[casual_games] Re: Price as Signal

[Todd Sawicki]

Couple of followups from various folks:

 

>From: Lennard Feddersen <lennard at RustyAxe.com>

>I've had the following poll on my site for the past week or two, here
it 

>is with current standings:

> 

>Full price, no ads, thanks 41% Cost reduced with ads 11% Depends on the


>ads 19% Depends on the cost 13% I only play free demos 16%

 

Our own experience at Zango speaks to numbers from Lennard's poll with
one caution.  Users will say they prefer to pay without ads at about the
rate noted here, but when given an actual choice the paid vs. un-paid
ad-spported skews towards ad-supported.  Free has a lot less friction.
At the same time, offering users a choice is likely the best scenario as
then users can pick which model is the most appropriate and offers the
most marginal benefit.  That choice would make an economist proud :-)
[Note: my undergraduate degree was in economics]

 

>From: "Juan Gril" <juangril at jojugames.com>

>That's interesting. I'm very curious: how do you came up with that
number?

>That's like $200 CPM, right?

 

$200 CPM would be correct if you assumed only one ad per user.  If you
look at an environment where multiple ads are shown the user in session
over time during many sessions or are tied to a toolbar which is bundled
with the game then you can easily generate $0.20 per user from ads
delivered to the user. 

 

Personally I am not a big fan of in game ads - in large because the
CPM's are low and generally only appeal to other game related products
(so in a way you support potentially competitive products).

 

The key will be for publishers, like ourselves, to promote and manage
the ad option so the game development companies can continue to develop
innovative games (unlike Sean I think we're on the cusp especially if
you follow the developments on the flash side of the house - see
www.jayisgames.com <http://www.jayisgames.com/>  for a ton of killer
flash games).

 

>From: Sangwoo Hong <sangwoo_h at yahoo.com>

>Couldn't one argue that ad-supported casual games 

>are already popular?  Neopets comes to mind.

 

Totally agree.  We've been very happy since the launch of our
ad-supported games in late 2004 with the downloads of our titles.

 

Todd Sawicki

Sr. Director of Marketing

Zango

425.279.1179

 

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