Posts Tagged ‘microtransactions’

« Older Entries

Google to launch Android in-app payments this week

Monday, March 28th, 2011

Google is gearing up to officially support in-app transactions on the Android Market this week. You might remember that they made the announcement back in January, and it appears as though all systems are go sometime this week. Google is encouraging developers to upload and test their microtransactions enabled apps via the Developer Console asap, as the big G wants to ensure that the secure billing mechanism is lock tight before unleashing the function into the wild.

Android Developer Ecosystem Manager Eric Chu writes, “In preparation for the launch, we are opening up Android Market for upload and end-to-end testing of your apps that use In-app Billing. You can now upload your apps to the Developer Console, create a catalog of in-app products, and set prices for them. You can then set up accounts to test in-app purchases. During these test transactions, the In-app Billing service interacts with your app exactly as it will for actual users and live transactions.”

All fine and dandy, but aren’t in-app purchases already available on Android? Certainly! Zong, BOKU, PayPal, and PlaySpan all have 3rd party enabled in-app purchasing mechanisms, so what’s the big deal?

The big deal here is that while on paper, nothing groundbreaking or new, but rather, making the platform far more attractive to both developers and consumers.

Developers

By enabling their own in-app transactions, thereby cutting out any 3rd parties, Google has effectively given the green light to developers to port their title from iOS, which, of course, already supports in-app transactions. Granted, not an easy task, but with the proliferation of Android, and now combined with a direct billing method to the actual vendor of said app, I can’t imagine a developer who would pass this option up. The revenues speak for themselves.

Consumer

Likewise, this new feature for Android could signal a much larger project in the works at Google. A project we’ve already seen, but perhaps haven’t put the two together yet. I’ll explain. By enabling in-app transactions directly via Google, the company is now allowing users a very simple, no frills method whereby they can simply buy away via the credit card details stored within a Google Checkout account. No 3rd party with your details, or no need to re-enter that 16 digit string every time you want to make a purchase. Credit card details stored with Google. Android now offering in-app purchases via Google Checkout. Google teams with MasterCard and Citigroup to enable NFC payments (and files a patent). See where I’m going with this?

Google Checkout has long been a property that’s been a quiet one in the mix. It’s been the payment mechanism that Google always seem one or two steps behind their competitors on. And while Mountain View may have been keeping this sleeping dragon quiet for a while, the combination of in-app purchases, Android, and NFC technology could just be the beginning of a whole new way of business at Google.

Tags: , , ,
Posted in industry news | No Comments »

 

Nexon acquires NDoors

Wednesday, May 5th, 2010

NDoors, most noted for their development work in hit titles Atlantica and GoonZu has recently been acquired by Seoul, Korea based Nexon Corporation.

ndoorsMapleStory, and arguably microtransactions founder, Nexon Corporation announced it’s successful majority stake purchase of fellow Korean MMO firm NDoors Corp. The deal saw 67 percent of NDoors’ stake sold to Nexon. This percentage also includes shares from the former NDoors chairman, Seong-Mun Kwon. This majority stake buy in will now give Nexon management rights as the largest shareholder. At the end of the day, NDoors will be incorporated as a subsidiary of Nexon.

The logic behind the buy in is that NDoors’ talent will increase the enterprise value and strengthen Nexon’s core capabilities.

“Nexon has been carrying out ongoing investment in the companies with outstanding development efforts” said Su-Min, CEO of NEXON. “NDOORS, as well as an excellent development capability with domestic and international publishing capabilities would be a big help to expand NEXON’s portfolio and to carry out a global expansion policy” he added.

First established in 1999, originally under the name Intizen Co., NDoors is based in Seoul, Korea, and has licensed a number of MMORPGs in Europe and Asia. In the North American market, NDoors Interactive has made strides in the free-to-play department with Atlantica Online, WonderKing Online, and Luminary: Rise of the Goonzu.

NDoors’ pulled down around $36.3 million in 2009, with an operating profit of $14 million, with 72 percent of total sales coming from overseas distributors.

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in industry news | No Comments »

 

Digital Chocolate uses OpenFeint to produce first free-to-play iPhone title

Thursday, April 1st, 2010

OpenFeint, a leading social networking platform solution provider, recently announced a partnership with game developer Digital Chocolate to help produce the company’s first free-to-play title for iPhone and iPod Touch. Titled Fantasy Warrior Legends, Digital Chocolate’s game is now available for free at the App Store.

