Will Valve Change The Gaming Industry Forever?

by Gary A. Swaby, The Koalition, Posted Sep 28th 2013 1:40PM

Edward Velazquez returns to lead The Co-op Podcast, which includes Richard Bailey, Anthony Frasier, Carl Daniel and myself. This week Valve have been releasing a number of announcements. Two of them have already been revealed, with today's announcement centered on their own line of 'Steam Machines'. Earlier in the week Valve also revealed their plans to release a SteamOS. With one more announcement yet to come this week, we speculate on how Valve could possibly change the industry with these three revelations.

Grand Theft Auto V released since our last episode, so we shared our thoughts on the game after spending over a week with it. Is GTAV everything you thought it would be? Let us know below.

Tags: GTA, gta 5, GTA IV, gta v, gta v gameplay, gta V multiplayer, gta v news, gta v ps3, gta v release date, gta v screenshots, gta-chinatown-wars, gta-iv, Gta4, gta5, GTAIV, GtaV, STEAM, Steam Machines, steam os x, steam power, valve, Valve Corporation, valve steam

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Facebook platform industry hires: Offerpop

Offerpop, a Facebook Preferred Marketing Developer in apps, recently announced a round of talented new hires. Offerpop drew from Patch.com (an AOL company), ExactTarget and Oracle, among others.

Here’s the full list of new hires by Offerpop:

Martha Woldu, Recruiting Coordinator, former Recruiting Coordinator at Patch.comKevin Bobowski, VP of Marketing, former VP of Product & Marketing Solution at ExactTargetDaniel Lara, Assistant Marketing Manager, former Client Relations Manager at Alternative StrategiesDavid Yourgrauu, Corporate Sales Executive, former Regional Sales Executive at SCVNGR/LevelUpNicole Konover, Corporate Sales Executive, former Marketing Coordinator for TOMSCorinne Liebrich, Account Executive, former Account Director for AquentCatherine Coppinger, Business Development RepresentativeMichelle Lerner, Sr. Account Manager, former Social Strategic Partnerships Consultant at OracleJoe Schettini, Junior Designer, former Marketing Coordinator at Primary Systems Inc.Joe Friedl, Sr. Developer, former Associate Software Engineer at Dealertrack TechnologiesRobert Lum, Jr. Front End Developer, former Junior Web Designer at StructuredWeb

Companies who want their new hires included in the post must contact us directly at justin.lafferty (at) insidenetwork.com. Must be a Facebook PMD or Facebook Strategic PMD to be included.

Image courtesy of Offerpop’s Facebook page.

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Facebook platform industry hires: Adaptly, Brand Networks

Two Facebook Strategic Preferred Marketing Developers recently announced major hires: Brand Networks and Adaptly.

Brand Networks, a Strategic PMD in all four fields, added Anthony Green, the former Vice President of Development at Facebook PMD Optimal. Green will join Brand Networks as a Senior Vice President of New Business, driving growth into new markets and verticals. Prior to working for Optimal, Green co-founded Concep, a global B2B marketing technology provider.

The company has also hired Jeff Madison, the former Chief Operating Officer of Sparkart Group. He will become Brand Networks’ Vice President of Client Services, where he will grow the account management team to provide improved customer service. With Sparkart, he was responsible for the company’s day-to-day operations, working with major entertainment brands such as Bon Jovi, The Killers, America’s Cup and the UFC.

Brand Networks CEO Jamie Tedford commented on the new hires:

It’s an exhilarating time for digital marketers, as social platforms like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn blaze new advertising trails with continued innovation and steady growth. With our Social Marketing Stack, we help the largest brands in the world centralize and simplify their social efforts, empowering responsive social marketing at scale. We are cultivating a team primed to be a driving force as the social marketing space continues to expand and we are excited for the next phase with leaders like Anthony and Jeff.

Adaptly, a Strategic PMD in ads and insights, added JP Lester as its Chief Technology Officer. Prior to joining Adaptly, Lester was the CTO of Sony’s Digital Audio Disk Corporation group, leading a global engineering team.

Lester has built a stellar career in the music field, as one of the co-founders of TuneTo.com, which was acquired by Listen.com. After the acquisition, he was instrumental in the creation of Rhapsody, the world’s first legal on-demand music streaming service featuring content from all five major record labels.

Nikhil Sethi, Adaptly’s Co-Founder and CEO, commented to Inside Facebook about the hire:

We’re excited to have JP Lester join the Adaptly team as CTO. … We look forward to the impact that he will have at Adaptly that will take our engineering excellence to a whole new level.

Companies who want their new hires included in the post must contact us directly at justin.lafferty (at) insidenetwork.com. Must be a Facebook PMD or Facebook Strategic PMD to be included.

Images courtesy of Brand Networks and Adaptly Facebook pages.

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With unfavorable app store odds, industry is considering alternative models

With unfavorable app store odds, industry is considering alternative modelsadSetAdURL("/_uac/adpage.html");adSetOthAT("kvcmsid=bsd:20693697;kvugc=1;"); function runOmni() {s_265.pfxID = "gam";s_265.pageName = "With unfavorable app store odds, industry is considering alternative models";s_265.server = "";s_265.channel = "us.games";s_265.pageType = "";s_265.prop6 = " ";s_265.prop54 = "blogsmith";s_265.prop1 = "article";s_265.prop2 = "opinion";s_265.prop18 = "opinion";s_265.prop22 = "dmitry-sergeev-co-founder-and-chief-strategy-officer-of-playtox";s_265.prop19 = "andorid_games|android|android_games|android_gaming|android4.0|app_gaming_model|app_industry_news|app_store|app_store_barriers|app_store_games|app_store_review|app_stores|appindustrynews|apple_game_center|cooler_math_games|coolermathgames|developers|dmitry_sergeev|famo.us|game_an_app|game_developers|game_developers_conference|game_development|game_download|game_store_app|gameanapp|gamestoreapp|gaming_app_stores|gaming_apps|gaming_blog|gaming_industry|gaming_industry_trends|gaming_trends|google_play|google_play_music|google_play_store|how_to_market_an_app_store_game|howtomarketanappstoregame|ios|ios_4|ios_games|ios4|ios5|mmo|mmo_credit_card_points|mmo-industry|mmocreditcardpoints|mmofps|mmorpg|mobile_gaming_industry|opera_browser|opera_mobile_store|operabrowser|operamobilestore|playtox|recipe_cost_card_example|recipecostcardexample";s_265.prop8 = "bss:375";s_265.prop9 = "bsd:20693697";s_265.mmxgo = true;s_265.prop12 = document.location;s_265.t();}var s_account = "aolsvc";(function(d){var s = d.createElement("script");s.src = (location.protocol == 'https:' ? 'https://s' : 'http://o') + '.aolcdn.com/omniunih.js';d.getElementsByTagName('head')[0].appendChild(s);})(document); Skip to content Games.com News

Free Online GamesMain NewsReviewsOpinionUNLOCKED: Cheats & Tips ADD ME News Network End of global header What's Hot on Games.comCandy CrushPlants Vs. ZombiesSlot BusterJust Words Opinion Comments Tweet With unfavorable app store odds, industry is considering alternative models by Dmitry Sergeev, co-founder and chief strategy officer of Playtox, Posted Aug 13th 2013 11:45AM

App stores with millions of users, and a huge appetite for products, seem to provide the perfect ecosystem for game developers. It's a recipe for success, right? Unfortunately, many developers expect that by submitting an Android or iOS application, it naturally attracts millions of users.

