According to the creator of the blockbuster video game Final Fantasy, Hironobu Sakaguchi, tablets offer a similar opportunity as consoles for developers in video games. Final Fantasy had 80 million users and was among the most popular game in the 1990's. Sakaguchi bets on mobile and tablets as the formats of the future. He gave an interview to El Pais.
Question: How do you envision the future role of video games?
Answer: The graphics and sound will continue to evolve. Not only in this format. We will see more and more advanced phones.
P. Do you think the tablets and phones can compete with the consoles?
R. The hardware offers similar architecture. For example, PlayStation Vita, coming out next week on sale in Europe, has some very similar to the iPhone. The tablets will have a similar power to home consoles. I think as a developer, it proposes an interesting scenario.
P. Do you think Sony and Nintendo will succumb to this phenomenon and stop making consoles?
R. That's a business decision. The fact is that the devices increasingly look more technically. In the future there will be much difference between supports. Soon we will see games made for television. The important thing is what the content send on the support.
P. How has meaning to re-direct 'The Last Story' after 20 years?
R. The role of producer and director is more diffuse than before. In Final Fantasy VI said goodbye to the address, but I stayed close to each creation. After, the Last Story, I took a year to think about new ideas. I realized I had to be getting involved and above all the process.
P. The critical stress games how to leverage the Wii graphics, do you think has peaked?
R. The graphics are complex.I always try to look after the maximum artistic aspect, but I think the limit is imagination.
P. One of its hallmarks is the characters, how is the process of creation?
R. Tactfully and making clear to the player who is who. Sometimes you come up with details, other times with conversations between them or commenting on aspects of the scenario to create some mystery and awaken interest.
P. In all his titles the characters have suffered some trauma vital, why?
R. All human beings have some kind of trauma. The important thing is to make it a motivation to do something, change things, brand personality.
P. Despite this depressing and very personal air has allowed users to customize to your liking, is to be projected on them?
R. The designer did not agree with me in doing something so open. It seemed to me very important that users feel closer and identified with a character with which they will live a long adventure.
P. The Last Story was released in Japan last year and has now reached Europe. Why is America? Is there much difference between these three regions?
R. The decision to take him to the U.S. is Nintendo of America. I hope so. I have great confidence in its success in Europe. I do not think that is both a cultural issue as to find the right niche audience. Depends on gender, age, interests ... When I create a new title I don't put the focus on a particular market.
P. The latter title is a renewal of the genre of role-playing games on consoles. What is the perfect combination of strategy and action to be successful?
R. I wish I had the recipe. I try always, with varying success.
P. Do you plan to create a game of this style to 3DS?
R. I have no plans for this platform. Instead I am making three games for IOS for both iPhone and iPad.
P. For five years is almost impossible to find a great production to dispense with an online version and a cooperative mode, how do you prepare for this format?
R. It is one of the most difficult aspects of the creative process. The whole team together, we discussed and we took it as an adventure completely different from zero. We have differentiated in the way of communicating because many games have the voice chat feature and I hate to use foul language. We decided that they would be used in the game dialogues themselves, which are written to communicate between players. In Japan it worked great. I hope that in Europe also like this integration.
Louis Rhéaume
Infocom Intelligence
louis@infocomintelligence.com
Twitter: @InfocomAnalysis
A blog on the convergence of info-communications industries: communications, computing, electronics, entertainment, publications and education. Strategic, technological and financial analysis. English and French blog. Cette chronique traite de l’évolution des industries de l’information et des communications et couvre des aspects stratégiques, technologiques et financiers, comme l’économie du savoir et de l’innovation. L’auteur est Associé principal de Infocom Intelligence.
Showing posts with label video games. Show all posts
Showing posts with label video games. Show all posts
Monday, February 27, 2012
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Social gaming will reach around 5.5 billion in 2015
The US social gaming market will blow past $5.5 billion in 2015, according to a new report by BI Intelligence. The social games market, including smartphones, will more than double from last year, where BI estimate it was $2 billion.
-Social games will disrupt the traditional gaming industry, by turning gaming into a service and making it free-to-play.
-Social games will break into the mainstream, as new kinds of games appeal to new audiences beyond today's, including hardcore gamers.
-Monetization will improve as more people pay and as social games advertising becomes valuable.
Zynga is well positioned to benefit from this growth, but it will face better competition.
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/the-social-gaming-market-will-explode-to-5-billion-by-2015-2012-2?nr_email_referer=1&utm_source=Triggermail&utm_medium=email&utm_term=SAI%20Select&utm_campaign=SAI%20Select%202012-02-22#ixzz1n8yuQKu5
Louis Rhéaume
Infocom Intelligence
louis@infocomintelligence.com
Twitter: @InfocomAnalysis
-Social games will disrupt the traditional gaming industry, by turning gaming into a service and making it free-to-play.
-Social games will break into the mainstream, as new kinds of games appeal to new audiences beyond today's, including hardcore gamers.
-Monetization will improve as more people pay and as social games advertising becomes valuable.
Zynga is well positioned to benefit from this growth, but it will face better competition.