IMG_0040Only about a month and a half after Open Feint’s announcement of their social features for free-to-play iPhone games, Digital Chocolate is utilizing these tools, and providing players with the options to post scores on leaderboards, track their progress, access live forums and chat with other OpenFeint players to share tips and tricks about the game.

“We’re excited to launch Digital Chocolate’s first freemium game on the OpenFeint social gaming network. With an engaged community of more than 17 million players, OpenFeint is the perfect platform to launch a social, RPG game,” said Jason Citron, Founder and CEO of Aurora Feint, Inc.

Fanstasy Warrior Legends is Digital Chocolate’s fourth title using the OpenFeint technology, but the first to be offered as a free-to-play. Players engage in a heroic battle as “Rento”, and must ultimately destroy the evil Demon Lord. The title was specifically designed with iPhone and iPod Touch features in mind, players use the multi-touch feature to navigate and fight monsters by touching and tapping screen controls. Likewise, Digital Chocolate is also using the microtransactions feature of the Apps Store, with a digital market built in that will allow players to make RMT’s for virtual goods that will enhance their game experience.

“Fantasy Warrior Legends is our first free-to-play game that will contain an in-game social platform, and with OpenFeint’s collaboration, we will be able to give users a sense of community,” said Trip Hawkins, Founder and CEO of Digital Chocolate (formerly founder of EA). “This allows us to give consumers an even more engaging RPG adventure.”

OpenFeint will feature Fantasy Warrior Legends in the exclusive “Free Game of the Day” spotlight on Sunday April 11th, 2010. During the promo, users will be able to download 400 in-game gems for free to beef up their action-adventure gameplay.

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in industry news | No Comments »

 

Steamworks to support microtransations

Monday, March 22nd, 2010

As always, many a new product, title, concept, and methods were discussed at this year’s GDC. While some announcements were highlighted stronger than others, there are always a bit of tidbits which may or may not have been announced at the convention, and how much media coverage said announcement receives.

micro

One such bit o’ info was spotted by a few eagle eyed editors over at BigDownload.com. Apparently, Valve Steamwork’s popular game service game development tools PDF brochure reveals that Steamworks will now support in-game microtransactions.

This unannounced addition has been subtly slipped into the fine print, seemingly while we were all ogling over the Mac client support and Epic Games’ adding Steamworks support to Unreal Engine 3 based titles. In addition to the microtransaction support, Valve also managed to slip in an 100 fold increase in cloud storage limits, up to 100MB per game, as opposed to the previous 1MB.

From Steampowered’s overview of changes site:

Want to offer your customers a scabbard for their sword? New tires? The latest in night vision goggles? Now you can through microtransaction support in Steamworks. Your item server can now be easily integrated with Steamworks so that Steam users can buy and instantly use the items they want – all without leaving the game. Steam handles all of the billing through the user’s Steam account.

And while microtransactions are most seemingly a welcome addition to many developers, it’s also an interesting situation for Steam to be in. Could these microtransactions (and associated support) be paving the way for free-to-play games on Stream? And if so…does this then in turn open the door for free-to-play titles being based on Source and Unreal game engines? If so….. wow!

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in industry news | No Comments »

 

EA plans Masters release of Tiger Woods PGA Tour Online

Thursday, March 18th, 2010

EA Sports announced yesterday, in conjunction with Tiger Woods’ return to golf statement, that the full commercial version of Tiger Woods PGA Tour Online will go live on or around the time of this years’ upcoming Masters golf tournament.

Tiger WoodsEA’s Peter Moore revealed at the IMG World Congress of Sports in Los Angeles that the launch of the browser based, free-to-play title will coincide with consumers peak interest in the golfing world. “It’s more than serendipity. That’s when people start thinking golf. It’s the first major,” comments Moore.

Moore also revealed that current beta testers are playing around 40,000 rounds of golf a day. The final version of the Tiger Woods PGA Tour Online will remain free-to-play, but will also feature subscriptions, microtransactions, advertising, and possible downloads. Moore declined to comment on any of the pricing structures.

Adding to the Tigermania, EA Sports, which generates approximately 30 percent of EA’s overall income reports that they’re still on track with their planned June release of the console version of the Tiger Woods franchise which will be available for the wii, Xbox 360, PS3, and iPhone.

