand service this fall, you can play games that are stored on distant servers as if they were right on your home PC. For a subscription fee, you'll be able to play fast-action games on low-end machines. This will become a viable distribution channel, even if it doesn't kill retail, and even if Valve and OnLive aren't the ones that succeed. It's like gravity, with the full force of the Internet behind it.

Conclusion: Games deserve the same kind of financial maturity that others have enjoyed. Why should you only be able to get rich -– or lose your shirt — at a Web 2.0 company? Or at an investment bank? Or a cleantech company? Games are a haven from the storm. More venture money is bound to flow into games as VCs retreat from shell-shocked markets into ones that are better off. Big game companies such as Gazillion (which has a license to make Lego and Marvel massively multiplayer online games) and OnLive, which is creating a server-based games on demand service, are tapping the financial community in a big way to get what they need. These are the kinds of companies that have the potential to be home runs.

As VCs pour money into the different markets, some segments will become saturated. Virtual worlds accounted for more than half of the fundings last year. There are now 200 kids virtual worlds in development. But there are promising new areas in brain training, funware, games for health, educational games, music games, exercise games, and sports 2.0. I can only imagine that some more exciting than the iPhone, perhaps a new version of it, will come and blow us all away with its gaming capabilities. And, of course, it's not too early to start thinking about next-generation game consoles. There are great riches on the horizon, as long as you don't step into that ditch right in front of you.

Do the trends matter for those starting businesses? Let's consider the trend related to movie games. Brash Entertainment, a movie game company that shut down in November, was the latest to prove that bad movie games really suck as a business.

Movie games come and go, as does Hollywood's interest in games. Certainly, they generate a ton of revenue. The latest Lord of the Rings game from Electronic Arts got bad reviews, but it still sold a million copies. Most of us would like movie games to fail, just because they are so cynically piggybacking on something better.

But even inside a lousy trend, it's possible to build an interesting company. Exponential Entertainment won both the judge's pick and people's choice at GamesBeat. They're making a casual game site with movie-related material. These folks were the makers of SceneIt?, the DVD trivia game that has generated $500 million in sales. Here they are in a new company that takes the same kind of movie trivia game to the web. They're looking to raise just a small amount of money.

Even though you can be aware of what's a good trend or a bad trend, you can ignore them when you're thinking about your own game. What a game really needs is a combination of passion, innovative thinking, and execution. If you have all of that, then you can pull off something great no matter what the trends are.

[link to original | source: VentureBeat | published: 3 days ago | shared via feedly]

VIRTUAL WORLDS: China's Perfect World Brings In $62.2M

2009-05-19T05:33:00.001-07:00

China's Perfect World Brings In $62.2M For Q1

Chinese freemium game publisher Perfect World announced its Q1 earnings today, reporting $62.2 million according to Redline China. This is a 1.8% increase from revenues reported in Q4 2008 and a 40.2% increase year-over-year. It's another signal that the Chinese freemium game market remains healthy and resistant to the global economic downturn that is negatively impacting Chinese Web advertising revenues. The company's net income for the quarter was $31.5 million, up 72.6% from Q4 '08 and 36.1% from Q1 '08.

What's interesting about these figures is that while revenue is up, peak concurrent users is actually down. For Q1 '09, Perfect World reported 615,000 concurrent users. That compares to 690,000 in Q4 '08 and 660,000 in Q1 '08. Perfect World attributes the drop in peak concurrent users to seasonal elements -- as Q1 contains several major Chinese holidays -- and an aggressive anti-cheating campaign that would have necessarily driven a certain percentage of users away.

ARPPU (average revenue per paying user) for Perfect World in Q1 '09 was 244RMB, or about $35.74. That's up 8.1% from Q4 '08 and 61.6% from Q1 '08. Perfect World attributes the increase in revenue from Q4 '08 to Q1 '09 to a series of successful in-game promotions for sales of virtual goods.

Perfect World projects Q2 '09 revenues to fall in a range between $60.1 and $63.6 million, essentially expecting no more than a 2% change up or down in current figures. Right now user churn is a major concern for Perfect World, so it intends to scale back on the number of sales promotions in the upcoming quarter. It is also expecting to incur higher marketing and operating expenses than usual, which could narrow profit margins.

The Perfect World figures are interesting in terms of how enormously consistent they are with the results recently reported by competitor Changyou. In fact, reported revenues are in the same range. While the Changyou reports did not include projections for Q2 '09, it seems likely that company's future performance will also fall into the same range as Perfect World's.

[link to original | source: Virtual Goods News | published: 16 hours ago | shared via feedly]

NEWS: Top headlines in bite-size chunks

2009-05-18T16:45:00.000-07:00

PopCap strikes PlayStation Network deal

Sony Online Entertainment has given PS3 a serious casual games boost with the new that it has penned a deal with leading publisher PopCap to bring five its best selling consoles to PlayStation network for PS3.

Free Realms welcomes 1m members

Sony Online Entertainment's promising browser-based MMO Free Realms has already seen one million members register on the virtual world service - despite having only gone live 18 days ago.

All iPhone apps must support 3.0 firmware

iPhone developers have been sent an email instructing them that Apple will no longer approve content created for version 2.0 of the device OS.

Bigpoint opens doors to external developers

Browser based online games portal BigPoint has revealed plans to open up its platform to external game providers and developers - a move it hopes will elevate its global position as a free-to-play online games provider.

NEWS : Tencent’s virtual goods revenues keep growing during recession [feedly]

2009-05-18T16:39:00.000-07:00

Asian web companies have been making millions from virtual goods for years — and that story doesn't seem to be changing despite the current worldwide recession. Tencent , a publicly-traded Chinese web conglomerate comprised of an instant message client, a social network, and various other services, says it made $342.3 million in virtual goods in the first quarter of this year.

The numbers seem to indicate the resiliency of virtual goods — such as virtual clothing that users can buy for their avatars in a game — versus advertising.

Tencent's web-based virtual goods saw a quarter-over-quarter increase of nearly 20 percent and a year-over-year increase of 75 percent, coming in at $278 million. Its mobile virtual goods sales were smaller but also growing, coming in at $64 million. That revenue stream saw nearly 10 percent growth by quarter and more than 52 percent growth by year. Meanwhile, its advertising revenue got virtually hammered, dropping by 30 percent quarter-over-quarter to come in at $21 million.

In 2008, Tencent made more than $1 billion in total revenue , of which $719 million was from virtual goods.

The caveat, the company says, is that virtual goods revenue "reflected the positive seasonal impact of the Chinese New Year holidays and winter break for students as well as the Company's continued efforts in service enhancements." There won't be as much virtual celebrating later this year, though. The Hong Kong-based company, expects people to spend less on virtual goods due to fewer national celebrations. Ad revenue, however, could climb as advertisers get a better handle on how their businesses are faring during the recession.

Tencent's number dwarfs the amount any Western company is making from virtual goods. Of course, Tencent has a social network, but its massive QQ instant message service and other sub-sites mean it's not directly comparable to social networks like Facebook and MySpace. And clearly, cultural differences are benefiting it in ways that have yet to equally manifest themselves for Western services that use virtual goods. Still, third-party developers on Facebook could make up to $500 million in revenue this year , mostly through virtual goods, as we and Inside Facebook have reported. Facebook, and other companies like MySpace, have yet to make serious money from the virtual economy. Facebook only has a gift store, and MySpace doesn't have anything — yet. But both companies are working on forms of virtual currency that could tie in with third-party applications, and let them get in on the action.

[link to original | source: VentureBeat | published: 4 days ago | shared via feedly]

I will be back soon

2009-05-18T15:56:00.000-07:00

I have been working on a way to share more crucial information faster, while of course still writing my own stories around the blog, and keeping the studio dev team running smooth and on track.....

I have almost completed the process so keep checking as a flurry of info will be coming your way.

Ciao

Metrics for a Brave New Whirled

2009-05-05T05:19:00.001-07:00

RESEARCH: Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Metrics for a Brave New Whirled

View more presentations from capncleaver.

A GEEK moment

2009-04-20T13:49:00.000-07:00

Love this image map tracking Apple from the 70's to 2009.

MOBILE NEWS: 5 stories you should now about

2009-04-20T13:15:00.001-07:00

All the stories all linked.

The theme is the impact new platforms are having on the market, and reactions of companies to try to catch up or how they lead the way

Nokia, reporting a 90 per cent fall in profits for Q1 2009. (shame big fan of the N series for years very good phone, all though its iPhone all the way now for me)

Net profits reached €122m, heavily down on the €1.2bn in the same period in 2008.

Sales were also down, dropping 27 per cent from €12.7bn last year to €9.28bn. However, the results were not as bad as many had predicted, the result of which was an eight per cent increase to the company’s share price.

Samsung steps on to a new platform with Google Android handsets soon to be released S8000 will be sporting the exciting mobile OS.

Samsung is also believed to be planning a trio of Android devices.

Sony Ericsson confirm that it will be revealing more details on its Entertainment Unlimited service on May 28th.

The company has already confirmed that the Idou – its first Entertainment Unlimited handset – will be launched in the second half of this year. Entertainment Unlimited itself broadly unites Walkman music, Cyber-shot imaging and Java gaming, with messaging and other services/apps also in the mix.

It also allows consumers to share content through the TV, PC and wi-fi and syncs with web applications and PlayNow.

The company earlier confirmed a massive pre-tax loss for Q1 09, albeit in line with earlier forecasts, and swiftly embarked on a €400m cost savings drive that will see 2,000 more jobs go this year.

PSP platform opened up the store to encourage uptake with tomorrow's 5.50 firmware upgrade removing the need for a PlayStation Network account to browse the store.

As long as a wi-fi connection is at hand, any PSP user will now be able to check out the latest games, trailers and demos available to download on the machine.

The 5.50 update also allows for access to the PSN Information Board via the machine’s XMB interface.

DSi sells 435,000 units in first US week

In an official response to the NPD's March 2009 sales numbers, Nintendo revealed that the Nintendo DSi handheld - released April 5, has sold 435,000 units in North America in its first week.

This figure surpasses initial sales of the handheld's previous iteration, the Nintendo DS Lite, which sold 226,300 in its first week on the market.

NEWS: Tracking the tech and media markets

2009-04-20T06:53:00.000-07:00

ALL THE STORIES LINK

European Release Date For HTC Magic Set At May 5th - "HTC's second Android handset looks as though it's been subjected to its last delay, with a listing for a May 5th release on Vodaphone UK's website.