Worldwide, hundreds of thousands of people access app stores every hour -- Apple boasts 400 million user accounts alone. They're downloading cool games, discovering new tools or simply perusing the vast marketplace for the hottest finds. It's a harsh reality for developers to consider from the get-go, so be aware of the following inevitable challenges you may face.

1. Be prepared to invest in marketing, OR plan to add it to your daily tasks

Unless the developer has deep enough pockets to invest in marketing, the sad reality is they'll fail 95 percent of the time – mainly for not demonstrating a reasonable return on investment. The remaining 5 percent are catching the attention of consumers and proving its worth to investors.

The key is to appeal to the store content moderation teams that manage digital shelf placement. Unbeknownst to many, there's a gatekeeper who controls the subsequent fate of developers.

Another common misconception is that organic growth will bring you to the top. In reality, Top Charts in both Android and Apple Stores are so dynamic that keeping lucrative positions will require significant investment. In other words, you have to continue to buy traffic (users) to download your application. At the end of the day, if your application doesn't perform well enough to cover user acquisition costs, you'll simply run out of money.

2. Allow for 30 percent of profits to be taken upfront
App stores will keep about one-third of your earnings, which may not seem that bad until you realize the actual costs of developing and marketing your own product. Without any in-store feature or promotion from Google and Apple, 30 percent of revenue is significant, especially considering the odds are stacked against you.

3. Understand the App Store barriers; realize the market is shifting
At any point App Stores have the right to alter or refine their policies. Therefore, your app might not be compliant based on policy changes, which puts you at risk. This has become increasingly difficult and especially noteworthy with Apple's infamous booting of AppGratis from iOS.

With the App Store and Google Play set to reach 1 million apps each, it's natural to project that having a greater selection will drive competition for the shelf space and increase user acquisition costs. The current cost per installation offer is between $1 to $2. So, for a 99 cent app, well, you do the math. Will this mean the end for smaller game studios in the current app economy?

Internet, or browser-based games, allow developers to produce their product as they see fit, not as it fits Apple or Google. The developer has the freedom to integrate and market their games with the audience that developer would want to attract. There is also no restriction regarding what payment methods to offer the end-user, which is actually quite a big deal when you utilize the app store – after all, not every country relies on credit cards such as the U.S. If you plan to release your game or app to a wider international audience, various payment methods need to be taken into consideration. A recent report by Javelin Strategy & Research noted that 46 percent of global online consumers have used an alternative form of payment within the past year, in lieu of a credit card. Based on this, to make big money on a game or app does depend on the ability to accept multiple forms of payment

The functionalities of providing local payment methods become obvious when looking at the fastest growing markets. In Brazil, for example: Local payment method, Boleto Bancário, represents nearly 30 percent of local online transactions. Or look at Russia, where alternative methods of mobile payments represent more than 75 percent of total revenue for some game developers. If the app stores can't support this shift in the market, then it'll lead to significantly less revenue for developers.

Additionally, with the popularity of PC-based and social MMO games moving to mobile devices, expect a revolution in gaming services. This is due to the introduction of LTE networks, which will penetrate the mobile Internet and even tap conventional users.

4. Browsers are evolving
Major browsers realize where the market is headed; therefore, they've increased investment to improve services. Mozilla recently announced its own Web app store and will offer seamless payment methods to simplify the user experience. For quite some time now, Opera partnered with MMO game developers to offer games under its product umbrella.

Having lost their content business to app stores, operators are hustling to reclaim its market share. Browser-based products have demonstrated the ability to be a cash cow when it comes to upselling data-plans. They're also seeking a piece of the mobile ad revenue stream.

Ask yourself this: Do you download CNN.exe or Google.exe on your PC to read news or search the Web? No? So there's no need to hassle with downloads when you can utilize your browser.

5. Know that investors are adjusting
Investors are also not in sleep mode. HTML5 engine Famo.us raised $4 million earlier this year while Intel acquired appMobi for its advanced HTML5 tooling. Disney also recently jumped in on the action. It's acquiring a gaming engine startup to build HTML5 games outside of app stores.

6. Forecast the future
The market is reshaping itself. The question now is determining how fast it'll transition from the conventional downloadable model to the games or apps as a service (GaAS) model?According to Flurry Analytics, 42 percent of iOS/Android customers spend their time in browser and social network apps. Compare that to the 32 percent of customers who spend their time in native games. The paradigm shift in how users are willing to consume content is clear: Customers spend vast majority of their time outside of native game apps.15 percent of all Internet traffic is from mobile.1.5 billion subscribers of smartphone services with nearly 100 percent HTML browser-enabled coverage.As a developer, it's important to know the game is changing and it's difficult to ignore. We must develop apps that work on multiple platforms – from native to social to the Web; they MUST be accessible on all mobile devices. The GaaS model, coupled with HTML5 adaptation, is booming.

Don't be left in the dark following the old App Store model. Understand it's time to step it up, adjust your strategy and take the industry to the next level.

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Facebook platform industry update: Glow raises $1.3M; Offerpop makes hires

Glow Digital Media, a Facebook Strategic Preferred Marketing Developer specializing in ads, today announced it has closed $1.3 million in seed funding.

The U.K. company also announced that it is expanding to the U.S. by opening an office in Los Angeles.

With its social ad platform Glow Machine, Glow was named one of 12 Strategic PMDs in September 2012. SPMDs get access to Facebook alpha and beta products, as well as more support from Facebook’s business, product and engineering teams. Glow says it has more than 80 brands and agencies as clients, including King.com, Blue Ant Media, Bacardi, Kraft and Mercedes Benz.

Platform Industry Hires

Offerpop picked up a director of sales, director of client services, two senior developers and  a business development representative.

P.J. Franovic, Sales Director - former Manager of Inside Sales at Gilt City.Phil Rosen, Senior Developer - former Lead Developer and Co-founder at Media AMP.Manisha Shah, Director of Client Services – former Director of Client Services at Experian CheetahMail.Tim Shilstone, Business Development Representative - former Business Development Intern at Bala Real Estate.Adam Pan, Senior Developer - former Senior Software Engineer at Nexus Research Intelligence Inc.

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Facebook platform industry news: Adobe, Wildfire

Adobe

Adobe, a Facebook Strategic Preferred Marketing Developer, revealed Facebook Exchange results from its cross-channel ad platform, the Adobe Media Optimizer. It shared that its average CPC is up to 40 percent below the average of all real-time bidded ad supply sources supported by Adobe. One customer reported 50 percent lower cost per registration driven by Facebook Exchange, but cost and reached only a tenth of the of the size a concurrently running search campaign. Adobe’s closed with the indication that its FBX ads can help to convert on search ads at a later time.

