Posts Tagged ‘maple story’

Nexon North American up in revenue and players

Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010

Nexon North America has recently posted their Q2 2010 results with a 26 percent increase in growth as the company now reports 7 million players in Maple Story alone, up 1 million YoY. The company reports that June in particular showed strong growth (school summer holidays?), with revenues increasing a solid 36 percent when compared to June ’09.

Naturally, the increase in revenues is tied to the aforementioned increase in users. Maple Story North America has now officially surpassed the 7 million registered user mark. Likewise, Nexon’s first-person-shooter offering, Combat Arms has passed the 4 million registered user mark, and Mabinogi went over the 1 million mark earlier this year. From these three titles alone, that puts Nexon North America at over 13 million registered users, and that’s not even including Dungeon Fighter Online, PopTag, and Vindictus.

“Our player base and revenues continue to expand, which tells us that gamers find that our free-to-play business model fits their play needs,” said Daniel Kim, Nexon Americas CEO. “MapleStory is celebrating its fifth year of service in North America and shows no sign of slowing down, while Combat Arms is growing into one of the markets most popular online FPS games. With the recent successful launch of Dungeon Fighter Online and the release of Vindictus on the horizon, 2010 looks to be a big year for Nexon in North America.”

And if the numbers alone aren’t enough to back up Kim’s supposition, Nexon’s strong (and first) showing at this year’s past E3 convention in Los Angeles has firmly planted Nexon on the North American gamers’ radar. In addition to excited attendees that got their hands on Vindictus for the first time, Nexon also through what’s been reported as, “definitely a contender for ‘Best E3 Party’.” There may or may not have been reports of gaming industry figure Thresh dancing on tables with sparklers atwhirl. But again, this may or may not just be speculation.

“We made a strong statement about Nexons leadership position at E3 and we will work hard to maintain that momentum, deliver great games and continue to satisfy the gaming pubic,” Kim added.

Nexon North America has been five years in the making now, and as Kim states, it looks like the hard work and persistence are starting to pay off, and in droves. Again, the numbers above reflect only Nexon NA’s three largest titles, with a fourth, Vindictus, poised for closed beta launch on August 10th. It should be quite interesting to see how/what Nexon’s numbers will look like this time next year.

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Outspark adds former Nexon CEO San Won Chung to executive board

Wednesday, October 28th, 2009

San Francisco based Outspark is quickly on the path to becoming the darling of the North American free-to-play industry. A quick look at their recent staff and/or advisory board additions clearly points to the making of the perfect storm. Today’s announcement adds just another perfect element to this storm, as Outspark has just added San Won Chung to their advisory board. Chung, the former CEO of Nexon, the gold standard in free-to-play gaming in the Korean/Asian free-to-play market, as well as his most recent position of EVP with Neowiz, will now sit on Outspark’s advisory board.

With an industry career spanning over a decade, Chung recently filled the shoes of Executive Vice President with Neowiz, one of Korea’s largest online gaming publishers, where he successfully brought the FIFA Online title to the Korean market. This project was in collaboration with Electronic Arts. If you’re starting to notice the heavy EA influence in Outspark, you’re on the right track.

“We are delighted to add another outstanding business leader with broad and relevant experience to our Advisory Board,” said Owen Mahoney, CEO of Outspark. “Sang Won Chung is a veteran executive in the online gaming industry with considerable experience that will help foster our long-term growth and success as we expand our ever increasing base of loyal game players.”

Having served as CEO of Nexon from 2001-2004, Mr. Chung was in the drivers’ seat when some of Nexon’s top products were launched including (the one that started it all) Maple Story, Kart Rider, and Shattered Galaxy. Arguably, these titles singlehandedly ignited the free-to-play/microtransactions supported online gaming business model.

“This is an exciting and transformative time in the online gaming industry and Outspark is clearly one of the most innovative game companies in the world today,” said Mr. Chung. “With North America and Europe poised to be the next great markets for free-to-play games, I feel privileged to join a dynamic team of renowned industry leaders. I look forward to participating in the growth of Outspark as it helps guide the future of the freemium game industry.”

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Nexon delivers a quality experience – reaps the financial rewards

Wednesday, August 19th, 2009

Hot on the heels of the Tencent.com news of posting record profits, Nexon America announced yesterday that they’ve also set a few records of their own. Looking at July ’08 vs. ’09 saw a 35 percent increase in revenues.

