San Francisco Game Developer’s Workshop: Pushing the Edge of In-Game Virtual Economies

Last Tuesday, April 24, our CEO Roxanne Gibert was invited to speak on virtual currencies at the San Francisco Game Developer’s Workshop hosted by Yetizen Accelerator.  Also speaking at the event: Harry Liu, General Manager of Kabam heading 3 games generating multiple million dollar revenues through virtual currency including The Godfather: Five Families, EdgeWorld and Final Eden; And Jon-Paul Dumont, Executive Producer at Zynga and a veteran of the gaming industry previously with EA, who has his hands on such games as CityVille Hometown and Zynga Poker mobile.

Roxanne, herself a veteran in the industry, presented on how to properly plan a virtual economy.

“What the heck is a virtual economy?” You might be asking yourself. “And for peet’s sake, why do I care?”

Each game has items that can be purchased, either with an in-game currency, or with actual money (in the gaming industry, we refer to ‘free’ in-game currency as “soft currency” and currency purchased with real money as “hard currency”).

Let’s use our very soon-to-be released game Global Attack as an example.  Say your character’s name is Monk3ys4EVA.  General Monk3ys4EVA works hard every day battling enemies within the game.  But, Oh no! What’s this?  The general isn’t making enough soft currency for his battles to unlock a tool he needs to advance in the game!  Sure, you could throw down some of your real-world hard currency to help out the general, but frankly you’ve been looking forward to that dinner on Friday night for a long time, and you’re a bit cash-strapped.  Poor General Monk3ys4EVA!  He will never take over the world, now! And poor you, player.  Now what are you going to do?! Well, you’re probably going to quit playing.

Just like the economy of a country, if the virtual economy inside a game is structured incorrectly the game is not long for this world. If players don’t get enough currency to survive or can’t somehow earn that currency, they may be forced to quit the game.   That’s why setting up a proper in-game virtual economy is important, even if players don’t spend a single “hard” cent inside your virtual world. Thankfully, our CEO is an expert… so you can be sure that our games will always have an economy deep in the green.

Stoked to play Global Attack? In #Canada

Stoked to play Global Attack? In #Canada? You’re in luck! Global Attack is in the Canadian AppStore for a special sneak preview NOW! #game

U.S. App consumption overtakes Web consumption, Mobile Games lead

Flurry has released a report that shows people using mobile apps more than they surf the web.  Over the last two years, mobile app use has swiftly overtaken web use.

The Flurry Blog suggests that people are choosing apps over traditional web browsing as users lead more connected lives, as a matter of convenience and social appeal.

TechCrunch’s Sarah Perez reports that all of this mobile app usage hasn’t been at the cost of web usage.  It’s not that people are using the web less, they’re just using mobile apps more. Perez further reports, “ In addition, users of mobile apps also browse the web, so it’s not so much a question of apps “versus” the web, as it is a look into our data consumption in general (despite Flurry’s positioning it as a battle that’s to be won or lost). But the bottom line is: apps are hot.”

Either way, this is fabulous news for app makers.  It looks like it might be even better news for mobile game developers, like yours truly.

Americans spend 49% of their 94 minutes of daily app use playing mobile games.  That’s nearly half of all their time, relegating time spent on social networks such as Facebook to about 1/3.  It’s worth noting that this chart only defines mobile app usage of Americans, though there is some data to suggest that at least European mobile usage is similar to U.S. mobile usage.

This data further supports the trend of mobile games taking a chunk out of console gaming market share, as highlighted in our previous post, “Is mobile gaming killing handheld gaming giants?” More and more individuals seem to be turning towards their mobile devices for more of their daily needs, including entertainment.

There must be a lot of  boring conference calls and long public transit commutes out there.  And that’s ok with us.

Holidays 2011: App-tastic!

Whoa… that was a device heavy holiday.

According to The Flurry Blog, there were 6.8 Million new device activations on Christmas Day. That’s an increase of 353%, and more importantly, 6.8 million more app-thirsting devices out there, just waiting for yummy downloads.

Just how veracious were those devices for apps?  A record breaking 242 million apps were downloaded on Christmas Day –  an increase of 140% over last year. Christmas Day may just be the new “Black Friday” for Apps.

