As a youngster I was one of the few kids who just weren’t into video games. Pokemon on the GameBoy was about as far as I got. As I got older I discovered MMO and social games such as Farmville and Habbo Hotel. I was immediately hooked which for me was a total surprise as I had never shown much interest in video games in my younger years.

I never really understood why I went from an agnostic game player to a fully committed gamer. I didn’t quite understand why or what it was about MMO’s and social games that I enjoyed so much. That was until I chanced upon a video from TEDTalks featuring Jane McGonigal. The title made an assertion which admittedly made me watch it to give a wry smile and a shake of the head; ‘gaming can make a better world’. This I have to see I thought to myself. The rest as they say is history.

In the video Jane McGonigal leads sceptics of gaming like I was in like fish to bait. Three billion hours per week are spent on playing games. Unexpectedly Jane immediately argued that this just isn’t anywhere near enough.

3 billion hours per week are spent playing games.. this is not nearly enough to solve the world’s problems

Before continuing with

if we want to solve problems like climate change, hunger… we need to aspire to play online games for at least 21 billion hours per week

By now she had me completely reeled in. I just had to hear her argument as to why or how playing games can solve any of the world’s problems. She explains later in the video that we feel we are not as good in reality as we are in games. Not in the sense of feeling important or happy but in the sense of accomplishing tasks and overcoming failure. Gaming, Jane McGonigal argues is making us motivated, inspired and more collaborative.

And then it hit me. That’s the pleasure I took from social gaming. Collaboration, working together with other people to accomplish tasks and the determination to succeed.

It’s from these characteristics of gaming that we at PlayMob use in our business philosophy. We don’t just believe that gaming and gamers can make a better world, we’re proving it.

Firstly I must own up. I am an Angry Birds fan and a self proclaimed master. Many long train journeys were spent playing the Angry Birds games. People sat near me would be entertained at me wincing at every near miss, growling at every mis-shot and whooping for every high score I got. In my opinion Rovio’s Angry Birds is one of the best games to grace a hand held device in the past 5 years.

All of that aside however, I’m somewhat sceptical at their insatiably high valuation. $8.9 billion dollars is a massively high valuation of Rovio. To put it into perspective, Nokia, whose headquarters are just nearby to Rovio’s is valued at just over 11 billion dollars. Is a company that has produced and developed technology for decades, produced hundreds of millions of phones and has headquarters all around the world is just worth 2 billion dollars more? Or should the question be- can a company such as Rovio that has produced sales of just £61 million in 2011 be worth nearly as much as a company like Nokia?

It makes me wonder whether the dot com bubble is ready to burst again. Remember when MySpace was purchased by the Murdoch empire for $580 million back in 2005? I remember many commentators around the world who declared this an incredibly skilful business move, an example of Murdoch’s masterful genius. A purchase bought at the ultimate peak of MySpace’s success where even the most pessimistic of commentators could not see it’s meteoric rise to success ever diminish. Is this what Rovio is suffering from? A valuation at a time where its peak success has been achieved and assumed to continue for many years, even decades to come?

Let’s look at some statistics on Rovio:

- Angry Birds was downloaded 50 million times in 30 days

- Just 224 staff are employed by Rovio (last year it was under 30)

- Company was founded in 2003 and didn’t release Angry Birds till 2009

- 200 monthly users for the Angry Birds game

- Angry Birds has been downloaded over 800 million times

There is no denying that Rovio and their Angry Birds game have been amazingly successful. The facts shown above certainly do speak for themselves. What concerns me though is the parity such a high valuation creates between game developers like Rovio and everybody else. Competition is indeed healthy but when one company is valued at nearly100 times its actual year-on-year revenue this creates uneasy times for all involved in the industry.

A judge in a San Jose court heard a class action lawsuit filed by disgruntled parents against freemium games which offer IAP. The court papers apparently show that the parents have coined (for the want of a better word) the phrase ‘bait apps’.

Firstly we have a problem with the terminology used. Bait apps is using semantics to draw direct and almost concordant comparison with ‘hook and bait’ scams. Schemes where somebody is tied in to a perceived agreement when, in fact, they’ve been baited, and are actually tied in to a costly new agreement. In other words, misrepresentation.