Leading the revenue surge was Nexon’s now 6 year old (Korean) and 4 year old (North America) free-to-play genre defining Maple Story. This past July saw a record number of more than 70,000 max concurrent users online. Nexon America counts over 6 million registered users, only a small fraction of Maple Story’s 92 million total worldwide players.

To put this into perspective, the NPD Group recently reported a 29 percent drop in video game industry revenues in July ’09, when compared to the year before. So where’s the disconnect? Obviously, the current global economic situation has forced consumers into tightening the belt, and holding off on new hardware and software purchases. When looking at the current situation and instigating the “Some things will have to go,” mentality, surely that gaming subscription might be one of the first things to go. Et viola, enter stage right the appeal of free-to-play gaming.

“The economy has been tough on great deal of the games industry, but we fought hard to retain our customers and to bring in as many new players as possible,” said Min Kim, Nexon America’s vice president of marketing. “We’re heavily investing on all fronts – in our games, our publishing platform, aggressive marketing efforts as well as customer service. The best news for Nexon America is that our success isn’t just reflected in registered users, but in actual, dramatic revenue growth.”

During the month of July, Nexon put the pedal to the metal with marketing efforts including a massive internet wide campaign for their fantasy MMOG, Mabinogi. The company also ran major television and feature film preview advertising campaigns for Maple Story. If that wasn’t enough, Nexon’s popular FPS Combat Arms currently has a major campaign underway.

Coinciding with these advertising blitzes, Nexon delivered major content updates to Mabinogi, MapleStory and Combat Arms, obviously not disappointing newcomers, and keeping long time players interested.

“We are serious about making Nexon the top brand in online gaming, and we are not backing on down our efforts to deliver more content to our customers or aggressively work to attract new players,” said Kim. “We pioneered the free-to-play business model when we brought MapleStory to North America in 2005. With the slew of new games we have planned and the BlockParty initiative, which will bring players together like never before, we will continue to be the leader in this market for years to come.”

So while this question hasn’t really been at the forefront of the battle for a while, I think with Nexon’s numbers, can we officially call this “but can it be profitable?” debate to rest? I think so.

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Nexon’s free-to-play FPS Combat Arms reaches two million user milestone

Wednesday, February 18th, 2009

After pioneering the free-to-play space with their runaway hit ‘Maple Story’, it looks like Nexon has done it again with their first first-person-shooter, ‘Combat Arms’.  The company proudly announced yesterday that in just three months they’ve doubled their user base, now hovering at the two million player mark.  The game opened the public doors in October of 2008 in North America.

Citing the game’s intense, frontline, player-versus-player gameplay and exciting customization and community features as a reason for the explosion of Combat Arms on gamers’ radar, VP of Marketing Min Kim says, “Combat Arms really hits the mark with core FPS veterans playing alongside casual gamers.  This latest milestone is further evidence North American gamers want to play high quality, free-to-play games.”

Featuring an extensive range of character personalization, various combat modes, maps and weapons, Combat Arms has already undergone a number of changes and upgrades since reaching the 1M user mark.  In addition to the already added Rattlesnake, Sand Hog, and Waverider maps, Nexon has also chucked in a number of new game modes that offer free-to-play fans even more options.

Given Nexon’s free-to-play/microtransactions business model, ‘The Black Market’ (an interesting moniker choice) serves as the bread and butter of the game.  Nexon says that they’ve seen tremendous success with the in-game item shop, noting that a large number of combatants that are willing to pay for character customizations, thereby enhancing their gaming experience.  Some of the top sellers on The Black Market include the Elite Moderator item, which allows players to set up and host their own fully moderated games (God, is that you?); and mercenaries, alt characters that can be used to play in the place of the players standard character(s).  Naturally, The Black Market can hook your soldier up with a bit of battlefield bling including a number of gold plated assault rifles.  Personally, I’m holding out for a diamond and sapphire encrusted scope.

“With a host of interactive features and modes set in a completely free-to-play environment, Combat Arms is truly a leader in the online first-person-shooter genre and offers a one-of-a-kind gaming experience,” said Herb Yang, managing producer of Combat Arms. “As we celebrate, we are also looking forward to further shaping Combat Arms into a title that sets the tone for a whole generation of online FPS titles.”

While it seems like Combat Arms is indeed ‘king of the hill’ in the free-to-play/microtransaction based first person shooter genre, this news arrives on the same day that EA/DICE’s Battlefield Heroes sent out 4,000 beta keys, and lest we forget about Acony and their upcoming release of Parabellum.  Combat Arms wears the crown and holds court.  For now.  Stay tuned…..