Wildfire

Google has announced plans to integrate Wildfire into the DoubleClick platform. The DoubleClick platform is a unified platform put in place to help advertisers and agencies manage the entire breadth of their digital marketing efforts. It provides ad management and ad serving tools. its intention is to help marketers better understand how ad spend is being used. Because, currently, the tool does not have access to Facebook or other social platforms, reporting will be displayed on an aggregated basis. This means that marketers won’t be able to tie a Facebook post’s impression to a display ad click, but will need to correlate the compiled results. With Google’s acquisition of Wildfire, it is continuously looking for solutions to provide a seamless package for managing all online advertising.

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Facebook platform industry news: AdRoll, iNvolved Media, Moontoast and SHIFT

Retargeting platform AdRoll announced today that it has added the option for advertisers to run self-serve Facebook Exchange retargeting ads in the News Feed. Facebook made this inventory available to Qualified DSPs, including AdRoll, earlier this month. Previously, AdRoll and other companies could only run FBX ads in the right hand sidebar of Facebook.com, but now they can bid on desktop News Feed placement. AdRoll says early tests show clickthrough rates in the single-digit percentages for News Feed, as opposed to fractions of percent in the sidebar. Unlike other retargeting ads, retargeted News Feed ads incorporate Facebook’s share, comment, and like functionalities, which leads to additional engagement and viral potential. An example of a News Feed FBX ad is below. AdRoll is actually running FBX ads retargeting visitors to its own site.

iNvolved Media

Facebook Preferred Marketing Developer iNvolved Media this week announced a new interactive video unit to run across social, mobile and web content.  The Video StoryEngine, as it’s called, allows companies to to add a video layer to their premium media placements, including in the Facebook News Feed. Speed Stick used the technology for its Super Bowl spot, running an interactive, gamified version across more than 500 sports sites and within the Facebook News Feed that day. Hundreds of thousands of people engaged with Video StoryEngine’s trivia game. Other tests show Video StoryEngine leads to increases in recall, response, sharing, Likes and comments compared to videos that are not delivered through the new platform. Video StoryEngine is available with CPCV or CPE pricing, with clients paying only when viewers watch thirty seconds or engage with the brand’s interactive video.

Moontoast/SHIFT

Mobile rich media ad provider Moontoast today announced a strategic partnership with SHIFT, a collaboration platform for marketers and agencies. Moontoast will integrate with SHIFT’s Open Marketing Cloud, a suite of applications from partners covering media buying, community management, social promotions, analytics and more. The integration will give advertisers a way create, post and amplify social rich media ad units in the Facebook News Feed from within the SHIFT platform. Both companies are Facebook Preferred Marketing Developers that have forged partnerships with a number of PMDs and other advertising platforms.

Mediabistro Event

Get personalized advice from industry insiders at Facebook, Deloitte, Chartboost, Tango, and more at next week’s Inside Social Apps, June 6-7 in San Francisco. Newly added speakers include Val Bauduin of Deloitte & Touche, LLP and Doug Purdy, Director of Developer Products at Facebook, so don’t miss the chance to add these valuable contacts to your network. Avoid on-site prices and register now.

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Facebook platform industry hires: HootSuite, Kenshoo, Work4 Labs

Social media management platform HootSuite has a new VP of marketing, Digital marketing software company Kenshoo recently hired a director of marketing research. And Work4 Labs, which builds recruiting applications integrated with Facebook, made a few new hires this month.

HootSuite

Dee Anna McPherson, Vice President of Marketing – former VP of marketing at Yammer

Kenshoo 

Josh Dreller, Director of Marketing Research - former senior director, client and industry solutions at Visual IQ Inc.

Work4 Labs

Robin Richardson, Client Success Manager - former consultant, strategic partnerships and marketing at Fitzgerald Petersen CommunicationsArthur Himmel, Software Engineer Intern - student at Ecole Centrale de LilleRobin Moisson, Software Engineer Intern - student at École Centrale Paris 

We report industry hires each week. Companies that want their new hires included in this post can contact us directly at mail (at) insidefacebook (dot) com.

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Change in China’s Social Games Industry: New Entrants, Markets, and Models

China’s social games industry—the players, games, rules, and business models—is evolving at a blistering pace. China’s Top 10 Social Games and Top Social Networks, a new report by BloggerInsight, analyzes the latest changes.

Only a year ago, social games in China were developed by individuals or a small team on a shoestring budget, destined for RenRen (then Xiaonei) or other Chinese networks. Today, buoyed (and pressured) by investment (primarily foreign), developers have formed serious teams and launch their games in more lucrative markets.

The new business model for Chinese developers is to set sights on overseas markets, with Japan as a primary target. Average revenue per user (ARPU) in Japan is up to 12x greater than in China, according to an estimate by Jia Shen, CEO of RockYou. Most Chinese developers see Japan, Korea, Brazil, and Russia as easier markets than Facebook (and head-to-head competition with the like of Zynga), although the Chinese-language Facebook communities in Hong Kong and Taiwan are still good bets. Of course, it won’t be long before the Zyngas of the world also launch in lucrative markets like Japan.

In China, monetization remains a challenge for developers, despite the massive popularity of social games. The combination of low ARPU, powerful networks (read: zero or low revenue share), and an unstable regulatory environment, makes it exceedingly difficult for developers to reap significant profits. For this reason, most foreign developers have not tried launching games in China.

Instead, the top social game firms have come to China for the comparatively cheap and abundant talent. All the big boys—Zynga, Playfish, Playdom (rumored), PopCap, Slide, and WaterCooler–are now present, with several others players eyeing acquisitions. China’s market holds enormous promise—MMORPGs and Tencent make huge moneymakers via virtual goods—but that day has not yet arrived.

In terms of the top games, restaurant and pet games are now hot, while a few older hits have fallen off the map. Since the last edition of the report in December 2009, four of the top ten titles have been replaced: Parking Wars, Slave Manor, Animal Paradise, and Small Games. Among the newcomers, three are very localized (Promotion, X-World, and 361° Basketball) while one (Happy Baby) is a knockoff of a Western game.

#1  Happy Farm

Arguably the first SNS farming game worldwide, Happy Farm, was developed by Five Minutes, a Chinese developer. Its simple “plow, plant, water, pick, and repeat” formula has since conquered the world. Moreover, the addictive, log-in-every-hour mechanics have spawned countless copycats and variants. Chinese versions are more competitive than their Western counterparts: they allow users to steal and add worms and weeds to friends’ farms.

#2 RenRen Restaurant

Renren Restaurant is a copy of Restaurant City by Playfish on Facebook. The social network Renren, despite having a mostly open API, had its in-house game developers copy the game almost screen-for-screen. The game’s relative sophistication (3D graphics, high social interaction) indicates the future of China social games. As Chinese developers become more accustomed to such features, titles will undoubtedly become more original.

#3  Happy Aquarium

Happy Aquarium = pet game + Happy Farm underwater. Fish games are rapidly growing both in China (Happy Aquarium, Bubble Fish) and on Facebook (FishVille, Fish Isle). In fact, Hong Kong developer 6waves transferred Happy Aquarium to Facebook in Chinese, where it is has enjoyed remarkable success (1.9m DAU, No. 21 game overall). Game themes and mechanics translate across China and Facebook.

