[casual_games] Re: can't bite my tongue any longer...

[Daniel James]

On Wed, 11 Oct 2006, Dave Rohrl wrote:

> If your game is calling out for microtrannies, ads, subscriptions, or
> something else, then you probably need to figure out some innovative
> ways of getting it out there other than the traditional download portal
> site.  If I understand Daniel James correctly, I think that Puzzle
> Pirates only became a strong business when they started to reach the
> Miniclip audience (having already tried both download portals and
> retail).

Sort of; PP was doing reasonably well (~$60k monthly) when we launched 
on miniclip *and* rolled out free-to-play and the microtransaction 
business model. It's a little tough to decouple these events. Puzzle 
Pirates' demographics continue to be broad, although most of the 
miniclip folks are on the younger side.

The distribution problem that we have had is that most portals have not 
had infrastructure for user registrations and/or billing outside of the 
$20 download model, yet do not want their players to register and be 
billed through us. I am optimistic that this will change.

This speaks to the 'need' for a widely used microtransaction 
architecture. I think that that would be lovely, but I share scepticism 
that distributors will want to adopt a common platform.

One thing that I note in passing; clearly some predominantly male 
teenagers *will* spend $19.95 to unlock a game; Adventure Quest 
reportedly does very well.

- Daniel