Posts Tagged ‘WildTangent’

WildTangent previews new online gaming service

Wednesday, July 21st, 2010

Packed with over 1,000 games, WildTangent’s preview of their upcoming gaming service seeks to a wide variety of social and entertainment features to participants. With properties ranging from Disney to PopCap to Ubisoft, it looks like the WildTangent team might just have a WildWinner on their hands.

wildtangentgamesDubbed WildTangent Games, WildTangent’s newest offering platforms itself as an, “online games service and unique games app, that will soon feature social games and premium flash games…” For the multitasker in all of us, WIldTangent Games will also allow players to tap into other forms of entertainment, TV, Music, Facebook, etc. without the annoying alt/tab, but rather, built right into one single portal.

“Our new games service will be an entirely new arena for both game players and the game developers who create great experiences for our consumers,” said Sean Vanderdasson, senior vice president at WildTangent. “We’ll continue to offer games tailored for all members of the household as well as our unique free/rent/own model. Now, however, developers of all types, including social developers and those whose games include digital items, can benefit from inclusion within our service.”

Taking a page perhaps from the earliest versions of Facebook, WIldTangent Games features a clean and uncluttered, if minimal, look. The thinking here is to get gamers as fast as possible to the content they’re seeking. Keeping all your entertainment anchored is a tabbing system that includes quick passage to other entertainment forms, i.e. the aforementioned “others.”

By way of monetization, Vanderdasson comments, “We’ve been conducting focus groups and researching the game play behavior of our consumers, and believe we’ve created a service that will be enjoyable for our consumers as well as fruitful for game developers. Some new game formats like social games and flash games with digital items can be challenging to monetize. We’re bringing our digital currency and top advertising partners into the mix so our game players can now choose whether they’d like to receive a digital item as a “gift” from a relevant brand, purchase digital items with WildCoins or choose other options. We believe we’ve created a great experience for everyone.”

Interested gamers can get cracking on WildTangent’s newest offering at wildtangent.com. Vanderdasson also adds that the service is in “preview” mode, and that the company is keen on collecting user feedback to incorporate into the full release version of the platform.

 

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

Friday, July 25th, 2008

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.”

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