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/the-social-gaming-market-will-explode-to-5-billion-by-2015-2012-2?nr_email_referer=1&utm_source=Triggermail&utm_medium=email&utm_term=SAI%20Select&utm_campaign=SAI%20Select%202012-02-22#ixzz1n8yuQKu5
Louis Rhéaume
Infocom Intelligence
louis@infocomintelligence.com
Twitter: @InfocomAnalysis
Thursday, January 26, 2012
3 emerging social learning trends
According to a recent survey by TrainingMag.com, US total expenditures in training appear to be increasing. The amount spent on training jumped about 13% from 2010, including increases in overall training budgets and payroll, and spending on outside products and services.
3 social learning trends are emerging:
1. Social Learning
For Tony Bingham, CEO of the American Society for Training and Development: “Social learning is learning with and from others, often — but not always — with social media tools,” Bingham explains. “Social learning is a powerful approach to sharing and discovering a whole array of options, leading to more informed decision-making and a more intimate, expansive and dynamic understanding of the culture and context in which we work.”
There are many benefits to incorporating social learning into an organization: “Incorporating social learning creates networks of knowledgeable people to work across time and space to make informed decisions and solve complex problems,” Bingham says. “Learning happens more quickly and broadly. Innovation happens faster. And tacit knowledge can be retained and reused.”
2. Social Networking Techniques
Many trainers are using social networking platforms to create activities and exercises for their programs. Jane Bozarth,author of Social Media for Trainers explains how using social networks can enhance training: “Social media tools help to amplify the social and informal learning already going on in organizations all the time, every day, and make the learning available on a much larger scale. They provide ways to connect talent pools and expertise in an organization or within a practice area, and can offer just-in-time solutions to problems and performance issues.”
“Participants are happy to engage with one another using social media tools for training purposes. They find it convenient, useful for learning at the moment of need, and [that it helps them] develop a greater sense of control over their learning.”
“Social media tools are just tools and can be effectively employed to support the gamut of training activities, from introductions to role plays to discussions of video clips, and anything in between.” But she does offer one recommendation: “I hope we see learning and development practitioners moving toward partnering with learners and away from feeling their role is to direct them.”
3. Gamification
A frequent training request is make subjects fun — and what better way to learn a new topic than by playing a game? Karl M. Kapp, professor of instructional technology at Bloomsburg University and author of The Gamification of Training: Game-based Methods and Strategies for Learning and Instruction, shares the concept of using games for learning. “Studies indicate that games, when designed properly, motivate learners, improve learner retention and encourage students who aren’t typically ‘academic’ to partake in the learning process,” he says. “There is no reason learning has to always be hard or difficult.”
“When done correctly, gamification provides an experience that is inherently engaging and, most importantly, promotes learning. The elements of games that make for effective gamification are those of storytelling, which provides a context, challenge, immediate feedback, sense of curiosity, problem-solving, a sense of accomplishment, autonomy and mastery.”
Adding social networks and games to training programs has the potential to shake up the learning experience. It can create constant learning opportunities, real-time knowledge sharing and improved participant engagement.
Source : Mashable
Louis Rhéaume
Infocom Intelligence
louis@infocomintelligence.com
Twitter: @InfocomAnalysis
3 social learning trends are emerging:
1. Social Learning
For Tony Bingham, CEO of the American Society for Training and Development: “Social learning is learning with and from others, often — but not always — with social media tools,” Bingham explains. “Social learning is a powerful approach to sharing and discovering a whole array of options, leading to more informed decision-making and a more intimate, expansive and dynamic understanding of the culture and context in which we work.”
There are many benefits to incorporating social learning into an organization: “Incorporating social learning creates networks of knowledgeable people to work across time and space to make informed decisions and solve complex problems,” Bingham says. “Learning happens more quickly and broadly. Innovation happens faster. And tacit knowledge can be retained and reused.”
2. Social Networking Techniques
Many trainers are using social networking platforms to create activities and exercises for their programs. Jane Bozarth,author of Social Media for Trainers explains how using social networks can enhance training: “Social media tools help to amplify the social and informal learning already going on in organizations all the time, every day, and make the learning available on a much larger scale. They provide ways to connect talent pools and expertise in an organization or within a practice area, and can offer just-in-time solutions to problems and performance issues.”
“Participants are happy to engage with one another using social media tools for training purposes. They find it convenient, useful for learning at the moment of need, and [that it helps them] develop a greater sense of control over their learning.”
“Social media tools are just tools and can be effectively employed to support the gamut of training activities, from introductions to role plays to discussions of video clips, and anything in between.” But she does offer one recommendation: “I hope we see learning and development practitioners moving toward partnering with learners and away from feeling their role is to direct them.”
3. Gamification
A frequent training request is make subjects fun — and what better way to learn a new topic than by playing a game? Karl M. Kapp, professor of instructional technology at Bloomsburg University and author of The Gamification of Training: Game-based Methods and Strategies for Learning and Instruction, shares the concept of using games for learning. “Studies indicate that games, when designed properly, motivate learners, improve learner retention and encourage students who aren’t typically ‘academic’ to partake in the learning process,” he says. “There is no reason learning has to always be hard or difficult.”
