What does Google’s new OS mean for games?

 Posted by (Visited 12702 times)  Game talk  Tagged with: , ,
Jul 072009
 

Great question. The blog post announcing it says it’s for netbooks, really, and that the development platform “is the Web”:

Google Chrome OS will run on both x86 as well as ARM chips and we are working with multiple OEMs to bring a number of netbooks to market next year. The software architecture is simple — Google Chrome running within a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel. For application developers, the web is the platform. All web-based applications will automatically work and new applications can be written using your favorite web technologies. And of course, these apps will run not only on Google Chrome OS, but on any standards-based browser on Windows, Mac and Linux thereby giving developers the largest user base of any platform.

— Official Google Blog: Introducing the Google Chrome OS.

Except that we’re still quite a ways from games of the Web meaning something other than Flash. The kernel is Linux, which could mean that AAA games that run on Linux (all three of them) could show up. Maybe. But I wouldn’t bank on it anytime soon.

Will Flash show up on here? Hard to imagine a Web-centric Netbook or tablet that doesn’t need it, if only for YouTube videos. So perhaps Flash will simply extend its crossplatform dominance one step further.

Who knows is this OS will gain adoption; one thing for sure, though, people will play games on it if it is possible. And the more possible it is, the more adoption it will see.

Two great Flash-related posts

 Posted by (Visited 5985 times)  Game talk  Tagged with: ,
Jul 062009
 

There’s two great posts related to Flash surfacing today:

CoderHump.com has an open letter to Adobe asking for them to make Flash the default console for the web. This is a developer-centric post, focusing on weaknesses of Flash as a generic platform for game development:

Adobe, make Flash like unto a console! Give us consistent performance! Give us excellent tools! Flex Builder is not that great, Adobe. Your compilers could be a lot better, too. Don’t worry too much about lots of fancy features. People who have to have super high end 3d and do not want to run everywhere will use tools like Torque or Unity that do 3d really well. Be everywhere, run well, be easy to develop for, and you will be loved and well rewarded.

Adobe, I have a vested interest in you succeeding. Please listen to my words. I have spent years developing game middleware on a variety of platforms. Now I am working with Flash. If Flash dominates the game industry, it will be possible for me to afford to eat.

A lot of the gems aren’t in the post, but in the comment thread that follows — worth reading.

And the inimitable Dan Cook of Lost Garden has a wonderful analysis of the business models behind Flash game development and where they are broken — and what a developer can do to fix it.

When you design your game, pick three or four revenue streams and build them into your game. Here are some categories of users that you may want keep covered.

  • People who don’t want to pay: Advertising is a good option to keep around. A few hundred bucks is still money in the bank.
  • People who are interested in more of the same: Once you’ve established the value of your game, some players want more. Give them more levels, more puzzles, more enemies in exchange for cash.
  • People who are interested in status or identity improvements: Some people see games as means of expression and identity. Give them items that let them express themselves or customize their experience.
  • People who have limited time: Some people live busy lives and want to consume your game when they desire and how they desire. Cheat codes, experience multipliers and other systems that bypass the typical progression all help satisfying this customer need.

Looks like this is just part one of a lengthier series of articles — I look forward to the next one!

More on China and virtual currency

 Posted by (Visited 6197 times)  Game talk  Tagged with: , ,
Jul 012009
 

The PlaynoEvil blog has the best summary i have seen of the key issues — and they still have wideranging implications!

– If the service is shut off, customers are entitled to a refund of unused currency.

– “virtual currency should be exchanged only for virtual goods and services provided by the issuer of the currency” (this would cause problems for a lot of the third party currency folks here in the US and elsewhere)

– Companies already involved in virtual currency trading are required to register with the local cultural affairs bureau within three months.

– Minors may not buy virtual money. THIS IS POTENTIALLY HUGE. If enforced, this would essentially shut down most MMOs that use the Free-to-Play business model.

— via Chinese Government DOES NOT ban Gold Farming – Puts Free-to-Play in Jeopardy Instead – PlayNoEvil Game Security News & Analysis.

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Gamasutra on free to play MMOs

 Posted by (Visited 7900 times)  Game talk  Tagged with:
Jun 092009
 

Gamasutra has an article up — “What Are The Rewards Of ‘Free-To-Play’ MMOs?” — that I was interviewed for. During the interview it became clear that many in the traditional AAA games community still have questions around whether this model is viable financially, and the article is centrally about the fact that yes, it can be.

Yes, good money can actually be made in the rapidly-growing world of free-to-play massive multiplayer online games (MMOs), but just how much can micro-transactions actually generate? Unfortunately, average revenue per user information is often concealed behind the fog of competition by privately held game makers reluctant to report either very high or very low results.

To add to the confusion, some developers choose to report their “average revenue per paying user” (ARPPU) which, by definition, is always more impressive than their “average revenue per user” (ARPU). (Both of these statistics relate to monthly logged-in users, and the amount of monthly logged-in users cited in ARPU is often a fraction of total registered users — a common metric used in press releases.)

Nintendo claims customers dislike used items

 Posted by (Visited 5839 times)  Game talk  Tagged with:
Apr 012009
 

This is severe disconnection from reality. The used game market is certainly an issue for the games industry’s business model, but claiming, as Reggie fils-Aime does here, that consumers simply don’t like used items, and that used items do poorly in other media is just… nuts. Did he really never browse a used record store while in college?

“We have products that consumers want to hold onto. They want to play all of the levels of a Zelda game and unlock all of the levels. A game like Personal Trainer Cooking has a long life.”

He continued: “Describe another form of entertainment that has a vibrant used goods market. Used books have never taken off. You don’t see businesses selling used music CDs or used DVDs. Why? The consumer likes having a brand-new experience and reliving it over and over again. If you create the right type of experience, that also happens in videogames.”

via Nintendo: Used games aren’t in the consumers best interests // News.

Of course, even for games, the proof is in the pudding; it wouldn’t be such an issue for the industry if buyers didn’t like to spend the money there. Not to mention that most games these days are not designed for replayability…

Edit: OK, first I thought it was real, then I thought it was an April Fool’s joke, then… I thought it was real.

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