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Ed. note – Thanks for the tweets and emails – Looks like I forgot about Suba Games’ Cross Fire.  More on that tomorrow.

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Free-to-play Maple Story ranks among top moneymaking MMO’s of 2008.

Monday, February 2nd, 2009

DFC Intelligence is gearing up to publish a comprehensive study of MMO worlds next month, according to GigaOm.  Wagner James Au got a special preview of the report and shares some initial estimates.

DFC’s David Cole says that the 2008 numbers are on the “very conservative” side, indicating that the 2008 numbers are still being crunched, and more exact numbers will be reflected in the February 16th reports.  “We indicate ranges because these numbers are estimates for 2008 based on where we think these products will end up,” said Cole.  And while the numbers are still being tallied, Cole estimates that the rankings should stay more or less the same, with “maybe a slot here or there” changing.

And while it shouldn’t come as a shock that the Blizzard powerhouse World of Warcraft takes the number one spot, Cole believes that if viewed from a pure profit margin, WoW wouldn’t be taking home the gold.  Asian MMO’s, which are traditionally developed at far lower budgets, have a much higher profit margin.  “Profit margin on Asian games is incredibly high,” says Cole, noting that Asian MMOs charge on or around 5-6 cents per hour with prepaid usage cards, a business model that has yet to proliferate the western gaming market.

What’s interesting to note in this projected report is the high ranking of Nexon’s free-to-play Maple Story (supported by microtransactions, prepaid cards, and international licensing), and the catalogue of Shanda’s games (Virtual item sales, prepaid cards, and freemium subscriptions).

1. World of Warcraft, launched 2004
Genre/Platform: Western MMORPG; client install with 3D graphics
Revenue sources: Monthly subscription, retails sales, prepaid cards (in Asia)
DFC estimated 2008 revenue: $500 million-plus

2. Fantasy Westward Journey, launched 2004
Genre/Platform: Asian MMORPG, client install with 2.5D graphics
Revenue sources: Prepaid cards
DFC estimated 2008 revenue: $150-$500 million

3. Maple Story, launched 2003
Genre/Platform: Asian MMORPG for kids, client install with 2D graphics
Revenue sources: Microtransactions, prepaid cards, international licensing
DFC estimated 2008 revenue: $150-$500 million

4. Shanda (company, includes Legend of Mir and World of Legend series), launched 2003
Genre/Platform: Asian MMORPG, client install with 2.5 graphics
Revenue sources: Prepaid cards, virtual item sales, freemium subscriptions
DFC estimated 2008 revenue: $150-$500 million

5. Lineage I and Lineage II , launched 1998 and 2003
Genre/Platform: Asian MMORPG, client install with 2.5 graphics (Lineage) and 3D graphics (Lineage II)
Revenue sources: Subscription, prepaid cards
DFC estimated 2008 revenue: $150-$500 million

6. Runescape
Genre/Platform: Western MMORPG for kids, web-based with 2.5D graphics
Revenue sources: Premium subscription, prepaid cards, real-world advertising
DFC estimated 2008 revenue: $50-$150 million

7. Club Penguin, launched 2006
Genre/Platform: Virtual world for kids, web-based 2.5D graphics
Revenue sources: Premium subscriptions, prepaid game cards
DFC estimated 2008 revenue: $50-$150 million

8. Lord of the Ring Online
Genre/Platform: Western MMORPG, client install with 3D graphics
Revenue sources: Subscription, retail sales
DFC estimated 2008 revenue: $50-$150 million

9. Warhammer Online
Genre/Platform: Western MMORPG, client install with 3D graphics
Revenue sources: Subscription, retail sales
DFC estimated 2008 revenue: $50-$150 million

10. Age of Conan
Genre/Platform: Western MMORPG, client install with 3D graphics
Revenue sources: Subscription, retail sales
DFC estimated 2008 revenue: $50-$150 million

Wagner continues his conversation with Cole around the most popular, in terms of active players, MMO of 2008.  To answer this question, we’ve got to go even a bit further out on the speculation branch, but Cole points out that Fantasy Westward Journey registered 2-3 million concurrent players back in August.  And although Warcraft likes to beat it’s own drum regarding their estimated 11 million+ players, “You’re lucky to get 5-10 percent [of them] playing at the same time,” says Cole.  Minho Kim, developer of Maple Story said in December that the title has 87+ million registrations, but wouldn’t comment on how many of these registered users were/are active monthly users.  Joost van Dreunen from DFC’ estimates the number to be more in the 13 – 17.4 million regular Maple Story players, roughly 15-20 percent of Kim’s estimation.