“When done correctly, gamification provides an experience that is inherently engaging and, most importantly, promotes learning. The elements of games that make for effective gamification are those of storytelling, which provides a context, challenge, immediate feedback, sense of curiosity, problem-solving, a sense of accomplishment, autonomy and mastery.”
Adding social networks and games to training programs has the potential to shake up the learning experience. It can create constant learning opportunities, real-time knowledge sharing and improved participant engagement.
Source : Mashable
Louis Rhéaume
Infocom Intelligence
louis@infocomintelligence.com
Twitter: @InfocomAnalysis
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
top 10 Apple iOS video games
What makes a great mobile game? Eye popping visuals? Solid gameplay and controls? Ease of entry, pick up and play features? Are casual games the best suited for Apple’s disruptive gaming device? What about core gaming, is it yet possible on these magical devices? What about social games, shooters, platformers?
According to VentureBeat, the answer: Yes. All of these make great games, and the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad will play them.
1-Dead Space for iPad
Released: Jan 24, 2011
Platforms: iPad & iPhone
Seller: Electronic Arts
2-Jetpack Joyride
Released: Sept 1, 2011
Platform: Universal App
Seller: Halfbrick Studios
3-Tiny Wings
Released: Feb 18, 2011
Platform: iPhone
Seller: Andreas Illiger
4-Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP
Released: March 23, 2011
Platform: Universal
Seller: Capybara Games
5-World of Goo HD
Released: April 13, 2011
Platform: Universal
Seller: 2D BOY
6-Gem Keeper
Released: October 13, 2011
Platform: Universal
Seller: NCsoft
7-Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing
Released: June 22, 2011
Platform: Universal
Seller: SEGA
8-Star Legends
Released: August 25, 2011
Platform: Universal
Seller: Spacetime Studios
9-Real Racing 2 HD
Released: March 11, 2011
Platform: iPad
Seller: Firemint
10-Casey’s Contraptions HD
Released: May 18, 2011
Platform: Universal
Seller: Snappy Touch
Louis Rhéaume
Infocom Intelligence
louis@infocomintelligence.com
Twitter: @InfocomAnalysis
Source: http://venturebeat.com/2011/11/22/top-10-ios-games-2011/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Venturebeat+%28VentureBeat%29&utm_content=Google+Reader
According to VentureBeat, the answer: Yes. All of these make great games, and the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad will play them.
1-Dead Space for iPad
Released: Jan 24, 2011
Platforms: iPad & iPhone
Seller: Electronic Arts
2-Jetpack Joyride
Released: Sept 1, 2011
Platform: Universal App
Seller: Halfbrick Studios
3-Tiny Wings
Released: Feb 18, 2011
Platform: iPhone
Seller: Andreas Illiger
4-Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP
Released: March 23, 2011
Platform: Universal
Seller: Capybara Games
5-World of Goo HD
Released: April 13, 2011
Platform: Universal
Seller: 2D BOY
6-Gem Keeper
Released: October 13, 2011
Platform: Universal
Seller: NCsoft
7-Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing
Released: June 22, 2011
Platform: Universal
Seller: SEGA
8-Star Legends
Released: August 25, 2011
Platform: Universal
Seller: Spacetime Studios
9-Real Racing 2 HD
Released: March 11, 2011
Platform: iPad
Seller: Firemint
10-Casey’s Contraptions HD
Released: May 18, 2011
Platform: Universal
Seller: Snappy Touch
Louis Rhéaume
Infocom Intelligence
louis@infocomintelligence.com
Twitter: @InfocomAnalysis
Source: http://venturebeat.com/2011/11/22/top-10-ios-games-2011/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Venturebeat+%28VentureBeat%29&utm_content=Google+Reader
Friday, November 11, 2011
A summary of the 2011 Canadian video game industry
A quick summary of Canadian video game industry
Louis Rhéaume
Infocom Intelligence
louis@infocomintelligence.com
Twitter: @InfocomAnalysis
Louis Rhéaume
Infocom Intelligence
louis@infocomintelligence.com
Twitter: @InfocomAnalysis
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Innovation of the month: Wavo.me save music and videos from social networks
Our innovation of the month is the new web apps Wavo.me.
With Wavo.me you can connect to your Facebook or Twitter account and save music or videos from friends. You can complete one to four steps:
1- Make a new Playlist
2- Drag and Drop an item into your Playlists
3-Share a Video or Song
4-Invite Some of Your Friends
It is useful if you want to save interesting videos or music recommendation from friends and listen or view it later in a playlist on your PC, laptop, tablet or smartphone.
This start-up is from Montréal.
Louis Rhéaume
Infocom Intelligence
louis@infocomintelligence.com
Twitter: @InfocomAnalysis
With Wavo.me you can connect to your Facebook or Twitter account and save music or videos from friends. You can complete one to four steps:
1- Make a new Playlist
2- Drag and Drop an item into your Playlists
3-Share a Video or Song
4-Invite Some of Your Friends
It is useful if you want to save interesting videos or music recommendation from friends and listen or view it later in a playlist on your PC, laptop, tablet or smartphone.
This start-up is from Montréal.