Expect Google supported by T-mobile to push Android in the same direction as the iphone in terms of content delivery, make lots of apps, low cost and accessible. Question is can the others keep them from talking over.

TRIP HAWKINS TALKS iPHONE

I have cut through the waffle and highlighted the main points he made.....

'Trip' Hawkins III left Apple when he left in 1982 to form EA Arts which became the world's largest video game publisher. He left EA in the early '90s to form 3DO which, thanks to Sony and the Playstation, was a venture of rather less success.

Hawkins formed Digital Chocolate in 2003. The now 350 person company has developed on multiple ombile platforms and won numerous awards.

Four of the five iPhone games DC has released since December have hit No. 1 in the App Store

Hawkins quote "the iPhone presents a rare opportunity for Digital Chocolate and that it is really incomparable as a game platform to the myriad of mobile handsets on the market"

It’s by far our most effective platform. We make as much money with these games on one device as we do putting a game on 100 different cell phone platforms. Between the iPod Touch and the iPhone, I think the platform is freaking out Sony and Nintendo. Apple has sold 30 million units so far and it has created tremendous awareness. It has taken ground all over the world. But it has only penetrated one half of one percent of its total market.

Verizon Wireless 4G specifications for developers

Verizon Wireless released its initial set of technical specifications for devices that will run on its Long Term Evolution (LTE) fourth generation (4G) wireless network. The specifications are available for download at http://www.verizonwireless-opendevelopment.com

AT&T doubling 3G capacity

AT&T is in the process of doubling the capacity of its 3G networks, using software enhancements to squeeze one last boost in bandwidth from its current generation networks before it begins its migration to evolved 3G and eventually 4G. AT&T is increasing the downlink capacity on its high-speed packet access (HSPA) from 3.6 megabits per second to 7.2 Mb/s through software upgrades at the base station, said Scott McElroy, AT&T Mobility vice president of technology realization.

Internet Ad Spending Increase Stands Alone in 2009 Forecast (click for full story)

current ad expenditure forecasts predict a steeper decline in North America and Western Europe, with all regions joining in the general decline. The report forecasts global ad expenditure to shrink by 6.9% over the course of 2009.

Entering Q2, 2009 says the report, there is limited long-term visibility in the market as most advertisers wait until the last moment to confirm their spending commitments. Many are treating advertising as a discretionary expense, and one they find convenient to cut. Unprecedented economic problems and events affecting the predicted 6.9% decline in global ad expenditure in 2009 include:

* Lack of quadrennial events (Olympics, elections) creates tough year-on-year comparisons for markets like the US
* Poor corporate confidence means very limited visibility in the market
* Consumers are putting off big purchases and shifting consumption from premium to value products, opening opportunities for advertisers with value to offer
* Consumers are spending more time at home, consuming more media, particularly television and the internet
* Search is driving internet growth as consumers use it to find bargains

Here is WHY!

Ad expenditure correlates strongly with corporate profits, acknowledges the stuey, and the ad market is unlikely to start its recovery until profits start to pick up again. The current barriers to recovery include lack of trust in the credit markets, and low confidence in prospects for short-term growth. In addition:

* Consumers are spending less, saving more, and spending more time at home. (great for the games industry)

Consumers are putting off the purchase of big ticket items and shifting their consumption habits from premium products to budget brands
* In the retail sector premium stores are bringing in value lines and advertising their presence
* In the finance category, corporate advertising has fallen off quite sharply, but consumers' increased appetite for saving and risk aversion means that savings accounts and certain types of insurance are still growing
* Spending by CPG advertisers has generally held up well; There has been a clear shift from premium to value products as companies respond to consumer demand
* The automotive industry is suffering from long-term problems that the downturn has exposed and exacerbated, but not caused. Regulations, high labor costs and other structural problems left auto manufacturers with very thin margins. In France and Germany, however, government incentives have led to increased sales in the short term, and increased automotive advertising. Smaller, generally foreign, brands have managed to gain market share by promoting their value proposition
* Businesses have cut back their travel expenses, causing a large drop in premium traffic for airlines. But leisure travel is still popular to countries where exchange rates now look very favorable to consumers spending in euros or US dollars. Airline advertising to consumers is still active in markets with strong exchange rates

The strategists at Take-Two have a problem on their hands. They made the best-reviewed game ever for the Nintendo DS. And no one seems to care.

There's a major disconnect here. Take-Two's "Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars," the newest game in the franchise, was released a month ago for the Nintendo DS. According to numbers released yesterday, the game sold under 90,000 units. For anyone unaware of the nuances of game sales figures, let me translate: the game flopped. Big-time.

What's interesting has been the commentary about why it's flopped. Most are saying it was remiss to release a "GTA" game on a platform primarily targeted at children. However, I'm not so sure I agree. The sheer numbers of DS systems out there suggest at least a few million. If only 20% of the Nintendo DS audience consisted of "core" gamers, that's still an audience of over six million in the U.S. I think the central issue is one of conflicting brands.

Sun Microsystems directors have approved Oracle Corporation’s bid of $7.4 billion ($9.50 a share) or $5.6 billion after including debt.

I.B.M. recently concluded talks with Sun after I.B.M. lowered it’s offer from $10 to $9.40 a share.

Oracle Chief Executive Larry Ellison said in a statement:

“The acquisition of Sun transforms the IT industry, combining best-in-class enterprise software and mission-critical computing systems. Oracle will be the only company that can engineer an integrated system – applications to disk – where all the pieces fit and work together so customers do not have to do it themselves. Our customers benefit as their systems integration costs go down while system performance, reliability and security go up.”

The company added that the acquisition of Java “is the most important software Oracle has ever acquired.”

federal broadband stimulus program is already churning up activity among lower-tier carriers that had previously fallen into malaise, according to Adtran, the access equipment vendor that reported first-quarter earnings exceeding Wall Street expectations today.

On an earnings call this morning, Adtran Chief Executive Officer Tom Stanton reported seeing a “change in tone” among tier-two and tier-three carriers attributable to anticipation over broadband stimulus funds. “The amount of activity in that space has gone up dramatically,” Stanton said. “I’m not saying orders. I’m saying planning.”

Initially the passage of broadband stimulus legislation put a chill on the market as carriers mulled how their existing and future plans could be affected by the program. “That’s easing to some extent,” Stanton said. “Every month it gets better.” When the government further clarifies the terms and criteria it will use to award funding, he added, activity should increase further.

IPTV looking robust, wards off expected nosedive

Published Wednesday, April 15, 2009
More than 35 new IPTV operations began trials or deployment across the globe in the past six months, suggesting opportunity in the market despite the economic downturn and rise of alternative options for video. Only two trials took place in North America, with the majority occurring in emerging markets, but the US has done better than originally expected, according to Gary Schultz, chief executive officer of analyst firm Multimedia Research Group. MRG actually had to increase its forecast for global IPTV subscriber growth, which it had lowered back in August when it last published ..

TOYS, APPAREL, VIDEO GAMES AND CONSUMER ELECTRONICS DROVE SALES FOR KIDS DURING 2008 HOLIDAY SHOPPING SEASON
2008 Bucked Traditional Shopping Trends as Black Friday Week Generated only 15 Percent of Total Holiday Sales

PORT WASHINGTON, NEW YORK, April 07, 2009 – According to Spotlight on Kids: Understanding Cross-Category Purchasing, the most recent report from leading market research company, The NPD Group, products within the toys, apparel, video games and consumer electronics categories were the most sought after for kids during the five weeks leading up to the 2008 holiday season.

Teens Are Changing How They Interact With Music
U.S. Teens Listening to More Music in More Formats, but Buying and Sharing Less

PORT WASHINGTON, N.Y., March 31, 2009 –According to The NPD Group, a leader in market research for the entertainment industry, teens (age 13 to 17) acquired 19 percent less music in 2008 than they did in 2007. CD purchasing declined 26 percent and paid digital downloads fell 13 percent compared with the prior year. In the case of paid digital downloads, 32 percent of teens purchasing less digital music expressed discontent with the music that was available for purchase, while 23 percent claimed to already have a suitable collection of digital music. Twenty-four percent of teens also cited cutbacks in overall entertainment spending as a reason for buying fewer downloads.

The downturn in paid music acquisition was matched by a downturn in the quantity of tracks downloaded from peer-to-peer (P2P) networks, which fell 6 percent in 2008. The number of teens borrowing music, either to rip to a computer or burn to a CD, fell by 28 percent.

”While we expected to see the continued decline in CD purchasing among teens in NPD’s music tracking surveys, it was surprising to see that fewer teens downloaded music from P2P sites or borrowed them from friends,” said Russ Crupnick, entertainment industry analyst for The NPD Group. “These declines could be happening due to a lack of excitement among teens about the music available, but it could also reflect a larger shift in the ways teens interact with music, given that so much music is now available whenever and wherever they want it.”

INVESTMENT: The latest news

2009-04-14T06:52:00.000-07:00

Cool Iris get 15 million ( I recently wrote about how I love the app and I see great things happening for them)

Social Cast $1 million, could turn out to be a dead donkey....but we shall see

E-toro Series b $6.3 million, its a game, a fun easy to use currency trading game, however you can do it for real and you can make money doing it.

This shows how excited the world is about MMO's and Virtual currency, this probably has a lot to do with the fact that the Asian market is worth billions.

Today Chinese online gaming company Changyou opened trading on the NASDAQ market after a successful $16 million public offering of 7.5 million shares priced at $16 each. Share price rose 40% to $22 in initial trading, with 3 million Changyou shares traded in the first ten minutes of the day. Changyou operates two MMORPGs in mainland China that monetize through virtual goods sales, netting a $201.8 million revenue and $108 million net profit for 2008. Changyou is the first new company to be listed on the NASDAQ since last November and the first Chinese company added renewable energy firm GT Solar International in August 2008.