#4 Happy Baby (NEW entrant)

Happy Baby is a classic pet game in a cutesy style that copies Playfish’s Pet Society. There are plenty of variants and combinations for the user to create a “dream baby.” One industry insider cited this Happy Baby as the highest-grossing title on RenRen, the biggest open platform for social games in China.

#5 Building One

In Building One, users virtually live, work (e.g., by opening a hairdresser or spa), and socialize together in a single tall tower. Visually, this creates an appealing skyscraper to explore. Stealing customers and coins from other shops is a key part of the game. You can see from the picture you can develop different parts of the building, such as a restaurant with a dining area where you can serve cakes and whatever else you want to cook for your guests. It’s like a bunch of different simulations in one game.

#6 Promotion (NEW entrant)

Based on a popular Chinese book and film (The Promotion of Dulala), this workplace simulator allows Chinese white-collars to virtually become the star employee they always dreamed of. Users start out poor and lowly, for example with an internship at a fast food company, but can pull themselves up by their virtual bootstraps to become an online Donald Trump. The game has a sharp eye for Chinese humor that appeals to local users.

#7 House-buying

House Buying is the most popular game on Kaixin001, China’s hottest social network. House Buying innovatively combines a real estate section, Happy Farm, a pasture section, and Parking Wars into a single game with a common currency. For example, grow bamboo in your farm to feed pandas in the pasture, which can in turn be sold for cash to pimp-your-house. Because Kaixin001 develops all games in-house, it offers unparalleled integration.

#8 Wonder Hospital

In Wonder Hospital, users heal patients to acquire money and fame. The game includes innovative and controversial ads: a zeppelin flies overhead promoting the Yu Ting brand of contraceptives. Moveover, in-game actions are especially nasty. When visiting a friend’s hospital, players can enforce fines, steal patients, throw rubbish, let a dog loose, park a truck to block access, and ‘mystery mischief’ indicated by a bomb icon. This could change as the government “integrates” social games into its harmonious society.

#9 361° Basketball (NEW entrant)

361° Basketball is a team-management game that is fully branded by the Chinese sportswear brand 361°. To prepare for “PKs” against other teams, players train by watching brand videos from the “Equipment Shop,” where they can also buy virtual 361° products.

#10 X-World (NEW entrant)

X-World New York is a game in the style of Mafia Wars! The game has the same “task list” mechanics, but the theme is muddled as mafia games are officially banned in China. It’s one of five new 3rd party games included in Kaixin001’s new open platform experiment.

Kai Lukoff is an analyst at BloggerInsight and an editor on China Social Games. Follow Kai on Twitter @klukoff

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Facebook platform industry hires: Adknowledge, GraphEffect, Nanigans, Sociable Labs, TBG Digital and Unified

If your company is hiring new people or making a notable promotion, please let us know. Email mail (at) insidefacebook (dot) com, and we’ll get it into our next post. Also, please note that information about most new hires, below, comes either from the companies themselves or from company updates from LinkedIn.

Adknowledge Social Channel, formerly AdParlor

Olesya Zinovieva, Account Manager - former online campaign manager at Adconion Media GroupStephen Eng, Account Manager - former account manager at Adconion Media GroupJessica Burnie, Designer - former graphic designer at Guidelines Advertising Inc.Kahla Braedy, Corporate Recruiter/HR Specialist - former senior HR coordinator at Intact Financial Corporation

GraphEffect

Lynnea Bothwell, Sales Planner – former sales planner at She Knows LLC

Nanigans

Jeff Colombo, Senior Software Engineer – former web developer at JNJ Mobile (Mocospace)Carmen Yuen, Ad Optimization Manager – former marketing associate at CrowdstarAllison Fecteau, Ad Optimization Manager – former SEM manager at Kaplan UniversityChris Wilson, Account Executive – former marketing director at Cloud Provider USAGeorge Fitzgibbons, Ad Optimization Technical Specialist – former display media buyer at D50 MediaLibby Freeman, Ad Optimization Manager – former ad desk manager at AOL

Sociable Labs

Derek Tam-Scott, Marketing Manager – formerly in marketing at Iron Aircraft

TBG Digital

Vasiliki Tavoularea, Social Media Analyst – former PPC account executive at Unique Digital

Unified

Ethan Horne, Sales Planner – former intern at Hurrdat Social Media

Who else is hiring? The Inside Network Job Board presents a survey of current openings at leading companies in the industry.

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New Facebook platform industry hires: Identified, Wildfire, Buddy Media, AdParlor, Milyoni, Spruce Media

Facebook-integrated career site Identified announced a $21 million Series B round of financing and three new hires today, including a director of product.

A number of other Facebook platform companies also made recent hires, according to LinkedIn. If your company is hiring new people or making a notable promotion, please let us know. Email mail (at) insidefacebook (dot) com, and we’ll get it into our next post.

Looking for new opportunities? Check out the Inside Network Job Board, which shows the latest openings at leading companies in the industry.

Here’s this week’s list of hires:

Ian Brillembourg: Director of Product – formerly worked at Zynga, Microsoft Game Studios, Activision, and Procter & GambleChintan Rita, Front End Engineer – former software engineer at YahooDaniel Mease, Front-End Engineer – former engineer at Nokia, Avvenu, and Copart

Wildfire

Sherri Takahara, Creative Director – former creative director at SabaChris Morton, Account Executive – promoted from sales associate at Wildfire

Buddy Media 

Michael Marzano, Success Manager  – promoted from project manager at Buddy MediaErica Skurnik, Human Resources – former student at Vanderbilt UniversityCharles Meynet, Engineering Intern — current student at Chapman University

AdParlor

Joyce (Xiao) Guo, Account Manager – current student at University of Toronto

Milyoni

Ben Johnston, Software Developer — former ruby on rails student at Dev BootcampColin Miller, Sales Representative – former student at California State University-Long Beach

Spruce Media

 Zach Miller, Intern – current student at University of Wisconsin

Who else is hiring? The Inside Network Job Board presents a survey of current openings at leading companies in the industry.

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New Facebook platform industry hires: Ifeelgoods, Scale Venture Partners, Nanigans, Strutta, more

Ifeelgoods hired an SVP of sales, Scale Venture Partners hired a new executive-in-residence, Nanigans brought on a technical advisor and Strutta has a new director of marketing, among other notable hires made this week at Facebook platform companies.

If your company is hiring new people or making a notable promotion, please let us know. Email mail (at) insidefacebook (dot) com, and we’ll get it into our next post. Also, please note that information about most new hires, below, comes either from the companies themselves or from company updates from LinkedIn.

Looking for new opportunities? Check out the Inside Network Job Board, which shows the latest openings at leading companies in the industry.

Here’s this week’s list of hires:

Ifeelgoods

Tyler Hoffman, Senior Vice President of Sales – former managing director of commerce sales at Google

Scale Venture Partners

Eric Tilenius, Executive-in-Residence – former general manager at Zynga.

Nanigans

David C. Parkes, Technical Advisor – also works as a professor of computer science in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Harvard University.

Strutta

Joeline Hackman, Director of Marketing.

Vitrue

Elisha Phoenix, Visual/UX Designer – former designer at Razorfish.

AdParlor

Mike Empey, Sales Engineer – former software development support specialist at Research In Motion.

