[casual_games] RE: Business models

[Jamie Carlson]

>In turn, developers speed up production of their games
 and it’s clear 
>that innovation has taken a back seat to polish of late. To hedge risk, it 
>clearly makes more economical and practical sense for the average 
>development studio to clone a hit game and add a new feature, or even just 
>a new theme. The result is a market dominated by clones and distributors 
>who are weary to add innovative (‘unproven’) games to their sites.  Plus, 
>as a consumer, I’m almost compelled to not buy some games because I know 
>in 2 weeks time another will be released that is exactly the same; but 
>with new features, better graphics, etc.  This is not healthy for any of 
>our businesses.

Well, if that's the case then I suppose there's not a tremendous difference 
between the "Casual" and "Core" markets after all? ... That's unfortunate.

But wouldn't the innovative titles have a better conversion rate of Trial 
Download to Buy/Registered customers than the "clones" would? Or is that 
not the case?

Granted a certain "comfort level" is desired by the casual gamers, but are 
they totally resistant to learning to new gameplay mechanics? Especially if 
they are taught to them clearly and appropriately (via tutorials of slowly 
escalating complexity)?

- Jamie

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   Jamie Carlson (Sonalysts Inc.)
   Producer / Designer
   jcarlson at sonalysts.com

   Sonalysts Combat Simulations
   http://www.sonalystscombatsims.com
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