Cole admits that this year’s list looks remarkably similar to the 2007 list with Conan and Warhammer being released in 2008.  And while only 2 of the top 10 contain some type of microtransaction support, I’d estimate that this list might look very different one year from now with a number of highly anticipated (think Free Realms and Battlefield Heroes) free-to-plays coming online in ’09.

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Microtransactions enter center stage at E for All

Sunday, October 5th, 2008

The E for All expo wraps up today in Los Angeles, but not before microtransaction based games got their fair share of attention.

Top tier titles such as EverQuest, WoW, and EVE Online all have their own ingame economies, but the E for All expo gave free-to-play, microtransaction based titles a chance to shine.  Nexon American’s marketing manager Meghan Myskowski wouldn’t exactly release usage patterns since 2005 for their groundbreaking title Maple Story, but she did say that the game spearheaded the microtransaction movement in the US.

“Now, people are used to paying for virtual items,” said Myskowski. “Virtual life has changed substantially.”

Another spotlighted game is Mindark’s Entropia Universe.  Originally launched in 2004 as Project Entropia, they now have a registered user count clocking in around the 800,000 mark, with only about 40 percent of users registered in the US.  MindArk says that since it’s inception, approximately $400 million worth of transactions have occurred.  Entropia’s in game currency, the PED has an exchange rate of 1:10 – $:PED.  However, in game items do not see a real wold conversion factor, in so much as a special coat may cost $1700 (and at that real world price, it had better have a Gucci label attached to it).

MindArk is already making preparations to raise their profile by implementing the new CryEngine 2 , which promises even more photorealistic game play.  The CryEngine update is expected to release in early 2009.

President of the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences, Joseph Olin says, “Most people playing in these persistent world environments are building their character. In E.V.E., third party brokers trade currencies in virtual worlds. Nexon has shown across all of their games that if you have the right balance of in-game economies and real world value, consumers are happy to spend some money there.”

Olin’s position on the business model as a whole is slightly biased towards producers and not players.  “Interactive entertainment companies are looking for ways to monetize their investment. The changing nature of PC entertainment software distribution, and the advent of console entertainment systems, has changed what software entertainment companies can do. You can’t sell boxed entertainment anymore. And people who are playing games aren’t always playing them on PCs anymore.”

Not just relying on microtransactions in MMO’s, Olin quickly turns his attention to the rise of music based games, specifically the microtransaction  model in Guitar Hero and Rock Band.  “Downloadable content and microtransactions for console based games are on the rise–look at Guitar Hero and Rock Band, where people anticipate downloadable Tuesdays, and you see huge numbers, half-a-million people downloading a song.”

Summing up the industry Olin adds, “consumers have so many different paths and choices to make, that the traditional business model of the consumer buying from a store, those walls are crumbling because everything is in real-time, and everything is connected.”

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Nexon’s Min Kim on the North American free-to-play market

Thursday, September 18th, 2008

When Nexon’s Min Kim took to the podium at the AGDC this week, he first asked the audience a rather logical question: “How many of you here are interested in developing a free-to-play title”?  Approximately 70 percent of the willing and able audience raised their hand.  Fair enough, when you want to get into the game, who better to turn to than one of the experts?  Kim took the question a bit further, by asking, “And how many of you have played Maple Story”, a few hands amongst that 70 percent sank.  Kim ventured one further and asked about Kart Rider, and only about 20 percent of the hands stayed in the air.

Kim jovially scolded his audience with, “The first step to developing free to play MMOs is to play the games. People think they know how to make these games, and yet they’ve never played a FTP MMO before. I think it’s really irresponsible.  If you can’t do it, get an intern to do it and tell you what it’s like.”
Talk about a swift kick in the pants as a wakeup call for developers.  And rightly so.  Basic business sense dictates that you’ve got to know a bit about the industry you’re looking to enter, and a thing or two about what your competitors are doing.

