EA’s Free to Play Battlefield Heroes delayed

Sad to say fellow free to play fans, the long awaited Battlefield Heroes is off the radar for a summer launch.

Swedish development team DICE announced recently that they’re going to hold off on their ambitious summer 2008 release.  According to the Battlefield Heroes site, they’re now targeting a release date of  ‘Late 2008’.  Do I smell a Thanksgiving/Christmas release?

Battlefield Heroes is a colorful and playful extension of the popular first person shooter series that revolves around a cartoon look.  Battlefield Heroes serves as EA’s vehicle to test the treacherous waters of Free to play, ad-driven, micro transaction based gaming.  Heroes is a browser based version of the popular Battlefield universe.  The EA/DICE project has also been toned down and simplified adding a light-hearted, cartoonish take on combat in an attempt to induct a wider audience.

Battlefield Heroes remains one of the highest profile free to play games in the North American market.  Given the hype and profile, it’s a bit understandable that EA wants to iron out every conceivable wrinkle before unleashing the fun on the general public.  The closed beta started back in May, and DICE sites a number of beta tester information and comments that they want/need to address before the game goes live.  While this may be a setback for fanboys wanting their cartoony first person shooter, it’s better to have things right before releasing a sub standard product.  If EA manages to get this free to play title right, it very well may be the herald and benchmark for all free to play titles in the North American market.

To top off the ‘Just hold your horses’ announcement, I did a bit more checking around on the Battlefield Heroes site: Battlefield Heroes is currently being developed only for the Windows XP or Vista OS.  What about all the Mac players out there?

Micro Transaction advocate David Perry to give keynote at GC Developers Conference

David Perry, CCO and co-founder of Acclaim Games will deliver a keynote address as the Games Convention Developers Conference in Leipzig, Germany this year.

Perry is expected to talk about his vision of the future of games on the second day of the conference.  Perry has been involved in the development of over 100 games on 29 different platforms, including The Terminator, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Disney’s Aladdin, Earthworm Jim, and The Matrix.

Today with Acclaim, Perry focuses on the development of MMO, social network, and mass-market casual games.  All of his current titles are free to play, and rely on a potpourri of revenue models including in game advertising and micro transactions.

Considered one of the most influential and respected voices in the gaming community, Perry has been making games for 27 years.  He has spoken around the world, and received the first ever Masters degree in interactive Development.  In addition to this distinction, Perry has also recently been awarded a Doctorate from Queens University along with Nelson Mandela and Tony Blair.

The Games Convention Developers Conference (GCDC) will be Perry’s first German engagement and is scheduled to take place prior to the Games Convention in Leipzig, August 18th-20th.

“David Perry has helped shape the history of video gaming having worked on some of the industry’s best selling titles over the past few decades,” said Frank Sliwka, project director of GCDC. “His keynote is definitely going to be one of the big highlights of this year’s GCDC and we look forward to hearing his perspective on the global games market.”

Further information on David Perry can be found at: http://www.dperry.com.

Gaming takes top spot in Asia Pacific Online Content Market

New analysis and a report by Frost & Sullivan places gaming in the top spot of ‘What’s driving the Asia-Pacific Online Content Market?’ Asia is not free of the global piracy concern, but revenues for paid online content rose 25.6% in 2007 and are looking at projections of another stellar year (an expected 21%), reaching a market size of US$4.67 billion by December 2008.

The study shows that online music and video have felt the impact of piracy yet gaming remains relatively unscathed, accounting for 81.3% of revenues generated in 2007. To put that in perspective, 10.8% came from the music industry, and 7.9% is owned by video.

The study conducted by Frost and Sullivan covers the Asia Pacific Online Content Services Market – 12 Asia Pacific countries. The study places the combined earned revenues of US$3.86 billion in 2007 and estimates this to be worth US$9.2 billion by the end of 2013, at a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 15.6% (2007-2013).

Online gaming is projected to lead this massive growth of digital content at a CAGR of 14% and will continue to be the big player in the premium or paid content revenues in 2013 with a market share of 75.1%, US$6.9 billion.