Clearly, EA is capitalizing on Tiger Woods’ recent announcement that he’ll be returning to the golf tour this coming April in Augusta, Georgia. And unless you’ve been living under a rock, we all know the trouble surrounding Tiger’s personal life as of late. As a result, Woods has seen a fair share of sponsors either distance themselves from, or drop completely, Tiger’s endorsement deals. Accenture PLC, AT&T Inc., and PepsiCo Inc’s Gatorade all backed out on their sponsorship deals. On the other side of the coin, both Nike Inc. and EA Sports have stood strong behind their golfer of choice.

A quick look at what Tiger’s announcement has done to the golf world may bode extremely well for those that decided to stay behind Tiger. Normally selling for around $200 a ticket, post Tiger’s entry announcement, ticket outlet StubHub reports prices averaging around $500. The site reported seeing 5 times the normal activity on Tuesday, and pages where Masters tickets could be purchased experiences a 70 percent surge in traffic. Granted, these are only ticket prices, and have no direct connection to how well the online game will perform, but….if this data is an indication of things to come, EA’s ‘stand by your man’ policy could reap rewards tenfold.

The EA Sports/Tiger Woods deal was inked back in 1997, and 12 versions of the console game have borne Woods’ name. It’s estimated that the Tiger Woods titles sell around 2 million copies annually, generating around $80 million in net revenue.

Tags: , , , , , , ,
Posted in industry news | No Comments »

 

Excalibur Online opens closed beta to 1000 exclusive invitees

Monday, March 15th, 2010

Omniverse Games has recently announced an exclusive beta tester event for the upcoming Excalibur Online title. The browser based, real-time strategy MMO, developed by Radiance Digital Entertainment will open the doors to an exclusive 1000 players, beginning on March 18, 2010. This will be the first public viewing of the highly anticipated title, where users will put the game to the test, attempting to unify Britain under their own banner, or…will they fail miserably, and be overrun by other players?

ShopA free-to-play, browser based strategy MMO, Excalibur Online is set in Roman Britain, respectively, before the rise of King Arthur and Camelot. In this disjointed, and dark time, players must sally forth to create their own domains. Challenges include gathering of resources, the building of cities, research and development of technologies, and naturally, raise an army, for both defense and offense. As with any MMO, players are challenged with quests, but they can also form alliances that will assist them in the ultimate campaign – to claim Excalibur as their own, and thus, unify the land. Naturally…when thousands of players around the world are all seeking the same ultimate goal – massive battles are bound to occur.

In order to accomplish these lofty goals, players are provided with 16 different types of military units, including magic users and a number of siege weapons. Adding to the realistic environment are over a dozen types of building structures, tavern included, of course, where users can (get potential) heroes (drunk), and recruit them to their cause. There are over 100 heroes available for (drinking with) recruiting, all of them having a real-world historical connection to the Arthurian time period.

“We are pleased to be sharing the results of our hard work with the public for the very first time,” said Jonathan Seidenfeld, CEO of Omniverse Games. “Excalibur Online will provide a rich online experience for veteran strategy gamers, but is easy enough to learn for those new to the genre.”

Excalibur Online not only promises exciting browser based strategy gaming, but will also feature a weekly server wide “Battle for Avalon”. This massive PvP battle will allow any player to commit as many troops as they’d like to one of the opposing armies. Loot will then be divided up based on the percentage of troops committed, thereby encouraging players to contribute to truly massive battles. Naturally, weekly winners will have bragging rights across the server and forums.

There’s no solid details on how Excalibur Online’s microtransactions will work, or at what level of detail they will take on, but Ominiverse Games specializes in free-to-play gaming, with a microtransactions supported business model, so chances are they’ll be doing their best to capitalize on the incoming excitement and rush of interest.

While Omniverse is only letting in 1000 hand selected players into this beta event, interested players can sign up for future beta invites, as well as view screenshots, and learn more in depth about the title at excaliburmmo.com.

Tags: , , ,
Posted in industry news | No Comments »

 

Frogster joins the masses – enters Facebook gaming

Friday, March 12th, 2010

If there’s one consistent theme I’ve noticed over the course of this year’s Game Developers Conference is the heavy push on Facebook gaming.  Last year, the overwhelming theme was free-to-play/microtransactions.  This year, the gaming community seems to have found it’s darling where it can successfully implement these microtransactions: Facebook.

runes+of+magicNot to be left in the dust, San Francisco/Berlin based Frogster announced yesterday that they’re jumping in the Facebook game, and will be bringing a slimmed down version of their popular “Runes of Magic” free-to-play MMO.  The Facebook version, titled, “Runes of Magic – The Challenge” will be the companies first foray into the rapidly growing casual games on social networks.