CHARTS: The Top TENS

2009-04-14T06:36:00.000-07:00

Casual Games

1=The Enchanting Islands
2=Annie's Millions
3=DQ Tycoon
4=Flux Family Secrets: The Ripple Effect
5=Fishdom
6=Alabama Smith: Escape from Pompeii
7=Risk II
8=Supermarket Mania
9=Bubbletown
10=Mortimer Beckett and the Time Paradox

Social Games

iPhone Apps Top selling this week

1.Flight Control
2.Bowman
3.Who has the Biggest Brain
4.Flick Fishing
5.Solitaire
6.Virtual Pool
7.Parking LOT
8.Cricket Game
9.Lets Golf
10.Monopoly Here and Now

TECHNOLOGY : ONLIVE the roundup

2009-04-14T06:29:00.000-07:00

I want to thank all the people who contributed from, Linked in, Blogger, Facebook, Twitter and other social networks.

In summary people don't think it will kill the console, we all just believe that its great PR and that this technology once stable will become a very strong option in the years to come. Onlive wont be the replacement for the console (big 3) but more a facilitator/instigator of progress in this field, responsible for pushing the on-demand service to the next level. I hope if its as good as they say they do well and reap some rewards for their work.

TECHNOLOGY : Incredible touch demo from Illusion Labs

2009-04-07T13:42:00.000-07:00

Like touch games, watch this video. Its possible that this type of gaming will help rejuvenate arcades, or at create a new culture of gaming in venues that would not normally having gaming machines. Due to the touch technology there is a mass appeal to ttable tops and they could find there way into locations across the globe.

SOMETHING FOR THE WEEKEND

2009-04-03T15:13:00.000-07:00

Shii - The Wii for Women
Uploaded by tsubasa_403

TECHNOLOGY : ONLIVE may never make it ?

2009-04-02T07:04:00.000-07:00

Why ON-LIVE will not be a console killer.

Don't get me wrong I am all for progress and service, how ever I'm not sure they even believe they can do it.

After giving this some thought and going over some basics here is my view on this topic

1.Realistically the technology wont be available and ready for the masses till 2012 to 2015. You can read about this all over the web.

They plan to start in the US and what will happen is you get the early adopters going through the pain barriers and as long as the game play is not interrupted more than once may be just may be people will accept it.

But remember game play can not be interrupted, How many times does You Tube or other low quality stream slow down or stop on your PC. I am sure the demos worked amazing and they planned well for that at GDC....but wait till you have several hundred thousand people all wanting the same game at a very slightly different time.

So assuming that some people do stick with the service and they grow slowly they will not be making any money and will require more and more funding. They got around $12 million in 2007 for a second round.

2. The investment is pure speculation

So investors and future VC's will speculate based on the management background and the chance of this delivering a huge pay off....and that they could get control of or a big chunk of control of the video game industry right? Wrong they may at best get a share of the market. But this is where I don't think they are really interested, my gut tells me they are trying to convince people they have the best compression technology and hope that a huge company buys the IP for a tonne of cash.

3. Are you forgetting those other small companies in the industry?

Yes little Microsoft, quite shy Nintendo and that big sissy Sony......do you really think they will lie down and just give up and say yes you win....we don't care about the billions we invested in making this industry happen.....

Not a chance, here is what could happen.....all of the above companies launch similar services or HYBRIDS of the service like PS3 lite or XBOX lite (Microsoft already sells a lite version for XBLA) So part processing happens on line and the rest in home.

And or the Hardware just gets cheaper and cheaper......(historically this is what happens and is happening)

All of these companies have massive installed base across USA, Europe & Japan. As for Asia they don't have the bandwidth yet so forget Onlive for China's or India for the next 2 to 3 years.

4. The installed PC base

Who are your customers? well the ones with a PC or a TV who want to play high quality games. I am going to assume that people who invested in consoles are not the target. Also I would question if the PC owners who have great or decent spec machine at home and play games are the target either.

So are you after the 85 million online gamers in the USA from 2008 (stats provided by comscore) Then you need to take into account the number of women in that figure was around 45 to 48 % and then take into account age demographics and your target audience is reduced further.

My guess is they will also try to leverage deals with the cable providers and try to get into peoples homes through the TV.

Good idea? progress right. Sure choice is great.

Ok high quality games require high quality peripherals so if you play on the TV and want to compete with the consoles you will need:

Rockband Kit
Microphones
Dance Mat
Driving Wheel
Wii type contoller
Guitar

So all of a sudden we are in the family home and the choice is streaming games with no peripherals, less game choices or by a Wii or play the one we have. fun of what the above can provide. Hummm (please tell me If I got this wrong and you can just plug in to a port on the

5.NO exclusive content....

its nothing new just a new distribution method. Its not like they have Little big planet, GTA or Crash Bandicoute or Matrix or some amazing game to launch this service they just offer the same.

6. The future of gaming

Its all about how you can enhance your experience through community and better peripherals making controlling a game easier, expanding choice of titles (like casual)and all the big companies are way along with this process in addition to that they are offering better distribution models, Episodic content etc.....

If Onlive truly have amazing technology they will end up selling it or becoming like DOLBY and licensing it. They will not lead the games industry or have any chance of killing off the others.

I do believe in this technology and cloud computing will become the norm but at very best Onlive will sit way behind the others , but I can not see them making it as a replacement for PS3, XBLA or Nintendo.

Love to hear your thoughts please comment....

Here is some good reading

Onlive was a dumb investment

Dave Perry s take on things

Console sales data

Venture Beat

Venture beat ( read all the postings at the bottom of the page)

Crytek story

CAST YOUR VOTE ON LINKEDIN

TECHNOLOGY : TOP BROWSER ADD ONS

2009-04-01T07:28:00.001-07:00

I live by these add-ons for Fire Fox

Cool Iris - heavenly for browsing images, and works great with Google images GET IT

Search ME - The best bookmarking tool to date! GET IT

And my latest discovery - Fox Tab - lovely 3D tab browsing works a treat. GET IT

NEWS: Google Yahoo & Microsoft block April Fools

2009-04-01T07:02:00.000-07:00

In a strange move Google Yahoo, Microsoft and others invloved in the semantic web program have tried to block April fools from reaching the web in fear it will corrupt the developing semantic web Google say jokes could set them back a year.

"All the misinformation and lies on the internet could cause a big problem for semantics"

The Semantic Web is an evolving extension of the World Wide Web in which the semantics of information and services on the web is defined, making it possible for the web to understand and satisfy the requests of people and machines to use the web content.

See here

MARKETING: Want to see real marketing in action

2009-03-31T17:50:00.000-07:00

Like marketing want to see the best advert I have seen in Casual Gaming?

SInce last year I have been noticing the campaign by Sarbakan strong branding and cool tags they started with the whole its not pink its magenta....and there is nothing casual about us tag lines tag lines.

Well this is another level all together. Promise you will smile and someone will rip this off for sure...shame on you.

CLICK ME TO SEE

TECHNOLOGY : Can Onlive kill the console?

2009-03-31T14:13:00.000-07:00

In case you don't know about this you need to get up to speed. I will come back with more about this soon but just get up to speed on the concept.

Some say it will kill the console, some say it wont work, Dave Perry says he is launching is own rival company and apparently got a lot of stick from onlive at GDC saying that he is only jumping on the band wagon(although he has talked about this tech for a while) and SONY just registered their own cloud patent.

Read about this here

Dave Perry's company

One thing I will say is I love progress, and this if it works will benefit the industry and game players, but will it work yet and will they make enough money in time or will it all crash and burn.

More about this soon.

A WORD OF CAUTION ON SOCIAL GAMING

2009-03-31T10:56:00.000-07:00

So whats the hot topic this month? is it iphone may be its social gaming or may be social gaming on mobiles or may be its virtual items and micro-transactions
no wait its .......

STOP STOP STOP..........the phrase "knee jerk reaction" comes to mind so often and it will be the downfall of many and also it causes the industry problems and confuses people.

Stay focused! and whatever you do or whatever decisions you make make sure you know why your doing them and and how you will execute. (sounds obvious right!)

Its important to develop a long term strategy around your product and don't try to make it fit a particular platform that's currently popular because may be its just not suited. Do you even know your audience and how you will monetize.

I have even heard developers saying how can I make my studio in to a Social gaming studio or we have to do FB games etc..... one company even went from being a SN developer to iphone and back to SN's in a short space of time. Social gaming may be an additional channel but "all eggs one basket" comes to mind.

CURRENT TOP 5 SOCIAL GAMES (Across social networks)

TOP 3 SELLING iPHONE GAMES IN FEB 09
Flight controller, pocket GOD and Zombieville USA

iphone, micro-transactions and Social gaming can all be big business but many companies are putting out products and completely missing the point. My advice would be talk to people in the know work in partnerships and don't be afraid to ask around help is there.

Also SN's are going through a curve and a transition in gaming, the content is getting better, technology improving (flash announcement) people getting into the deeper experience communities developing within communities etc...the new version of FB is more like twitter for updates and a lot of games push message updates so at some point people will consolidate so make sure you talk to the right people get some advice and learn from others mistakes.

But don't believe your own hype you may only get one shot.

Some useful resources for help and advice

www.sharkjumping.com lokipartners.com
www.worldsandgames.com
www.millionsofus.com
www.srpoints.com
www.twofish.com

BUSINESS: Miscrosoft takes 60% in community gaming

2009-03-31T09:28:00.000-07:00

Remeber this is for XNA and not XBLA ( but still very interesting)

Microsoft claims as much as 60 per cent of the revenue from Xbox Live Community Game sales, according to XNA developer, Mommy's Best Games.

president, Nathan Fouts, received the sales data for the company's XNA title, Weapon of Choice, describing the results as 'sobering', with less than 10,000 units sold, stating 'that hurts'.

In his blog post, Fouts explained that Microsoft takes a baseline cut of 30 per cent and remittance rate, plus an additional 10-30 per cent cut for advertising. This put the developer under strain, he explained, as it also pays for membership, software licenses, hardware and marketing as well as royalties to contractors.

'What all that means to our bottom-line, we do not yet know, but it does not feel great,' he wrote. 'Maybe rational people hang up their keyboard and call it quits. But if you played Weapon of Choice, you realize we're far from rational.'

Fouts concerns echo comments made by Andrew Oliver, chief technical officer of Blitz, who told GamesIndustry.biz that a developer could make more money by working with a publisher than acting alone through digital distribution."

INVESTMENT: Google Starts a VC fund

2009-03-31T07:05:00.000-07:00

Google reviews has announced Google Ventures, a venture capital fund that “seeks to discover and grow great companies” in a “broad range of industries, including consumer Internet, software, hardware, clean-tech, bio-tech and health care.”

