Games of the Future Alex
St. John

The Shape of Games to
Come <ul><li>Production values secondary to gameplay, virality and monetization </li></ul><ul><li>Quality vs Quantity </li></ul><ul><li>Design vs Evolution </li></ul><ul><li>Marketing vs Virality </li></ul><ul><li>Brands vs Play </li></ul><ul><li>Asymetical Play vs Symmetrical Play </li></ul><ul><li>Blended Synchronous and Asynchonous </li></ul><ul><li>Delivered Online </li></ul><ul><li>Monetized by Many Business Models </li></ul><ul><li>Virality as Currency </li></ul>

Production Values Secondary <ul><li>Optimized for:
</li></ul><ul><li>Play Addiction </li></ul><ul><li>Virality </li></ul><ul><li>Monetization </li></ul>*The DRM Problem

Quality vs Quantity Angry Birds
Crush The Castle

Design vs Evolution Emergent Game
Design

Evolutionary Game Design

Marketing vs. Virality Blah…blah…blah…blah…

Brands vs Play

Blended Synchronous and Asynchonous Play
Instant gratification = NO VIRALITY Thus… Asynchronous play is for marketing/virality Synchronous play is for monetization You need both!

Delivered Online! Duh! <ul><li>Consoles are
DEAD </li></ul><ul><li>Boxed Retail games are DEAD </li></ul><ul><li>Brand marketed games are DEAD </li></ul><ul><li>Any game company that hesitates to accept this is DEAD </li></ul><ul><li>Game delivery has moved online, it HAS ALREADY HAPPENED! …all that’s left are a few ghosts in denial </li></ul>

The Quantum Economics Monetization Mantra
<ul><li>Deliver 100% of the play a consumer wants to consume in exchange for 100% of their value </li></ul><ul><li>It costs virtually nothing to satisfy a consumer’s demand for play </li></ul><ul><li>If you don’t satisfy 100% of their desire for play they will satisfy the rest somewhere else… </li></ul><ul><li>There is a life cycle to monetization that you are designing to capture; that lifecycle is not linear nor is it the same for every player </li></ul>

Many ways to monetize <ul><li>Commerce
</li></ul><ul><li>Advertising </li></ul><ul><li>Virality </li></ul><ul><li>Engagement </li></ul>4 ways to pay for an online game:

Quantum Economics: Virality and Engagement
can be transformed into currency <ul><li>$$$ + Advertising = </li></ul>

Asymetical Play vs Symetrical play
Quantum Economics Lesson 1: Quantum Teleportation of Value Reward those who can’t be monetized for entertaining those who can… Hint: They don’t have to be playing the same game…

What is the monetary value
of MajiNoir to a social network? <ul><li>Romanian hi5 Member </li></ul><ul><li>Commerce value: $0 </li></ul><ul><li>Ad value: $.0001 </li></ul><ul><li>34,199 friends… </li></ul>

What is the monetary value
of MajiNoir to a social network? <ul><li>Romanian hi5 Member </li></ul><ul><li>Commerce value: $0 </li></ul><ul><li>Ad value: $.0001 </li></ul><ul><li>34,199 friends… </li></ul><ul><li>Answer? </li></ul><ul><li>$238/mo in advertising </li></ul><ul><li>$162/mo in commerce </li></ul>

$0 How Commerce Works I’ll
pay $$$ I won’t pay Pay me money NOW! Pay me money NOW!

How Ads in Commerce Work
I’ll pay $$$ Would you like to pay us money? -OR- Get this for free? Would you like to pay us money? -OR- Get this for free? I won’t pay

How SocioPay Works I’ll pay
$$$ SocioPay knows the user will pay $25 SocioPay knows the user will not pay I won’t pay

How Does this Work for
Me? Willingness to pay Number of gamers Commerce only Ads in commerce SocioPay 2x revenue >3x revenue Ø Ø Ø Ø Ø Ø Ø Ø Ø ₵ ₵ ₵ ₵ $ $ $ $$ ₵ $$ Ø $$$

SOCIO PAY DYNAMIC MONETIZATION HI5
PRICING HI5 PURCHASE HI5 MONETIZATION SMART PRICING Sell to any player anywhere in the world – in local currency. CONVERSION Best converting payment methods. World-wide. HYBRIDIZATION Monetize every player. Increase revenue and engagement.

Dynamic Quantum Pricing <ul><li>Advertising and
commerce offers are blended dynamically to produce different “effective” prices for different consumers even though all consumers percieve the same price </li></ul>Is this gift free or paid for? Paid Free

Gifts sent +400% +30% The
Results Commerce revenue -25% Commerce revenue Total revenue

Important Future Game Genres <ul><li>Multiplayer
anything </li></ul><ul><li>Sim </li></ul><ul><li>RTS </li></ul><ul><li>RPG </li></ul><ul><li>Puzzle </li></ul><ul><li>Strategy </li></ul><ul><li>God Games Social Collectables </li></ul><ul><li>Casino/Gambling (Inconsistent rewards for consistent behavior) </li></ul><ul><li>Survivor Style Social </li></ul>

Why? <ul><li>Social </li></ul><ul><li>Lend themselves to
asymetrical game design </li></ul><ul><li>Emergent content </li></ul><ul><li>UGC potential </li></ul><ul><li>Easily evolved </li></ul><ul><li>Based on core play instead of production value </li></ul><ul><li>Monetizable many ways </li></ul><ul><li>Many viral hooks </li></ul><ul><li>Lend themselves to real-time and turn based play </li></ul>

The Anti-Social Networking Solution