How many of these new devices and downloads were iOS and how many were Android?  Unfortunately, Flurry does not make that information public.  Mashable spoke to Peter Farago, VP of marketing for Flurry, who said, “Frankly, they’re neck and neck.”

If you want to get super technical about it, Time Magazine’s Mark Peckham breaks it down for you, “Google, for its part, claims 3.7 million devices were activated between December 24 and 25 (the company’s senior VP of mobile, Andy Rubin, tweeted as much early this morning ). If we reason, as Fortune does  based on a prior tweet from Rubin , that the number of Android devices activated on Christmas Day would top off at 3 million, and we subtractthat from Flurry’s 6.8 million figure, we land — shakily, granted — at 3.8 million Apple iPads, iPhones and iPod Touch devices activated on December 25, giving Apple the Christmas Day edge.”

Wow. So I guess all those spoiled kids on twitter might actually have been the only one of their friends who didn’t get an iPhone.

How will mobile devices save the publishing industry?

In our last post, we talked about how mobile gaming is challenging established mobile console brands.  Obviously, more people own a mobile device than own a portable console gaming device (if you need proof, check out this report from Nielsen).  In most cases, mobile games are free to download, which certianly beats $40+ for a new cartridge for your already expensive tiny gaming machine (that you can’t even use to text your friends. Geesh).  It’s no wonder that mobile gaming is taking a chunk out of the market. That being said… how do mobile gaming companies make any money if all of the games are free?

Our CEO Roxanne Gibert joined a panel at an event aimed at answering this ever-so-complex question;  ”Can devices save publishing?: A look at the multiplatform movement.” The panel included experts in new media of all forms.  Each member of the panel was from a very different genre than our own, but all were searching for the answer to the same question, “How do we monetize media in a world with the internet?”

Cristina Cardova of Pulse (a fantastic news app which I love more than my Kindle itself), spoke about how Pulse helps publishers survive in a world where everyone can get their news online.  Don Morrison from Kno (a digital publisher of text books) spoke about the ease at which college students could now gain information, alluding to a major shift that will be happening in the education publishing industry from huge, expensive texts to easy-to-carry (and pay for) digital information (those lucky, lucky kids).  Steve Gleitsmann from Get It Mobile (an application distribution tool) spoke about what apps can do to revolutionize publishing.  Our own Roxanne Gibert spoke about the monitization of mobile game publishing and how mobile gaming companies can create both revenue and a fair playground for consumers.

Spyra believes in allowing users to play our games for free, and offering premium content to enhance the gaming experience.  That’s what we call “Freemium.”  You can play all day, and if you would like, you’re free to purchase premium content for your game.  It’s our job to make great, entertaining games, and we’ll provide you with creative expansions and offer them to you.  In the old world of gaming, you’d have to purchase the game upfront. Now you’re free to choose what you want.  Win win.  You’re entertained, and we can keep the lights on to keep entertaining you.

What do you think?  How do you think publishing of all kinds can survive in a digital world?

Is mobile gaming killing handheld gaming giants?

Do you own a PSP or Nintendo DS? Do you own a smart phone, tablet or both?  I bet a lot more of you answered “yes” to the second question.

If you own a portable gaming device, I bet those game cartridges are getting expensive.  How does $1.99 a game sound? Pretty good, I’d imagine, for a game you can play anywhere and download anywhere, which exists on a platform that you have on your person every minute of the day (your phone), and that you can play with your friends in far away lands.  The Flurry Blog reports that this may be the reason mobile gaming is begining to crush traditional console gaming giants.

Flurry reports that mobile gaming apps have tripled their market share among portable gaming competitors PSP and Nintendo DS over the last two years.

Pretty slick, eh?  It makes me a little nostalgic for the days of playing with tiny black blocks on a green-tinted screen in the back seat of my parent’s minivan until the batteries ran out of my Game-brick.  I can’t be that depressed, though.  Not while I’m smiting full color $1.99 zombie hordes for 8 straight hours on my flight back home.

Source: The Flurry Blog: Is it Game Over for Nintendo DS and Sony PSP?

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