Tag: F2P

TriplePoints of Interest – Week of May 25

Clearly, the big news of this week came out of Google I/O, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t fun (indie) game sales happening that might catch your attention. Ladies and gentlemen, here is this week’s TriplePoints of Interest!

What intelligence does Android M have for us? (Cue spy music)

Google I/O shook up Silicon Valley this week! The Verge presented a roundup of the top news emerging from the conference. The first was “Android M,” successor of Lollipop, that will streamline apps more including faster map uploads in areas of low connectivity as well as Chrome integration into all apps. More details were given on Android Wear smartwatches and Android Pay. The keynote also touched on VR, including a new iPhone-compatible Google Cardboard.

Fun weekend activity: the Humble Nindie Bundle

Nintendo announced its first Humble Bundle, the “Humble Nindie Bundle” aimed at highlighting indies from the eShop. According to Polygon, this is the first in a series of initiatives from Nintendo to support indie games. Included in the bundle are games like Guacamelee! Super Turbo Championship edition and Woah Dave!

Higher security needed for truck full of games

Europe’s largest video game retailer, GAME UK, announced to consumers that pre-ordered Splatoon that its entire shipment of the game’s special edition, which includes the Squid Inkling amiibo, was stolen. According to IGN, no further details on the circumstances were provided other than that consumers will instead receive the game’s standard edition at a discounted price along with an Inkling Boy or Inkling Girl amiibo to make up for the losses.

This news is reminiscent of a similar incident where a truck containing 6,000 copies of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 was hijacked in France in 2011.

More insight on how to improve the reputation of F2P

GamesIndustry International reported from the fourth annual Digital Dragons Conference in Kraków, Poland where a well-attended talk was given about the future of free-to-play and how to fight its bad reputation. Video game development veterans discussed the challenges the business model faces including stigma from the press, how PR must combat it, and how game designers can do better to model game mechanics to make the wait time between content availability more enjoyable. They concluded that F2P is overall a flexible system and can be tactfully tailored to suit each game and each audience.

Photo from Tech News Daily

TriplePoints of Interest – Week of April 6

Welcome to a new weekly feature here on the TriplePoint blog: TriplePoints of Interest, where we recap the biggest news from around the games and tech industry, plus subjects we just can’t stop talking about around the office!

Fixing the image of free-to-play

The image of free-to-play games has been a hot topic as of late. Steve Peterson of GamesIndustry International describes why free-to-play games have built a bad reputation and how it can be fixed. He first cites how quickly widespread the business model has become as reason for the extreme divide on opinions from within the games industry.

He then suggests that in-game merchandise must improve on the game, not be required to play the game, and that players shouldn’t have to feel they must make microtransactions to remove “annoyances” in the game or get to the fun. Developers and marketers also must be clear about the ways to spend money in the game. If a developer does not feel it is beneficial to “celebrate” the microtransactions, then the microtransactions are probably not ones that should be built in in the first place and will likely anger players.

The YouTubers versus Nintendo: the saga continues

Nintendo’s controversial YouTube policies have caused another YouTuber to cease reviewing Nintendo games. Joe Vargas of the Angry Joe Show stated in a video, according to Polygon, that he will no longer make videos relating to Nintendo games after his Mario Party 10 video was flagged for copyrighted material, keeping him from making ad revenue. Mr. Vargas has also been a staunch opponent of Nintendo’s Creators Program.

Heroes of the Storm collegiate league needs a GPA boost

The rise of collegiate competitive gaming, while growing exponentially, has not been without its share of snags. Blizzard’s Heroes of the Storm collegiate tournament, “Heroes of the Dorm,” has been marred with no-shows and website bugs, leading to a host of scheduling difficulties, according to Daily Dot. The $450,000 prize pool, and involvement of Blizzard and TeSPA (high-profile collegiate eSports organization) meant very high expectations for the tournament from fans and participants alike, begging the question of the effectiveness of allowing over 800 teams to participate.

Ads and Kids, like water and electricity, do not go together

Consumer advocacy groups are asking the FTC to investigate Google’s YouTube Kids app due to concerns that it aims advertising at young children on smartphone and tablets, according to San Jose Mercury News. The concerns cite laws on broadcast TV that prohibit TV stations from placing products around kids’ programming due to children having not developed cognitive skills to resist advertising.

An old dog returns to the doghouse: Mark Pincus is back!

Zynga announced that Don Mattrick, their CEO of less than 2 years, is leaving and will be replaced with former CEO, Mark Pincus. GamesIndustry International believes that the company’s great losses under his leadership caused the change, but credited Zynga’s sharp rise in mobile profits–from 27% to 60% of the company’s worth–over the last 2 years to Mr. Mattrick’s work.

Check back again next week for more of the top news from games and tech!
Featured image from Geek.com

Giving Away Games for Fun and Profit

DDO Unlimited

Since 2008, over 20 Eastern-developed, free-to-play MMO titles have launched in the US, and more will be released before this year is out. The list includes Atlantica Online, Deco Online, Florensia, LaTale, Runes of Magic, and many more. With these titles comes a new way of thinking: free-to-play.

While the Western MMO market has stuck largely with the monthly subscription model, Eastern MMO companies have been successfully giving their games away for years. Instead of relying on every user for payment, they offer in-game perks and items for a small fee (aka: microtransaction) and let users decide how much to spend.

The downside, obviously, is that the revenue stream is somewhat unpredictable. In an interview with Gamasutra, Daniel James of Three Rings revealed that only 10% of Puzzle Pirates players spend money on microtransactions. The upside? Users who do spend money spend an average of $50 per month, significantly more than the average monthly subscription fee. Combine that with reduced development costs, zero packaging costs, and lower barrier to entry for new players, and you have some serious potential.

Considering the number of F2P games that currently coexist in the Asian market, it’s hardly surprising that the microtransaction model can be profitable… but can it truly be competitive in North America?

Continue reading Giving Away Games for Fun and Profit