There are no games on the App store which force somebody to make purchases, nor any that tie somebody in to a non-existent agreement, nor any that take your money away by stealth for that matter. Therefore the reality of any hooking or baiting consumers is non-existent.

Apple have done plenty to ensure consumers know exactly what they are doing when accessing freemium apps within the iOS ecosystem. The parents woudn’t have to go to the trouble of bringing forward a class action lawsuit against Apple’s IAP policies if they went in to settings, selected ‘General’ and went in to the ‘Restrictions’ menu. If they had done so, they would’ve been able to disable in app purchases specifically whilst still being able to access freemium apps.

I am by no means blinded by Apple. There are certainly criticisms pitched towards Apple that are valid, such as Apple’s continual refusal to allow in app purchases tied towards charitable donations. Something which those of us within PlayMob are fighting an uphill struggle to lobby Apple about. The class action lawsuit brought by these parents will simply sideline genuine concerns about Apple and their business practices.

As the case in point shows, there is probably very little Apple can do (without ruining the user experience for the majority) in making their IAP policies clearer. Surely a positive way for them to deal with disgruntled parents or consumers unhappy with the freemium IAP business model would be to allow charitable donations to be connected to these in app purchases. After all, it’s far too easy to knock down an organisation that does very little in the way of charity, especially when they are extremely lucrative!

The freemium business model, coupled with in app purchases, has proved incredibly successful in generating great profits for game developers – both Indie and Corporate – alongside massive profits for Apple. It’s just a shame the Cupertino based company still won’t allow charities to get a look in.

Rumours are rife about the new iPhone 5; some look pretty accurate whilst others are wildly unlikely. Looking at the most realistic rumours what could it all mean for iOS game developers?

The next 6 months are going to be pretty busy for Apple. Just another 6 months for the Cupertino based company, but for iOS game developers the new iPhone could have a lot of impact. We’ve looked through the rumours and put together the ones we believe are the most likely to be true and seen how things may change for game developers. 

Larger Screen

Many outlets are reporting that the iPhone 5 will sport a larger screen. The most convincing of these is from CNET News’ sister publication reporting that the new device will have a qHD screen in 960×540 pixels measuring 4.3 inches. Though the screen will be larger eagle eyed readers will notice that this is 100 less pixels on the side than the previous iPhone handsets. This means developers will have to work on shaving off 100 pixels from their existing portfolio. This in turn means extra money. If previous iPhone users buy the iPhone 5 they will most likely want the games they had on their old device on their new device. This could translate into extra revenue as developers are provided with a great excuse to build in updates to existing games.

Faster Processor & More RAM

The iPhone 5 will reportedly have a quadcore A5x processor with 1GB of ram. This will allow more graphics heavy and memory intensive games to be produced. Most games in the App Store don’t push the existing A3 and A4 chips to the limit so most developers won’t be affected. The A5x processor and 1GB ram should push the possibility of a new resolution for the iPhone 5 displays since the A5x processor was utilised to support the retina display of the iPad.

June Launch Date

Reports are coming from Foxconn sources that production is being readied for a June launch date with a recruiter from Foxconn saying live on television that Apple is looking for 18,000 employees for the fifth generation iPhone. Probed further he stated that the iPhone 5 will be coming out in June of this year. Therefore game devs should start preparing sooner rather than later.

Physical Controller Peripherals

If this rumour weren’t from AppleInsider I’d cast it off as probably untrue, but AppleInsider rarely get it wrong. They’ve reported that an inside source has revealed that Apple are working on a project to bring a physical game controller to market. Personally I don’t think game devs should laugh this one off too quickly. Apple is working on their on television, they have released their own (failed) gaming console. I’ve always thought that soon Apple would utilise the Apple TV as a gaming hub which would require an external device, or a physical controller. Evolution, a cool startup from America has already come up with what is an extremely awesome smartphone controller, shown below. 

Conclusion

The saying goes fail to prepare, prepare to fail. Game developers that rely on iOS sales should be exploring their options right now, measuring the potential risks and opportunities a significantly different iPhone device could bring them.