Set in the same world as the full version, Runes of Magic – The Challenge, will features adventure, exploration, and strategy elements.  The Challenge is slated to take full advantage of networking gaming and viral communications, with the ultimate goal of igniting interest in the full version.  Runes of Magic – The Challenge will also attempt to increase the pull-and-convert method through rewarding special cards with codes that may then be redeemed in the full client based version of the game.

“Runes of Magic is the first free-to-play MMO game ever to expand into the social networks sphere with a rich, full, social gaming experience that will appeal to fantasy fans of all ages – independently of whether they play the full client game or not”, comments Lars Koschin, CEO of Frogster America, Inc. “With the success of Runes of Magic among core MMO players, it was a natural decision to build upon the franchise by taking it to a genre with mass market appeal and the powerful viral approach of the rapidly evolving social networks. The result is ‘Runes of Magic – The Challenge’ for Facebook.”

“Runes of Magic – The Challenge” is being produced by Frogster America and developed by Mothership Interactive, Inc. Frogster’s first social game is scheduled to be launched in the second quarter of 2010 in Europe and America .

As the final cherry atop the proverbial sundae, Frogster will soon implement the  Facebook Connect interface, allowing current and future Runes of Magic players to find other RoM players within Facebook, as well as invite their existing contacts to join them in the full version of the game.

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in industry news | No Comments »

 

Sony takes the Facebook plunge

Tuesday, March 9th, 2010

Sony announced yesterday that they’re getting into gaming outside the PC or console/handheld world. This marks the first time in over a decade that SOE has announced a title outside their own comfort zone.

PoxNoraThe popular turn based strategy game PoxNora is now available on Facebook. Obviously capitalizing on their own gaming expertise, not only is Sony jumping into the Facebook gaming world with PoxNora, but they also planning on bringing a number of additional games to Facebook based on existing franchises and new intellectual property.

PoxNora is a mix of strategy game play and a collectible card game. Set in a fantasy world consisting of mystic creatures, relics, and spells, Sony’s acquisition of PoxNora in January 2009 has since expanded and has reached over 2.5 million users to date.

“The Facebook platform offers gamers a new and powerful way to interact with and tap into their social communities,” said John Smedley, president of Sony Online Entertainment. “With the launch of PoxNora for Facebook, we are leveraging the expertise SOE has gained bringing entertainment to the online gaming community for over 10 years.”

Naturally when speaking of Facebook gaming, one must think of the microtransactions monetization aspect. To this end, SOE has customized the Facebook version of PoxNora to appeal to a wide social networking platform based audience. I.e., Sony’s obviously had a close eye on what current Facebook gaming superstars (Zynga, for example) have been up to, and will obviously adapt a similar approach. The current PoxNora version features some common social networking features including friend invitations and accomplishment updates. Presumably, Sony will roll out additional features to not only catch up to what a number of startups have been using to their advantage for a while now, but hopefully, innovate some new ones.

Sony points to Facebook’s virtual goods business as a major factor in the decision to jump on board. An interesting move to bring a relatively unknown title to a major platform. On the other side of the coin, perhaps bringing a relative newcomer to a major table may be a very smart way for Sony to test the waters. If PoxNora does well, then Sony is already building a playbook of what to do with a major title, and likewise, if it fails miserably, at least they’ll know what not to do with one of the “number of additional games” that they’ll soon be bringing to Facebook.

Tags: , , , , , , , ,
Posted in industry news | No Comments »

 

Sony’s train keeps a rollin’ – 9 million Free Realms players in the bag

Monday, March 8th, 2010

Sony’s been after a smash hit MMO for quite some time now, with more than a few ‘hardcore’ MMO titles coming and going. However, when Sony took a chance on a family/kid friendly title last year, they also jumped on board with the free-to-play model. It looks like that gamble is not only starting to pay off – but paying off handsomely.

Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) recently announced that they’ve surpassed the 9 million player mark with Free Realms. “With Free Realms, we’ve been able to reflect the needs and wants of our players by keenly listening to their suggestions and feedback,” said John Smedley, president of SOE. “We believe the persistent exercise of capturing in-game research inside Free Realms has been a huge contributing factor as to why we’ve attracted over nine million players in less than a year. It truly helps us give our players a game where they can do and be whatever they want.”