Louis Rhéaume
Infocom Intelligence
louis@infocomintelligence.com
Twitter: @InfocomAnalysis
Saturday, October 29, 2011
The future of Gaming according to the founder/Ceo of Digital Chocolate
This is the future of Gaming according to the founder/Ceo of Digital Chocolate.
To sum up a game should be available on many screens/platform, offline, online and mobile. A good game has "3 rules": it is simple, hot and deep. Cloud computing is a key enabler with tablets a main driver for new game creation. iCloud of Apple can also facilitates the development of native apps for games. On the other hand, cloud computing for any kind of browser simplifies the life of consumers and leapfrog Apple's iCloud.
See video.
Louis Rhéaume
Infocom Intelligence
louis@infocomintelligence.com
Twitter: @InfocomAnalysis
To sum up a game should be available on many screens/platform, offline, online and mobile. A good game has "3 rules": it is simple, hot and deep. Cloud computing is a key enabler with tablets a main driver for new game creation. iCloud of Apple can also facilitates the development of native apps for games. On the other hand, cloud computing for any kind of browser simplifies the life of consumers and leapfrog Apple's iCloud.
See video.
Louis Rhéaume
Infocom Intelligence
louis@infocomintelligence.com
Twitter: @InfocomAnalysis
Friday, October 21, 2011
The new opportunity in venture capital
According to Mark Suster, a 2x entrepreneur, now VC at GRP Partners, the best new opportunity for venture capitalists is the television business.
It appears that many have failed : Google TV, Apple TV and others, while some have experienced huge growth: youTube, Vevo, Maker Studios and Movieclips.
91% of households still pay for TV and they watch on average around 5.3 hours of TV per day.
Online video costs of production are very low compared to network TV.
Suster's Startup Blog is BothSidesoftheTable. See the complete presentation at:
http://www.docstoc.com/docs/document-preview.aspx?doc_id=100225840
Louis Rhéaume
Infocom Intelligence
louis@infocomintelligence.com
Twitter: @InfocomAnalysis
It appears that many have failed : Google TV, Apple TV and others, while some have experienced huge growth: youTube, Vevo, Maker Studios and Movieclips.
91% of households still pay for TV and they watch on average around 5.3 hours of TV per day.
Online video costs of production are very low compared to network TV.
Suster's Startup Blog is BothSidesoftheTable. See the complete presentation at:
http://www.docstoc.com/docs/document-preview.aspx?doc_id=100225840
Louis Rhéaume
Infocom Intelligence
louis@infocomintelligence.com
Twitter: @InfocomAnalysis
Monday, March 28, 2011
L'industrie canadienne du jeu vidéo dans le top 3 mondial
Selon le Entertainment Software Association of Canada l'industrie canadienne du jeu vidéo a eu 1,8 milliard de revenus en 2010 prenant ainsi la troisième position mondiale.
-Il y a 14 000 employés dans cette industrie au Canada.
-Après une croissance de 30% en 2010, la croissance devrait être autour de 29% dans les trois prochaines années.
-Il y a 247 firmes.
-Ils ont en moyenne 57 employés.
Le rapport complet peut être téléchargé au http://www.theesa.ca/documents/essential_facts_2010.pdf
Louis Rhéaume
Infocom Intelligence
louis@infocomintelligence.com
-Il y a 14 000 employés dans cette industrie au Canada.
-Après une croissance de 30% en 2010, la croissance devrait être autour de 29% dans les trois prochaines années.
-Il y a 247 firmes.
-Ils ont en moyenne 57 employés.
Le rapport complet peut être téléchargé au http://www.theesa.ca/documents/essential_facts_2010.pdf
Louis Rhéaume
Infocom Intelligence
louis@infocomintelligence.com
Monday, November 15, 2010
What is hot in mobile games?
It appears that 61% of US smartphones users in October have used at least one mobile game. Mergers and acquisitions in mobile games are hot. In October, Ngmoco was sold to DeNA for $400M, providing a 1000% return for private shareholders. On the other hand, Chillingo was acquired only for $20M by Electronic Arts. Zynga an online game provider is now valued on the secondary market at $5.27 billion on SharesPost. According to Levi Shapiro, Partner, TMT Strategic Advisors, these 10 mobile games companies are very interesting acquisitions targets. It can be very useful to know why they are attractive for video game developers, such as those in the Montreal Video game cluster.
1-Rovio: The Finnish developer of “Angry Birds” is the No. 1 game in 70 countries with more than 30 million downloads, including 10 million paid downloads. Their strategy includes affordable pricing (99 cents) and ongoing engagement (free updates every 4 weeks). Using AdMob’s in-app advertising tools and their own house ads, Rovio is estimated to be earning $500,000 to $700,000 in monthly paid app and ad-supported revenue. Clearly, this is a company that could scale into a much larger player and has set the lofty goal of 100 million downloads, something only Tetris (Electronic Arts) has achieved. Potential buyers will need to bring scale and reach to migrate an iOS and Android success story into a “Transmedia Property.” Just as Disney bought iPhone game developer Tapulous earlier this year for a reported $50 million (including earn-out), studios like Sony, Paramount, 20th Century Fox and Warner Brothers could soon bring “Angry Birds” to a cinema, bookstore, console game or toothbrush near you.