Kim continued on into his talk, speaking to the misconception that free-to-plays are sub quality titles in the North American market.  Pulling some fantastic data from his Nexon magic bag, Kim provided audience members with 2005-2007 North American numbers.  The results speak for themselves:

Nexon America Revenues

  • 2005 – Approx. $650,000
  • 2006 – $8.457M – with the addition of paypal as a payment method
  • 2007 – $29.334M – with the addition of Nexon cash cards in major retail stores

While Nexon and many other developers and publishers hail from Korea, Kim sees the future of free-to-play in Western titles.  We’ve seen this happen in other places like China.  The big games now are from Chinese developers. I think the same thing will happen in the West, with Western-developed titles.”
And while most Westerners view free-to-play titles as casual or n00b gamers only, Kim is quick to point out the gross misconception, “We don’t make games for non-gamers. We make games for gamers that are accessible to non-gamers, and that’s a big difference.”

Developers looking to produce a quality free-to-play should be visiting and playing a wide variety of in play free-to-plays.  And not just play, but head to the milk house as well.  “…try out and study all the shops. There are tens of games out there that are free to play. I think if you visit those shops, see those games, I think you’ll take one piece of learning from each one.”

Warning producers of common pitfalls, Kim also points out, “Don’t have all your items and categories pegged out. Make sure you have a fun game, first.” 9 times out of 10 the ideas you’ll have at the beginning will be wrong. The players will tell you what they want to buy.”  Another warning comes via the gaming lifecycle and time-limited play, “It’s not about shareware. Expansions and content are generally free; it’s all about extending the lifecycle so you can continue to sell items, or subscriptions. Do not lock players out of real content.”

Towards the end of his talk, Kim also spoke to the new and incoming gamers, and how to treat them.  He admits that Koreans have not been the best at this procedure, and how he envisions the western markets doing it a bit better.  “This is something Korea hasn’t done well and I think something that North American developers could do a lot better. And that’s carefully building the initial experience of free to play. It’s incredibly important is to protect those new players. Veteran players will spank a new player who just happens to wander in, so make sure they start in a safe place where they won’t just get headshot 15 times.”

While this is certainly not Min Kim’s first public address regarding free-to-plays, and probably won’t be his last, the AGDC audience was a bit warmer to the topic than previously seen.  The question of does free-to-play have a place in the market is dead.  Obviously it does.  With Nexon’s Combat Arms receiving (dare I say it?) recognition and a nod from ‘core gamers’, EA jumping into the pool and id Software bringing a free-to-play offering to market, it’s no longer a question of “should we?”, but rather “how good, and how fast can we make one?”  The day and age of each top tier developer/publisher with a quality free-to-play is rapidly approaching.  How many of these developers have the necessary experience to monetize this title via micro-transactions?  Who better to speak to than fatfoogoo, because There’s Money in Your Game.

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Fatfoogoo goes b2b with bbq flava

Wednesday, June 4th, 2008

Focusing not only on the needs of the player alone, after careful research and consideration, your favorite foogoos are now opening the doors to partnerships with individual game publishers. No worries, the current state of fatfoogoo isn’t going anywhere, and we’ve still got your back for all things trading. We’ve simply added another dish to the menu.

We took a long hard look at not only the technologies that we’ve developed in house, the experience and knowledge that we’ve gained, but also at what players and publishers across the world are looking for in a gaming experience. Combine that with the current state of the industry and the tremendous interest and revenue streams in the micro transaction field, adding the fatfoogoo partnership program was a no brainer.

In a recent interview fatfoogoo CEO Martin Herdina sites, “The trading and selling of virtual assets is truly the future of online gaming. It is an important alternative business model to the classical subscription fee-based programs that are currently dominating the industry. Fatfoogoo looks to fulfill a demand for this market. Our new Partnership program enables us to provide the best of both worlds: Primary Market trading, i.e. Publisher to Player and Secondary Market Trading, i.e. Player to Player trading. With the incredible growth of both primary and secondary trading markets, most major publishers understand that there is a need for an independently operated, fair and secure marketplace for virtual goods and services.”

And what a demand it is. The secondary trading market for virtual assets alone is currently growing at astonishing rates, going from revenues of approximately $1 billion in 2006 to an expected $7 billion in 2009, according to Nielsen.

This model has already been proven in Asia with Maple Story and Kartrider, both published by Nexon games. Research has shown that 8%-30% of all players purchase items via micro transactions. This in turn results in a higher revenue stream for publishers as opposed to the traditional subscription fee model. According to industry experts, on average, ‘Free to Play’ games generate anywhere between $15-$20/month. In the April edition of Fortune Magazine, senior writer Devin Leonard weighed in on the future of gaming:

(Game Publisher) Nexon pioneered this business – hooking players with a seductive free game while urging them at every turn to purchase extras using prepaid debit cards sold at retail outlets like Target. Nexon collects ad revenue in overseas markets, but in the United States the big money so far is in these microtransactions: $1.6 million a month. John Chi, CEO of Nexon America, says that the Nexon card is the second-best-selling prepaid card at Target – after the iTunes card. (Target will say only that Nexon cards are “doing really well.”)

