Autumn of Indie Game Markets
www.gamasutra.com
Game markets follow predictable patterns of growth, harvest and if you’ve been lucky enough, stockpiling for the coming frost. Here is what happens when game markets mature.
grande lui, fa sempre ottime analisi, mo me lo leggo
letto, alla fine lui ripete sempre gli stessi concetti di base nei suoi post (la ciclicità dei mercati, la domanda e l’offerta), ma ogni volta aggiunge dettagli e considerazioni che rendono più definite le sue analisi
un paio di pick:
“The nature of digital distribution means games never truly expire. So the back catalog of great games grows larger and larger. This is no longer a low supply market.”
leggevo che Apple sta cominciando a fare pulizia delle app vecchie o non più supportate nell’app store, in effetti è una cosa che potrebbe pure rientrare in quest’ottica…
col digitale non esistono più “rarità” da cercare in qualche negozietto, tutto è a distanza di click, per cui le robe vecchie vanno “epurate” più o meno artificialmente per non fargli soffocare il mercato, evidentemente
“Dominate a niche: Find a niche that only appeal to a wealthy but passionate audience. Become hyper efficient at serving that niche. This isn’t so different from being a genre king except no one cares about you. The press barely cover you. The broader population of gamers doesn’t really know you exist. But a small devoted community cares. So you scope your company to the tiny size it needs to be to serve a tiny market. Artemis Spaceship Bridge Simulator or SpiderWeb’s retro RPG games are good examples.”
mi sa che Free Playing è un esempio di questa strategia (eccetto la “wealthy” audience probabilmente ahahah) Simone leggitela pure tu questa
a proposito delle hit: non possono assicurare longevità, dato che dopo una hit arriva subito la competizione, e i costi di sviluppo salgono di conseguenza per rimanere al top
“Ever play one of those new fangled idle games like Cookie Clicker? As markets mature, escalating exponential costs rapidly consume existing savings. For example: A top shelf ‘Triple-I’ indie’s last game cost $200,000. They made back $2,000,000 in sales. But their next game costs $2,500,000. Maybe they make that back also. Maybe they don’t. The money in the bank only gives them 1 or 2 additional swings at bat, not 10.”
e per finire…
“Expect a situation closer to what we see with writers, painters and musicians. Schools enable the necessary but time intensive acquisition of game making skills. The commercial market for those skills remains difficult to break into without elite level portfolios. However, there’s still a vast community of extremely low income developers making games because their passion is stronger than the need to be wealthy. In my dreams, this group of game making hobbyists regularly gets together for wine and moral support. And maybe even funds the occasional indiegogo when one of them needs a new liver.”
