[casual_games] Different Payment Models

[Jónas Antonsson]

How about a mutual effort? A Casual Games "Paypal" system? A standard?

I'm talking about a unified micropayment platform with a single registration
interface (webservices?) that could be incorporated into portals, straight
into games, etc. A player can register on a master site, through a specific
game or through a portal. He has one global account which is accessed by all
the games that implement some kind of a payment interface (again -
webservices?).

Single centralized point and a common interface that can be used to register
playtime for a specific game. The games could reside on different portals,
on different platforms, etc.

The only thing to consider would be setting this system up and agreeing on
technology / standard, etc. Also ownership and responsibility issues. One
way to go would be as an investment by a group of companies. This could also
be financed separately. Or this could be an Open Source project - sponsored
by the Casual Games industry - open for everyone and usable by all. Making
the cake bigger?

I've formulated a few more thoughts on this issue and I'm trying to create a
better foundation for the idea. I just wanted to throw this in here because
of today's dialogue, which directly related to these thoughts.

I, for one, would be very interested to see this happen and participate in
making it happen.

Regards,
J#

-----Original Message-----
From: casual_games-bounces at igda.org [mailto:casual_games-bounces at igda.org]
On Behalf Of Chris Dillman
Sent: 8. október 2006 19:31
To: IGDA Casual Games SIG Mailing List
Subject: Re: [casual_games] Different Payment Models

>
>By having a small monetizeable unit to buy games with, we can start 
>doing a lot of new and interesting things that allow us to maintain our 
>IP while still working with big advertising companies. And again, for 
>fresh young developers, that's good too, no?


>
>To be honest, I was really excited about this model when I heard them 
>walk through it - and was hoping:
>1) To hear other opinions on the model or other possible models for 
>extracting money at lower price points.

You would probably call this model micropayments.

You might want to read the

Tho a true micropayment is supposed to be like pennies or less any how.

There was a lot of MMO style games moving to or playing with this idea out
at E3.

http://www.puzzlepirates.com/

for instance runs subscription servers and micropayment servers where you
can play for free if you want or pay for additional features.

They report making a long more revenue off of micropayment servers then off
of a normal full subscription server.

Personally I love the idea for both MMOs and casual games...
I also like teh idea of ads in games.

There are MMOs I would play... like D&D online... but not for 15$ a month.
5$ maybe... or free plus ads would be great.

So downside.

I think micropayments might work well for WT and other large portals.

But they will not work well for a small game developer with a few games.


Some problems.

1. There is no standard way on the web to easily pay a micro payment.

2. Its work to even get people to sign up for any service.
Which means its even more work if a new player need to sign up for a micro
payment service. Or 10 services if they are using 10 different game
companies.

What might work well is having it offered in addition to normal $20 fee etc.

3. Wild Tangent offers a in game Ad SDk now also.
You might want to take a look at that.


--
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