SOE cites continuous development, as well as a sustained and targeted marketing approach as a strong factor in pulling in new players, as well as keeping current players satisfied and coming back for more. An example of this interaction can be found in SOE’s development of a player requested feature – Rides.

Rides allow Membership holding players to ride a T-Rex or Dragon, of their color and preference choosing of course, anywhere in the virtual world with a 150 percent speed increase. Sony says that Horse rides are in the works, as well as additional Rides (let’s just call them Mounts for common-speak sake).

And while Sony is enjoying a 9 million player success story, they are, however, a bit tight lipped about any revenue generated via Free Realms. Yes, the game is free-to-play, but obviously Sony is looking for revenue generating possibilities via microtransactions. On the other side of the coin, this is, after all, Sony that we’re talking about here, who are no strangers to sinking massive amounts of capital into developing and current (and sometimes not-so-current) projects.

To put Free Realms’ 9 million users in perspective, while not exactly in the same vain, Zynga’s Farmville counts over 80 million users, while free-to-play landscape dominator RuneScape has approximately 156 million registered accounts, with over 10 million active players per month. So while 9 million users is nothing to sneeze at, Sony’s still got a long road to travel to make Free Realms the king of the hill.

Tags: , , , , , , ,
Posted in industry news | No Comments »

 

Facebook gains patent, plans to make microtransactions easier

Monday, March 1st, 2010

Facebook announced late last week that they’ve officially been granted a U.S. patent for their ‘news feed’ technology. This announcement follows just one week after the company announced that they’d partnered with PayPal as a payment provider within the massive social network system. The latter announcement officially puts to bed any rumors about Facebook developing any type of internal microtransactions payment platform that has been a source of speculation for quite some time.

The News Feed patent now shores up Facebook’s main content delivery mechanism to be free from copycats. In the official filing, Facebook’s patent includes, “a method for displaying a news feed in a social network environment.” The documentation goes on to also cite, “new items regarding activities associated with a user of a social network environment and attaching an informational link associated with at least one of the activities, to at least one of the news items, as well as limiting access to the news items to a predetermined set of viewers and assigning an order to the news items.” If any of this sounds remotely familiar, think Twitter, i.e. network activity and attaching informational links, etc. However, when viewed under the microscope, the patent does not use specific wording such as ‘timeline’ (i.e. twitter’s nomenclature). Facebook reps comment only that they are “please with being awarded the patent,” but failed to comment on how the patent may effect how other social networks use a similar method to display user information.

This patent also brings up other related social networking patents. You’ll remember that former U.S. based social network Friendster (now owned by Malaysia’s MOL Global) owns 5 social networking based patents including: “compatibility scoring of users in a social network”, “how people are connected on a social network”, “the process of friends encouraging each other to upload content”, and “ways for users to manage social network friendships.” Obviously, there’s a high cross over in the social networking arena, and Friendster has yet to exercise these patents, but Facebook could very well take a different route, but probably won’t. It’s a score for Facebook to win the patent, but actually enforcing it could prove to be a PR disaster for the company.

On the microtransactions front, Facebook reports that there are now over half a million applications available to it’s users (in comparison, back in November, wired reported that Apple’s iPhone had over 100,000 downloadable apps available). Facebook put it’s ‘credits’ system in to play back in May, but hasn’t really pushed the product. However, with this many apps available, the monetization potential is clearly too big to ignore. Facebook comments that its, “early testing has show that users pay with Facebook Credits are significantly more likely to complete a purchase than the average Facebook user,” in reference to those that pay with an RMT. This data has clearly prompted Facebook to start looking at it’s ‘Credits’ system a bit more seriously, presumably one of the reasons behind the PayPal announcement.

To this end, along with their patent announcement, Facebook has officially announced that it will now make integrating its credits system much easier for application developers. Backing this up, the company also says that they will invest in research to “improve the program and increase conversion and net revenue for developers.”

As with most online application revenue generators (think Apple iTunes store), Facebook wants a cut of the revenue, as they provide the exposure and platform for said applications. Facebook plans on taking a 30 percent cut on all sales, the remaining 70 percent going to apps developers.

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in industry news | No Comments »

 
« Older Entries