Venue: Central London
Date: Thursday 30th October, 2008
Format: Conference
Organisers: Tandem Events +44 (0)20 7405 4500
You can visit the Tandem website here: www.tandemevents.co.uk
In Brief: Dedicated to the business of casual games, an industry that has grown dramatically. The event will be a one-day conference, the morning focusing on opportunities in the sector and what the future holds.
There will be two parts in the afternoon, with one exploring the lucrative potential of casual games and the other taking on a more technical, development-centric feel.
The Casual Games Forum has been designed with several aims in mind; to explore the business angles of this exciting market, but also to get under the skin of the more technical and practical aspects of developing casual games.
“As well as catering for those already involved in the sector, it’ll offer those waiting on the sidelines the chance to learn more and perhaps more importantly, give everyone the chance to network together, either as future partners or possible competitors.”
Debut during London Games Festival www.londongamesfestival.com
We are all aware that it is important to keep our brains active. Like any other muscle in our bodies, we need to exercise our brains to improve memory and concentration levels. To keep our brains sharp, we need to improve many brain skills such as spatial reasoning and problem solving.
A perfect and fun way to do this is to play online games. As well as providing a fun experience, they can provide your brain with excellent exercise for all ages. It is not difficult to find a game to suit you. The choice and availability of online games is vast. Arcade games, word games, puzzle games, masses of sports games, problem solving games, plus many others.
Tetra Block is a good example of a problem solving game based on the popular Commodore 64 classic Tetris. It is easy to play but offers enough complexity and difficulty to keep your brain well challenged. Playing games online is a highly enjoyable and relaxing pastime and provides an outlet away from the problems and stresses of our daily lives.
Interpreting patterns in games such as Fruit Frenzy and Blob Factory improve concentration and your speed as you move up the levels. The structure and general complexity of many of these types of games, although relatively simple to play, enables players to gain and improve skills that will in fact be useful within their work and student lives.
The average age of game players has risen to 35 and 40% of gamers are women according to a new survey by the video game industry’s trade group, the Entertainment Software Association (ESA).
Among the survey’s main findings:
* 65% of American households play computer and video games
* 38% of American homes have a video game console
* The average game player is 35 years old
* 26% of gamers are over the age of 50
* Women age 18 or older represent a significantly greater portion of the game-playing population (33%) than boys age 17 or younger (18%)
* 41% of Americans expect to purchase one or more games this year.
Parents are also influencing the way their children, rent, buy and play the games:
* 94% of parents are present when games are purchased or rented
* 88% of parents report always or sometimes monitoring the games their children play
* 63% of parents believe games are a positive part of their children’s lives.
This research highlights that video games are now an important and popular form of entertainment which is appreciated by every section of US society.
The top selling video game of 2007 in the US was Halo 3 and the top selling computer game of 2007 in the US was World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade. ( Statistics provided by The NPD Group)
The complete 2008 Essential Facts booklet is available online at:
Have a look at the BBC news story “Casual games make serious profits” if you are in any doubt about what a huge market uVme is part of!
It cites the casual games market as being worth $2.25 billion last year, and growing phenomenally.
The number of Internet users in China reached about 253 million last month, overtaking the United States as the world’s largest Internet market. An increase of of more than 50%, about 90 million during the past year. China could soon have more than 300 million people using the Internet for everything from news to online shopping. The potential for growth is phenonemal.
By contrast, the United States is estimated to have about 220 million Internet users, about 70 percent of its population, with similarly high percentages in Japan and South Korea.
Even though Internet sites inside China are heavily censored of political content, and foreign Web sites operating there have strict restrictions, online gaming, blogs and social networking and other entertainment sites are incredibly popular particularly amongst teenagers. 70% of China’s internet users are 30 years old or under.
The investment firm Morgan Stanley says that “Online advertising and paid search market is growing by 60 to 70 percent a year, and forecasts that by the end of this year, online advertising in China could reach $1.7 billion. And only 19 percent of Chinese people have access to the Internet. We are still far from saturation. So the next three to five years, we’re still going to see hyper- growth in this market.”