Premium content services including news, greeting cards, research, dating and credit reports are more of a niche product and are not included in this study.

Frost and Sullivan’s industry analyst Kamlesh Kalwar said, “Today’s Internet has come a long way from being just a medium for disseminating information and is now increasingly becoming the mainstream channel for distributing and accessing ‘infotainment’ content as well.

“As the percentage of people accessing the Internet for leisure time entertainment grows rapidly, the market for both paid online content services as well as ad-revenue supported free online content services is expected to grow in tandem with this shift in the consumption of entertainment content,” he says, adding that the Internet has become a great alternative to traditional media channels for music, videos and games thus spawning a digital culture.

As expected, China and Korea are the largest consumers of premium online content. Together, they count for a massive 79% of revenues in 2007. China is the single largest gaming online gaming market with the increased penetration of entertainment applications reaching the top of the list. Gaming in China is blazing new paths, and China is expected to contribute up to 46.7% of the Asia Pacific content revenues by the end of 2013.

One of the factors driving Asia Pacific consumption of premium online content is the increased availability of broadband internet connections. “As faster Internet speeds enhance the overall online experience, users are spending more and more time online playing games and visiting social networking sites,” Kalwar says. “The growing broadband penetration has not only expanded the netizen base, but also created a conducive environment to encourage users to spend a greater amount of time online engaging in entertainment activities by enabling the convenient sharing, personalisation and sourcing of relevant content.”
He adds, “As such, premium online content services and applications like audio- and video-streaming and downloads, as well as online gaming is expected to see a surge in demand.”

Kalwar also mentions that with widespread availability of net speed, comes the unfortunate side effect of illegal downloads, piracy, and BitTorrent and other P2P networks. While piracy runs rampant in Music and Video, it remains a relatively small problem in the gaming world. The main factor combating this problem is that users need to be registered with a certain game publisher before they can play the game.

Kalwar says, “In an effort to shake-off the ghosts of piracy, stakeholders are grappling with the right business model to monetize content. For selected content, particularly online video and music streaming services, the ad-sponsored revenue model has been widely used.

“Game providers on the other hand have adopted the FTP (free-to-play) revenue model where gamers are not charged an upfront cost to play games online, and instead aim to profit through in-game advertising and virtual sale of in-game items like weapons, ammunition and such. In nascent markets, there has been a consistent attempt to increase sampling by giving the base version for free and charging for the advanced versions once the subscriber is hooked,” he adds.

Such FTP billing models, richer and wider product offerings, and the growing popularity of MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing game) is expected to drive growth in the online gaming segment.

If you are interested in a virtual brochure, which provides service providers, vendors/manufacturers, end users, and other industry participants with an overview of the Asia-Pacific online content services market, then send an e-mail to Sarah Lourdes at sarah.lourdes@frost.com, with your full name, company name, title, telephone number, fax number, and e-mail address. Upon receipt of the above information, an overview will be sent to you by e-mail.

About the Asia Pacific Online Content Services Market Study:

The Asia Pacific Online Content Services Market study is part of the Communication Services Growth Partnership Service program, which also includes research in the following markets: WAN services, enterprise mobility, IPTV, user-generated content (UGC), social networking, broadband access technology, mobile content, telecom services, managed and hosted services, and network transformation case studies. All research services included in subscriptions provide detailed market opportunities and industry trends that have been evaluated following extensive interviews with market participants. Analyst interviews are available to the press.

About Frost & Sullivan:

Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, partners with clients to accelerate their growth. The company’s TEAM Research, Growth Consulting and Growth Team Membership empower clients to create a growth-focused culture that generates, evaluates and implements effective growth strategies. Frost & Sullivan employs over 45 years of experience in partnering with Global 1000 companies, emerging businesses and the investment community from more than 30 offices on six continents. For more information about Frost & Sullivan’s Growth Partnerships, visit http://www.frost.com.