Who else is hiring? The Inside Network Job Board presents a survey of current openings at leading companies in the industry.

View the original article here

New Facebook platform industry hires: Kontagent, TBG Digital, BranchOut

Social analytics company Kontagent hired an engineer, while TBG Digital and BranchOut hired marketing staff this week.

If your company is hiring new people or making a notable promotion, please let us know. Email mail (at) insidefacebook (dot) com, and we’ll get it into our next post. Also, please note that information about most new hires, below, comes either from the companies themselves or from company updates from LinkedIn.

Looking for new opportunities? Check out the Inside Network Job Board, which shows the latest openings at leading companies in the industry.

Here’s this week’s list of hires:

Kontagent

Dennis Chan, Software Engineer – former software engineer at Shmoop.

TBG Digital

Beatriz De Miguel, Marketing Specialist – former marketing manager at Newton Equipment.

BranchOut

Hyder M. Alikhan, Marketing Associate – former assistant to the head of digital marketing at ITP.Kendall Wangman, University Marketing Associate – former stylist at Cusp.

Who else is hiring? The Inside Network Job Board presents a survey of current openings at leading companies in the industry.

View the original article here

New Facebook platform industry hires: Kontagent, BranchOut, Involver

Kontagent hired a senior designer, and BranchOut and Involver hired marketing staff this week.

If your company is hiring new people or making a notable promotion, please let us know. Email mail (at) insidefacebook (dot) com, and we’ll get it into our next post. Also, please note that information about most new hires, below, comes either from the companies themselves or from company updates from LinkedIn.

Looking for new opportunities? Check out the Inside Network Job Board, which shows the latest openings at leading companies in the industry.

Here’s this week’s list of hires:

Kontagent

Kristen Stotts, Senior Designer – former freelance designer.

BranchOut

Allison Mirzoeff, Marketing Intern – former sales associate at Urban Outfitters.Amy Andreasen, University Marketing Associate – former intern at Certified financial Planners at UBS.Morgan Phung, Marketing Advocate – former marketing intern at Tencent America LLC.Hyder M. Alikhan, Marketing Associate – former assistant head to digital marketing at ITP.

Involver

Rodrigo Santana, Marketing Intern – former supply coordinator at G-Inter Transportes Internacionais.

Who else is hiring? The Inside Network Job Board presents a survey of current openings at leading companies in the industry.

View the original article here

New Facebook platform industry hires: Kontagent, BLiNQ Media, PageLever, more

If your company is hiring new people or making a notable promotion, please let us know. Email mail (at) insidefacebook (dot) com, and we’ll get it into our next post. Also, please note that information about most new hires, below, comes either from the companies themselves or from company updates from LinkedIn.

Looking for new opportunities? Check out the Inside Network Job Board, which shows the latest openings at leading companies in the industry.

Here’s this week’s list of hires:

Kontagent

Bill Morris, Engineering Lead – former VP of engineering at Berkeley Transportation Systems, Inc.

BLiNQ Media

Miles Dennison, Chief Revenue Officer - former SVP of sales at DoubleVerify.David Rollo, Chief Strategy Officer - former SVP, director of digital and social media strategy at 22squared.

PageLever

Jesse Channon, VP Business Development – former regional sales manager at Vocus.

Vitrue

Dexter Jules Jr, Community Manager – former freelance marketer.

BranchOut

John Sample, Marketing Associate – former sales intern at Chatterfly, Inc.Heather Hildreth, Regional Marketing Associate, Southeast Region – former writer at SoshiTech.Mike Slavin, University Marketing Associate - former student.Who else is hiring? The Inside Network Job Board presents a survey of current openings at leading companies in the industry.

View the original article here

New Facebook platform industry hires: Vitrue, TBG Digital, Wildfire

Vitrue, TBG Digital and Wildfire hired account, search and social and business development personnel this week.

If your company is hiring new people or making a notable promotion, please let us know. Email mail (at) insidefacebook (dot) com, and we’ll get it into our next post. Also, please note that information about most new hires, below, comes either from the companies themselves or from company updates from LinkedIn.

Looking for new opportunities? Check out the Inside Network Job Board, which shows the latest openings at leading companies in the industry.

Here is this week’s list of hires:

Vitrue

TBG Digital

Wildfire

Who else is hiring? The Inside Network Job Board presents a survey of current openings at leading companies in the industry.

View the original article here

Here’s why pirates are important to our whole industry, nations and technological progress

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t necessarily like what you parrot lovers do, but I feel that there’s certain stuff that gets forgotten in all this piracy discussion. I’m taking economical point-of-view, and showing you in a pretty concrete way how we’d be screwed if there wasn’t pirates. (And, we’d might be in bad situation too if everybody would be pirating)

And no, pirating doesn’t make you as cool as LeChuck. Image googled and used without permission. I hope I don’t get into deep shit thanks to this.

I read one chap claiming that “pirates cost us (movie industry) 1 billion dollars revenues yearly” (figure that I just invented since I cannot remember the exact sum, but let’s say it’s 1 billion).

Now, pirates come and say “that’s not true!”.

But, I feel that’s pretty bad response. It’s somewhat irrelevant too. Let’s see what happens if we agree with the entertainment industry chap. That’s not necessarily a shinier future for the whole industry, or for technological progress for that matter. Let’s say that piracy costs for example 1 billion of lost revenue yearly to software makers.

1 billion is lost… but who have it?
Here’s the thing that these chaps fail to see:

the lost revenue from software manufacturers goes somewhere else, like to perhaps to hardware manufacturers

This is important, and this is also how software makers benefit. I explain.

The more revenue harware manufacturers make, the better computers they can make. More memory, more speed, and everything costs less.

That’s hugely important. I repeat the sentence bit differently, it’s that important:

if makers of hardware get more revenue, they can use that money to boost the development of computers

If CPU manufacturer gets more money, they can spend that money on research, and get faster computers at cheaper price which benefits software makers since cost of computers is getting lower, which means software makers don’t need to spend that much money to computers.

Let’s do an another example.

Let’s think of example world, called NormalWorld. In normal world, there’s pirates, non-pirates and something between. Here’s the population:

50% of population are Parrot Lovers, they spend 1 billion dollars to hardware and illegally pirate all the software, and spend 1 billion to Ship industry. 50% of population are Good Citizens, who spend 1 billion dollars on hardware and 1 billion dollars to software. But no money to Ship industry. In NormalWorld, software industry makers are spending 0.5 billion to buy better computers from hardware industry.

In NormalWorld, hardware industry is doing fine (2.5 billion total = 1 billion from parrot folks, 1 billion from Good and 0.5 from software), ship industry too is going strong (1 billion from Parrot Lovers), and so is software (0.5 billion total = they get 1 billion from Good but lose 0.5 to hardware).

Everybody praises how Good Citizens are moral and respectable people, and everybody loves them (expect the parrots, who like more the other chaps).

But there are people who say that we should see what our neighbour, SopaWorld does. In SopaWorld, there’s no piracy.

