Comments on: The market glut

By: BestBuy launching prepaid cards for online games « Lightspeed Venture Partners Blog

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 03:17:08 +0000

[...] at retail are an excellent way to monetize MMOG players. Earlier this year, Raph posted on the game card endcap at Target who have pioneered this category. Sean Ryan, MEEz’s CEO, notes: So why should anyone care [...]

By: Virtual Worlds News: Nielsen: Club Penguin Growth Slows

Virtual Worlds News: Nielsen: Club Penguin Growth Slows — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 16:42:08 +0000

[...] not necessarily a threat. As Raph Koster notes when looking at the numbers, the market as a whole (looking at MMOGs and, particularly, kids worlds) is still going [...]

By: A blog turning into a game » Blog Archive » » Monetizing kid MMOGs and virtual worlds

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 01:35:19 +0000

[...] through retail outlets has made payments far easier; panelists from Nexon and Gaia agreed. But as Raph Koster has pointed out, this has led to a major glut of cards in stores such as [...]

By: Eolirin

Eolirin — Sun, 25 May 2008 09:10:13 +0000

Well, I dunno if I’d say AoC spits in the eye of political correctness. It doesn’t shy away from mature topics certainly but it actually breaks with the setting in some respects by being more inclusive than the source material was. But even more than that, it never actually goes out of it’s way to highlight things, they’re just kinda there because they’re part of the world. Nothing’s gratuitous or over the top (except maybe the blood splatters ). It’s about as tasteful as a game that trys to stay true to the Conan universe can really be.

By: Out to Pasture » Blog Archive » Retail game cards

Out to Pasture » Blog Archive » Retail game cards — Fri, 23 May 2008 17:59:23 +0000

[...] Raph: “The Market Glut” [...]

By: Kerri Knight

Kerri Knight — Fri, 23 May 2008 15:44:36 +0000

It’s also kind of fun to play a MMO which spits in the eye of Political Correctness.

Doesn’t seem that striking to me, but then I see players do it all day long whether the ‘game’ does or not :9.

By: Robert Brackenridge

Robert Brackenridge — Thu, 22 May 2008 03:02:53 +0000

One additional comment… If you take into account that MiniClip had a tremendous amount of influence on CP’s growth, and you factor in the possibility of reaching network saturation within the group of 45 million gamers (similar to Andrew Chen’s viral Facebook comments) you can see how they may have very well stalled. In San Francisco (SF GDC) Lane Merrifield commented that they had just brought in a marketing department for the first time. Clearly they have to work on other means to continue spreading the word.

One only has to look at Webkinz continued climb to see that there is still growth opportunities. It’s a matter of finding the right segment that your platform resonates with. And, not going head-to-head, at least initially, with the market leader unless you have something significantly better and different.

By: brinking - nabeel hyatt

brinking - nabeel hyatt — Thu, 22 May 2008 02:47:35 +0000

Are online games going to kill themselves at retail?…

Yesterday Raph Koster posted an exhilerating, and disturbing, photo from the gift card rack at Target. This led Jeremy Lliew to talk about the power of gift cards to allow young players who do not have credit cards to pay for virtual goods. And while I…

By: Robert Brackenridge

Robert Brackenridge — Thu, 22 May 2008 02:39:24 +0000

Kinda reminds me of a comic book stand. Yet, most of the publishers on the rack seem to squeak out a living… There will be many worlds to choose from. The challenge is the operating costs with each of them. But, as consolidation starts to take advantage of shared operating costs we’ll start to see some of the brands living on.

By: Relmstein

Relmstein — Wed, 21 May 2008 19:53:57 +0000

It’s combat system is much more entertaining then previous MMOs and while it does requiring more button pushing you don’t have to be a FPS champion or anything. It’s also kind of fun to play a MMO which spits in the eye of Political Correctness.