Paul Thelen presents Big Fish findings on casual gamer profiles and the casual game industry

At least week’s Casual Connect Seattle, Big Fish Chairman and CSO Paul Thelen presenting some outstanding data regarding the casual gaming market.

The outline to Mr. Thelen’s presentation reads:

The terms “Casual Games” and “Casual Gamer” are very broad terms that mean different things to virtually everyone involved in this area of the overall games industry. The complexity of defining casual games is due to the evolutionary and revolutionary changes that occur each year and the diversity of products and services, breadth of consumption methods and wide variety of business models that have emerged. In this keynote address, Paul Thelen presents the results of new study performed by Big Fish Games, in collaboration with NPD Group, of the US games industry with an emphasis on the casual gamer. The study profiles distinct casual segments of the market and the resulting business opportunities as well as comparing and contrasting these casual segments with the traditional core games market.

Some of Big Fish’s findings include:

Segmenting gamers into two buckets is misleading

Combining Casual and Core gamers, there are 14 distinct segments

This business is complex

• 14 customer segments
• 17 Platforms
  PC, Mac, Mobile Phone, Touch Phone, PDA , Xbox 360, XBLA, Playstation 2/3, PSP, Wii, Gameboy, DS, WiWare, IPTV, In-flight entertainment, Basic Browser, Social Networks
• 10 business models
  Pay-per-day, Try-and-buy, Multi-game subscription to won, Multi-game subscription to rent, Advertising supported, Advergames, Micro-transaction item sales, Single game subscription, Skill game wagering, Bricks and Mortar sales

With this massive amount of data, Big Fish and NDP have clearly presented us with a picture of complexity.  14 different customer segments to contend with.  17 different platforms for you and your developers to wrangle with.  10 different business models, all having their own merits.  Getting your game off the ground and to market is complex enough.  Why not take one worry right off the list?  How are we going to monetize the game?  Simple.  If you’re heading towards the growing trend of micro transaction based, free to play games, you’ve landed in the right spot.

fatfoogoo is a full service provider and offers you a turn-key solution to operate a marketplace including payment, clearing, settlement and in-voicing; all within your game’s environment.  fatfoogoo does what we do best: monetize your game, allowing you and your team more time to focus on what’s important, the game itself.

Fill your summer with free to play

Ok, how about not even this summer, but this entire year?  GamesRadar has recently published an astonishing list (10 pages of free to play gaming content) of 365 free to play games.

The listing contains just about something for everyone, including the ‘Victorian slap-fighting game’.  Many of the games listed include screenshots and/or YouTube vids of the games in action.  The games are listed and organized in groupings (‘King of Pain’, “Polychromatic’, ‘Suburban Drama’, etc.)

While none of these games feature micro transaction based fees, and are free to play, we at fatfoogoo can only sit and play, and wonder just how many of these free to play titles are actually beta’s and testers gauging real world play and interest figures, before developers take them to the next level of play, design, graphics, user experience, and monetization.

Outspark introduces micro transaction based incentives to Fiesta

Leading free to play, micro transaction based MMO Fiesta, published by Outspark has announced a new addition to the popular MMO.  The new in game mini game, Remi’s Rare Finds focuses on winnings featuring exclusive, rare, and previously unreleased in game items such as mounts, weapons and power-ups.

In order to participate in Remi’s game, Outspark capitalizes on their micro transaction business model and offers the opportunity to players provided they spend 1500 SparkCash, Outspark’s in game currency.  SparkCash is available in blocks of 3,500, 7,000 and 17,500 at $5, $10 and $25 respectively.

Players may then keep items won in Remi’s Rare Finds, or exchange it for other in game credits.  Each 5 credits may be used as a free play.  Outspark plans to add new and unique items to the game each month, thereby driving further and continued interest in the play.

“Engaging our community is very important to us, and Remi’s Rare Finds is the newest exciting addition to a game already filled with rich, dynamic gameplay,” said Outspark founder and CEO Susan Choe “Each play offers a chance at some great in-game items, and we’re sure our players will love it.”