This leads to the following situation:

50% of population are Parrot Lovers there as well, forced to spend 1 billion to software industry, spending 0 billion to hardware, and ship industry gets 1 billion. 50% of population are Good Citizens, who spend 1 billion dollars on hardware and 1 billion dollars to software. But no money to Ship industry. In SopaWorld, software industry makers are spending 1.5 billion to buy expensive computers from hardware industry.

The hardware makers have less money on research, so they sell computers at 3 times higher price since they have got no technological progress which makes components cheaper. It follows that:

In SopaWorld, hardware industry is still doing fine thanks to higher prices (2.5 billion, 0 billion from parrot folks, 1 billion from Good and 1.5 from software), ship industry too is going strong (1 billion), and so is software (only 0.5 billion total = they need to buy 3x more expensive computers).

As you can see, the overall result is exactly the same as in NormalWorld. In NormalWorld, pirates bought so much hardware that software makers didn’t need to spend that much money, but in SopaWorld, pirates aren’t supporting hardware industry, so software industry needs to spend more money, as prices of hardware are higher.

NOTICE: these are imaginary numbers of course, and I’m not saying this would happen if governments introduce laws or if piracy stops. Just trying to explain that we cannot just look at one factor and forget everything else. I will be slowly be reaching towards the conclusions of this article. Read further.

Stopping piracy, might mean loss to other industries…
Then there’s also the DamnItWorld.

In DamnItWorld, things are bit different. DamnItWorld was exactly like NormalWorld, but then a new way to punish piracy caused the following change in the population:

Since Angry Parrot Lovers (they were like Parrot Lovers except they really had no intention of buying never any software) were no longer getting software free, and had no intention to get faster hardware (since they could no longer brag about how they saw in their goddamn expensive home cinema all the newest ripped full hd quality movies). These people had no absolutely any reason to continue purchasing better computers. They weren’t going to buy software anyway, so they stopped buying hardware too. Instead, they took their fishing gear and started buying ships. In DamnItWorld, the ship industry gets 2 billion Good Citizens still spend 1 billion to hardware and 1 billion to software, but they are using worse computers than their neighbours (since computer technology is not profitable here, so no much improvements are being made) and since computers are shitty, their games also have worse looking graphics than in the neighbour countries (that might be a good thing though). Software industry here uses 0.5 billion to buy from hardware, but gets crappy quality computers. Software industry is blaming hardware industry for high costs, hardware industry is blaming software industry for crappy quality products – and they both are whining that ship industry should be taxed so that some money would go into technological research which would help technological progress.

DamnItWorld has 1.5 billion hardware, 0.5 billion software and 2 billion ship industry. Tons of ex-software people nowadays manufacture ships.

Then there’s the LetsSavePaperWorld where people store 2 billion worth of paper under their pillows, hoping that after 30 years, somebody will be willing to buy that paper with some good price. Like, when for example all trees have been cut and there’s shortage of toilet paper. Then those might come handy.

The point
What I’m trying to show you here, that stating something like “movie industry is losing 1 billion or 10 000 jobs thanks to software piracy” also means that some other industries have those 10 000 jobs. (Since movie industry is losing, it means there’s buying power).

If movie industry arguments that stopping online piracy creates jobs, that indeed is true. It sure creates jobs to the software industry. What they fail to point out, that jobs are lost from some other industry.

It works globally too: sure, if random Finnish person (not that we honest citizens pirate, but for the argument, let’s say we do) pirates your US movies and shares it freely here, the US movie industry suffers (compared to situation where Finn would have spent 500 eur to buy stuff). But what the movie industry fails to notice is that the nasty imaginary Finnish pirate is buying your TV electronics that helps your TV industry. If our imaginary Finnish parrot lover is forced to “spend money to US movie industry” or “spend money to US tv industry” (as you see, we like your industries), then to US as a nation, it’s quite irrelevant. Finn is willing to spend 500 eur to your country, and you can choose which industry (tv or movies) gets that money. That Finn is too lazy to work more, so he won’t have more than the 500 eur to spend anyway. That’s all there is for you. And if you cut the piracy option, our imaginary pirate just might start go build ships instead – and then the US movie and tv industry is actually getting 0 eur.

And it works locally too, here’s an example:

If our Regular Joe american is spending 500 dollars yearly on hardware, 0 dollars yearly on software and 500 dollars yearly on shoes – and now is forced to buy software (since movie industry is losing), it means that Joe will spend 500 dollars yearly on hardware, 500 on software and 0 dollars on shoes. So yes, software industry wins, but shoe industry loses.

(Unless of course Joe takes another job, gets +500 dollars to spend on shoes too yearly, and then receives burnout at the age of 29 – then all other industries win, and Joe’s health suffers.)

So, shouldn’t we all become pirates! That way everybody wins, right?!
As said, this is a matter of balance. If everybody would be pirates and nobody would spend a dime in software industry, that industry would die.

If nobody would spend a dime in software industry, then it would mean that other industries win and software industry loses. If software industry dies totally, then it might lead to a scenario where hardware industry gets taxed to support software industry. Or, it might mean that after everybody stopped making software, nobody is buying any more hardware and we are all making ships.

The key point here is that, piracy is not just about “what is wrong and what is right”. This is a matter of allocation of resources.

What do we want to support?

Hardware makers? Software makers? Ship industry?

… or health care, or parrot food, or wood leg industry or what. And of course we must remember that nowadays the different industries are so connected that it’s quite damn tough to say how things really affect. For example, if you like this article so much that you go and order my $1 ludum dare mini game thing from year 2010, the following happens:

Transaction handler industry receives their share of that dollar I get my share of that dollar Indirectly, Finnish government benefits from that dollar too, as I pay taxes And as my taxes support public health care, there’s some finnish hospital worker who gets his share of this transaction (or the tax money can be used to support roads building or library, or whatever they might do with it) Website server bandwidth thingy receives their share indirectly (as I need to pay that too)

And that’s at the expense of your dollar, which you could use to buy for example sweet cold drink.

It’s your call.

The final point
Please notice that all these numbers are fictional. I think there’s no person living in this planet who can accurately draw the flow of money in gaming/movie industry – and all connected industries. This doesn’t mean it would be irrelevant either. This simply means that “cutting piracy” has effects that affect various industries and arguments about “lost jobs” are shaky at most. I find this sort of legislation quite dangerous to be honest.

If there’s pirates, then there’s more support for example to hardware industry (or any other non-software industry for that matter, since pirates have more money left to spend on hardware, rest of us spent it on software you know). If we stop pirates, then they might take their money to some other industry. Or, if they are forced to buy software, then it means all those *other* industries suffer (like the drink industry which didn’t get your dollar when you chose to buy my game).

I wouldn’t be suprised to see more taxing of “industries that do well” to “support those industries that do poorer”, which practically would mean that we got rid of pirates yes, but thanks to taxation, things are (in industry scale) exactly the way they were before.

And after all, we are talking about entertainment industry here. There are much more important jobs in the world than making games or movies. Firemen, police, mental care, teachers, doctors, nurses, child care… all these are important industries.

I’m not saying that it’s somehow acceptable that certain individuals (or groups) have taken the right to share some one else’s invention without owners permission. Telling “it’s good for all” is simply not true, since it forgets the creator.