The fund has two managing partners: Bill Maris, perhaps best known in tech circles for founding Web hosting company Burlee.com, and Rich Miner, co-founder of mobile platform Android

As far as the size of the fund goes, actual amounts aren’t disclosed; however, the official site claims that the fund is “able to invest amounts ranging from seed funding to tens of millions of dollars.” In other words, anything goes, and Google probably won’t be cheap if they see a good opportunity. On the other hand, Google has always been somewhat careful, acquisition-wise, so don’t expect Google Ventures to be burning money; as they say, their goal is to “build great companies” but also to generate “long term financial return.”"

Start you business plans now.....

MMO: Top NEWS Stories this week

2009-03-31T06:55:00.000-07:00

MMO market grew by 22 per cent in 2008 shown in a new report by Screen Digest

Consumer spending in the sector reached $1.4bn across Europe and North America, with the ongoing success of Activision Blizzard’s World of Warcraft credited as being the driving factor."
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MMO developer Gazillion has claimed that it is working on “six or seven” titles at the moment, and that its intention is to take the currently hardcore-centric MMO genre to the mainstream.

“We're making a wide range of products, some for kids, some for the core gamers,” Gazillion’s VP of marketing Paul Baldwin told Joystiq.

“We actually think that what makes us unique is that we're going for the mass market. Much like a Pixar film not only resonates with a six-year-old kid, but a 39 year-old guy like myself the whole way through – much like Zelda works with eight-year-old kids and 35 year-old hardcore gamers in terms of the depth of gameplay.
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Marvel MMO to see 2012 release

Marvel Universe Online, the comic book superhero MMO, will be released in 2012 - shortly after a number of movie properties make their debuts in cinemas.

Simon Philips, Marvel's president of worldwide consumer products, said the MMO wouldn't be out until after the Captain America movie in 2011 and the Avengers film in 2012. He explained that time would be used to work with Gazillion to create "the next generation of storytelling".

"It sounds like a long way away, but it's not," Philips told MTV. "We've got to create, together with [game publisher] Gazillion, that environment that is going to be a totally immersive experience and a perpetual storytelling experience as well."
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Eve Online bundled with Nvidia cards

Eve Online will now be bundled with the current series of Nvidia VGA cards manufactured by Albatron Technology, alongside a one month subscription to the space-faring MMO.

Each Nvidia card comes packed with a DVD that includes the Eve client and CD key with one month of game time, worth USD 14.95.

Last year, CCP signed a deal with Atari which saw boxed copies of Eve Online distributed throughout retailers, previously the title had only been available through digital distribution.

The MMO has approximately 250,000 monthly subscribers and, earlier this year hit a peak in concurrent users of over 50,000.

NEWS: XBLA to bring out wii type contoller

2009-03-30T12:26:00.000-07:00

Well it was only a matter of time, and believe me this wont be the first both SONY and Microsoft will offer whatever range of peripherals to players to help gain ground.

Fact is it will be Nintendo who will have to hope that their customers are loyal and wont want to move away to a more powerful platform that offers what they have plus a whole lot more.

Apprently the new controller which was announced ad GDC is far superior to the Wii controller as it uses more senors to give more accuracy.

Also it should help deliver more casual games to the platform, however the smart move for Microsoft would be to license the ones that sold well on NINTENDO.

Read more here

PARTNERSHIPS: Microsoft & Myspace

2009-03-30T11:37:00.000-07:00

Two Microsoft-related announcements coming from social networking giant MySpace today:

the portal is adding support for Windows Mobile-run phones to its new mobile application, due this summer, and bringing the Silverlight runtime to its developer program thanks to a jointly developed Open Source kit.

The upcoming application will be created by MySpace in conjunction with Microsoft developers, and optimize the user experience for owners of devices running the latest version of Windows Mobile (6.1, which was introduced in April 2008). The company says it currently has 20 million mobile users and is focused on developing applications for all platforms, including the iPhone, Android, Blackberry, Palm, Nokia, etc. As MobileCrunch reported earlier this year, MySpace anticipates 50% of their total traffic to come from mobiles within the next few years, which is why it has recently launched a redesigned mobile website as well.

read more

RESEARCH: Unique visits for the top DOGS

2009-03-26T13:21:00.000-07:00

A snap shot of some of this big players in the industry, based on US visits.

Interesting the only companies who have seen growth are Pogo and Bigfish.

I have to say I am a fan of how they do things. BigFish are on the pulse with their strategy unlike Real. In a smart move following the purchase of developer thinglefin last year they have now announced private beta of their new virtual world Funashpere

RESOURCES: All the events easy acess

2009-03-26T12:52:00.000-07:00

Searchme

View in searchme: full | lite

MOBILE: All the key stuff from the last 5 days

2009-03-24T03:58:00.000-07:00

Symbian remains by far the most popular smartphone OS on the market. (for now)

New research from Gartner shows that for the fourth quarter of 2008 Symbian based smartphones accounted for 47.1 per cent of the sector’s total sales, with 17.9m handsets sold.

Blackberry-owning RIM was next at 19.5 per cent (7.4m units)
Microsoft Windows Mobile at 12.4 per cent (4.7m units)
Apple trailed with a 10.7 per cent market share (4.1m units)
Linux 8.4 per cent (3.2m units).

Of the Linux figure, Google Android phones (of which these is currently just one – the T-Mobile G1) accounted for 20 per cent – or 1.7 per cent of the total market.

Take Apple as a single device vendor and the numbers become very impressive for Apple – particularly considering that the numbers represent a 111.6 per cent year-on-year hike. Nokia, in contrast, suffered a 21.6 per cent annual drop. Personally I give Apple 2 to 3 years to take over......watch this space for the mini iphone and some other variations to give them more market share. And why not there OS is far superior, tech they produce is the best looking and the distribution channel tops all the competition. So if you want to beat Apple or stay in the market you need to be at least as good......but hell why not go for being better!

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Pop cap releases bookworm on the iphone (I think we will see more and more ports of popular casual games find there way to this platform)

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8 Million iphone downloads for digital chocolate (paid & free)

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GDC 09: iPhone games publisher Ngmoco head Neil Young today opened GDC with a keynote heralding the big changes the iphone & itouch have brought to the games market for developers and publishers.

He then outlined how the iPhone has changed the industry in four key areas: the market, games themselves, game making and publishing.

THE MARKET (ovierview)

800m App Store downloads of the 25,000 apps available, and how 165 apps are released released every day.

Even though the App Store is incredibly 'cluttered', the point to envy is how Apple has normalized digital distribution of game content, said Young.

He said: "Apple have trained 30m people to download and and install applications on their phone where ever they are. It is an amazing process we are witnessing."

And as games are largest part of the App Store, this is an "awesome opportunity" to generate revenue.

Full story

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UK telecoms company T-Mobile has stated that the average owner of the HTC Google Android phone the G1, which is exclusive to the network in the region, has downloaded 40 apps from the Android Market.

PocketGamer reports that the network’s CTO Cole Brodman added that there are around 2,300 games and applications currently available for download. He also stated that 80 per cent of G1 users surf the internet on their handset every day.

However, Brodman added that as the number of apps increases, the Android Market has become increasingly hard to navigate – particularly when compared to Apple’s App Store.

The exec went on to say that T-Mobile has big plans to expand its 3G network to accommodate the increased data usage encouraged by handsets such as the G1.

SMILES: I dream of electric sheep

2009-03-23T08:03:00.000-07:00

Even the farmers are getting in on Casual Games. Very funny movie of Farmers using LEDS on sheep to create a giant PONG game.

NEWS: Chinas TENCENT reports 1 billion in virtual items

2009-03-23T07:50:00.000-07:00

China's TenCent Announces Almost $1B In Virtual Goods Sales For 2008

TenCent reported 2008 annual revenues exceeding $1 billion, an 87% year-over-year increase from 2007 revenues.

$719 million was generated by sales of virtual goods (called "value-added services" by TenCent) to Internet users of the service.

$204 million generated by sales of virtual goods to users in the Mobile category.

Internet virtual goods sales for 2008 represent a 95.5% year-over-year increase from 2007.

Mobile virtual goods sales for the same period had increased 73%.

Only $120 million dollars of TenCent's 2008 revenue is accounted for by online advertising.

TenCent lists its total 2008 gross profits as $729 million at a margin of about 70%.

TenCent's fourth quarter numbers primarily reinforce, and to some degree explain, the overall trends at play in the annual numbers. Total revenue for the quarter was $306 million, a 3.6% increase over revenues for Q3. This suggests that TenCent's revenues were probably stable quarter-over-quarter throughout the year. $216 million of the revenue total for the quarter was generated by Internet virtual goods sales and $56 million generated by Mobile virtual goods sales. Revenues from online advertising account for only $30 million. Gross profits for the quarter $206 million, and operating profit $136 million.

Total registered IM user accounts, active IM user accounts, number of peak IM users, and number of peak games portal users increased slightly from Q3 numbers. Total number of virtual goods subscriptions increased while number of mobile virtual goods subscriptions decreased slightly. However, mobile revenue was still up due to new lines of bundled SMS packages offered by TenCent.

Game-related sales of Internet virtual goods increased substantially from Q3 numbers, by about 18%, due to TenCent launching three new games during this period (Dungeon and Fighter, Cross Fire, and QQ Dancer). The revenue increase for these games was offset somewhat by declining revenues from older games QQ Fantasy and QQ SanGuo. Regardless, it shows that users aren't tiring of virtual goods, just the old virtual goods. Add a new game and new products, and sales continue. Unsurprisingly, TenCent reported a 15.8% decline in online advertising revenue in Q4 2008, attributed to a harsher economic climate.

TenCent's outlook for 2009 calls for stronger sales in Q1 as it contains a major winter break period for Chinese students and several seasonal holidays such as Chinese New Year that are well-suited to sales of virtual goods. Advertising revenue is expected to continue to decline, as traditionally the period surrounding Chinese New Year is weak for advertising purposes anyway.

TenCent is looking to expand its business in 2009 by extending virtual goods sales offline to "include privileges for lifestyle products." TenCent will launch a new social network for students that only permits use of real names as well as three new MMOGs and one new casual game. In the first half of 2010, TenCent expects to launch "up to six" new MMOGs. Advertising revenue is expected to decrease sharply throughout 2009 and not to recover until a general global economic recovery begins.

