quote: Original post by OrangyTang
(I assume EA and the like don''t put ads on their game stadiums out of the goodness of their hearts).

No. Currently, they pay to do it.

Yep, that''s right - developers/publishers pay to recreate athlete likenesses, stadia and franchise insignia/identifiers. Fortunately, they only have to license from one or two bodies - the league and the Players'' Association. Unfortunately, some players don''t participate in such collective bargaining agreements, such as Michael Jordan (you may remember editions of NBA Live that had "player 24" for the Chicago Bulls) and now Barry Bonds (MVP Baseball 2004 will not feature Bonds).

could companies rent server space or create server for other companies? and not just for MMORPGs, but websites, forums, and such.

quote: Original post by Alpha_ProgDes
could companies rent server space or create server for other companies? and not just for MMORPGs, but websites, forums, and such.

In theory yes, but that''s not really game-company specific - it''s a hosting company thing. Any business can hire out its unused resources.

Are you including online sales as "retail sales"? These are a completely different beasts... Valve for instance is attempting this through Steam, and of course this was how id got started.

quote: Original post by Pyabo
Are you including online sales as "retail sales"? These are a completely different beasts... Valve for instance is attempting this through Steam, and of course this was how id got started.

Yes, I am - or at least, both of them don''t have the specific condition I''m looking for, which is that the burden of development costs isn''t put on the game''s market price. For online games to qualify, they''d have to cost just enough to cover the cost of the bandwidth used to download them, and no more.

There was an underlying theme at GDC with respect to online games charging for customer service. Offer a subscription that is cheap but offers no support, a subscription that is slightly more expensive offering 5 - 7 uses of customer support during some timeframe and then an unlimited customer support subscription. Add to this, the ability to pay on a per instance basis for customer support as you need it.

I''d add support revenue to the list as well because after you take a second to get over your player-centric-they''re-nickel-and-diming-me-to-death initial impression with what I just said (I had it too), it makes a hell of a lot of sense to implement.

Kressilac
ps There are people that call customer support because they are bored and their boredom costs you money. The current monthly subscription model does nothing to discourage this behavior.

There was a time when 1-900 number "Hint Lines" were offered by some publishers. (I know Activision and Sierra, at least, had them for a few of their titles.) Haven''t seen any recently though. Probably replaced with strategy guides.

Anyway, that one is probably a stretch but it''s the only other thing I could think of that hasn''t already been mentioned.

Add VAR (Value-Added-Reseller) arrangements. Slightly different than your retail sales because you sell gaming computers or graphics cards with your game titles bundled or pre-installed on the hardware. Never heard of anyone doing this, but it is possible.

-cb

Question: Is the point of the essay to include any possible source or are you supposed to cover just the viable ones.

Development is a stressful process that requires focus. In fact most businesses require focus, which is why so many of them regularly sell off company divisions that are not part of their core business. The reason I raise this point is that some of these ideas being put forward are quite a long way away from "core business" for a developer.

If the objective is to blue sky as many possible revenue streams then this is fine. If the idea is to work out the realistic ones then items such as hardware sales aren''t really relevant.

Dan Marchant
Obscure Productions (www.obscure.co.uk)
Game Development & Design consultant

quote: Original post by Obscure
Question: Is the point of the essay to include any possible source or are you supposed to cover just the viable ones.

It''s really to include any possible source. If a source isn''t viable then I get to explain that.

I''ll post the essay online when it''s finished, but the basic point I''m pushing is that piracy can only exist because the black market can provide pirate software at prices lower than the legit market. If the industry could provide games at the same price (the cost of a free download, or the cost of burning a CD and putting it in a case) instead of using the retail prices to pay for development, then piracy would cease. If that''s ever going to happen, it becomes necessary to find other sources of revenue.

Ultimately the best sources of revenue will be through things that can''t be pirated. That''s why things like extra content or strategy guides are not ideal; they can be copied (effectively making them non-excludable and non-rival, i.e. free goods). Subscriptions or IP licenses are better because they can''t be copied. (Subscriptions can be hacked, ok, but the cost to the hacker is immense compared to the cost of modifying a regular game to circumvent copy-protection).