I don’t have no more so strong opinion on piracy, whether it’s right or wrong. I do not like the idea of government introducing laws and regulations into this industry. I do think that old copyright ideas might not be suitable anymore, but I do also think inventors should not be forgotten when we praise how good sharing of culture is.

I’m not fan of piracy, but stopping piracy is bit like fighting against windmills – and there’s some indirect benefits from piracy.

I think in the end, it’s an individual choice on how we respect each others effort, and how we balance everything. If we all support software industry, other industries suffer… which also makes software industry suffer (since there’s no good hardware). If we all support hardware industry, then software industry suffers (and then there’s no good software). If too many people join the pirate bandwagon, if too many think “I have the right to do this, as I support hardware industry – I let others support software”, then software industry will be facing bad times. It can mean poorer quality, or bigger lawsuits or other bad things.

I feel that as a person who supports both hardware and software industry – it would be equally nice if those pirates who do not support software industry, would re-consider if they too would like to have some direct support to software industry.

How do you vote?
Every citizen who spends their money to hardware and not on software is directly hoping of voting the following:

Hardware quality must get better, therefore I support your industry! Software quality (and all other industries) can suffer!

And every citizen who spends their money on software and not hardware, is directly hoping of voting:

Software quality must get better, therefore I support you! Hardware quality (and all other industries) can suffer!

By “hardware quality” I here mean “faster CPU, better gfx card, more memory, faster memory, better screens, etc”. By “software quality” I mean for example “better graphics, better gameplay, better innovations”.

To put other way around: those nasty pirates who don’t indirectly support software industry, gladly support hardware industry – which helps us makers of software industry too, indirectly (they help get cheaper computers, which means you and me pay less for CPUs).

I’m not saying this makes piracy legal or good in absolute sense. As noted earlier, if nobody supports software industry, software industry suffers.

Note to pirates who argue that “they pirate just because want better service”. There’s better way to get better service than boycott. It happens this way. (1) Buy stuff and (2) tell what you want. Sure, boycott might work too, but as a creator I know It’s easier to do better services when you have some money to fund the development of better service.

Naturally, this is only the direct support. As pointed out earlier, direct support to software industry might mean indirect support to various other industries. And of course directly hoping of voting here might not mean better quality products. For example, the maker of hardware might keep the profits and buy ships instead. That’s why you can only hope your money goes to making of better products. Long-term, I think it’s pretty safe to say that “industries that receive support tends to grow”, so your hopes might come true)

We need balance, and perhaps bit more respect towards each others work.

What is certain, that we hell sure should have much more respect for people who do some actual work (and not just watch movies or code magic numbers).

This entry was posted on Monday, January 2nd, 2012 at 1:43 am and is filed under Game Development. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

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New Facebook platform industry hires: Brighter Option, Wildfire and Banyan Branch

Banyan Branch hired a new Senior Vice President of Client Services, and Brighter Option and Wildfire hired account staff this week in our look at Facebook platform hires.

If your company is hiring new people or making a notable promotion, please let us know. Email mail (at) insidefacebook (dot) com, and we’ll get it into our next post. Also, please note that information about most new hires, below, comes either from the companies themselves or from company updates from LinkedIn.

Looking for new opportunities? Check out the Inside Network Job Board, which shows the latest openings at leading companies in the industry.

Here’s this week’s list of hires:

Banyan Branch

Jennifer Blank Hecht, Senior Vice President of Client Services – formerly the Seattle Program Director for Social Media for Wunderman.Erik Arpe, Account Director - previously Account Director at Visible Technologies.Stephanie Camp, Account Director – was a Global Account Manager working with Microsoft in Seattle and Ridley Bikes brand in Belgium, as well as Kirkwood Mountain Resort, Boston Medical Center and Allied Feather and Down, and Starbucks Germany.

Brighter Option

Marc Judlin, Account Executive – a recent graduate from the University of Sussex.Louisa Matheson, Account Executive – a recent graduate from the University of Bristol.

Wildfire

Katie Mulligan, Account Executive – formerly an Associate Director, Social Entrepreneurship at Miami University.Aaron Landman, Small Business Executive – was previously a Sales Associate at Wildfire.

Who else is hiring? The Inside Network Job Board presents a survey of current openings at leading companies in the industry.

View the original article here

Why piracy isn’t hurting gaming industry… sort of

Whether a person gets pirate copies of games or not is somewhat irrelevant when it comes to sales. Copying game as an action does not affect sales. What is relevant whether this person buys games or not. Not buying (whether he pirates games or not) means he is voting that this industry should not get money.

If he buy games, then he is voting that this industry (or let’s say certain game development company) should get money.

Introduction
I’ve been honing up my economics knowledge, and I must say that I’m starting to lean into accepting that piracy as is, is not necessarily hurting our gaming industry. In fact, I feel that it can be proven quite easily that a “pirating games” as an action alone does not hurt the industry.

Here’s example. If there’s a person who is not spending any money in games, then whether he pirates games is quite irrelevant. Whether he pirates or not, then our Trout Slap Studios example gaming studio is not getting any money from the pirate.

But Trout Slap Studios is not getting money from many other people, who don’t play games.

The direct effect of piracy as such, does not mean that we lose sales. The same way as my dad is not playing nor buying any games, the same way random pirate is not buying any games. If pirating games as such means sales are lost, then equally well can be said that thanks to my dad who buys no games, games industry is losing sales.

Think this for a moment.

The mere act of piracy is equivalent for not pirating and not buying the game
If we whine that piracy means lost sales, then we can equally say that the fact that some random guy at the streets is not buying our game means we are losing sales. And since piracy here is not relevant – only “not buying” is relevant factor, we can conclude that piracy can be removed from the equation and simply state that “not buying” is the important factor here.

Let’s say there’s some random student living in some poor country where he barely had money to buy the computer and eats only cheap tuna fish. He has no money to luxury products such as games, so he pirates. He was putting 0 dollars in the system, and now pirates, still putting 0 dollars. Whether he pirates or not, is irrelevant for the industry: since he has 0 dollars to give to the gaming industry, gaming industry cannot benefit from him.

There are cases where piracy might cause the situation where sales are affected. We will be getting there soon. For now, just let’s try get our minds around the fact that “pirating a game” is not automatically a lost sale.

This is when piracy is not hurting anyone:
Let’s look at the next example: let’s suppose there’s a person who has kept buying NHL games. He bought all games from ’94 to ’12… spending 50 dollars (just conveniently picked sum) each year. This means the following is happening:

Gaming industry as a whole is getting 50 dollars in the system each year, and the makers of NHL game benefit the 50 dollars (I leave any other middleman and taxes and transactions and whatnot cost away to simplify the example).

He has no money left to other games, so here’s what can happen:

He pirates all other soccer games He doesn’t pirate any other games

If he chooses first option, that means soccer games maker isn’t receiving any more money (since the chap spent his 50 dollar budget to NHL game).

If he chooses the second option, that means soccer game maker isn’t receiving any more money.

This suggests that act of piracy alone doesn’t necessarily hurt gaming industry, if we accept that there is certain budget that the pirate is using for gaming. His budget is 50 dollars, which he gives to certain games – and that’s it. Whether he pirates or not doesn’t have meaning to the profit of other gaming companies.

