[casual_games] Multiplayer casual games

[John Szeder]

People have been using the community buzzword since the mid nineties as
something vital to their games. Chris Early, you still on this list? :-D.

 

You have to remember that in the casual games space the portal is king.
Putting in multiplayer features and online community based content into
games runs the risk of taking consumers out of the portal, and needs to be
measured very carefully by the people managing the portal. A few people on
this list and in the casual space have built features such as uploading and
sharing levels into their games and spent considerable effort to ensure that
their efforts were non-threatening and would not prevent a portal from
saying "we will not carry this".

 

You are right it is a natural fit. There are also several start ups,
including Kongregate and others, who are trying to provide better connected
services for casual games because presently it is not clear there is a valid
market leader in the "Casual community games" space.

 

Remember that the portals throw away 99% of the downloadable games revenue
because those eyeballs are more valuable than a 20 dollar sale that gets
shared up and down the value chain, and they want them coming back for more.

 

Discuss and debate!

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