2-Unity 3D: 3D has moved beyond the cinema to the TV, laptop, handset and game console. For example, Nintendo announced its glasses-free, 3DS portable game player. Moreover, handset vendors are desperate to distinguish their wares and several original equipment manufacturers – including Sharp Corp., Motorola Inc., LG Electronics Co. Ltd. and Toshiba Corp. – are working on 3D handsets. What is missing is content – game developers don’t see a large audience ready to purchase 3D games. This year, global 3D TV sales are unlikely to surpass 5 million units. However, by 2015 that number should scale to between 50 million and 88 million new 3D TV’s. Unity 3D provides a platform for developers to quickly create and deploy 3D games for online, television, console and mobile. Unity has more than 200,000 registered developers worldwide, including Electronic Arts, Disney and Coca Cola. This could be an interesting strategic acquisition for a variety of players seeking competitive advantage in the 3D gaming sector.
3-Greystripe: Want to start a “show me the money” discussion on Madison Avenue? Try raising the subject of mobile advertising. The entire sector is projected to reach less than $750 million this year (eMarketer), a pittance compared to the $70 billion on television advertising. However, a growing number of Q4 campaigns from retail, automotive and consumer packaged goods brands suggests rapid growth. This is what inspired Apple’s $250 million acquisition this year of Quattro Wireless and Google’s $750 million purchase of AdMob. Among the remaining independents, Greystripe is strong in the in-app advertising sector. Although games downloaded via app stores will contribute only 30% of U.K. mobile game revenues this year, the success of the Apple App Store has inspired new entrants to the app store fray, from Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. to Amazon.com Inc. Look for Greystripe to get swallowed as the big guys prepare for war.
4-Gypsii: Think of Gypsii as a combination of Twitter and Foursquare for China. Micro-blogging (weibao) is a booming, although not yet profitable, sector in China. Local Twitter clone Sina Weibo claims to be the largest micro-blogging service in China, with more than 20 million registered users since launching in August 2009. Gypsii uses a hybrid subscription and ad revenue sharing model, including location-aware couponing, to incentivize its wireless carrier partners. In less than two years, Gypsii has deals with all three Chines carriers, nearly 3 million users and pre-load agreements with Nokia Corp., LG, Samsung, Lenovo and Huawei Technologies Ltd. Despite the slow 3G uptake in China, there are nearly 400 million active mobile Internet users in the Middle Kingdom. This includes the 50 million Chinese consumers earning $20,000 annually and spending at least $22 per month on mobile services. Web, mobile and e-commerce (still only $2.5 billion out of last year's $29 billion online eCommerce sector) companies seeking carrier relationships and a large base of consumers will be very interested in Gypsii.
5-Aurora Feint: While Apple may have its own social gaming network (GameCenter), third party social gaming networks like Ngmoco’s Plus+ and German business to business social gaming platform Scoreloop have built large user bases. Aurora Feint takes a multi-platform approach, with expertise in iOS (iPhone, iTouch, iPad) and Android and cloud-based game services like leaderboards, achievements and virtual currencies. Aurora Feint’s high traffic numbers in the United States – 3,400 games and over 45 million mobile gamers – make it the volume play in this sector and helped attract investment from major Chinese and Japanese gaming companies as well as Intel Capital. The company is poised to expand its user base with a deal announced last quarter with Verizon Wireless to curate and provide Android game recommendations.
6-Vivox: Until the advent of video games, humans generally played games with other people. Vivox, and quite a few other players, recognized the importance of social interaction and created a platform for developers and social networks to integrate voice chat, video, instant messaging and presence within the visual experience. The advantage for Vivox is the installed base of 25 million users across 180 countries and 2 billion minutes of monthly voice chat. Even if voice is rapidly becoming a commodity, Vivox’s scale could compliment the expansion goals for large game publishers, virtual worlds or social networks.
7-Backflip Studios: Few studios consistently crank out hit games. Boulder, Colorado-based Backflip Studios has now had nearly 50 million downloads and a daily active user base of two million. In fact, its first four iPhone releases, including Paper Toss, Graffiti Ball, Strike Knight and NinJump, were all downloaded over four million times and ranked in the top five in Apple’s overall app store lists. Most importantly, Backflip is generating solid revenue through in-app advertising (iAd and AdMob) and cross promoting its paid games via its free games. Considering that research firm Flurry estimates the average revenue generated per online active daily user is $1.22, Backflip brings an interesting revenue base as well as its track record of making popular games.
8-Free App A Day: Free App A Day is a website, app and community platform for the promotion of paid games on iPhone and Android that are free for a limited period. Apple’s App Store is now loaded with more than 240,000 apps, making discovery one of the biggest challenges facing publishers. The company has over a million active daily users and is now a King Maker for pushing games and apps into the top 10. Developers and publishers give away their apps for free for a limited time. Once these revert to paid status, the promotional effects from the daily push notifications offset the lost publisher revenue. Free App A Day then keeps a share of publisher paid app revenue for a fixed period.
