[casual_games] RE: Business models

Thu Sep 1 16:05:05 EDT 2005

The DRM is specified by the portal, not the developer. (Of course,
developers often have their own site to sell games, and then they would
need to have a DRM). The most common one across the big portals is
Trymedia's ActiveMark. I believe it is used by Yahoo, Pogo, and AOL.
Also Big Fish Games. Many more sites as well.

The other big sites each have a proprietary system. PlayFirst.com also
uses a proprietary system. One popular strategy behind the proprietary
systems is to build atop Digital River's Armadillo encryption stuff. You
can see what we did with it by downloading a game from
www.playfirst.com.

I don't see why you would look further than Trymedia for turnkey
solution or Armadillo (now called Software Passport or something) if you
want to build a custom solution.

-John
________________________

John Welch, President & CEO
PLAY:  www.PlayFirst.com <http://www.playfirst.com/> 
________________________

The contents of this message, together with any attachments, are
intended only for the use of the individual or entity to which they are
addressed and may contain information that is confidential and
proprietary. If you are not the intended recipient, then any
dissemination, distribution, or copying of this message, and any
attachment, is prohibited. If you have received this message in error,
please notify the original sender or PlayFirst immediately by telephone
or by return E-mail and delete this message, along with any attachments,
from your computer. Thank you.

________________________________

From: casual_games-bounces at igda.org
[mailto:casual_games-bounces at igda.org] On Behalf Of Jeff Siegel
Sent: Thursday, September 01, 2005 12:47 PM
To: IGDA Casual Games SIG Mailing List
Subject: RE: [casual_games] RE: Business models

This is a fantastic discussion. If I can put one other question to the
group, perhaps a little off the track: what DRM solutions are developers
using? Has anyone had better or worse experiences with anything in
particular?

Thanks,

Jeff 
---------------------------
Jeff Siegel
JeffMedia Solutions, L.L.C.
917 842-3791
jeff.siegel at jeffmedia.com 
	-----Original Message-----
	From: casual_games-bounces at igda.org
[mailto:casual_games-bounces at igda.org]On Behalf Of George Donovan
	Sent: Thursday, September 01, 2005 3:09 PM
	To: 'IGDA Casual Games SIG Mailing List'
	Subject: RE: [casual_games] RE: Business models

	One thing that I have done with the www.Toy-games.com team is to
minimize the development risk by pre-selling or selling during
development certain rights. Wireless, and Retail are the obvious
starting points that usually get me well above our development budget so
that online sales become a profit rather than a recovery.

	Having channels worldwide also helps. We were in 5 channels last
year and this year we are in 15 channels and I suspect that companies
like Popcap and Gamehouse  have 40-60. Every channel is a multiple and
bonus revenue and gives a your development team or a large high burnrate
team a less riskier forcast to project out.

	We have also curt down development timelines to 6 weeks (some
card games are 4 and original concepts are 8). Now we also have 22
retail titles under our belt so Q&A and some GUI was already very well
established and a great asset in this business.

	George Donovan
	VP Business Development
	Infiknoweldge ULC
	(A www.Traffixinc.com <http://www.traffixinc.com/>  Company)
	office: 506.855.2991 x111
	cell: 506.866.4585
	fax: 506.852.9510
	Check out www.Gamefiesta.com <http://www.gamefiesta.com/>  the
New Game destination for all your interactive desires.

________________________________

	From: casual_games-bounces at igda.org
[mailto:casual_games-bounces at igda.org] On Behalf Of Margaret Wallace
	Sent: Thursday, September 01, 2005 3:58 PM
	To: 'IGDA Casual Games SIG Mailing List'
	Subject: RE: [casual_games] RE: Business models

	One pervasive trend I see in the Casual Games market is that
production budgets are continuously going up and so are production
cycles  --  but the "churn rate" for the majority of casual games on
portals is higher than ever: a week or two at best. 

	All of this leads me to question: At what point do you see
minimizing returns for these hefty production budgets and development
cycles? 

	Of course, part of the answer lies in continuously churning out
hit games, however, I worry these conditions may impede growth and
innovation. 

	Thoughts?

	-----Original Message-----
	From: casual_games-bounces at igda.org
[mailto:casual_games-bounces at igda.org] On Behalf Of Allen Varney
	Sent: Thursday, September 01, 2005 9:14 AM
	To: casual_games at igda.org
	Subject: [casual_games] RE: Business models

	Brent Lowrie wrote:

	   (((This is the unknown that most new developers fear and
having access to this sort of information would help more new developers
break out of indie development and into commercial deals.)))

	   "Break out of indie development"? This makes indie gaming
sound like a second-string, minor-league affair. I argue indie game
developers are in a far better situation, both economically and
culturally, than the increasingly beleaguered developer of retail
computer games.
	   For a discussion of the benighted state of retail game
development, see Greg Costikyan's article in the current issue of The
Escapist magazine:

	   http://www.escapistmagazine.com/issue/8/3

	   And to see why I think casual-game designers are far better
off in the long run, see my article "Casual Fortunes" in the same issue:

	  http://www.escapistmagazine.com/issue/8/14

	-- Allen Varney
	www.allenvarney.com <http://www.allenvarney.com/> 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://seven.pairlist.net/pipermail/casual_games/attachments/20050901/e19c73fd/attachment-0001.htm