an interesting business model
polycounter lvl 18
I dont know if Im just the only person to hear about this before, but I was just reading on gamasutra, (this article: http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=19370 ) that the new American Mcgee games based on Grimms fairytales are going to be releasing their content in an episodic manner. But not just in the normal way we've had episodic games so far.
What they're doing, is mirroring the TV model of bussiness by offering each episode of the game for free for one 24 hour period. If you miss that, then you have to buy it. Much like how you watch a show on TV and if you miss it, then you buy the dvd or something.
Apparently this is going to make them a significant enough amount of money in ad revenue if their traffic is high enough.
The first episode comes out at the end of the month. I hope the games are good. Free games where devs get paid makes me happy
EDIT: game is out on www.gametap.com right now for today only.
What they're doing, is mirroring the TV model of bussiness by offering each episode of the game for free for one 24 hour period. If you miss that, then you have to buy it. Much like how you watch a show on TV and if you miss it, then you buy the dvd or something.
Apparently this is going to make them a significant enough amount of money in ad revenue if their traffic is high enough.
The first episode comes out at the end of the month. I hope the games are good. Free games where devs get paid makes me happy
EDIT: game is out on www.gametap.com right now for today only.
Replies
http://abc.go.com/player/ <-- you can see lost season 1, 2, 3, 4 all in streaming, even new shows like wipeout.
Sounds pretty nifty though.
if i have to pay for something that others got absolutely free just because of a time thing, it'd probably just piss me off into not buying it at all.
Rent consoles (like with old cable boxes) and pay a monthy service charge for download and playing games. And then have a 'budget' subscription available that depending on the game either puts advertisements directly in the game or pauses the game every so often to play a commercial. Then the popular titles could get packaged store releases. Seems like were moving that direction atp anyhow.
Really, we've already got subscription models (Gametap), episodic games (Sam and Max), and just about everything else needed to go in the direction of replicating the TV industries model, it just needs to be put together in a single package. The biggest problem is probably setting consoles up as being rentable at major outlets instead of purely purchasable.
It's obvious enough that the purchase outright-only model that the consoles currently utilize is no longer working as well as it once did. Digital distrobution and episodic gaming is a step in the right direction, but will it be enough come the next generation to offset the exponentialy increasing costs of development? In a worst case scenario, I'd prefer not to see the industries technological growth stunned because it was figured out too late that it wasn't.
Edit: Just to add to that. I think it'd be a good practice that the only games that get physical releases are the ones that sell over 500k, or whose franchise has continualy sold over that count. that way your more or less guaranteed the games on shelfs are of quality (or are at least popular), and good franchises get to make it to store shelfs at the same time as their digital versions. Biggest problem with this of course would be that it might encourage sequels, which of course we all love to hate.
I think there can be a good way to have product placement in games that is fun for the gamer. Grand Tourismo is a pretty easy example of this. I think gamers would enjoy being able to go and blow up real world buildings in games as well provided it went with the design of the game. Or just mess these companies ads up. Paint graffiti on a politicians ad, or mess up a Coca Cola building.
I think consoles didn't sell as well because they were too expensive. Most people can't go an spend over 300 dollars on hardware to play a game since they have bills to pay. As long as they continue to make the consoles be more than toys, they were selling this media experience bullsit, they won't get good sells. PS1 could play cds, when CD players were expensive, but you didn't see the kind of bs that happened with the ps3 and 360. They went with rare processors so people couldn't easily use the consoles as powerful computers. They need to stop being so greedy period. Consoles are computers that these companies have done their best to make useless as such, so then you have to buy their shit too. But you can play dvds, really you put a dvd player in it you idiot of course it should play dvds. Computer systems can play dvds too but that doesn't stop people from buying dvd players or home entertainment systems. Why because it's different for most people, they don't want to watch tv or movies on their pc. I think that was the biggest problem with sales, was the corporate greed and a piss poor economy that has been getting worse.
Alex
Alice was rad.
Awesome style, way too easy though. I hope the next game is harder. This was still quite fun. I like little 30 minute interactive romps.
You have 64bit OS, i guess.
He's also the guy that said something along the lines of f@#$ north american artists when I can outsource to china, so its been my personal vow to kick him in the balls if ever meet him.
I played it for a few minutes. It's extremely unlikely I'll ever play it again. Painful. The design and art are both of poor quality. I'm not all that interested in the awkward slow story telling either. They need to watch some Saturday morning cartoons if they want to use that art style and keep peoples attention.
I agree about design, but I really liked the art.
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There should be a law against drunk internet-ing