“In 2008, Tencent delivered strong financial and operating results, leveraging our diversified, platform-based business model which is unique in China’s Internet market. We are also excited to see that, during the year, China has become the largest Internet market in the world by number of users and that Internet has increasingly become an indispensable part of everyday life for people in China,” said Ma Huateng, Chairman and CEO of Tencent.

CHARTS: HARDWARE Sales Feb 09

2009-03-23T07:21:00.000-07:00

USA

PlayStation 2 131K
PlayStation 3 276K
PSP 199K
Xbox 360 391K
Wii 753K
Nintendo DS 588K

CHARTS: World top 10 for casual games

2009-03-23T07:19:00.000-07:00

The Download market

1=WMC - A Darker Shade of Grey
2=Annabel
3=Bejeweled 2 Deluxe
4=Chocolatier 3 - Decadence by Design
5=OPERATION MANIA
6=The Serpent of Isis
7=Mystery Case Files: Madame Fate
8=Jewel Quest Solitaire III
9=Risk II
10=PICTUREKA! MUSEUM MAYHEM

RESEARCH: VW & MMO's Biz models

2009-03-23T06:55:00.000-07:00

Many people often ask what can be achieved in the F2P market.

Here is an example of the figures that the F2P industry achieves on average.

Example

Registered players 1,000,000 (could be any figure) but you will at least need to have 100,000 reg accounts before you can start to apply the figures or even consider monetizing

Active players = 20% 200,0000

Conversion to paying players = 5% 10,000

Average spend per paying player this varies but it can be from $5 to $20 per month. Its possible this can be increased overtime as the experience and offering develops.

Its important that you really understand your customer and make sure that data is analyzed, look for trends and patterns and make sure to listen. Also there are many resources out there in the form of associations and groups that have members who are willing to share what they have learned.

This data is based on figures from over 10 key sites that operate F2P models supported by micro-transactions or subscriptions, and first hand conversations with operators of F2P MMO's or virtual worlds.

NEWS: OMGPOP getting sued by TETRIS

2009-03-23T06:31:00.000-07:00

Not long after they get 5 million......the celebrations have turned to trouble.

TETRIS are claiming that OMGPOP (formally iminlikewithyou) have copied TETRIS. OMGPOP's version is very well done and looks great, I am a big fan but its not original and it is a version of TETRIS.

So may be a quick deal to share revenues with TETRIS on any games of BLOCKLES that generate money, and in addition to that the usual copyright statement which acknowledges the creators, or some reference to the game being inspired by etc....etc...

Odd thing is they are focusing on the graphics and not saying they copied the code...probably because of the current LAW.

See for yourself....

Full Story explaining the legal aspects

NEWS: PS3 needs more casual games

2009-03-16T14:54:00.000-07:00

The co-founder Media Molecule who developed LittleBigPlanet , believes that any gamers interested in buying a PS3 have already done so - and that if Sony wishes to grow the console's user base it has to transfer the casual success it saw on PS2.

He could have a point but also I believe that it will be key titles that will also help increase sales. The PS3 needs more killer titles.....like GTA etc.

This added to improved community features and a fresh catalog of casual titles, and a back catalog of PS2 games the work on PS3 will certainly help.

Well considering SONY attended the Casual Games event in Hamburg and did a session on building games for the PSN I think they probably agree.

RESEARCH: Thinking about cross platfrom development?

2009-03-16T14:47:00.000-07:00

I would certainly recommend that you check out EXIT games. What has been achieved with WGT is stunning.

Take me to the SITE

FUNDING: IGA consideres buyout

2009-03-16T14:39:00.000-07:00

In-game advertising firm IGA Worldwide may seek a buyout if it can't successfully close a new round of funding. Chairman Justin Townsend is believed to favor the new funding deal, but won't rule out a sale of the company, according to VC-related news site VentureBeat. According to the site, any interested buyers must register their bids by March 27th. IGA has high-profile deals with publishers such as Sony, EA and Activision, and announced its 30 millionth unique user in October of last year. However, the general downturn in advertising budgets forced IGA to lay off 25 percent of its staff in November, and they needed to create a new business model.

Worried about the economy, STAY POSITIVE

2009-03-16T14:24:00.000-07:00

I have been talking about this with various people saying that many of us seem to forget what has happened to us humans in the PAST and we always come out stronger, better, faster. See what Warren Buffet had to say.

(Remember he's lost countless billions in this recession...)

CNBC: “We’ve been getting thousands and thousands of emails from our viewers. Warren, we’d like to start with one that echoes a theme we heard again and again. This one comes from Terry in San Antonio, Texas, who asks, ‘Will everything be all right?’”

BUFFETT: “Everything will be all right. We do have the greatest economic machine that man has ever created. We started with 4 million people back in 1790 and look where we’ve come. And it wasn’t because we were smarter than other people. It wasn’t because our land was more fertile or we had more minerals or our climate was more favorable. We had a system that worked. It unleashed the human potential. It didn’t work every year. We had 6 ‘panics’ in the 19th century. In the 20th century we had the Great Depression, World Wars, all kinds of things. But we have a system – largely free market, rule of law, equality of opportunity – all of those things that cause the potential of humans to get unleashed. And we’re far from done. Your kids will live better than mine. Your grandchildren will live better than your kids. There’s no question about that. But the machine gets gummed up from time to time. If you take the bulk of those centuries, probably 15 years were bad years. But we go forward.”

RESEARCH: Slides and MP3's now avilable

2009-03-13T09:05:00.000-07:00

A follow up to Casual connect sees the recorded content go live

If you are interested in community gaming then you should see this click here

INVESTMENT: Iminlikewithyou gets 5 million

2009-03-13T08:53:00.000-07:00

One of my fav portals has just got 5 Million investment, and they have changed there name to OMGPOP.com very cool name.

Having recently invited Charles to an Event to be a speaker which he had to decline as he was pre rev and was watching the pennies......its really great to see all the hard work has paid off.

The 5 Million has been raised on the strength of its plans to begin monetizing the site through offers of premium service subscriptions, virtual goods, and virtual currency. The round was lead by Bessemer Venture Partners with past investors Spark Capital and and Baseline contributing, as reported by Venture Beat.

Just shows you do something well and the money is out there.

NEWS: Gaming will soon be a part of everyday for most people

2009-03-11T14:13:00.001-07:00

1. DS breaks 100 million barrier

What does this mean? it means another bit of the puzzle that will lead to gaming becoming something that will be part of most peoples lives. May be it will take another generation or 2 but soon everyone will play games (electronic games as I challenge you to find me people who don't play a game in one form or other)

2. Paid apps arrive on Android market

Now developers can start to monetize there devs, and if Google are smart they will make the APP store as good as Apples store. (apple really have shown the mobile companies how its done) In case you haven't tried it its the best experience I have ever had on a mobile. This further expands the reach of gaming.

3. 6000 games now available from APP store

Ok so not everyone has an iphone or ipod touch, but look what Apple have achieved so far and give it a few years and it could be a standard platform, They have dominated music download market and I bet they do the same here, they are actively increasing the expose of gaming to NONE gamers.

4. Xbox 360 takes half of its consoles online

A strong indication that people want to play together and be more social, while having the convenience of DLC and added unique features that DLC brings, the more social people are them more they explore other games and ulitmatley they invite non gaming friends to join, if you get an email or SMS telling you your buddy is playing with your other buddies online somewhere and you not invloved you are gonna feel left out at some point. Think Scraboulous

5. Over 5 million Players daily for Mafia Wars

Facebook game Mafia wars by Zynga (copy of MOB wars) is further indication that gamining is penetrating deeper and deeper in to society utilizing any possible channel, in this case social networks are fast becoming a hub of gaming activity.

Several things do need to be worked out to keep us on track as our industry does have its problems like any.

BUSINESS: OBERON partners with DEUTSCHE TELEKOME

2009-03-09T11:06:00.000-07:00

Oberon Media Inc. has partnered with Gamesload, the internet gaming platform of Deutsche Telekom AG, to distribute download games and online gaming. Gamesload is the market leader for commercial games downloads in Germany. Oberon will launch its community platform, offering web-based games to Gamesload customers. The community includes a diverse offering of multiplayer and online games.

BUSINESS: Stardoll & Pizco Merge

2009-03-09T05:09:00.000-07:00

Key Points

Deal includes cash and stock
Pizco CEO leaves and Pizco to be mainly run by Stardoll
The Aim is to create a larger network with multiple brands and try to follow the strategy of Viacom
New brand Paperdoll Heaven will be launched
They claim they will now reach over 20 million unique per month
U.S. Venture Partners and Mangrove Capital Partners get exit from the deal They invested 11 million into PIZCO

It looks a bit more like a take over, and Stardoll will be taking advantage of the technology PIZCO have built, but reports have noted that PIZCO's numbers have been falling away in the UK and Stardolls number have fell away in the U.S so there is going to be a need for change and The Buzz around the deal may create new interest, also why not keep your existing Stardoll customers if they want to be part of another social network it will be easier for them to join and share especially if they allow one password similar to Yahoo or Google ID.

Read more here (media post)

AND more here (Guardian)

CHARTS: This weeks top 10 casual games

2009-03-06T09:51:00.000-08:00

1=Farm Frenzy - Pizza Party!
2=Mystery Legends: Sleepy Hollow
3=Nancy Drew: The Haunting of Castle Malloy
4=Wheel of Fortune 2
5=The Serpent of Isis
6=Fishdom
7=Jewel Quest Solitaire III
8=THE GAME OF LIFE by Hasbro
9=Women's Murder Club 2
10=Cooking Academy 2

VIRTUAL WORLDS : FutureTechnology?? or a joke

2009-03-06T07:10:00.000-08:00

Some ridiculous people n the UK have developed a headset that offers a stereoscopic display and four speaker surround sound, and throws in smells, tastes, and a fan for heating your face up (or cooling it down) . The Virtual Cocoon developed by Professor Alan Chalmers and team of Warwick University is betting that you're going to welcome the opportunity to smell your co-workers when telecommuting, or your fellow cybernauts when running around Second Life. The device, which will have an estimated cost of £1,500 (around $2,100), should be ready for production within five years, so why tell us now.

I can see it now a lion shits in the jungle in Africa and we can smell it here..... Who is going to wear a helmet in 5 years with pipes stuck up your nose and a stupid fan blowing hot and cold air in your face?...... Will it really look like this as a contact lens that has a heads up display is already in dev and microprocessors are getting smaller by the day.....