When I got back to the PlayMob offices I threw this insight over to the team and we got thinking. Cups of tea and coffee were ordered along with brain food like Krispy Kreme donuts and we sat down together. Why don’t we come up with a crash course guide for fledging indie game developers to help them with the daunting task of marketing their own games I asked. Expecting side way glances and groans a huge sheet of paper was brought out and we got brainstorming. This article is the culmination of our own research, insight and ideas.

Point 1: become a socialite

Attend as many relevant conferences, events and socials as you can. These are an invaluable way to meet other people in the same position as you and to get advice from those who have progressed to a level further than you. Attending events on its own isn’t enough; make yourself be seen and known. Speak to as many people as possible. You never know, the weird looking guy in the corner sweating profusely could be the very guy that can propel your game in to the featured spotlight of a widely read publication.

Point 2: social media is should be your first and second home

Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google Plus and Vimeo should be in your most visited websites. Social media is a fantastic way to get your game known and best of all – it’s free. I personally have noticed that some indie game developers have an almost anxious avoidant attitude towards social media. If this is you, you should change that now. Use the different social media networks out there but not just in a ham-fisted fashion. Work out which social media tool is for what purpose. For example; use Twitter for networking with journalists, LinkedIn for reaching out to investors, YouTube for video showcases and so-forth.

Point 3: content is king

Without content nobody will be content with finding out about your game. Period. If your website has barely any information or hasn’t been updated in several weeks, then I’m talking to you here – keep creating relevant content. Whether that be articles, videos or illustrations. If you’re stuck for what content you should create look at what other people are doing, but a good starting point would be to have a development diary, screenshots, video presentations and a blog. Don’t have an avoidant attitude to content. People DO want to read about your opinions, they DO want to know about your game. It’s just up to you to make sure that you have the content to engage with people.

Point 4: don’t think of it as marketing, think of it as PR

Often when people think of marketing they think of stupendously awesome advertising campaigns, glossy branding sessions and thinking of ways to hype up your game. Our advice would be, don’t. Seeing it as a purely marketing campaign will create a rod for your own back and it will make the entire task pretty daunting.

Perceive the notion of having to market your game as more a PR campaign than anything. This allows you to focus on the most important thing; communicating your game to others. It also allows you to feel comfortable and confident that you do not have a marketing budget. PR is free and as someone who has studied Marketing, Advertising & PR at degree level I feel it has the most bang per buck for any campaign.

Point 5: press releases aren’t optional

This goes out to you if you have never sent out a single press release. A press release is never an option, it is a single-handed must. Press releases are a fundamental way of reaching out to the press. Unless you’re Justin Bieber, the press will never write about your game unless you send them press releases.

You may be thinking you have nothing to say to say in a press release. You’d be wrong. Even if your game isn’t yet finished you should send out press releases introducing yourself to the press cartel. Tell them a story, find that hook that makes you stand out from the rest. This means don’t try sounding slick, stagnant and corporate. This means identifying something about you or your project that tells a story. For example if I were an indie game developer mine would be ‘from indie musician to indie game developer’.

Conclusion

Go forth and shout about yourself and your product. Seriously. Go on, do it now. Not later. Let us know how you get on. If you’d like us to tweet about your game you can find us on Twitter.

It was my first year or judging the awards and first year to attend so for the awards 2012, it was an extra special one. Having just landed back from SXSW in Texas, the jet lag was not going to get in the way of a superb evening!

The awards were everything one could expect from BAFTA – red carpet glitz and glamour, celebrities mooching around and even the game developers and studios themselves scrubbed up to look tres chic.

I was so excited when Monster Mind by Bossa Studios won best online browser against some tough competition such as Sims Social and Skylanders! Well done Bossa team – we at PlayMob are really proud of your achievement!

It was also a delight to meet Marcus Persson in person after he won the BAFTA special award. Creator of Minecraft, which has over 5 million players, Persson, or ‘Notch’ as he has been nicknamed, is a true inspiration to all indie game developers out there.

The awards really proved that games are growing at an exponential rate in size, types and quality. But it also proved that the industry is just getting started. Tom Stone of TT Games mentioned that the awards has grown up considerably since they first begun. For me this got me thinking of where we will be in 5 – 10 years time. It is definitely an exciting time for all involved and we at PlayMob are proud to be a member of the community.