9-Smule: No one is cranking out hit iPhone music applications like Smule. Having raised $13.5 million and achieved success with iPhone apps like “I am T-Pain,” “Ocarina,” “Glee Karaoke” and “Leaf Trombone,” the developers are now creating iPad versions. Given that 91% of iPad owners have downloaded an application and two thirds paid for these, it is no surprise that Smule already has its first iPad success story in “Magic Piano.” According to Smule, users played one of the songs, “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star,” more than 750,000 times. In fact, world-renowned pianist Lang Lang performed “Flight of the Bumblebee” on Magic Piano at the San Francisco Orchestra. This kind of engagement has many wondering if Smule will be the next Slide, which was acquired by Google in August for $182 million.
10-Flurry: Although virtual goods are the dominant form of monetization for online social games, until mobile application research firm Flurry released a report earlier this month, few knew that same trend has already come to mobile. Measuring its network of more than 50,000 developers across iPhone and Android, Flurry identified 80% of in-app revenue from micro-transactions, with the rest coming from ads. Despite a highly publicized spat with Steve Jobs earlier this year, as an analytics provider Flurry could be attractive to the likes of Nielsen, Comscore and NPD. Hedging its bets, Flurry has created its own set of tools for helping the developer community integrate virtual currency into their activities.
Source:
http://www.rcrwireless.com/article/20101110/OPINION/101109940
Louis Rhéaume
Infocom Intelligence
louis@infocomintelligence.com
1-Rovio: The Finnish developer of “Angry Birds” is the No. 1 game in 70 countries with more than 30 million downloads, including 10 million paid downloads. Their strategy includes affordable pricing (99 cents) and ongoing engagement (free updates every 4 weeks). Using AdMob’s in-app advertising tools and their own house ads, Rovio is estimated to be earning $500,000 to $700,000 in monthly paid app and ad-supported revenue. Clearly, this is a company that could scale into a much larger player and has set the lofty goal of 100 million downloads, something only Tetris (Electronic Arts) has achieved. Potential buyers will need to bring scale and reach to migrate an iOS and Android success story into a “Transmedia Property.” Just as Disney bought iPhone game developer Tapulous earlier this year for a reported $50 million (including earn-out), studios like Sony, Paramount, 20th Century Fox and Warner Brothers could soon bring “Angry Birds” to a cinema, bookstore, console game or toothbrush near you.
2-Unity 3D: 3D has moved beyond the cinema to the TV, laptop, handset and game console. For example, Nintendo announced its glasses-free, 3DS portable game player. Moreover, handset vendors are desperate to distinguish their wares and several original equipment manufacturers – including Sharp Corp., Motorola Inc., LG Electronics Co. Ltd. and Toshiba Corp. – are working on 3D handsets. What is missing is content – game developers don’t see a large audience ready to purchase 3D games. This year, global 3D TV sales are unlikely to surpass 5 million units. However, by 2015 that number should scale to between 50 million and 88 million new 3D TV’s. Unity 3D provides a platform for developers to quickly create and deploy 3D games for online, television, console and mobile. Unity has more than 200,000 registered developers worldwide, including Electronic Arts, Disney and Coca Cola. This could be an interesting strategic acquisition for a variety of players seeking competitive advantage in the 3D gaming sector.
3-Greystripe: Want to start a “show me the money” discussion on Madison Avenue? Try raising the subject of mobile advertising. The entire sector is projected to reach less than $750 million this year (eMarketer), a pittance compared to the $70 billion on television advertising. However, a growing number of Q4 campaigns from retail, automotive and consumer packaged goods brands suggests rapid growth. This is what inspired Apple’s $250 million acquisition this year of Quattro Wireless and Google’s $750 million purchase of AdMob. Among the remaining independents, Greystripe is strong in the in-app advertising sector. Although games downloaded via app stores will contribute only 30% of U.K. mobile game revenues this year, the success of the Apple App Store has inspired new entrants to the app store fray, from Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. to Amazon.com Inc. Look for Greystripe to get swallowed as the big guys prepare for war.
4-Gypsii: Think of Gypsii as a combination of Twitter and Foursquare for China. Micro-blogging (weibao) is a booming, although not yet profitable, sector in China. Local Twitter clone Sina Weibo claims to be the largest micro-blogging service in China, with more than 20 million registered users since launching in August 2009. Gypsii uses a hybrid subscription and ad revenue sharing model, including location-aware couponing, to incentivize its wireless carrier partners. In less than two years, Gypsii has deals with all three Chines carriers, nearly 3 million users and pre-load agreements with Nokia Corp., LG, Samsung, Lenovo and Huawei Technologies Ltd. Despite the slow 3G uptake in China, there are nearly 400 million active mobile Internet users in the Middle Kingdom. This includes the 50 million Chinese consumers earning $20,000 annually and spending at least $22 per month on mobile services. Web, mobile and e-commerce (still only $2.5 billion out of last year's $29 billion online eCommerce sector) companies seeking carrier relationships and a large base of consumers will be very interested in Gypsii.