More than 500,000 Facebook users log on to play Scrabulous every day. Sanctioned by Hasbro, the Scrabble application for Facebook has over 8,000 fans. Scrabulous fans are also scoring triple points by setting up 55 “Save Scrabulous” Facebook groups shortly after Hasbro sent a cease-and-desist letter to the application’s makers, India-based RJ Software, in January.
Facebook isn’t saying if the network would eventually remove the game while the lawsuit proceeds but believes that “games are an important part of the social experience on Facebook.
Do you want to Save Scrabulous?
On last weeks pioneers conference call it was announced that progressive jackpots are to be externally tested next week…
This will create a surge of excitement within the uVme network as players will now be able to play to win some serious money! The more people playing the bigger the jackpots!
Imagine a Speed Pool tournament, what an rush that would be with players from all corners of the globe…
We will announce when the tournaments are live on the games site, however (if you have not already done so) you may wish to register your free player account and be told from uVme themselves…How much will you win?
Happy news to all Sims gamers who are also into casual gaming. Sims Carnival, the portal with a plethora of casual games, is now in public beta! Game developer, EA, saw this great opportunity to expand the sims gamer network by bringing the carnival games online. Just like its predecessors Sims On Stage.
What’s great about the offering here is that its similar to the mini-games that you play while waiting for the game to load or install. And you can create your own games based on some limited custom options.
And if you ask me, it has the making of its own social network since it gives the gamers the opportunity to play and interact with each other online. Its now available for everyone with the launch of its public beta. This I will try myself, soon!
Source: www.gamerlite.com
Jeremy Liew
, Lightspeed Venture Partners, www.lightspeedvp.com Jeremy is co-producing the Social Gaming Summit at UCSF Mission Bay.
The last few years have seen a transformation in the consumer internet world as online media has evolved into social media. Many new social media companies have shot to tens of millions of users very quickly, including Facebook, MySpace, Digg, Yelp, YouTube, Slide, RockYou* and Flixster*. The trends that have driven the growth of these Web 2.0 companies include:
- Dramatically reduced development costs and cycle times, which have led to highly iterative product management
- Dramatically reduced marketing and distribution costs as CPC advertising, viral growth and social network platforms have replaced Superbowl ads and distribution deals with portals
- Easier monetization due to the proliferation of ad networks
As the game industry embraces web games, multiplayer games, and social games, we are seeing these same trends emerge. Web games and multiplayer games are well understood. Social games however, are a newer phenomenon.
Social games are not just multiplayer games. In social games, existing social relationships add context and motivation to the gameplay. Social games are more fun to play with people you know than with anonymous strangers. Examples of social games include Friends for Sale*, where you had better buy your girlfriend back from that guy who has been hitting on her at the gym, (fluff) Friends, where if your BFF feeds your pet, you are compelled to reciprocate, and Power Challenge, where you can’t let your team’s loss to your fraternity brother’s team go unavenged.
Even single player games can become social when the right infrastructure for community and social interaction are built around them, including high score leaderboards, achievement badges, challenges and simple message boards, as Kongregate, Addicting Games, MiniClip and MindJolt are demonstrating.
The gaming industry is now starting to experience the same trends that the online media industry has experienced over the last few years:
Dramatically reduced development costs
Lazard estimates that Halo 3 cost $30m to build. Rockstar says that they spent $100m to make Grand Theft Auto 4. While both have been wildly successful games that sold over 10m units each, these are big numbers to spend on development. A new generation of lightweight web games is now being created at a fraction of these budgets, and these games are being played for free by millions of users. Games like Zynga’s Scramble, Social Gaming Network’s Warbook and Stardoll (originally Paperdoll Heaven) were all originally launched on less than $100k and all have entertained millions of players.
Of course these free games can’t compare to the complexity, quality or polygon count of Halo 3 or GTA 4, but they do provide entertainment to their players, and they are all evolving and improving over time. Because all these games live in the browser, they can be constantly updated and refined as game designers watch their players’ usage patterns. They give players more of what they like, and cut out gameplay that players don’t like. Teams are small and development is fast and iterative in reaction to player feedback.