Again congrats to all those who won a BAFTA or were nominated for one on Friday evening, this is such a prestigious achievement!

Click here for a full list of the winners.

Last week Chancellor George Osborne announced the 2012 budget. If you gloss over the jiggery pokery of modern day political spiel you’ll notice that there was some very good news for the gaming industry. At the PlayMob office we sat down and poured over the data to find out how you’ll be affected. After all, taxes don’t have to be taxing…

In fact, the catchphrase of the entire budget speech surely had to be George Osborne making a somewhat rallying call that it was the Government’s policy to keep Wallace & Gromit exactly where they are. A dig at the Labour leader Ed Miliband, who if you look carefully enough sometimes is known to utter ‘more cheese Gromit’.

Political insults aside, as part of the 2012 budget the Chancellor announced there to be tax reliefs (or breaks depending on just how semantic the government is feeling) for the UK video games and animation industries, which will start in April 2013. Some of you may be having a dejavu moment and you would be right to, as back in 2010 our then Chancellor Alistair Darling (or Darling Chancellor if you feel that way inclined) brought in the exact same thing in to his budget; the newly formed Coalition Government overturning it that same year preventing it from going any further.

Neither Labour nor the Coalition Government can take full credit for this measure (naturally though they of course all are), most of the credit should go to TIGA. The UK’s games industry trade association has been actively campaigning for tax reliefs for the industry for many years. TIGA are indeed proud of their achievement with Dr Richard Wilson, CEO describing the government measure as a victory for the games sector.

TIGA’s research so far on the 2012 Budget sees the tax relief as:

- Increasing the games development sector’s contribution to UK GDP by £283 million

- Generating and safeguarding over 4500 direct and indirect jobs in the sector

- Providing £188 million in investment expenditure for studios

- Generating a whopping £172 million in new and protected tax receipts to the Treasury

Within the PlayMob team we have spoken to several different game developers who as a whole have said that something had to be done for the British gaming industry to be able to compete with studios in America and Japan.

Holding back contempt for any number of political parties for a moment, tax reliefs are a major coup for the gaming industry; we believe for an industry that employs over 9000 people it was a necessary measure that’s taken too much flag waving to accomplish.

The week started off with a session looking at brands as patterns by Greg Johnson, HP, Marc Shillum, Method Inc, Robin Lanahan, Microsoft (and who could be the answer to re-inventing Microsoft’s branding!) and Walter Werzowa who created the Intel jingle, very cool! The biggest take away from this session was that brands need to have this constant repetition to be recognised, but to balance this was not switching the consumer off as the brand fades into the norm. A brand has to constantly reinvent itself and have the capability of including opposites I.e. Old Spice combines being for the player and the good guy.

David Eagleman, author of ‘Incognito’ did a fascinating talk on the Secret LIves of the Brain, talking of how we increase memory and how we are understanding more about behaviour and changes in behaviour by understanding the brain and it’s complexities.

Seeing Jane McGonigal in person was a highlight for me. I have tracked her work and research for years and felt inspired after hearing her talk. She has created a new game/app called  Super Better which can help you become better every day by small actions. Jane did mention that there are other apps out there which have similar outcomes so check out Everest, Lift, MightyBell, DailyFeats, Schemer (by Google) – this is an interesting trend of new apps created to make us do more and be better, and I am keen to have a look at these all!Jane also mentioned that one of her favourite people in Games is Will Wright and how he has talked of how we are at a Cambrian Explosion of gaming (oh, and we are now spending 7 billion hours per week playing games!!).

Now it isn’t every day you get an invite to Richard Garriott’s home, for a BBQ and a tour of his eclectic collection of memorabilia of his life journey and fascinating visits around the world, and outside of this world. Yes, Richard spent 12 days in space which required 1.5 years of training in Russia to prep for this journey. He has also visited the Titanic, spent soulful time in the mountains with Monks of and created some of the world’s most successful games and gaming companies!