VIRTUAL WORLDS : A MUST SEE !

2009-03-05T08:43:00.000-08:00

Ok once in while a film maker will come along and pull out all the ideas floating round in our heads an articulate them in such a brilliant way that you can not help but smile, and in other ways sent shivers down my spine as I have actually had those thoughts due to something that happened to me when I was younger. (the film will explain) The thing about this is the development, world builder tool used in the film is totally possible and I feel that this is a glimpse in to our future. It Begs the question what happens we can not tell the difference between what is reality and is computer generated? May be we are already there!

World Builder from Bruce Branit on Vimeo.

HARDWARE: 1 Game Title Can Shift Sales

2009-03-04T07:06:00.000-08:00

just goes to show if you have the right title people will rush out an buy the hardware, it happened with Crash Bandicoot and now with Xbox 360 exclusive Star Ocean.

In Japan Microsoft's console outsold both the Wii and PlayStation 3, but it came within 4,000 units of the PSP. The Nintendo DS was still the best seller of the week, but with only two titles in the software top 10, its sales fell 16,000 units.

May be just may this exclusive opens the doors for developers to negotiate better rates based on sales of hardware?

AWARDS: XBLA nominees

2009-03-04T06:55:00.000-08:00

Its always worth knowing whats hot and the list below is the best of 2008 on XBLA, this is not necessarily based on sales, you should always cross reference your research to get a balance of what sold well and what got voted.

Best Overall Arcade Game

Braid

Castle Crashers

Geometry Wars Retro Evolved 2

Street Fighter II HD Remix

Portal: Still Alive

Best Original Game

Castle Crashers

N+

Braid

Penny Arcade Episode 1

Schizoid

Age of Booty

Best Family Game

Boogie Bunnies

Roogoo

A Kingdom for Keflings

Lost Cities

Meteos Wars

Best Co-operative Multiplayer Game

Castle Crashers

Schizoid

Bionic Commando Rearmed

N+

Geometry Wars Retro Evolved 2

Best Competitive Multiplayer Game

Street Fighter II HD Remix

Geometry Wars Retro Evolved 2

Soul Calibur

Meteos Wars

Age of Booty

Best Solo Game

Braid

Mega Man 9

Penny Arcade Episode 1

Rez HD

Portal: Still Alive

Best Innovation in XBLA

Braid (time travel)

A Kingdom for Keflings (use of Avatars)

Fable II Pub Games (retail game integration)

N+ (level sharing)

Duke Nukem 3D (dynamic replay)

Best Graphics

Street Fighter II HD Remix

Geometry Wars Retro Evolved 2

Braid

Castle Crashers

Bionic Commando Rearmed

Best Classic/Remake Game

Bionic Commando Rearmed

Street Fighter II HD Remix

Mega Man 9

Galaga Legions

Rez HD

INDUSTRY TREND : DL starting to become the norm

2009-03-04T06:37:00.000-08:00

There are 2 stories that I have picked up today that show increasing signs that DLC is becoming the standard against retail

One is the news about PSP dropping the UMD format from its next version. Read here

I for one think it makes sense, cheaper to make less moving parts and less cost for content distribution, more opportunities for episodic games.

And to reiterate past comments I think this platform (PSN) will become a serious force to be reckoned with for developers. (get in now while you can)

And the other is about Capcom saying DL is more important than retail....more here

A simple way for retail to pick up on this is offer a place where players can go try out games provide ultimate speed internet and do super fast downloads in store. The retail experience can still offer many things that online can not and well its time for retail to evolve for environmental issues and commercial.

STUDY: Children Attracted To Games Deemed Not For Children

2009-03-04T06:04:00.000-08:00

A recent report on Gamasutra has highlighted that Children are Attracted To Games Deemed Not For Children Although they are intended to help parents ensure their children play only age-appropriate material, video game content ratings actually increase the attractiveness of mature content to minors, a new survey claims.

This is no surprise and amazes me that a study was even required? We all want to see R rated movies or read a magazine that was aimed at an older crowd, and girls especially want to grow up quick putting on makeup and dressing in Mums clothes.

I call these kids "aspirational players" and developers need to have and understanding of this when planning or positioning a project in a small range age demographic. Get it wrong and you could miss your target market completely, resulting in a failed project.

NEWS: EA we never made hits in 2008

2009-03-02T07:55:00.000-08:00

EA finally admits the awful truth. They say they never made hits in 2008. I would go futher and say the games they made sucked. Speaking at the Goldman Sachs conference Pleasants stated, "The biggest thing was that we didn't make hits [in 2008]." New properties like Mirror's Edge and Dead Space were assumed to be profitable, but in the end sales just weren't high enough.

You can read more here.

There is a comment about not spending enough on marketing and the right channels but I would say no amount of marketing is going to make Mirrors Edge a great game and become a hit.

VIRTUAL REALITY: gets a step closer

2009-03-02T07:40:00.000-08:00

Ok this is a long way of for mass market and will need improving but have a little vision and you can see where we could go.

NEWS: Bits in bite size

2009-03-02T06:46:00.000-08:00

Tabla Rasa to finally close

The creators are closing the game with a intresting ending which sees the good guys die read more

Eidos Interactive saw revenues up by 26 percent in the six months ended December 2008 --

They also managed to reduce losses to £1 million ($1.4m). The release of Tomb Raider Underworld helped revenues to rise to £80.3 million, compared to £63.4 million ($113.5m) at the same time the previous year. The company also managed to shave its net debt from £5.7 million ($8.1m) to £3.2 million ($4.5) -- the net loss figure of £1 million stood at £81.4 million ($115.0m) the previous year.

Founder and longtime CEO John Welch has departed casual game publisher PlayFirst

The team who created the Diner Dash series is now to be led by Mari Baker. Playfirst have had a long VC funding history and have raised around $26.5 million from investors including Mayfield Fund, Trinity Ventures and Rustic Canyon Partners. Prior to founding PlayFirst, Welch was VP of games and product at AtomShockwave.

Lightening Fish signs strategic partnership with publisher Black Bean Games

The new developer is to create a new family-focused fitness range branded NewU which has been conceived with Gym operator Fitness First. Its shceduled for Q3 09 and will use the functionality of both the Wii Balance Board and Wiimote.

Midway to sell the Mortal Kombat IP.

Acclaim Testing MMO chat VOON read more

New Look and feel to come to MMO HUB

Soon after the investment MMO HUB announce that they will be releasing an update to the site.

VIRTUAL WORLDS : Home passes 4 million users

2009-02-26T13:30:00.000-08:00

Sony has announced PlayStation Network has over 20 million reg accounts.

Its taken over two years to reach this level, alothough HOME was only released end of 2008.

Other stats were also announced saying that over 600 games with online features have now been released for PS3, and PSN itself now hosts over 14,500 pieces of downloadable digital content. To date over 380m pieces of content have been downloaded, with sales reaching $180m.

REPORT: 7 stories about recession and gaming

2009-02-25T11:37:00.000-08:00

Many in the gaming industry are claiming that gaming is recession proof. I tend to agree with them however it all depends on what area of gaming you are in. The fact is there will be growth in gaming but we will experience a slowdown in that growth, and there like any industry there will be casualties, but hay that's progress. The key thing is to support solid start ups try to find good partnerships and make sure your running a lean mean machine.

I want to bring your attention to several stories that track this.

Forbes on the virtual world economy

Casual Gaming Industry to Exceed $1 Billion by 2013

News Scientist post on tracking virtual economy in Second life to real economy

Zynga's Brett Terrill on starting a games company in recession

Silicon valleys Mercury News on people buying virtual items

NPD's prediction of gaming not being recession proof (but read between the neg lines and remember most industry is experiencing decline not growth)

Investments in recession proof companies

REPORT: Account Registrations

2009-02-24T08:30:00.000-08:00

Quick overview of registered accounts against start up date. Remember these are not active players and you have to take into account double or triple accounts. However it does demonstrate what is possible short term and long term.

NEW pixels

Franktown 6 months 100K

Wizard 101 5 months 1 million

Fusion Fall 2 months 2.5 million

Action All-Stars 2 weeks 100,000

Football Superstars 4 months 250,000

Old pixels

IMVU 4 years 20 million

Meez 2 years 8 Million

Club Penguin 4 years 20 million

Habbo 8 years 100 million

INVESTMENT : money in the bag

2009-02-24T05:25:00.000-08:00

Mind Candy Acquires TUTPup

Tutpup allows youngster across the globe to compete in multiplayer maths and spelling challenges, and currently boasts 350,000 active players worldwide. Tutpup was developed by Cominded, a London-based firm owned by Bebo co-founder Paul Birch.

Seems like a good move however based on research I'm not sure that there are 350K active players on this site it seems that 10k would be a more realistic figure, and I would imagine that the acquisition is low value.

Disney Acquires Kerpoof For Kid-Generated Content

Kerpoof, is a Web-based suite of tools that lets kids create scenes, art, avatars and more.

UGC is becoming more and more popular and Disney are certainly doing all they can to position themselves in the top spot for online media. May be we will see this tech find its way to Club Penguin.

OfferPal gets $15 million series B

Today Offerpal Media announced that it had closed a $15 million round of Series B venture capital financing. The new round is lead by D.E. Shaw Ventures, with existing Offerpal investors InterWest Partners and North Bridge Venture Partners also participating. Offerpal states the money will be used primarily to improve the infrastructure of the platform and help it expand into new mobile and international markets.

A lot of people are unsure how to monetize Social Networks and dubious of what is possible....but let me be clear there are some experts like SR and OfferPal who know exactly how and some apps are making above 1 mio per month in rev. This investment does not surprise me, furthermore I would not be surprised to see a similar investment in Super Rewards.

Virtual Fairground Announces $4M Funding

Virtual Fairground announced today that it had raised $4 million in funding from one undisclosed angel investor. The announcement came alongside the news that Virtual Fairground had licensed the Alphanim cartoon Galactik Football to create a Flash-based virtual world. The funding is actually older: Co-Founder Maarten Brands had previously told WIM that the company had raised its round in Summer 2008, but wanted to remain under the radar until recently.

Wamba Aquired for 4 million Euros

Wamba is a Spanish social network with a focus on Latin American users. The company plans to launch an IPTV called Wamba.TV and a radio music service called Wamba.FM.