About Outspark

A unique publisher and operator of free-to-play multiplayer online games, Outspark is redefining interactive entertainment through an engaging virtual playground accessible to players of all ages and experience levels. The company’s global reach enables it to select the most compelling social games from talented development teams located around the world. Backed by Tencent, Altos Ventures and DCM, Outspark is headquartered in San Francisco, CA, with a subsidiary office in Seoul, Korea. For more information, visit www.outspark.com.

Alex St John – PC games run by micro transactions are the new wave of the future

Alex St John, the former head of DirectX at Microsoft and now CEO of Wild Tangent has recently stated that gaming consoles will be dead by 2020 and that micro transactions are where it’s at.

“I think you’re looking at the last generation of game consoles, and I think it’s easy to defend that position,” he said while speaking at the Wedbush Morgan Securities annual Management Access Conference.

St John has always had an eye on the future, and a finger on what’s the next ‘hot topic’.  He believes that games will eventually shake themselves out into two distinct communities: One that enjoys a certain type and format of a game, with others enjoying another.  Could he possibly be alluding to ‘First Person Shooters’ vs. ‘MMO fantasy’ games?

From this split St John takes it a step further.  “I think the business model in ten years … It’s going to be microtransaction based. Microcurrency-based economies are just the most efficient way to maximize revenue. They work really well.”

In game advertising is a second shakeout from this split.  “It’s a great alternative payment type for kids who don’t have access to online currency and are huge game players. So, if you don’t have any way to take money from kids, then the only way to get kids to play is by advertisers marketing to them.”

St John sites and targets data based on the current upswing in global laptop sales.  “Kids especially need laptops due to the evolving type of homework and in-classroom work being assigned at schools. Gaming devices are usually confiscated at school, but “no one’s going to take [the kid's] laptop away from him because they need that for their homework.”  This lends itself perfectly to a community driven, gaming society specifically targeting micro transaction and advertising models.

“Laptops are fabulous gaming devices with Wii-like graphics, instantly tied to community, 100 per cent online and a vast volume of free play for kids who don’t have credit cards.”

Innovative strategy in attracting new gamers to free to play, micro transaction based ijji.com

Trialpay and NHN USA have announced a partnership that will give online gamers 50 “G Coins”, the portal’s in game currency, just for completing a real world transaction via TrialPay.  TrialPay is a familiar e-commerce site where users can do everything from buying clothes, sending flowers, signing up for a movie rental service, etc.

With the increasing popularity of Free to Play games in North America, thousands of returning and new gamers are arriving at ijji.com’s portal everyday.  To sweeten the deal, and in an attempt to bring the ‘casual gamer’ into the fold, NHN brokered the partnership with TrialPay.

Ijji.com already has 6 Million registered users, and is rapidly becoming a hotspot for any and all things free to play.  The portal is home to a wide ranging catalogue of unique online games that run the gamut on interests and styles.  Hardcore FPSs and Fantasy role players are the most popular and appeal to the widest range of ijji’s registrants.  Players utilize G coins to customize every aspect of their gaming experience.

“This partnership with TrialPay helps everyone enjoy the advantages of using G Coins simply by doing business with name-brand advertisers,” said Whon Namkoong, CEO, NHN USA Inc. “Virtual money makes a good online gaming experience event even better. Whether you’re a Drift City racer looking to upgrade your car or a Luminary adventurer in need of a Miracle Hammer or Teleportation Ticket, the TrialPay partnership enables our community to get the G Coins necessary to ‘purchase’ virtual goods for free.”

“NHN USA’s ijji.com has quickly emerged as one of the most popular online gaming destinations in North America, and we are thrilled to partner with them as they continue to bring more players into the incredibly lucrative F2P U.S. market with the site,” said Alex Rampell, co-founder and CEO, TrialPay. “TrialPay has partnered with more than 2,000 advertisers, so there is an ideal offer for every ijji.com user.”

