DAoC | goa.com | orange / france telecom

New business model inspired by Korean online revenue models (freeplay/item purchase).  Coming soon:  Warhammer Online

Orange portal: 7k visitors/month 2k games sold on ‘07.

Casual games, games on demand (subscribe and play any of the catalogue).  Free games & web item selling games, skill games (non-random pay to play/win prizes).

Casual gaming:
est revenues $2billion
20% growth / year
200m users
7-15h / week
Long sales
hit franchisees: 1m sales
smaller teams, smaller budgets, lots of opportunities...
target audience:  female, 30-40
match-3
time management
i-spy
mainstream (everyday/real life) themes
easy controls
smooth learning curve
quick rewards
lots positive of feedback
2d
business model
small download, easy or no install
free for 1h play
$20 to buy (DRM tool)
1-2% conversion rate (10% at most for big hits)
Massive traffic required (portals), self-publishing developers starve
downsides
conservative design, floods of clones
5-10 new releases a week, limited visibility and promotion
buyer demographic is well known, but massive invisible audience exists...
big companies are stepping into the market -
microsoft platform holder advantage
nintendo
EA & UbiSoft
MTV
diversification
mobile games (casual outsells “core game” ports)
casual ports to DS
“girlfriends” playing casual games on XBLA
new directions / trends
Peggles; Talismania; Venice
Core to Casual adaptations
Virtual Villagers; Build A Lot; Garden Defense; Chocolatier; Dream Chronicles
Enriched casual attracts core gamers (Puzzle Quest)
double-trump - extending trail with micro-payments until you reach full price (then you own it)
cafe.com (new portal with lobby/avatar and game-item selling)
Diner Dash downloadable content / game-item selling
western skepticism in western countries about item selling
adverting in games / brand sponsored games
beyond current trends
cross platform (multi device) experience
ie web + mobile + console
casual mmo
Orange research indicates strong demand
collecting, building, customization, trade
not: elves and orcs
social networks
facebook / myspace / linkedin
user generated contend
from simple photo uploads to level editors
Widgetization
portal model will be challenged: social bookmarking, news aggregators, blogs, news feeds
creative promotion to leverage word of mouth (viral marketing)
further reading
gamezebo.com
casualconnect.org
igda/casual
Greg Costikyan
Reph Koster
Amy Jo Kim
Amsterdam Casual Connect & Casual Summit GDC.