5-Aurora Feint: While Apple may have its own social gaming network (GameCenter), third party social gaming networks like Ngmoco’s Plus+ and German business to business social gaming platform Scoreloop have built large user bases. Aurora Feint takes a multi-platform approach, with expertise in iOS (iPhone, iTouch, iPad) and Android and cloud-based game services like leaderboards, achievements and virtual currencies. Aurora Feint’s high traffic numbers in the United States – 3,400 games and over 45 million mobile gamers – make it the volume play in this sector and helped attract investment from major Chinese and Japanese gaming companies as well as Intel Capital. The company is poised to expand its user base with a deal announced last quarter with Verizon Wireless to curate and provide Android game recommendations.
6-Vivox: Until the advent of video games, humans generally played games with other people. Vivox, and quite a few other players, recognized the importance of social interaction and created a platform for developers and social networks to integrate voice chat, video, instant messaging and presence within the visual experience. The advantage for Vivox is the installed base of 25 million users across 180 countries and 2 billion minutes of monthly voice chat. Even if voice is rapidly becoming a commodity, Vivox’s scale could compliment the expansion goals for large game publishers, virtual worlds or social networks.
7-Backflip Studios: Few studios consistently crank out hit games. Boulder, Colorado-based Backflip Studios has now had nearly 50 million downloads and a daily active user base of two million. In fact, its first four iPhone releases, including Paper Toss, Graffiti Ball, Strike Knight and NinJump, were all downloaded over four million times and ranked in the top five in Apple’s overall app store lists. Most importantly, Backflip is generating solid revenue through in-app advertising (iAd and AdMob) and cross promoting its paid games via its free games. Considering that research firm Flurry estimates the average revenue generated per online active daily user is $1.22, Backflip brings an interesting revenue base as well as its track record of making popular games.
8-Free App A Day: Free App A Day is a website, app and community platform for the promotion of paid games on iPhone and Android that are free for a limited period. Apple’s App Store is now loaded with more than 240,000 apps, making discovery one of the biggest challenges facing publishers. The company has over a million active daily users and is now a King Maker for pushing games and apps into the top 10. Developers and publishers give away their apps for free for a limited time. Once these revert to paid status, the promotional effects from the daily push notifications offset the lost publisher revenue. Free App A Day then keeps a share of publisher paid app revenue for a fixed period.
9-Smule: No one is cranking out hit iPhone music applications like Smule. Having raised $13.5 million and achieved success with iPhone apps like “I am T-Pain,” “Ocarina,” “Glee Karaoke” and “Leaf Trombone,” the developers are now creating iPad versions. Given that 91% of iPad owners have downloaded an application and two thirds paid for these, it is no surprise that Smule already has its first iPad success story in “Magic Piano.” According to Smule, users played one of the songs, “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star,” more than 750,000 times. In fact, world-renowned pianist Lang Lang performed “Flight of the Bumblebee” on Magic Piano at the San Francisco Orchestra. This kind of engagement has many wondering if Smule will be the next Slide, which was acquired by Google in August for $182 million.
10-Flurry: Although virtual goods are the dominant form of monetization for online social games, until mobile application research firm Flurry released a report earlier this month, few knew that same trend has already come to mobile. Measuring its network of more than 50,000 developers across iPhone and Android, Flurry identified 80% of in-app revenue from micro-transactions, with the rest coming from ads. Despite a highly publicized spat with Steve Jobs earlier this year, as an analytics provider Flurry could be attractive to the likes of Nielsen, Comscore and NPD. Hedging its bets, Flurry has created its own set of tools for helping the developer community integrate virtual currency into their activities.
Source:
http://www.rcrwireless.com/article/20101110/OPINION/101109940
Louis Rhéaume
Infocom Intelligence
louis@infocomintelligence.com
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Are we entering in a second Internet stock market bubble?
Everybody knows the Internet bubble of 1998-2000. Valuations of most firms with a link with Internet got very high valuations and after lost a lot of value in 2000-2002. At that time a firm with the name .com was found sexy by acquirers and represented a great potential takeover target with the exchange of shares (which were only going up) instead of cash. After the crash, firms surrounding the Internet, which had a poor business model, lost most of the time 90-95% of their values, or went bankrupt. E-commerce mutual funds which had 200% return in one year and a half, like Altamira E-commerce fund lost 90% of their value in 2001-2002.
Time has changed and the web 2.0 has seen the emergence of new sexy players such as Youtube, sold to Google and Facebook, just to name a few. I just read that Facebook's value has triple in 2010 only. Social networks is the new sexy sector and now you can find a 4 years old firm like Zynga, which is a social video game firm, with a value higher than Electronic Arts, which is 28 years old firm in video game. Zynga is now valued on the secondary market at $5.27 billion on SharesPost, where Zynga employees can sell shares that they own in the private company. EA is worth $5.24 billion in public trading on the Nasdaq stock market. The SharesPost listings are thinly traded compared to EA’s stock, but it is perhaps the only real measure of the value of Zynga’s stock at any given moment. Several hope that Zynga will go public, but it hasn’t any plan yet.
