[casual_games] Digital Shelf Space

Fri Sep 2 12:55:53 EDT 2005

First, I'd like to clarify one of the terms you're using below --  
when you say "publisher" I think you mean "retailer", the company  
that runs the web site where people go to purchase games.

I do think that some of the trends you describe below are on the  
horizon; that's one of the reasons why my partners and I at Sprout  
Games decided to sell our company to PopCap. We believe that in  
coming years, having a strong brand like PopCap and ample development  
resources will be very important components for success.

The reason that the churn rate is increasing is not because  
developers are making more games, it's that there are more developers  
making games. The high profit margins that existed in the casual game  
space for several years have attracted a large number of quite  
capable developers, which are in turn creating a higher number of  
quality titles. Retailers are in the business of selling games; more  
games on the shelves inevitably mean that titles won't last in the  
top 10 as long as they used to -- unless they're exceptionally good  
games.

I do think, however, that we can all be using the tools of the  
Internet -- personalization, direct marketing, collaborative  
filtering, intelligent promotions, etc -- to do a better job  
promoting games and selling to customers. Amazon, for example, uses a  
huge array of tools to connect customers with appropriate content.  
Few of the big game portals right now do much more than have a long  
list of games, separated into categories, with a top-10 list and  
occasional email newsletters. What about:

- intelligent cross-promotions? (people who like game X also like  
game Y... buy them both and save 10%!)
- personalized recommendations? (based on games you've bought in the  
past, we think you'll love this game!)
- more top-10 lists? (top 10 best-selling games of all times... top  
10 critically rated games... etc)

I don't think, however, that "sales, rebates, coupons, clearance,  
specials" are the answer. Some might say these tools of traditional  
retail are inevitable, but I certainly hope we can do better.

-------------------------------------------------
James Gwertzman
Director of Business Development
PopCap Games
206-256-4210 (w)

On Sep 2, 2005, at 5:55 AM, Eric Lamendola wrote:

> Good Morning All,
>
>
>
> If production budgets keep climbing and the churn rate is becoming  
> increasingly faster, does the Casual Games space look like it will  
> suffer the same fate as the console market (or movies for that  
> matter) where price points go up and the quality goes down?  It  
> also appears that based on this trend, there is less and less room  
> for a “sleeper hit”.  Word of mouth is what has kept a part of this  
> industry alive for a long time and some publishers seem to be  
> moving towards more and more models that cycle a game out in a week  
> or two not allowing a title to pick up enough steam to get a W-O-M  
> campaign behind it.
>
>
>
> In this online world, the “Digi-Browsing” retail concept is clearly  
> not the same as brick and mortar.  Sure, you can list 200 games on  
> a site or provide links and graphics to the top 10 games, but  
> browsing through 200 titles online is incredibly daunting and not  
> nearly as effective as walking down an aisle in a store where you  
> can look at box covers and browse 40 titles at a time.  Online, it  
> appears on a given screen that you can either give no information  
> about 40 games, just enough information about 6 games, or too much  
> information about 1 game.
>
>
>
> So, what is truly the cause of this issue and what is the most  
> effective solution?  Especially since some publishers put up  
> hundreds of titles in a year, is the onus on the publisher to be  
> more selective of content and be more conscious of driving sales to  
> ALL of their products and not just “What’s New”?  Is the onus on  
> developers to start making fewer titles in a year to allow their  
> previous titles a chance to excel on their own?  Is there a new way  
> to display product information that allows people to see new  
> product without completely shifting the focus away from other  
> popular and potentially more successful products?  In looking at  
> several retail models, there seems to be a lack of “retail-related”  
> standards in the sales of online games.  Only recently have a few  
> companies introduced the concept of sales, rebates, coupons,  
> clearance, specials, etc. which seems to be the next logical choice  
> for driving sales to different “departments”.
>
>
>
> The Mobile space has even less “shelf space” and there are several  
> hundred titles in the queues at the wireless companies clamoring to  
> be on the deck.  There you get 10 lines of text in which a product  
> will appear with 9 others with: no option to sample the product,  
> see screen shots, or get any information about a game before  
> purchasing it.  This is going to be even a MORE difficult nut to  
> crack.
>
>
>
> Just wondering…
>
>
>
> --------- www.slingo.com – “First in Fun” -----------
>
> Eric Lamendola
>
> Director of Operations, Slingo Inc.
>
> Business Development / Game Design
>
>
>
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