To get 50 G Coins for free through TrialPay, please visit: https://billing.ijji.com/payment/freeGCoin.nhn

About NHN USA
Headquartered in Irvine, Calif., NHN USA, Inc. is the North American subsidiary of Korea’s leading Internet company NHN. Founded in 2006, NHN USA has quickly emerged as a premier online entertainment publisher. The company’s game portal ijji.com, which boasts more than six million unique registered gamers, hosts a diverse suite of free-to-play online games each with an optional micro-currency model that enables players to enhance their gaming experiences by purchasing in-game items. ijji.com’s extensive game portfolio includes GUNZ The Duel®, SOLDIER FRONT™, GUNBOUND® Revolution, DRIFT CITY™, LUMINARY Rise of the GoonZu™ and MINING BOY™, and will soon include the highly-anticipated Unreal Engine 3-based massively multiplayer online first-person shooting (MMOFPS) game Huxley.

About TrialPay
TrialPay unites advertisers, merchants and shoppers to create the first payment platform that benefits all parties. Using TrialPay, merchants turn lost and indecisive shoppers into paying customers by giving away their product for free when a shopper completes an offer from blue-chip advertisers. Advertisers pay a bounty that equals or exceeds the merchant’s regular price to create a profitable transaction out of a stalled or abandoned cart. TrialPay ensures that every shopper finds an offer that compels him or her to purchase by pairing premium brands with the added value of a free product. With TrialPay everyone wins: shoppers get a free product, advertisers acquire new customers and merchants earn significant revenue from lost or unlikely customers.

fatfoogoo nominated for Best Business Idea of the Year

fatfoogoo has recently been announced as one of the nominees for “Best Business Idea of the Year” by German publication Internet World.

The staff of Internet World has assembled a panel of 10 Venture Capitalists to hand select the top 40 new business nominees from Austria, Germany and Switzerland.  Nominee topics range from Community sites, shopping clubs, new formats in online trading and/or mobile technology, and new search technology.

“Startups need attention to win fame “, said Günter Götz, CEO of the Ulm new media society and publisher of Internet World.   “We provide the exposure that enterprise and startups need.  By winning the award, we also want to spotlight the courage and vision of the founders.”

The editorial staff of Internet World will further narrow down the nominations to a top 20, and will present these nominees in their bi-weekly publication as well as on their site internetword.de.  Readers will then be able to vote for their top choices until the 30th of September.  The winner will be announced on October 21st at the Internet World congress in Munich.

For more about the Jury and a full list of nominees, please visit interworld.de.

MMOs need to offer more free to play, micro transaction based titles

In a recently completed survey by Parks Associates, results clearly indicate that gamers are interested in micro transaction based free to play titles.

The consumer study of 2,000+ US internet gamers found that only ‘power gamers’ have a strong interest in subscription based MMORPG services.  Social, dormant and leisure gamers were found to have significant interest in free to play, microtransaction based models.  With this increased interest, Parks Associates indicates that it would be ‘very difficult’ for a new MMO to enter the market with only a subscription based model at this time.

“World of Warcraft, with over 10 million players, exceeded expectations for subscription-based MMORPGs, but it’s unlikely any other publishers will achieve the same in the near term using a subscription model,” said Yuanzhe (Michael) Cai, Director, Broadband and Gaming, Parks Associates.

The study focused on a number of issues and the results are not entirely predictable, but rather interesting.  14% of gamers NOT currently playing an MMO said that they would be interested in starting up the fun again IF they could play the game for free.  Only 2% of the gamers surveyed would be interested in starting another MMO with the traditional subscription based service and fee.  While this may not be the results that Activision/Vivendi (aka Blizzard and World of Warcraft) want to hear, but it IS good news for publishers such as Frogster (Runes of Magic) and Perfect World Entertainment (Perfect World) that are early adopters of the new model.

The top deterring factor to traditional subscription based MMO’s as tabulated by Parks Associates is the barrier to entry in terms of time and money.  “It’s simply too high for many potential customers,” says Cai. “Free-to-play models offer flexibility, and players can choose how much they want to invest based on interest level and play patterns. Micro transaction models have the best potential to grow the U.S. MMORPG audience.”

Next Page »