Hi everyone, I am new to this forum and to the game industry, so I may be asking naive questions, so please be patient. I am the owner of a domain Links.com , which is attracting a good number of visitors each month right now, about 60,000, but I really want to increase this number several fold, and will invest if I find the right idea. I have noticed that good quality game portals do pretty well with traffic, so I am considering investing in such a portal, which would feature higher quality online games that are being passed up by the major game portals or are not getting proper visibility. My questions are these: 1) Is there room for another portal. I know that there are some very big ones out there. If so: 2) How much should I expect to pay for a good quality game and where do I find such games? or, .. 3) Does the the industry work on a revenue sharing model, that I should know about? The above questions are for the purpose of budgeting the portal. If there is a more appropriate forum to discuss these issues, I would appreciate the link. Thanks in advance, Rich

I'm not quite sure how to take your questions. I've looked at your site, and I'm still not quite sure what to think.

1) There is always room for another portal. If it is good enough.

2) If you're buying the games, expect to pay a lot for it. Development of quality software requires a lot of time and experience. Not just design and programming, but also for art, audio, testing, and other resources.

3) "The industry" of downloadable game portals is generally that the portal takes a portion of the sales money. It is very easy to get the actual terms from the major sites. Of course, everywhere is different, and you may decide to use some other terms.

I'm curious, what exactly are you offering to those who would offer games for your site? Just getting page hits is not what matters -- the goal is completed sales. What are you offering, other than access to a few page hits?

Hi Frob,

Thanks for the response. I am trying to get a lay of the land, so if the idea is suitable for me, I will move on.

The current site for Links.com can be totally redone. I am working on ideas, and experimenting all the time.

I am trying to better understand the online game industry business model. There seems to be many ways for developers to earn money. Based upon your reply, I gather that the outright purchase of solid new online games, is quite expensive. Is it possible for you to give me a range. I am more interested in quality than quantity.

If outright purchase is prohibitive (and I expect it is), is there a business model where distributors provide such games for a certain fee, or percentage of revenue. In other words, I am trying to get a feel of what it would take, from a budget point of view, to start up a reasonably high quality game site, that will retain visitors. If it is beyond my means, so be it. If there is an untapped market, then I would like to try to address it. Certainly, the goal is for game developers to get paid wither through direct purchase or via lease/rental/revenue sharing - whatever the current game industry busines models are available. I am not looking to just deliver its. I am very serious about this, since Links.com is a valuable domain name and I would like to do it justice.

Thanks again for your reply. I hope this additional information helps you understand what I am looking for.

BTW, I gave you a very helpful rating. Appreciate your time.

Regards,
Rich

Quote: Original post by richrf
Based upon your reply, I gather that the outright purchase of solid new online games, is quite expensive. Is it possible for you to give me a range. I am more interested in quality than quantity.

Some games are developed by one person on their spare time in a matter of weeks. Those games are generally not high quality or fun, but occasionally a gem is created. Other games can take years to develop. Major games cost millions of dollars, but those are developed by game studios and not indie web developers. Even if a game just takes a few months of evening and weekends, when you consider audio, art, programming, and so on, you're talking about two or three FTE of actual work. So obviously, the cost will vary.

Quote: is there a business model where distributors provide such games for a certain fee, or percentage of revenue.

Yes. Look at most of the major web game portals. That is one of their sources of revenue. Others include the ads on their site, paid product placement, and subscriptions for ad-free use.

Quote: In other words, I am trying to get a feel of what it would take, from a budget point of view, to start up a reasonably high quality game site, that will retain visitors.

I can't help too much beyond stating the minimum obvious ones.

At a minimum you will need a few people to develop the web site, back end, maintain the infrastructure of hosting the games, and so on. Salary is location based. You'll need the networking equipment and bandwidth, which isn't free, with highly variable costs based on your usage patterns. You'll need some form of transaction processing service (assuming people will be processing money). Then there's advertising, which is always a money sink. You'll need to advertise to developers, you'll need to advertise to the players, and you'll need to establish yourself as a brand -- which can consume all the money you throw at it. There are also the "normal" business fees of lawyers, taxes, and administration.

If you are doing it as a one-man show, I'd recommend you prepare yourself for disappointment, since one person alone can't compete directly with the major portals with multi-million annual budgets. If you were hiring staff, I'd recommend you get a trusted core team and leach experienced talent from the current major game portals. A small staff with the right set of talents could probably cut out a niche market and grow well.

Several of the current online portals provide affiliate services (for example Reflexive , Big Fish or Wild Tangent ), which allows you to dip your toes into the downloadable casual market with no real cost up front beyond web-site.

If it turns out to be profitable, you can start negotiating directly with developers, and negotiating for publishing or exclusive contracts.

Good luck,

Allan Simonsen

Hi frob,

Thanks much for your detailed response. It is much appreciated.

Rich

Quote: Original post by __ODIN__
Several of the current online portals provide affiliate services (for example Reflexive , Big Fish or Wild Tangent ), which allows you to dip your toes into the downloadable casual market with no real cost up front beyond web-site.

If it turns out to be profitable, you can start negotiating directly with developers, and negotiating for publishing or exclusive contracts.

Good luck,

Allan Simonsen

These are excellent leads Allan. I very much appreciate them. I have to give you some thumbs up also. Have a great weekend,

Regards,
Rich

Just to throw in a different idea. I think you know that a domain like links.com is very valuable, but on the other hand its a very general domain. Think about what would people expect if they type in "links.com" in their browser?

Do they really expect a gameportal? Certainly you would generate sales with such high traffic domains, but you would waste atleast 95% of your traffic because the people were looking for something else.

In my eyes it would be a better idea to create a general internet portal. Even if its just a collection of different affilate programs you should generate much more profit with it then with focusing on another gameportal on its own.

You could also just sell the links.com domain and get enough money to invest in a more matching domain. And additionally get enough money for advertising and development of such portal.