[casual_games] Top Download List

[James Gwertzman]

I've talked to some of the major portals about this initiative. There is
some willingness to support this, however it would need to be
administered by an independent company/group which will guarantee to
keep the actual numbers from any one portal a secret. Just like NPD does
for retail sales today.

I appreciate the offer of code, but technology in this case is not the
issue. The reporting could even be done by hand - it's not very complex.
A weekly spreadsheet report from 4-5 major portals would be enough. The
challenge instead is establishing the independent group with enough
trust from the portals to go along.

--------------------
James Gwertzman 
Director of Business Development
PopCap Games
+1-206-256-4210

-----Original Message-----
From: casual_games-bounces at igda.org
[mailto:casual_games-bounces at igda.org] On Behalf Of Colin Cardwell
Sent: Sunday, January 15, 2006 8:53 PM
To: 'IGDA Casual Games SIG Mailing List'
Subject: RE: [casual_games] Top Download List

Hi folks

I think this is what the industry needs and I'm happy to volunteer our
services to build this if required. The code base we have for MOG
(www.millionsofgames.com) goes a long way towards doing this and it may
even
be appropriate for us to adapt MOG so that it becomes the chart. We are
already planning weekly charts for MOG anyway so it is not very
difficult
for us to include some additional data about downloads and sales of
games.

We would also need to allow sites to register and get access to an API
which
we would provide, and they could then post both downloads and sales in
real
time. 

I'd even be happy to provide access to the data and the code to either
the
Casual Games Association or the IGDA SIG so that the results can be
audited
and remain 'independent'. 

I guess the tough part would be to get the big portals on board.  This
really would be a good initiative as it would really help the industry
to be
taken even more seriously.

I'm also happy to explore the development of 'play' monitoring tools too
so
that we could also track how often a game was played and for how long.
This
would need developers to buy in to that too, but I think it would be
pretty
valuable for the industry.

I'd welcome any thoughts on this too.



Colin

Colin Cardwell - Director - 3RD sense Australia Pty Ltd
T. +61 (0) 2 9959 1008     M. +61 (0) 401 888 322   
E. colin at 3rdsense.com    W. www.3rdsense.com


www.playaholics.com - play games and win stuff
www.chickstop.com - for girls who like to play
www.millionsofgames.com - source, save and share your favourite online
games


-----Original Message-----
From: casual_games-bounces at igda.org
[mailto:casual_games-bounces at igda.org]
On Behalf Of James Gwertzman
Sent: Monday, 16 January 2006 1:05 PM
To: IGDA Casual Games SIG Mailing List
Subject: RE: [casual_games] Top Download List

The IGDA Casual Game SIG is working on this, although it's a lower
priority behind some of our other initiatives. This was specifically
listed in a recent interview with the IGDA casual game SIG quarterly:

Industry-wide top 100 billboard.

Nearly every other entertainment industry (movies, books, traditional
games, etc) has some sort of industry-wide "billboard". I think it's
high time we had one in the casual game space. Not only would this help
smaller developers "get noticed" more quickly, but it would also help
our industry as a whole get more PR attention from mainstream media.
Think about how often you see articles like "Star Wars captured the #1
slot for the 10th week in a row" in the mainstream press - that's only
possible because there is an official list to work from.

Here is a link to the quarterly:
http://www.igda.org/casual/quarterly/1_2/

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