Our experience in the virtual world micro transaction field is unparalleled. Not only have we created a multilingual platform, currency, taxation, and support system, but also gained real life experience and have weeded out a lot of headaches. As with anything in life, nothing is 100% certain, but here at the foogoo, we’ve already dealt with a whole number of things that could go wrong, have fixed them, and have learned from them. No other system in the world can match our level of multi national experience.

Back at the top-secret underground foogoo labs, our partnership engineers are already hard at work developing solutions for clients. Stay tuned, as we’ll be announcing some of our exciting partnerships soon!

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ION Game Conference in Seattle: redefining online

Tuesday, May 27th, 2008

ION Game Conference in Seattle: redefining online

Under the motto “Redefining Online”, the Annual ION Game Conference took place in Seattle, WA ion between the 13th and 15th of May. The global gaming industry converged at ION to discuss the future of Online Gaming, exchange news, and set new goals for the coming years. Besides industry titans from both the US and Asia such as EA Games, Bigpoint, Crytek, and Epik; fatfoogoo was one of the few European companies present. We were here not only to represent Fatfoogoo, but also to get a view of the newest developments in online gaming. How these developments look, and where they will be taking the next generation of Online Gaming, we proudly present to you here:

Free Games with downloadable content and additional services

The first Trend that’s abuzz in the industry is the increasing alternatives to drive revenue generation. Publishers will sooner or later move further and further away from costly subscription fees and expensive stand alone games, and more in the direction of a “Free to play” platform, i.e. the game is free to download and play, but it’s also self financing by additional downloadable content, services, and micro-transactions between player to player or publisher to player. An excellent example of this concept would be South Korean publishers Nexon, who with Court Rider and Maple Story have banked over $230M in turnover, or German publisher Bigpoint whom already have over 10 million users. On average 8%-30% of these users have already, or will in the future pay for additional functionality and levels.

Outsourcing

The second trend amongst game publishers deals with competition in the global market and the often negative feelings/opinions associated with outsourcing. In order to spend more time in developing games, publishers are increasingly relying on third technologies; game engines, sound creation tools, and/or micro transactions (the selling and/or trading of objects, items and services within a game), between players or between publishers and players. The time and money saved with outsourcing should be reinvested in the core components of manufacturer; game development. There’s already a prime example of a masterful use of outsourcing in Epik’s Unreal 3. Unreal 3′s engines are pretty much the same as any 3D shooter, but they employ various sound engines from the Dolby Engineering labs, or micro-transactions from operators like fatfoogoo. The already existing cooperation with second and third line suppliers of engines and services should be worked out in the future. At it’s essence this will free up game publishers to do what they do best: Develop and publish games.

The merging of (suppossed) opposites

The third trend focuses on the fusion of the various different pieces of Social Networking and Gaming. The border between PC and Console, virtual worlds, games and personal net applications, mobile and casual games is becoming more and more blurred each day and should interoperate with each other – technically, functionally and economically. The platforms will be open to each other, and offer the end users several different levels of interaction. Nevertheless, the challenge for this kind of openness in technology lies not only in the tech sector, but the judicial as well. Copyright and tax laws vary from state to state, country to country. The challenge of a functional multinational system is a priority not only for software and hardware manufacturers, but for politicians as well.

Final Thoughts

Final thoughts and personal observations from Martin Herdina, our foogoo on the ground at ION:

A letter from America

Martin HerdinaBeing back in Europe the jetlag still doesn’t allow me much sleep at night but – and what’s a lot more relevant – I am looking back to a super exciting week at fatfoogoo.

Listening to the industry legends from EA, THQ and NCSoft talk about micro-transactions as the future revenue model for online gaming and to the success stories around Nexon’s “Cartrider” in Korea ($ 250M p.a.) has been extremely interesting and demonstrated once again that fatfoogoo is serving exactly the right market segment at exactly the right time.

Apart from these business aspects I met a full crowd of great people from the US gaming industry, enjoyed some super cool US Ska music at night (check out http://www.myspace.com/dealsgonebad) and was successful at avoiding all business-development meetings taking place in one of Seattle’s strip clubs.

Best,
Martin

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