In this case, piracy might hurt the industry:
Only the following types of piracy can hurt gaming industry:

The guy who was previously giving money to gaming industry stops giving any money to the gaming industry. He stops spending 50 dollars to gaming industry. Since everybody is pirating games, he concludes, he too can pirate everything. Now the guy doesn’t pay for the next years NHL game, but pirates it. A guy who was just about to click “order” heard his buddy saying that he can get the game free by pirating it, cancels the order. He was about to buy the new NHL game and bring 50 dollars to the industry now decides not to put any money in the industry. This means possibility of piracy has made this person to decide not to give money. If there wouldn’t have been possibility of piracy, then this chap would have purchased the game.

The direct consequence of this is the following:

Makers of the NHL game will not receive 50 dollars from either chap – so they are getting hurt (when you compare to the situation where this chap was always spending 50 dollars, or to the chap who was about to click “order”) Soccer game devs don’t get that money either, same situation as the previous year.

So… does it hurt the industry or not?
Now, whether piracy hurts our industry (or at least the developers) boils down to this question:

Did the possibility of getting the product free mean that the guy is decreasing his gaming budget?

There’s two potential answers to this:

If the guy who was spending 50 dollars per year thinks he’ll just buys shoes instead, and that he will from now on get all games as a pirate… then yes, in this case 50 dollars is leaving the gaming industry. Thus, it’s the loss for the gaming industry. It means gaming industry will have less money. If on the other hand the guy who was spending 50 dollars per year thinks he keeps spending that 50 amount and pirates other games then no sales are lost.

I repeat this bit differently: we all have some limit on how much money we spend to games. For some people it might be 10 dollars per year. For others, it’s 400 dollars. Or 0 dollars.

If we keep spending that money – as much as we can (no excuses here) – then piracy is not hurting our buying habits. If we keep buying then it’s quite irrelevant whether we pirate some other games too or not. Since we have used our budget, we have put the money we can to gaming industry.

Act of piracy – aka downloading game for free – alone is not hurting anybody.

Of course there’s the “budget” that is tricky.

Some might use this reasoning to conclude that they “wouldn’t pay anything anyway” and keep on pirating, and I would suspect that people who say so don’t necessarily really mean this. They just use it as an excuse not to pay for games, so that they can get other stuff…. but if games would be impossible to pirate, would this force them to buy game? If the answer is “yes”, then piracy is hurting sales. If answer is really “no”, then piracy isn’t hurting sales.

Some pirates say that “they don’t buy because it’s not convenient to get the movie, so they pirate it to rebel”. In reality, these pirates could very well pirate the movie, and buy the movie too. This way they would support the makers of the movie AND would get the movie conveniently. I don’t know if this happens, but I do get the impression that usually pirates who claim the “they would support but…” don’t really do so.

The conclusion is this:

If piracy affects “where we put our money”, then it affects industry too
Only if piracy means that the person who consumes games is putting less money in to the gaming industry (and decides to do something else with the money) because he figures out that he can get all stuff free, in that case piracy hurts the industry…

…for short term.

I repeat: only if piracy means that our mr. pirate does not bring any money to gaming industry (money he would have otherwise put there), then industry gets hurt.

Short term impact is that developers of games software (and of course many other groups that are connected with the system) don’t get the money. If everybody is pirating games, and nobody is giving money to developers – this means that developers are in trouble.

Long term effects of piracy?
Long-term effect of piracy will be interesting to see. The raise of different pricing systems like free 2 play or gaming bundles are here to stay.

Gaming industry has about 2 choises here. One option is to stop making games. Let’s close shoppe and start all making something else if nobody is interested in paying for games. We can all start making shoes and hope that people buy them. That sure would stop gaming piracy, as there would be no games to pirate.

Or alternatively – if developers and publishers are willing to take the challenge – the industry must adjust. The industry must find ways to produce fun to people, and somehow get necessary money to survive, and to develop more and better game.

It’s similar when somebody has made an invention that benefits the mankind. If the founder is given money from all the people who are allowed to use the invention, then that will be bloody harsh for the world and the inventor benefits. But if the inventor let’s everybody else use his technology for free, we all (except the inventor who got no money) will be happier. The inventor might get pissed off and stop inventing (tough for mankind)… or he could try figure out if he could get money in some other ways, so that his masterbrain could be focussed on new inventions. (Of course economic cycle will be quite complex to draw, but at least the short term effect is pretty much as described – I’m not trying to be academically accurate here to make a point)

With digital delivery, it is possible to share games to wider audience than ever in the history of gaming. The possibility of being able to connect with billions of human beings who can enjoy fun games sounds great.

I think developers and publishers need to take piracy as a challenge, and focus on figuring out what people are willing to pay for. If that means more gaming bundles then so be it. In societies, I feel people must be given right to vote with their wallet.

I do think that those pirates who are reading this, read the text fully. If you pirates like some games, then purchasing those games means you are contributing to the industry and helping developers meanwhile the developers try figure out new ways to adjust.

I still like the idea of being able to show my influence by purchasing games. I don’t mind if people pirate games, but I would hope that these people would also consider buying some games. Since players have the ultimate power at their hands about the future – after all, we all can decide where we put our money (well, at least as long as government doesn’t mess the developing market by supporting the industry in different ways…) – this means we also have the responsibility.

Piracy doesn’t necessarily hurt sales, but it isn’t helping either
If we want more fun new gaming experiences, then we try show our support to those developers. One way or another, game developers must get their money if we want to see more games from them.

Whether you get pirate copies of games or not is somewhat irrelevant.

Whether you buy games is relevant. Not buying (whether you pirate games or not) means you are voting that this industry should not get money.

If you buy games, then you are voting that this industry (or certain developers) should get money.

If you enjoy games and want and can support the developers, then do so.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 20th, 2011 at 2:18 am and is filed under Game Development. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

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New Facebook Platform Industry Hires: Shoutlet, Wildfire, Work4 Labs and AdParlor

Wildfire hired an engineer and an account manager while Shoutlet, Work4 Labs and AdParlor hired sales and account staff this week.

If your company is hiring new people or making a notable promotion, please let us know. Email mail (at) insidefacebook (dot) com, and we’ll get it into our next post. Also, please note that information about most new hires, below, comes either from the companies themselves or from company updates from LinkedIn.

Looking for new opportunities? Check out the Inside Network Job Board, which shows the latest openings at leading companies in the industry.

Here’s this week’s list of hires:

Wildfire

Fran Warrington, Account Manager – was Account Management Specialist at Corporate Executive Board.Andrew Bowerman, Software Engineer - formerly a Freelance Software Developer.

Shoutlet

Justin Fox, Sales Executive – previously Business Development Manager, ecolutions.Steve Held, Sales Executive – formerly Account Executive, Windstream Communications.Amy Perkinson, Sales Executive - formerly a Genius Administrator at Apple, Inc.

Work4 Labs

Andrew Suri, Account Executive – formerly Director of Business Development at NRI – Progressive Digital Media Group.

AdParlor

Roy Brown, Account Executive – previously a Sales Exec at Racing Post trading as Centurycomm Limited.

Who else is hiring? The Inside Network Job Board presents a survey of current openings at leading companies in the industry.

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