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Indie Game Developers See Big Opportunity

Posted by Zonk on from the plenty-of-pennies-in-tetris dept.

An anonymous reader writes "BusinessWeek Online is running a story on the new opportunities indie game developers are finding in the casual games space. They also have a Q&A with one of Microsoft's gaming gurus." From the article: "Until recently, the market for electronic games was mainly young, male, and diehard. These days, a bigger, more age-diverse group that increasingly includes and women is joining in the fun, spending anywhere from a few minutes a day to long stretches on online poker or games such as Bejewelled, Tetris, and The Sims. As more people sign up for high-speed Internet access (almost 60% of the U.S. population now has access to broadband), the gaming experience -- both for games playable online, such as Bejewelled, and CD- or DVD-ROM titles with an online component, like The Sims -- has become more appealing. Casual gamers now make up about 1% of the $20.5 billion game-software market."

6 of 119 comments (clear)

  1. The Sims not online by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    Since when does the average Sims title have an online component?

    1. Re:The Sims not online by lividdr · · Score: 2, Informative

      You can share your homes/neighborhoods and any objects you might create.

      That's what I hear, anyway - it's not like I ever played the sims or anything ;)

      --
      Give a man a beer and he wastes an hour. Teach a man to brew and he wastes a lifetime.
    2. Re:The Sims not online by Mister+Skippy · · Score: 2, Informative

      It's not that The Sims has online play, it's that it has an online component: a huge amount of downloadable content.

      --
      ----- Oooh, Shiny!
  2. I'm surprised by Conspiracy_Of_Doves · · Score: 3, Informative

    They didn't mention Manifesto Games, the new startup established by Greg Costikyan, author of the Scratchware Manifesto

    --

    Technoli
    1. Re:I'm surprised by Toddarooski · · Score: 2, Informative

      As I recall, Manifesto games is intentionally avoiding going after the casual game market. They're looking for Indie Hardcore games. TFA seems to use "Indie" and "Causal" interchangably, which is true for a lot of the games out there right now, but not all of 'em...

      --

      "Do you expect me to talk?" "No, Mr. Bond. I expect you to die!"

  3. Profits tend to zero by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    Perfect competition: Characterized by a free flow of information, no barriers to entry, and a large number of buyers and sellers.

    Each seller supplies and each buyer purchases only a small fraction of the total supply of the commodity. As a result, no single seller or buyer can influence the market price. The sellers earn only normal profits (the minimum profit necessary to keep them in business). If sellers earn excess profits, other sellers will enter the market, boosting the supply and thus driving down the price of the commodity, until only normal profits are possible.

    Sounds like a real goldmine!