Monthly Archives: March 2009

Interesting stats on where online play is happening. The PC attracts 87% of online game players (no surprise.) The Xbox 360 grabs second place, with 50%. The Wii comes in 3rd at 29%, and the PS3 brings up the rear with 20%. Seems like a repudiation of critics who claimed that Xbox would never get away with charging for LIVE Gold.

Wii Fit has sold 6m units in the US; more than Halo 3. Especially impressive when you consider that Wii Fit is significantly more expensive, has been on the market for less time, and had less brand equity to lean on (unless you count the generally positive glow around all Nintendo 1st party titles!)

Apple has sold over 30m iPhone and iPod Touch products, and its App Store is home to over 6k games. More interestingly, with the upcoming v3.0 of the iPhone OS, iPhone games will now support DLC and microtransactions, as well as peer-to-peer wireless play (via bluetooth). There’s other new social/multiplayer functionality in there too, like support for in-game chat. The shine just won’t come off this Apple! (I know, horrible pun. Sorry, I couldn’t resist.)

Via Raph, check out this free Flash game that can best be described as Portal meets Lode Runner.

There’s more to life than games:

Ever since I realized that the NYT Online was no longer hiding the fantastic writing of Nicholas Kristof behind an ill-conceived subscription model, I’ve been drinking up his articles with great pleasure. Check out this article highlighting the debate between traditionalists and those who argue that “the aid world is stunted because groups are discouraged from using such standard business tools as advertising, risk-taking, competitive salaries and profits to lure capital.” Another article worth reading, on the subject of the increasing polarization of the US population: “When we go online… we select the kind of news and opinions that we care most about… there’s pretty good evidence that we generally don’t truly want good information, but rather information that confirms our prejudices… High school dropouts had the most diverse group of discussion-mates, while college graduates managed to shelter themselves from uncomfortable perspectives.”

Advice from Seth Godin on how to apportion equity when starting a new company: “today, your partner’s share is worth 50% and yours is worth 50%… a year from now, that number can’t possibly be right. You may have acquired six more pieces of software, raised millions, traveled the world, closed sales and sold the company. Wow. Or, you may have done absolutely nothing. So, my best advice is to say, Today, right now, your contribution is worth 5% of the company and my creation of the company is worth 5%. The other 90% is based on what each of us does over the next 18 months.”

Another XKCD comic that I can identify with. In fact, I’ve had this dream several times over the past decade. I thought it was just me!

Interesting Gamasutra article discussing ways to maximize your revenue as a flash game developer.

Raph reports on an absolutely wonderful story out of Eve Online. Quick summary: Eve has been dominated by a huge player alliance for a while now. A single double-agent, working for a competing alliance, found a way to disband and utterly ruin this mega-alliance, completely changing the balance of power in Eve and setting off an explosive free-for-all. The best part, aside from the fun of the story itself, is that this outcome is probably best for the long-term health of Eve. As Raph puts it: “what is fun about EVE is the struggle, not the victory condition. The victory condition is boring.”

Seth Godin offers five useful tips for better online surveys. (Surveys, like focus groups, are a pet peeve of mine. It’s much harder than most people realize to design a good one. Getting the data you need, without accidentally biasing respondents by asking the wrong question at the wrong time, is really quite challenging. I’ve met a few developers who were convinced their game was awesome because of a poorly-managed focus group or survey… these turned out to be costly mistakes.)

An article in Slate provocatively asks, “What’s Killing the Video Game Business?” An overly-dramatic (and misleading) title, but I liked the following conclusion: “EA doesn’t need to find its own Grand Theft Auto — it needs to let 1,000 Portals bloom.” Reminds me of a post I wrote back in 2007 arguing that publishers should place more bets, even if it means spending less per bet. Still one of my favorite GT posts.

Some insights into the business model of Quake Live. Bottom line: pay a premium to run your own game servers, host private games, call time-outs in games, have referees, etc.

I’m pretty sure I’ve seen this elsewhere, but anyway: researchers argue that increasing the number of competitors in an ecosystem can decrease competitive motivation and degrade individual performance. I bet someone could easily write an entire book just dissecting the implications of this for online game players and (economically-speaking) for digital game ecosystems.

For those of you unfamiliar with the basics of free-to-play game business models, Soren has written a good primer.

Amazon.com is now selling used games, and accepting trade-ins. Customers ship games to Amazon for free with a printable shipping label, eventually receiving an Amazon.com gift card. I suspect that Amazon will have more success than other companies that have tried to challenge
GameStop in this market. That said, it seems from forum posts that many users are adopting the following attitude “If I have to print a label, ship my game, and wait a few days to get paid, I might as well sell the game on eBay where I’ll get more dollars per game.” Seems like a reasonable perspective to me; I wonder how effectively Amazon will be able to overcome it?