[casual_games] Portals: Room for improvement?

Tue Sep 6 16:08:14 EDT 2005

I really appreciate you asking for opinions on this, Andrew. 

Personally, I am not a fan of discounting unless it is done to squeeze
some more life out of a title that has seen its heyday and is now
languishing (and the channel rep has discussed the discounting with me).
I hate the idea that a new channel would lower my product's pricepoint
to gain market share, and would most likely pull my titles from a
channel that did this. 

I'm worried about a price war between online channels who currently have
little else besides price point to differentiate themselves with (not
that there aren't other things they could do...they just aren't doing
them, generally speaking). Even if this has no immediate impact on my
per-unit revenue (because the discount is coming out of the channel's
cut), it still has the potential to cause a chain reaction among other
channels in the market and to impact customer perception of my title
("Oh, that game's in the bargain bin now"). 

Plus, I have to wonder; if the discount is coming out of the channel's
revenue share, why don't instead they spend that money on marketing
their site and bringing in new customers? Or on implementing *real* ways
of differentiating their offering (such as better customer service, the
dynamic retailing that we've talked about here, a kick-ass multiplayer
platform, better treatment of developers, a vibrant user community,
creative promotions, et cetera)? 

Of course, a caveat to all this is marketshare. If a channel is selling
a high volume of games, than I'll want them to sell mine too, even if
they are doing it at a discount. I'll likely wait and bring them my
games AFTER I've taken them everywhere else, but I'm still going to
distribute through them. 

Anyway, that's my rant. Looking forward to hearing others' thoughts. 

Wade

P.S. I really like your idea about sharing more detailed stats with
developers. In a market where most portals STILL don't offer real-time
sales reporting to developers, this is a step in the right direction. 

-----Original Message-----
From: casual_games-bounces at igda.org
[mailto:casual_games-bounces at igda.org] On Behalf Of Andrew Dick
Sent: Friday, September 02, 2005 2:44 PM
To: IGDA Casual Games SIG Mailing List
Subject: RE: [casual_games] Portals: Room for improvement?

Thankyou very much, Juan and Wade, for your thoughts.
You both bring up great ideas that I will definitely
think through while designing the site.

An idea I had, and I'm not sure this is a financially
stable idea, is to offer a *small* discount on game
prices directly to the consumer. This would of course
come out of the portals pocket after paying developers
their full amount first. Now is this sort of business
practice looked down upon for some reason? I would
follow this model simply to get the necessary traffic, attention, and
foothold needed to grow in this industry.

I also want to get the developers any sort of valuable statistic
information they could possibly need. I'm talking in terms of specific
consumer buying tendencies...perhaps having them sign up with a (free)
membership so that I can chart what games they bought, etc. For example:

After buying X game, 20% of customers later on bought
Y game.

Or:

Customers viewing game X's specific info page (Intro,
pics, Download button) 65% of the time continued to
download.

Are statistics like this sought after? What other kind
of stats would developers want to get their hands on?
Do portals generally already offer this sort of thing?

Sorry for the numerous questions. I just want to be
able to offer a unique service not only to consumers
but also developers in the hopes it would generate a
positive buzz towards the site.

Thanks again for your time,

Andy Dick

--- Juan Gril <juangril at jojugames.com> wrote:

>  
> In my mind, I still use today a term that a good pal
> in the industry (hi
> David :) ) once taught me. It is called "download
> velocity", and it's when
> you can come up with a fairly good projection of how
> much a game is going to
> sell after a sample of a day worth downloads in a semi-prominent place

> in your channel. You calculate the conversion rate, and
> then based on your
> experience on how much a title can grow in your
> channel over the next couple
> of days (20%, 30%, etc.) you know more or less if
> that title is going to
> become a hit or not.
> 
> Example: Assume a hit in your web site is 10 copies
> a day, and when you put
> a game in a prominent space you get ~500 downloads a
> day. If after 24 hours,
> the title sold 6 copies, then you know that title
> can reach a very decent
> amount of sales.
> 
> This is not the only parameter I would use to
> evaluate a title though.
> Because of game mechanics, some games need more
> time, but since almost
> everybody uses the same trial format we are giving
> more or less the same
> amount of entertainment in every game.
> 
> What I just said may generate a little bit
> controversy, so I'd love to hear
> what other people think.
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Juan
> 
> 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: casual_games-bounces at igda.org 
> [mailto:casual_games-bounces at igda.org]
> On Behalf Of Wade Tinney
> Sent: Thursday, September 01, 2005 2:56 PM
> To: 'IGDA Casual Games SIG Mailing List'
> Subject: RE: [casual_games] Portals: Room for
> improvement?
> 
> 
> I think the next level for portals will mean *some*
> form of dynamic
> retailing. Amazon is a good model for this, but it
> could be something much
> less sophisticated as well. i.e. Don't show someone
> games that they already
> have installed on their computer (but DO show them
> tips or new content for
> that game), make recommendations based on games
> they've downloaded or
> purchased (like Bejeweled? You'll lose your !@#$ing
> mind over Bepearled!!),
> et cetera. Obviously, there are all sorts of ways to
> extend these simple
> examples.
> 
> >From a developer's point of view, it would be great
> if portals changed
> the positioning (promotion) of games dynamically
> with an eye to balancing
> out downloads across all titles, at least within a
> set period of time from
> launch. We all know that placement has a huge impact
> on download volume and
> can help a new title establish momentum (or not, if
> they get crappy
> placement). Obviously, it would be unwise for
> portals to promote
> underperforming titles beyond a certain point, so
> the idea here would be to
> at least give equal opportunity to more than just a
> few titles.
> 
> While we're on the topic, I'd love for some of the
> folks on this list from
> distribution channel to share their "Top Ten List"
> algorithm with us.
> Anyone?
> Is based on download volume? Conversion rate?
> Revenue? Something else?
> 
> 
> -Wade
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: casual_games-bounces at igda.org 
> [mailto:casual_games-bounces at igda.org] On Behalf Of Andrew Dick
> Sent: Thursday, September 01, 2005 5:00 PM
> To: IGDA Casual Games SIG Mailing List
> Subject: [casual_games] Portals: Room for
> improvement?
> 
> 
> First, I would like to say the amount of information
> being shared on this
> mailing list is astounding! I couldn't imagine NOT
> being subscribed.
> 
> Now my question for the experts out there is on
> Portals: Can you see any kind of improvement that
> can be made in terms of
> layout or function? All of the current famous sites
> out there each seem to
> have a slight variation in how they present their
> "Top Ten"
> lists and such, but one problem that they all seem
> to share is the sort of
> "Blackhole" syndrome where a worthy new title gets
> quickly shoved to the
> back regardless of its quality.
> 
> I've spent some time now trying to think of a work
> around that would not
> only appeal to the general casual game consumer, but
> also to the developer
> in that they'd be excited to see how their latest
> product traveled through
> the ranks over time (and not instantly into
> oblivion). Yes I realize pretty
> much any developer is willing to have their games
> hosted on any portal which
> has the possibility to make them sales. What I want
> it to do though is have
> a unique and innovative experience, for both
> consumer and client, that has a
> large chance to grow in this crowded industry. As
> you can probably guess
> it's a rather daunting task that will need a large
> amount of time, work and
> perhaps gobs of luck.
> 
> I am in the very early stages of designing the site
> and want to discuss this
> a bit before moving forward.
> 
> Thank you all very much for your time,
> 
> Andy Dick
> 
> 
> 		
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