[casual_games] Price as Signal

[Lennard Feddersen]

Massive are claiming that they are or will get to $1-$2 in revenue, for 
the developer, per title.

Integrated Ads puts a link at the end of a game demo to the advertisers 
site to change the equation from CPM to CPC. For those who missed my 
previous email a few weeks ago, I work for Integrated Ads so my views on 
this topic are going to be biased.

When the demo was released, I was approached to add advertising to 
Battle Castles but, even if there had been 20 cents a play, the 
developers cut is significantly less. That firm also wanted to give away 
the game.

Lennard Feddersen
CEO, Rusty Axe Games, Inc.
www.RustyAxe.com

Lennard at RustyAxe.com
P. 250-635-7623 F. 1-309-422-2466
3521 Dogwood, Terrace, BC, Canada, V8G-4Y7



Juan Gril wrote:

> Todd said:
> "Advertising can easily be made to generate 20 cents per download so I 
> think the curveball is what happens when ad-supported casual games 
> start becoming more popular."
> That's interesting. I'm very curious: how do you came up with that 
> number? That's like $200 CPM, right?
> Cheers,
> Juan
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> *From:* casual_games-bounces at igda.org 
> [mailto:casual_games-bounces at igda.org] *On Behalf Of *Todd Sawicki
> *Sent:* Wednesday, December 14, 2005 11:22 AM
> *To:* IGDA Casual Games SIG Mailing List
> *Subject:* RE: [casual_games] Price as Signal
>
> The thread on pricing is interesting because when you look at revenue 
> per download assuming $20 price point and a 1% conversion rate – the 
> amount of money everyone is making per download is pennies – in this 
> case $.20 per download. Advertising can easily be made to generate 20 
> cents per download so I think the curveball is what happens when 
> ad-supported casual games start becoming more popular.
>
> Personally, I believe games will be priced at the revenue maximizing 
> level. For certain games with crazy high conversion rates like Zuma – 
> the $20 full version/ free trail model will work best. For less 
> popular titles, free full versions supported by ads _/might/_ make the 
> most revenue as the free price will overcome barriers to playing 
> (perceived value then is a full free version vs. a standard crippled 
> trail). Once upon a time, I worked in the digital music space and know 
> Sean Ryan from those days, and I think he will agree that free music 
> sharing encourage a lot of music sampling that wouldn’t have otherwise 
> occurred. The difference here is that it is relatively easy to build 
> advertising into games or around the games whereas revenue was harder 
> to track against free illegal downloads.
>
> And to add more fodder to the debate – you have the RealArcade 
> subscription program as well as the new GameTap subscription service 
> adding more choices on pricing for casual games to consumers.
>
> Todd Sawicki
>
> Sr. Director of Marketing
>
> *Zango *
>
>------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>_______________________________________________
>Casual_Games mailing list
>Casual_Games at igda.org
>http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/casual_games
>  
>