In the extreme, users generate the game rules themselves. Some users in online communities and immersive worlds including Dogster, Habbo Hotel, Gaia and IMVU have gone so far as to create games on their own, ranging from dance parties to plays to petting zoos to quiz shows.
Dramatically reduced marketing and distribution costs
Halo 3 spent an additional $30m on marketing, mostly offline. GTA 4 blanketed the billboards of , Nexon’s Maplestory, and Three Ring’s Puzzle Pirates have become experts in success-based online player acquisition.
Furthermore, Games have exploded virally on the social network platforms. On Facebook alone, three games (Texas Hold’em, Zombies and Friends For Sale*) have more than 8 million players (installs). Five of the top ten Facebook apps (by daily active users) are games; Owned, Friends for Sale*, Texas Hold’em, (Lil) Green Patch and Scrabulous. This is a direct consequence of the social games phenomenon. Social games are more fun to play with your friends, and social networks are an ideal environment for killing time with friends. As a result, they have been able to very efficiently ride the distribution channels that the social networks provide.
Easier monetization
The dominant model of monetizing games is still retail - selling crystal cases for $60 a pop. This presents a real barrier to game publishers, who have to convince a prospective player to fork over a substantial amount of money before she has even tried the game. Publishers have to generate demand, which is what led to the high marketing budgets for Halo 3 and GTA IV mentioned previously.
Now more game companies are experimenting with free to play games that make it a lot easier for a prospective player to try before they buy. These games monetize either through advertising or through virtual goods sales. Just as with online media, ad networks like Double Fusion, Massive and Mochi Media have made ad sales much easier for game companies, so that they can focus on their core competencies. Equally, virtual goods business models, well established in is reportedly doing more than $50m in virtual goods sales (mostly in Europe) and Nexon’s Maplestory is doing around $30m in virtual goods sale in the US. Companies like Acclaim, Stardoll and K2 Network are ramping their virtual goods sales in hot pursuit.
Future for social games
The trends outlined above are likely to lead to many new and valuable gaming companies. Let EA, Nintendo, Activision, Ubisoft and the like continue to fight for market share amongst hard core gamers. New social games startups, including free to play MMORPGs, social network games, web based games and single player gaming communities, are busy converting the much larger market of casual players into their customers.
* Lightspeed is an investor in Flixster, Rock You and Serious Business (which publishes Friends For Sale)
Rapid Recharge and Extended Battery Life for Cost-Conscious Nation of Cash-Strapped Gamers
Fremont, CA (June, 2008) – Aware that more gamers are staying home due to the high cost of gas and a sluggish economy, Penguin United has announced the launch of a high-quality Dual Charging Station for the Nintendo Wii that can easily compete in quality with other similar products on the market.
With a suggested retail of $22.95, a built-in LED indicator, rapid charging ability and longer lasting NI-MH batteries, Penguin’s Dual Charge Station is the perfect alternative docking station for Wii fans. Now gamers can charge two Wii controllers simultaneously as they use the money they saved to buy overpriced gas for their cars.
“We are offering a Wii dual charger that is equal in quality to anything currently available but at a lower cost to the consumer,” stated Penguin President, Richard Huang. “We are all too aware of the high cost of living which also means a high cost of gaming. We’re trying to make it a little easier on the consumer’s wallet while still enhancing the gaming experience. “
Penguin’s Dual Charge Station for Wii is the first of many peripherals the company plans to launch in 2008 to a Nation weary of overpriced and under performing accessories.
*Note: Media samples are available upon request. Please Contact Dirk Foster
About Pelican United
Penguin United (http://www.PenguinUnited.com) was established by gamers for gamers and is dedicated to enhancing the experience of electronic entertainment. Penguin’s mission is to provide gamers with a cost-effective line of video game accessories that are equal in quality, performance and reliability to other similar products on the market. The company, which is located in Fremont, California, distributes its product line exclusively through Red Lion Interactive (http://www.RedLionInteractive.com).
Contact: Dirk Foster
Red Lion Interactive
(888) 432-8707 X 108
dirk@redlioniteractive.com