NEW GAMES : Flower......new boundaries

2009-02-19T20:24:00.000-08:00

Ever wanted to feel like the wind....well now you can. This is one of the future trends....for the mass market. I keep talking about controllers helping to open up gaming for the masses, well Flower shows us what is possible. I felt like the wind and if you let yourself go and kind dance with it all sorts of things happen. |Fact is think about the future potential with new controllers or new ways of using them tied to the power of consoles and we are going to have some fantastic experiences.

Flower may be a short lived experience but well done to the people who broke the gaming rules on this and pushed things forward....what a great experience well worth $9.99......

Keep pushing forward !!! I am off to pollinate... :)

STARTUP WATCH: virtual land ownership

2009-02-19T06:17:00.000-08:00

Its worth tracking this new startup. Whatsyourplace.com is following in the footsteps of virtual worlds MMO's and micro economies by selling virtual goods. This has a nice twist as its basically mirrors the real world and its not goods its land.

So will people be compelled to virtually own land and will it become more valuable over time?

To start with people will want to own land for bragging rights and well if you can't own something for real virtually is the next best thing right? Once you get on the site and look at the Google maps it becomes very appealing that suddenly I could buy the shopping center in downtown San Diego (first place I landed) After the initial buzz long term there needs to be this physiologically driven reason that there has to be an impact on others for me to buy this Shopping center.

What we must keep an eye on is how this could evolve, with the right strategy to market this could do really well and become a great contextual advertising machine. For this to work they must provide visibility of ownership. John needs to see that sally owns a ranch in Texas without having to first go to the site it needs to be propagated in everyday life. John needs it to pop up on facebook, via an e-card or some other form that's viral. If a community can develop around this it could become a game, and one that could be a lot of fun....lets see if they get it right.

CONSOLE GAMES : "Wanted" want it now

2009-02-18T06:52:00.000-08:00

The movie was entertaining and the game trailer they put before the movie just made you say "cool I want to own this game". It looks incredible and for me one the most anticipated title releases for a while.

WHY? outside of looks and effects its down to how you control the characters and this game seems to be one of the first in this genera to break new boundaries in movement and interaction. The all important "do I feel in control" you need to get that feeling of being connected to the on screen character. This is something that the Matrix titles did so well and something that makes casual games so accessible and have broad audience appeal. People feel in control of the sparkling gems exploding, blocks dropping, FLOW serving food or PACMAN eating dots......its all about control and if those games took more than a mouse click then who knows if the market would even exist.

Over time many of the casual crowd will become hardcore players as well, this is down to evolution of your gaming experience, evolving control methods of games and new peripherals that allow everyone to play. Add to this the social elements of gaming chat on PC which tend to start with that common interest GAMING "console players" will no doubt influence the "casual" players to try out new experiences, and Word of mouth works its magic again.

Check out the video and see for yourself, If it plays as good as it looks this will be a big hit.

BUSINESS: Ourworld lands Miniclip deal

2009-02-18T05:43:00.000-08:00

Great news for the people at Ourworld they have landed a deal with Miniclip. I can imagine that its a very aggressive rev share deal with possible equity since Miniclip were partly responsible for the massive growth in club Penguin and did not reap the rewards of the sale to Disney.

Its no secret that Rob was not over the moon when they sold it for $700 million. Any partnership must be right for both sides and if Ourworld suddenly has 0ver 1 million UPPM and 50% increase in revenue then who cares if you gave a very small equity stake and rev share for the life of a player? right?

Good luck to Derrick and the team at Flowplay.

Currently Ourworld has around 200k UPPM and it will be interesting to see what the growth is and if the quality of traffic is good and converts to paying customers.

CHARTS: HOT SOCNET APPS

2009-02-18T05:29:00.000-08:00

In my aim to bring all the key industry stats and info I am adding a regular Social networks application Chart starting now. Key thing there are several games in the list.

Its based on the Facebook, Bebo, Myspace and Hi5

NEWS: LEGO MMO delayed till 2010? 11 12 who knows?

2009-02-18T05:07:00.000-08:00

There has been a story released which you can read here

But the short version goes Lego universe is delayed and wont be released 09, to add to that it may not release 2010 and they wont confirm a release date. They are claiming its strategic which may be the case but not releasing in 2010? thats a bit more than strategic.

For me part of the problem with LEGO UNIVERSE is that they are trying to build a UNIVERSE.......its a mistake many people make. One bit of advice start small grow strong, listen to your community and add features and content that they want.

For Lego they have the advantage of being a mega brand, and may be they can make this delay into a positive may be timing is not right for them, or may be just may be they have realized that building a UNIVERSE is an ongoing for ever evolving mammoth task....just look at ours.

CHARTS: This weeks world top 10

2009-02-17T13:37:00.001-08:00

1=Mystery P.I. - The NY Fortune
2=Adventure Chronicles: The Search for Lost Treasure
3=Fishdom
4=Liong: The Lost Amulets
5=Westward 3
6=Undiscovered World - The Incan Sun
7=Chess For DummiesÂ®
8=TextTwist 2
9=Build-a-lot 2: Town of the Year
10=Adventures of Robinson Crusoe

NEWS: 5 easy to swallow headlines

2009-02-17T08:39:00.000-08:00

1.

I-phone game hits 600K in a single month, loan developer quits job after making $36,000 on the day it rose to number 1. The game ishoot sells for $3.99 and has a free demo version.

2.

I-phone app store becomes Gameloft's single biggest sales channel for Mobile games

3.

GMG Entertainment Leads prepaid industry. They generate roughly $75 million dollars in sales per year. GMG Entertainment estimates that it controls roughly 50% of that market.

4.

Virtual Worlds Winning Ad Dollars From Traditional TV Sites

50 to 75 percent of ad dollars for kids' Web properties are going to sites and communities that don't come with integrated TV packages, sources told AdWeek. Brands, according to the report, are shifting away from traditional advertising into digital, which is helping major sites like Disney's and Nick's, but also into completely new properties like virtual worlds and youth-focused advertising networks.

5.

Wizard 101 has reported over one million unique users have registered for their free-to-play, tween-orientated MMORPG. They have achieved this within five months of its launch in September 2008.

The company awarded the millionth registered player with a free one year subscription to the game along with an "interactive commemorative plaque" featuring their name in-world.

REPORT: Casual Connect Hamburg Part 1

2009-02-15T14:55:00.000-08:00

This year saw a new venue and a new country so whats the verdict?

Although I don't love it as much as Amsterdam, Hamburg is a great city and the new venue although lacking in character was definitely better for business. Some of the usual suspects were absent including Mumbo Jumbo, EA, Majesco & ValueSoft. However they were swiftly replaced by many new comers and rising stars.

These included Super Rewards, KaiserGames & MMOlife, and a host of support companies who focus on payment and back end systems including TwoFish represented by the infamous Sean Ryan.

There was a big focus on community gaming, Mobile and monetization in general. And for very good reason....download is being hit hard very hard....$19.99 has slipped to $6.99 and even $5.99 on Real Arcade, which hints that they are not clear on strategy or direction is a $1 cheaper a Real strategy?. Real have recently ditched the console division and in the past they have purchased a range of companies including Trymedia and GameTrust, Real are a big player but dont seem to have a clear vision. Big Fish will continue to grab audience from Real and others, Ply First will probably release yet another Dash mashup...but for me have failed to capitalize on their position and may have peaked although they have actively worked on their community and this could be the area they focus on for growth.

BigPoint, Gameforge, Wild Tangent and Spil are all positioned well for further growth and there is room for in Eastern Europe and Asia also especially as the payment systems have become more sophisticated. Many of the eastern European developers attended the event, these included Alwar, Playrix and Astrum Online.

The clear message from many developers seemed to be you can not focus on the "PC Download market" as a single business model, those days are gone and you are lucky if your last in the top 10 for a couple of weeks the market is flooded with content and you need to develop a strategy. At the moment Browser has become king and community gaming is the next wave for casual, I think that these communities will end up becoming a great distribution channel for the PC Download market possibly with a pay to earn the game model linked to community points.

Thanks to all the team at Casual Connect for a great event keep up the good work.

Part 2 coming soon.

IN HAMBURG BACK SOON

2009-02-10T07:50:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the lack of posts Im in Hamburg, Lots to report back soon.

PRESENTATATION: 33 Ways to make money

2009-02-03T15:54:00.000-08:00

Dave Perry had a story on Business Week that I would like to share with you. It details the many different ways to make money from games.

Its a great presentation and he turned up some that I had not even heard off.

Hear are the top 10

Selling Boxed Games
Episodic Content
Feed Me or Die
Download Try b4 you buy
Around Game Adverts
Micro-transaction
Subscription
Sponsored items
In Game Adverts
Licensing

CHARTS: This weeks top 10 casual games

2009-02-03T15:53:00.000-08:00

1=Mystery P.I. - The NY Fortune
2=Liong: The Lost Amulets
3=Totem Tribe
4=Crosswords For Dummies
5=Fishdom
6=Delicious - Emily's Tea Garden
7=Adventures of Robinson Crusoe
8=Build-a-lot 3: Passport to Europe
9=TextTwist 2
10=Bejeweled 2 Deluxe"

VIRTUAL WORLDS : Headlines of Cross media tie-ins

2009-02-02T07:36:00.000-08:00

Habbo to Promote IGOR DVD with Virtual Goods (film/game tie in)

Today Habbo and Exodus Film Group announced a partnership to promote the DVD release of the animated film IGOR. Each copy of the IGOR DVD will ship with a promotional code that unlocks four exclusive virtual items in Habbo's online virtual world. The movie-themed items are a brain, a laser, an "evil switch," and a "hump massager." The move is part of the attempt to turn a profit on the movie since the box office receipts only brought in 29 million and the film costs 30 million.

EA Launching Free Need for Speed MMO (film game/ tie in)

Electronic Arts has announced three new titles in 2009. One is the free-to-play MMO, Need for Speed World Online. A joint project between regular NFS developer Blackbox and EA Singapore.

Heroes and Habbo: Interactive Storytelling in a Virtual World (TV/Game tie in)

Yesterday Habbo and NBC.com announced a partnership to create a new "Heroes"-based character that will crossover from the virtual world to NBC's own site. According to Teemu Huuhtanen, President, North America, Sulake, the partnership is a little deeper than previous marketing efforts in Habbo.