I simply don't understand why people will pay real dollars to use virtual currency in virtual games. Zynga is expected to grab roughly a third of the $1.6 billion market for virtual goods in the U.S. in 2010, thanks to virtual goods sales. Zynga got the momentum when in the middle of 2009 they launched FarmVille, which is still the No. 1 game on Facebook with 57.4 million monthly active users. With such popular games, Zynga can cross-promote its titles and advertise them as well, allowing it to turn lots of its games into huge hits. In addition to FarmVille and Texas Hold Em Poker, FrontierVille, Mafia Wars, Cafe World, Treasure Isle and PetVille all have more than 10 million users. Overall, Zynga has 214.5 million users. CrowdStar has 54.2 million monthly active users, and EA is No. 3 at 44.7 million users. EA bought Playfish for $400 million in the fall of 2009, but is still behind Zynga in that area. However, EA’s online game revenue is at $750 million in the current fiscal year, or around 20 percent of overall revenue, is significantly bigger than Zynga’s online game revenue, which the only source of revenu of Zynga. The largest independent maker of video games is Activision Blizzard, which has titles such as World of Warcraft.
It appears that the market values Zynga as equal to EA in market share, so it is deeply discounting the rest of EA’s nearly $3 billion or so in traditional video game console and PC game revenues. It seems that Zynga is truly overvalued and in some sectors of the Internet, like the Web 2.0 we are in the presence of a second Internet bubble.
Another example of this is Apple, which has 83% of the market capitalization of Exxon Mobil. Apple has a P/E ratio of 20.8 and Exxon a low 12.8. It is true that Apple is one of the best innovator in the world and has created a dependency for its customers toward its proprietary platforms, such as iTunes and Apple Apps store. Apple is more a telecom firms and a content firms than it was before, as an hadware firm. The potential of its mobile advertising network is huge. The question is can Apple create on the long term 83% of the profits of a firm, such as Exxon Mobil? I explained in previous comments that the dependency of Internet mobile can create huge values. However, I have a certain doubt that it would represent a long-term oligopoly, such as gas with Exxon Mobil. We are much more dependent right now (and in the medium term) toward gas than toward Internet Mobile access and its ecosystem (apps, music, etc.). In a bubble it won't mean that P/E ratios will diminish in the short term, but in the medium and long term, there will be important depreciation of overvalued Internet stocks.
Louis Rhéaume
Infocom Intelligence
louis@infocomintelligence.com
Time has changed and the web 2.0 has seen the emergence of new sexy players such as Youtube, sold to Google and Facebook, just to name a few. I just read that Facebook's value has triple in 2010 only. Social networks is the new sexy sector and now you can find a 4 years old firm like Zynga, which is a social video game firm, with a value higher than Electronic Arts, which is 28 years old firm in video game. Zynga is now valued on the secondary market at $5.27 billion on SharesPost, where Zynga employees can sell shares that they own in the private company. EA is worth $5.24 billion in public trading on the Nasdaq stock market. The SharesPost listings are thinly traded compared to EA’s stock, but it is perhaps the only real measure of the value of Zynga’s stock at any given moment. Several hope that Zynga will go public, but it hasn’t any plan yet.
I simply don't understand why people will pay real dollars to use virtual currency in virtual games. Zynga is expected to grab roughly a third of the $1.6 billion market for virtual goods in the U.S. in 2010, thanks to virtual goods sales. Zynga got the momentum when in the middle of 2009 they launched FarmVille, which is still the No. 1 game on Facebook with 57.4 million monthly active users. With such popular games, Zynga can cross-promote its titles and advertise them as well, allowing it to turn lots of its games into huge hits. In addition to FarmVille and Texas Hold Em Poker, FrontierVille, Mafia Wars, Cafe World, Treasure Isle and PetVille all have more than 10 million users. Overall, Zynga has 214.5 million users. CrowdStar has 54.2 million monthly active users, and EA is No. 3 at 44.7 million users. EA bought Playfish for $400 million in the fall of 2009, but is still behind Zynga in that area. However, EA’s online game revenue is at $750 million in the current fiscal year, or around 20 percent of overall revenue, is significantly bigger than Zynga’s online game revenue, which the only source of revenu of Zynga. The largest independent maker of video games is Activision Blizzard, which has titles such as World of Warcraft.
It appears that the market values Zynga as equal to EA in market share, so it is deeply discounting the rest of EA’s nearly $3 billion or so in traditional video game console and PC game revenues. It seems that Zynga is truly overvalued and in some sectors of the Internet, like the Web 2.0 we are in the presence of a second Internet bubble.
Another example of this is Apple, which has 83% of the market capitalization of Exxon Mobil. Apple has a P/E ratio of 20.8 and Exxon a low 12.8. It is true that Apple is one of the best innovator in the world and has created a dependency for its customers toward its proprietary platforms, such as iTunes and Apple Apps store. Apple is more a telecom firms and a content firms than it was before, as an hadware firm. The potential of its mobile advertising network is huge. The question is can Apple create on the long term 83% of the profits of a firm, such as Exxon Mobil? I explained in previous comments that the dependency of Internet mobile can create huge values. However, I have a certain doubt that it would represent a long-term oligopoly, such as gas with Exxon Mobil. We are much more dependent right now (and in the medium term) toward gas than toward Internet Mobile access and its ecosystem (apps, music, etc.). In a bubble it won't mean that P/E ratios will diminish in the short term, but in the medium and long term, there will be important depreciation of overvalued Internet stocks.
Louis Rhéaume
Infocom Intelligence
louis@infocomintelligence.com
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