Indie Game Developers See Big Opportunity

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."

Comments

Of course

[Red Flayer]

Take any retail industry. Make distribution costs sufficiently close to zero. Make unit cost close to zero.

Independent producers will grow like weeds. Add in the fact that the casual gamer market was underutilized... Profit!

So nothing's changed then?

[Buddy_DoQ]

What they're trying to say is, that nothing has changed since the days of Tertris.

Boys are still the big buyers and mom sometimes likes Tertis-like games. Making more Tertis-like games may bring in more money, but I don't think it'll be as big as they think. (But I've been wrong before, and as an indie type my self, I'd love to be!)

Re:So nothing's changed then?

[Xarius]

How can someone spell Tetris wrong three times in a row?!

Re:So nothing's changed then?

[garcia]

Boys are still the big buyers and mom sometimes likes Tertis-like games. Making more Tertis-like games may bring in more money, but I don't think it'll be as big as they think. (But I've been wrong before, and as an indie type my self, I'd love to be!)

I enjoy puzzle games like Tetris and specifically "Bejeweled" (or any of the 1000 other names it goes by depending on variation) but that's because they are "free". I can go to Yahoo Games and fire up a game of Gin, Literati, Bejeweled, etc, all for nothing. I don't need a game to sit on my HD taking up space, I don't need the latest and greatest system to run it, I don't need to pay an arm and a leg, and I don't get bored with the game after I "finish" it.

My problem with most modern games is that the long term playability just isn't there. Yeah, most FPS shooters with online play break that mold but there are plenty of others that don't. You need to invest too much in hardware, software, and time and then you're bored with it in a month/year.

I have a Ms. Pacman machine (currently in disrepair unfortunately). It's been out since 1982 and it's just as much fun today as it was then.

I'll take a puzzle game over some multi-million dollar interactive movie anyday.

Re:So nothing's changed then?

[mopslik]

How can someone spell Tetris wrong three times in a row?

I don't know, but I suspect that had it been spelled incorrectly a fourth time, there would have been some bonus points awarded.

Only 1%....

[wpiman]

that seems low to me.

I would probably catorgorize myself as a casual gamer- I play once a week- often not at all- but I'd say I buy 5-6 games a year. I'd like to play more- but don't have time. Is this just me or are others in this same category?

Negative Effects?

[matr0x_x]

I am not convinced that games going mainstream is necessarily a good thing! As more and more average Americans start playing video games in their spare time, the lucrative market video game creators will target will also change. Pretty soon games like Halo will be on the back burner to "every day games" free of killing and other evils. Could this mean a world full of The Sims knockoffs?

Re:Negative Effects?

[confusednoise]

Wrong wrong wrong. If it becomes easier/lower cost to create and distribute games, variety will increase are more niche markets are able to be filled. Game makers no longer have to bet on the biggest market out there - indie makers can find a small audience for their game and make enough to get by. All this means *more* different kinds of games, not less.

Now: s/games/[books|music|any content you want]/ and think over the benefits of indie producers again.

When can I get Death Cab (PC) preload from Steam?

[christian.elliott]

Here we go, I can see it now. Soon enough I'll have to wade through a sea of EMO kids trying to get my copy of HL3 or Doom 18, having my tastes in game critiqued and told how I should really be playing "Indie Games" because thats where the "real talent" is.

I'm surprised

[Conspiracy_Of_Doves]

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

This is great!

[Yhippa]

I've been waiting for things like this to really pick up. Most of the games I've played on the consoles or PC are incremental improvements over a previous version. I like the fact that the barrier for entry is lower so that people with different ideas get a shot at making some cool games.

I think a lot of us remember the days of the Atari 2600 where there were few sequels and mostly different (and sometimes weird) ideas. I felt that way about games until they started to become really commercialized in the late 90's and all we get now are rehashes because the big businesses are not willing to take risks and want steady incomes. Maybe we'll see some new games now.

Voice-recognition RPG

[G4from128k]

Some cellphone service provider is going to make a killing on a voice-activated old-school RPG. The player speaks their commands ("move forward" "pick up crystal") and a pleasant synth or sampled voice tells the player what they see ("You are in a dark forest and the sun is setting. In front of you lies a shining sword and a bulging bag. A trail leads forward toward a crumbling castle").

Just think of the minutes burned as the "caller" explores some world/dungeon for hours.

Re:Voice-recognition RPG

[Magnusite]

Yeah, but what about when your playing the latest Mission:Impossible tie-in game?