"In many ways it's a groundbreaking partnership with us. We're creating a character for a major TV show, but also our users when they find the powers get to know more about themselves," said Huuhtanen.

Outso Developing New Music-Themed World, Mixm8 (music & games tie in)

UK-based console and Web game designer, pushed out a microsite to promote its upcoming virtual world, Mixm8. Mixm8, due in the second half of 2009, promises to "deliver value to the mp3 experience which has been diminished through piracy and illegal downloads." Users will be able to socialize, attend concerts, and customize their own apartments to show off their tastes. Online shops and holders of back catalogs like Xpressbeats, Ninja Tune and War Child as well as independent, alternative artists such as Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip have already shown commitment to the current prototype.

CHARTS: World Wide Console games

2009-02-02T06:40:00.000-08:00

Casual titles still ruling in the console charts. Six out 10 are casual. A lot of this is down to the installed user base. So if you want true figures you need to look at the figures relatively.

And its this installed user base that is driving developers to release a flurry of games. However personally I think developers should be focusing on the Play Station Network. Its an ideal time to gain some ground and start leading the way. Its not cluttered, and I believe that this machine has a longer life span than its competition. This is how it will play out! Eventually Sony will allow players to do almost anything you can do on the Wii, the titles and content that are on Wii will eventually be available in some form or another. The experience that you can have on The PSN will be very broad and more importantly wont be matched on the Wii. Peripherals will extend the life of the PS3 way beyond the Xbox or Wii due the machines superior power and capability. Eventually people who own Wii's will want a broader experience and more choice they will get tired of the same old same old.

So unless the Wii grows with its audience and supporters it will eventually lose out to PSN & Microsoft

One thing Microsoft and PSN could do to speed up this race is make decision to allow cross platform communications between PC, mobile, ITV & Console networks. Then we have a truly awesome setting for the world playing together. Like they said in Berlin bring down the WALL !!!

REPORT: Online gaming

2009-02-01T04:52:00.000-08:00

In the latest of statistics to be release ComScore say the time spent playing online games in the US has grown 42 per cent in the last year.

Furthermore, now gaming online makes up 4.9 per cent of all of America’s internet use, compared to 3.7 per cent in December 2007.

So what does this all mean for you and your project?

Estimated internet users in the US for June 2008 248,000,0000
Number of people playing online games (35% of the US internet population) 86,000,000

Some sites with high volumes of traffic

UVPM (unique visitors per month per site, does not account for people visiting more than one site)

Habbo.com around 500k
IMVU.com around 2.5 million
Real Arcade 1.6 million
Big Fish Games 2.6 million
Miniclip 5 million
Pogo 8.5 million
Yahoo Games 4.5 million
Stardoll 1.3 million

Pogo are attracting a whopping 10% of online gaming traffic.

Do you know why?

For a long time they have been growing an nurturing a community, they have been listening and responding to the needs of their community. They have managed to encourage cooperative gaming and get their community talking while still having a competitive feel. Just as important they manage to develop loyalty. That can only happen if you give players a reason to be loyal. So many sites miss these important fact.

Also you need to be aware of who you are targeting, know your customer, and your market size in relation to competition and age demographics. The published figures can be deceiving and make many developers over estimate the figures they will get to their site.

A good way to go is to decide what you actually want in market share. So if the kids 6-11 sector represents 8 million players and your game is targeted at boys only then cut that by 50%. Then you aim to get 5% market share then you will have 200,000 UVPM. Then of course you have to work out how you will monetize everything so you can stay in business. For that you will need to know conversion ratios, churn rates and what your revenue lines are at the very least.

You may think this is basic stuff but so many times I speak to people or read about money invested in projects that don't have the proper planning or the full understanding of the market.

We shall come back to this topic shortly and put together some examples that may be helpful.

VIRTUAL WORLDS : Funding News

2009-01-26T04:08:00.000-08:00

mEgo has raised $2.5 million in a second round of angel funding. mEgo lets users create widgets with avatars that serve as a central point for all their social media information.

IMVU closed a $10 million Series D round of investment led by Best Buy Capital with participation from existing investors Menlo Ventures, Allegis Capital and Bridgescale Partners. IMVU says it will use the money to invest in continued development of its community, which has grown to more than 30 million registered users. The company monetizes off of a virtual goods catalog, which boasts over 2 million user-created items and is proving especially attractive to investors as the advertising market shrinks. IMVU says it currently generates over $1 million a month in revenue, 90% of which comes from the sale of credits for purchasing and selling virtual goods.

Moggle Raising $10M for Development Platform

It announced yesterday that it had signed two deals to help it raise several rounds of financing this year. RCF SA, a Swiss banking firm, will work with Moggle on a variety of investment and banking issues, including raising equity outside of the U.S. Alexander David Securities Limited, a London-based securities firm, will serve as lead corporate financial advisor and broker for Moggle in the United Kingdom, help the company enter the London Stock Exchange's, AIM market and raise private equity capital outside of the U.S.

Moggle, which is working on a platform to develop at the convergence of MMOGs, virtual worlds, and social networks, says it is raising $10 million in two equal rounds this year. The first is set to close next month.

CHARTS: Hardware Sales

2009-01-20T14:36:00.000-08:00

Its always good to know your market potential, so if your thinking about platforms, check out this weeks sales for consoles and the total installed base.

Some things to think about.

Most important is the game good?

1) what support can you get from the platform, developer tools etc...
2) How flooded is the market (genera)lots of DS, but lots of games on Ltd shelf space
3) Who supports down loadable?
4) Original IP or licensed
5) Are you good at marketing or do you have a team?

Do not overlook a good marketing strategy, I don't mean putting up a website with some info about your release and screen shots that's not gonna wash.

NEWS: Hay ZAP the Youtube of Gaming

2009-01-18T15:28:00.000-08:00

Worth mentioning in case you had missed the embedded games player on the right side of this blog.

Useful tool and allows quick browsing of indie games.

Have fun get the plug in from my link below or click here

heyzap.com - embed games
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NEW GAMES :Cartoon Network launch Fusion Fall

2009-01-18T06:03:00.000-08:00

Here it is the much anticipated online MMO Fusion Fall

Check out the game here or watch the video below.

CTN will obviously leverage their position and characters to entice players to fusion fall. The key thing will be, is story engaging? and most importantly will the game be fun? Lets wait and see what the real kids think. As expected the early figures are showing above 1.5 million Unique Visits Per Month, but will that rise and can they sustain it, lets hope so.

NEW GAMES :Crayon Physics

2009-01-18T05:49:00.000-08:00

Very smart UI, and a very innovative game, this is certainly a concept for the future that could become standard in gaming, and could work really well on the DS. However I wouldn't expect to see massive sales for the PC if you need to use a tablet to get the experience. (may be the mouse is just as good I'm off to download and try)

Crayon Physics Deluxe from Petri Purho on Vimeo.

CHARTS: This weeks top 10 casual games

2009-01-18T05:33:00.000-08:00

1=Mortimer Beckett and the Time Paradox
2=Build-a-lot 3: Passport to Europe
3=Burger Island 2
4=Way To Go! Bowling
5=Fishdom
6=Haunted Hotel II: Believe the Lies
7=Mystery P.I. - The NY Fortune
8=Little Shop - Memories
9=Mushroom Age
10=County Fair

New Addtion :- Virtual worlds charts

2009-01-17T07:54:00.001-08:00

I have added a list of virtual worlds which will be organized by the amount of unique visitors per month. Later on I will organize them into sections, above 10K, above 50K above 100K above 500K and 1M+. But for now this gets things started.

The idea is to demonstrate the the spread of players across the web and highlight similarities in worlds. As more and more worlds are coming online, coupled with the online internet population not growing as fast as worlds come online the only thing that can happen is a shift from one world to another. That said the race will be all about the fun factor, quality of experience and who delivers it best. That can only benefit players.

EVENTS: The Who.Where.When

2009-01-17T06:48:00.000-08:00

Casual Connect Europe Hamburg Feb 10 - 12 Feb

Engage Expo (used to be virtual worlds conference) NYC March 10 - 11

The Game Developers Conference San Fransisco March 23-27

The Taipei Games Show Taiwan 12 - 16 Feb

NEWS: Lloyd Weber eyeing up games

2009-01-16T06:18:00.000-08:00

With the successes of Rock Band, Guitar hero and other music titles 09 promises more as many a board room will be a buzz with the words; "cant we do a music game"...Dollar dollar bills...Ka-ching!

Really Useful Group, a publishing and production company setup by musical theatre composer Andrew Lloyd-Webber, is speaking with several video game publishers about possibly developing games that let players sing as characters in Lloyd-Webber's shows.

Ok....the thing that could work here aside form the recent success of the TV shows is the that Singstar has been massively popular with the female audience and RUG could follow suit, and possibly get new players due to the popularity of musicals like Phantom & Sunset Blv etc. However Singstar was popular because they always used popular music. They question will be, will the songs from these musicals be as popular? and will be people have the desire to singalong?....if this Christmas with my 64 year old mum singing along to the Mama Mia DVD was anything to go by then probably yes... Quick grab the ear plugs and smile.

PROFILE: CAFE.com

2009-01-15T07:22:00.000-08:00

URL Cafe.com
Unique player numbers per month 150,000 U.S
Biz Model:- PC Downloadable games, Micro-transaction for in-game boosts & Advertising
Accepts game submissions from developers.

take a peek

BUSINESS: Meez & Pulse Merge

2009-01-15T06:45:00.000-08:00

I told you lots of partnerships, mergers and acquisitions this year, hear is one of the first.

Meez announced yesterday that it has merged with Pulse Entertainment, an avatar-based messaging service for phones and the Web, and that it had raised a new round of financing led by Anthem Venture Partners. Meez will integrate Pulse's messaging with its own avatars, social network, and virtual world. Meez, has around 500k UUPM in the US but virtual worlds says that they boasts 8 million users but I guess that's registered. This mean pulse customers get Meez products and Meez gets out into the mobile world.

Now that is a smart move, this follows the other prediction I made about 1 login across multiple platforms allowing users to take their experience with them.

The merger will also see a shake up in the management team. Read about it on the Meez website.

One thing I would say is that Meez seems to be positing itself in competition with the popular IMVU which has around 2.5 million UUPM in the US, and the look and feel is leaning towards one that IMVU made popular, Both sites look really great and Meez has some unique features like the content deal they did for on demand TV, while IMVU offer a unique music features.