The session which really summed up our area of giving through gaming, and the validation that all companies we are aiming at – game development companies and brands – need to be in this space and what we are doing at PlayMob is making this easier for them to do just this. Biz Stone, co-founder of Twitter stated that ‘Philanthropy is the new marketing’. Biz is collecting stories and has asked for people in this area to email him, so as you can imagine, that email from PlayMob is wiring it’s way to him now!

For sake of keeping saving this blog from turning into a book, the other quick highlights which you can check out on the SXSW site were Eric Reis and Dave McLure on lean start upland agile development, a discussion by Al Gore and Sean Parker on the needs to change democracy and fast, the interactive exhibition and Screen Burn expo, closed sessions with Google, Pepsi, Reuters, Sesame Street and IBM.

And to top this all off at the end of each day we still managed to squeeze some time in to do some shuffle board at buffalo bills, bands at Latitude ending the week watching the hilarious band Spazmatics. Wow, time to recoup and prep for SXSW 2013!

Written by Jude Ower, PlayMob CEO

Research by the leading mobile application analytics organisation Flurry found that in 2010 consumer usage of games was spread 60/40 to independent iOS and Android game developers. It has since  risen a further 8%. For more information click on the source image above.

So who are the indie game developers that have been on an overnight success journey from rags to riches? Well, the three that spring to mind are:

- Tiny Wings, a game developed by Andreas Illiger alone. Just him, his creativity, skills and 7 months. So far it has sold over 5 million copies.

- The Heist, developed by the team behind the popular iPhone app Camera+. In a week their game sold over 500,000 copies.

- Trainyard, described as ‘the best puzzle game on the App store’, a description you can only claim when you reached the dizzying heights of number one paid game in the App Store.

In my opinion indie game developers have really given the gaming industry the fresh burst of energy, creativity and passion it so badly needed. Imagine the App Store without any indie game developers or social gaming without the start-ups; it soon helps you realise that the gaming world really would be a quieter place without them.

In this article we discuss the dynamics involved in the world of gaming and giving as well as asking key questions such as what motivates people to purchase virtual goods and are gamers more motivated by virtual objects attached to a charitable cause than a commercial one?

To describe the motivation dynamics we use four out of seven of Seth Priebatsch‘s Seven Gaming Dynamics. For people who don’t know, Priebatsch runs SCVNGR, a mobile  start-up described as ‘trying to build the game layer on top of the world ‘.

1. Appointment Dynamic

This dynamic describes the process in which a game player is given (consciously or subconsciously) a reason to return to their game. Virtual goods attached to a cause does exactly that. These virtual objects are exclusive and unique by their very nature and this means game players know that if they do not return to their game they may just miss out on a limited edition premium object. Priebatcsh, in his own description of the Appointment Dynamic states that the reason to return to a game should be for a specific time. Games publishers therefore can optimise the appointment dynamic aspect of their game by releasing special virtual objects linked to a specific charitable cause for a particular period of time.

2. Influence and Status Dynamic

This is described as ‘the ability of one player to modify the behaviour of another’s actions through social pressure ‘. This is precisely the effect premium objects have on game players, especially the case for charitable premium objects. If one friend has purchased a special virtual item it results in his or her friends to (usually subconsciously) feel less influential and have less of a status within the game, therefore motivating them to also purchase that exclusive virtual object. People have a desire to be seen as doing good and being charitable, altruistic by nature in that they know they have the power to influence others to enforce positive change.

3. Progression Dynamic

This dynamic is described as ‘ a dynamic in which success is granularly displayed and measured through the process of completing itemised tasks’. Zynga, within the last year on its flagship game Farmville has started doing this through branded virtual goods. Players were challenged to do specific itemised and measured tasks in order to receive  a bonus branded virtual object, for example in their Lady Gaga Farmville campaign. Within a charitable causes arena players can be incentivised to play the game more by rewarding their game playing with an exclusive opportunity to purchase a premium object attached to real world causes.

4. Communal Discovery Dynamic

Described as a dynamic wherein an entire community is rallied together to solve a challenge. Several social games, particularly the most successful ones employ this dynamic very well. Players must band together with other players to progress through a specific challenge or level, whereupon once completed they receive a special virtual object as a reward.

Conclusion

These four dynamics give us a greater understanding of why game players invest their money in purchasing virtual goods and how this can be maximised through the application of charitable premium objects.