ComputerGamesForFunAndProfit.ppt 3299KB Jun 23 2011 12:34:04 PM

Computer games for fun and profit

Andrew Reynolds
IBM Hursley

© 2004 IBM Corporation
All images copyright of their respective owners

Fun

© 2004 IBM Corporation

The market
Subscriptions
Hardcore
Pay per play
Casual gamers
Advertising
Mass market

© 2004 IBM Corporation

The state of play

World Wide Games Market
Rev

$B

39

40

37

34

39

56

61

Games Industry business models evolving…
•

from unit sales to online revenue streams

•

from packaged product to episodic content

•

from PC to non-PC platforms

Source: CITL, 2002

• mobile phones, consoles, …
•

Global online revenue estimated $30B in 2008

Source: Datamonitor, 2001

© 2004 IBM Corporation

New revenue streams

In-game
advertising

In game tax
(revenue
splitting)

Pay
per play
Units on
shelves

Monthly
subscription

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Ultima Online (Electronic Arts)

All images copyright of their respective owners

© 2004 IBM Corporation

Atlantic Gardener's Association Plant
Mall
The AGA Plant Mall consists of about 14
vendors … that are maintained and
stocked by Atlantic Gardener's
Association members. As a group, AGA
members have all the different kinds of
plant types and colors. We conform to
AGA pricing guidelines, so you'll always

get the best price. Drop on by and take a
look around!

http://uo.com
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© 2004 IBM Corporation

Online trading

Some statistics
EverQuest (Sony)

stats from 2001

• Norranth, population 430,000
• Annual online trading = $5M
• $139M GNP
≈ Bulgaria
• 79th richest nation on earth

• eBay trading now banned
…for EQ. Trades from other
games still going strong

ebay.com
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© 2004 IBM Corporation

gamingopenmarket.com
© 2004 IBM Corporation

Name
Julian Dibbell
Age
41
Goal
To make the
sale of
imaginary

good his
primary source
of income
Profit (March April, 2004)
$3,917
= $47,000 p/a

juliandibbell.com
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© 2004 IBM Corporation

Business Integration for Games
 Business logic and game logic
require different expertise and have
a different lifecycle

 Maintaining a clear separation of
concerns gives flexibility for both

 Game logic needs to exploit
business logic in a seamless,
efficient way

 Lightweight client

© 2004 IBM Corporation

Architecture

Clients

Embedded API layer
layer of
of
simplicity for secure;
Payment
Payment
Shopping
Shopping

Trading
Messaging

Processes

POP

POP

Location
Location
Service
Service

POP

Store
Store
Shop
Shop

Shop
Catalogue
Catalogue
Catalogue
Catalogue
Catalogue

Services

UDDI

POP

Notification
Notification
Service
Service
Service
Service

Payment
Payment
Service
Service
Service
(could
be mobile

Digital
Digital
Rights
Rights
Manager
Manager

(could be mobile
(couldowner)
be mobile
network
network
owner)
network owner)

POP
POP
= Process Broker with
extensible business logic
POP

= Point of Presence on
the network for the device

© 2004 IBM Corporation

Quake Shop

© 2004 IBM Corporation

Infrastructure brings new possibilities…
 Pay-per-play models
charge users for content, time, or access to
function within the game

 In-Game Trading
players can buy/sell/auction items within the game
environment
financial and asset transactions really bound to
game function

 e-Commerce
integration of purchase and e-distribution of
content from online store within game
Digital Rights Management function controlled
from game, but provided by third-parties

 Revenue Sharing
Allow metered usage and dynamic splitting of
revenue between partners and investors

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© 2004 IBM Corporation

…possibilities limited only by imagination!


Identity/Player Reputation
Acquire externally managed reputation
information to assist in tournaments,
player matching, cheat monitoring



Message/Event Distribution
Propagate game events to outside world
• push tournament game stats out to
websites for aggregation
• use “presence service" to push
game event messages to players
current contact point
Propagate real-world events to game
environment
• sports event telemetry data/statistics
pulled into game e.g. F1 racing data
live into game
• Real environmental data to affect
game

All images copyright of their respective owners

© 2004 IBM Corporation

References
 IBM’s Business Integration for Games
http://alphaworks.ibm.com/tech/big
http://ibm.com/developerworks/webservices/library/ws-intgame

 Articles
“Virtual Worlds: A First-Hand Account of Market and Society on the Cyberian Frontier”
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=294828
“The Unreal Estate Boom”
http://wired.com/wired/archive/11.01/gaming.html
“Interreality Buiness Machine”
http://wired.com/news/games/0,2101,62351,00.html

 Other interesting sites
http://games.slashdot.org
http://gamespy.com
http://gamingopenmarket.com
http://havok.com
http://juliandibell.com/playmoney
http://opende.sourceforge.net
© 2004 IBM Corporation