Lecture from the Quo Vadis conference in Berlin April 2013 (DGT13). Trying to summarize the history of different business models in the past to see wether history will repeat itself.
12. 1996
"What was so shocking to me was that
Windows was the second highest usage
application in the U.S. The number one
application was Doom," N. explained. To
him, this was a revelation. "It was a 12-
person company in the suburbs of Texas
that didn't even distribute through
retail, it distributed through bulletin
boards and other pre-Internet
mechanisms ... Microsoft was hiring
500-people sales teams and this entire
company was 12 people, yet it [id
Software] had created the most widely
distributed software in the world."
47. • Retail (Assassins Creed X, CoD X, etc.)
• Digital Distribution (Steam)
• In-Game Advertising (Fifa)
• Advertgames (Americas Army)
• “Try Before you Buy” / Trialware /
Shareware,
• Episodic Entertainment (Telltale),
• Skill-Based Progressive Jackpots
(Poker),
• Subscription Model (WoW)
• Micro-Transactions (Travian, etc.),
• Sponsored Games / Donationware
(serious games, games for good,
charity games),
• Pay per play / Pay as you go / Pay for
Time,
• Player to Player trading of Virtual Items
(Steam Trading),
• Sell Access to your Players (like lead
generation, special offers etc.),
• Freeware (get lots of users),
• Loss Leader (focus on your real goal),
• Peripheral Enticement (Skylanders),
• Player to Player Wagering (GameDuell),
• User Generated Content (letting users
make endless new content),
• Pay for service (Storage, Private server,
Cloud stats: CoD Elite, Minecraft
Realms),
• Rental,
• Merchandise (Angry Birds),
• Pre-Sell the Game to the Players (Prison
Architect, Minecraft).
Overview of business models
Source: David Perry on Gamedesign
52. Marketgrowthrate
Relative market share
HighLow
LowHigh
DogsCash Cows
?Stars
Retail
Shareware
Subscriptions
Digital Distribution
Micro-Transactions
Peripheral Enticement
Merchandise
Episodic Entertainment
Gambling
Pay per Play
User Generated Content
Games as a service
Pre-sell
Ingame-Advertising
Advertgames
Sponsored Games
Sell Player Data
Rental
Do your homework!