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?!

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.

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.

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.

Character actors, line up

[ianscot]

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

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.