[casual_games] promotion

[Derrick Morton]

In the mobile gaming world, some carriers have a program where they adjust
the revenue share according to the area where the game was being promoted
when it sold. A home page promotion has a much higher revenue share than a
simple genre listing. For example they might get a 50% share vs. a 35%
share.

It works in the mobile world because there is little in the way of try
before you buy. Carriers can only make decisions about placement by
comparing how many people clicked on a link for info on a game versus how
many purchased it. 

I don't think I'd be a fan of it in online casual games, however. I believe
the best system is one where the top converting games get the most
promotion. This is the best thing for the distributor and the fairest
solution for the developer. Ultimately the consumer can learn to trust a
system like this as well. 

Of course there should be some minimum level of promotion just to establish
the conversion rate but after that the game should stand on its own. As a
developer, it drives me nuts when I see a game being promoted that I know is
not converting as well as my game. 

As a distributor I'm all about optimizing revenue and conversion rates that
are weighted by actual sales volume work the best. You can't go strictly by
conversion rate since you would have niche games with very good conversion
that weren't actually high volume sellers. For example word games typically
convert better than the average puzzle game because they have a more
dedicated audience. The word game audience is smaller, however, so you have
to weight the sales level of the word game with the conversion.

My two cents.

Derrick Morton
Founder 
FlowPlay



-----Original Message-----
From: casual_games-bounces at igda.org [mailto:casual_games-bounces at igda.org]
On Behalf Of Dave Selle
Sent: Tuesday, January 02, 2007 2:09 PM
To: IGDA Casual Games SIG Mailing List
Subject: Re: [casual_games] promotion



The comment on allocating revenue share points in exchange for
promotional opportunities is an interesting line of thought, and one
that we have discussed. 

Just out of curiosity would any of the developers out there like to
comment if this general approach is an appealing one?

--Dave

-----Original Message-----
From: casual_games-bounces at igda.org
[mailto:casual_games-bounces at igda.org] On Behalf Of Andreas Krogh
Sent: Wednesday, December 27, 2006 4:41 AM
To: casual_games at igda.org
Subject: [casual_games] promotion

Hi all 
 
I was wondering if casual games are promoted at all? Here i'm thinking
of casual games made by third party developers and sold via a portal.
Does a contract between the developer and the portal state that the
portal must provide some promotion or do they just put the news of the
release of the game in their newsletter and in the "top 10 newest games"
on their website, and leave it to fate? 
 
Any examples of contracts made where the developer presumely would get a
lower royalty precentage in exchange for the portal investing money in
the game by promoting it?
 
Regards
Andreas, Casual Kings
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