You: "Open the door."
Phone: "The door opens. Stepping inside, you see a large water tank, possibly the cooling chamber for the reactor you were sent to destroy."
You: "Place the plastic explosives on the nuclear reactor coolant controller."

Whumpf! "Hey, what the heck? Who are you guys? Why did you tackle me? What's going on?
Secret Police: "By authority of the Terrorist Wartime Powers Act, I'm taking you in! But before I start doing particularly nasty stuff to you, you'd better tell me: who were you talking to?!!

Profits tend to zero

[Anonymous Coward]

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!

Re:Profits tend to zero

[Red Flayer]

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

Except that there are barriers to entry (development costs -- like hiring a good designer & good developer). Still, much smaller barriers than in many other industries.

Also, a perfectly competitive market assumes that all products are equivalent, which is not the case here. So, some developers will realize a hefty profit (due to a better product) and some will realize losses. In the long run, extrapolated across all competitors, you are correct... but there is still a huge capacity for profit due to differences in the product.

Yawn

[beakerMeep]

These articles are like "is apple dying?" articles. Need to run one of them every few months as per the publishers guidebook for easy stories. Not that this story is wrong but talking about games like Bejewelled-like as some sort of new market is silly.

From the article, "Until recently, the market for electronic games was mainly young, male, and diehard."

Not at all.

Girls have outnumbered guys playing games for years and it's all games like this with companies capitalizing all along.

For once i would like to see information on how this effects more traditionally "guy" games. For instance i bet the are significantly more girls playing WoW than ever played Ultima Online despite it still being vastly a male audience. Also would like to see how girls have influced the creation of more advanced games that cater to their gender more so than their male counterparts -- such as Black and White or The Sims.

I'm not holding my breath though ;)

Several factors ....

[AlltheCoolNamesGone]

as to why there seems to be more "casual" gamers.

1. More homes have PCs now. Do you really think that people are not going to take advantage of all the features of a PC?

2. There is little to no social stigma left to playing PC games.

3. Lack of time in our daily lives. (When you grow up and have a family you cant spend 8 hours a day 7 days a week playing your favorite games)

This shouldn't be surpriseing if anything the casual gamer market should continue growing.

Distribution client?

[No Such Agency]

"almost 60% of the U.S. population now has access to broadband"

Does this mean that 60% of the population HAS broadband access in their homes? Or that they could have it installed if they want? I assume that it means the former, since almost everyone has cable TV by now and therefore likely access to cable internet.

I wonder what the possibilities would be for starting a Steam-like service, but instead of peddling one's own games, instead distributing inexpensive indie games in exchange for a percentage? Would many casual gamers install a client like that?

Character actors, line up

[ianscot]

We need to audition for the definitive "You may be eaten by a Grue" voice.

Sortasoft

[TheSifters]

I've recently entered into the casual games industry myself. There is definitely a market out there and I love working for myself and creating whatever I feel like creating. I have also found that the developer community is very helpful and willing to share their knowledge. If anyone wants to know more about just ask I'd love to share what i've learned.

My first casual game Funky Farm has been doing better than I could ever have imagined, and I'm close to finishing my 2nd casual game. If you want to check out my site.... www.sortasoft.com

Wildlife Tycoon

[ajschatz]

Hi guys, this is Andy Schatz, the guy in the first sentence of the article. Just wanted to post here in the off chance that someone would be interested in my work or my perspective on indie games... The risk averse publishers in the big console-driven world are leaving many niches open for us indie types. Look at Wildlife Tycoon (www.wildlifetycoon.com). It's been a long time since someone came out with a compelling Tycoon game (unless you count Outpost Kaloki, which was great). I was able to design, engineer, and do the business for a game that will compete in a large market niche for minimal cost. The game was developed in 10 months (with 4 contract artists, 1 contract sound designer, and 1 contract writer, all part time) for 6000 dollars. This is partly because large corporations haven't upped the ante in this niche by innovating because they are scared to be spending big money on studios when they don't know the designs are going to be good. The DOWNLOADABLE tycoon market is almost entirely devoid of competition. My research has showed that the market buying retail Tycoon games is a very similar market to those buying casual downloadable games, but this area of the market hasn't been tapped yet. Oh, and the game is FREAKING COOL. Josiah Pisciotta, creater of Gish, has been hooked on it for the past 3 days, not getting his work done. That's my strategy, of course, to make games cool enough to make my competition stop working. Hey, it worked for World of Warcraft...