Decline Interesting Ars Technica Article: "View-to-play is the future for games"

[Astral Rag]

Forget freemium: ex-Rovio chief says “view-to-play” is the future for games

Are you willing to sit through a pre-roll ad before playing a game?
by Mark Walton - May 22, 2015 7:14pm CEST


First there was shareware, and it was good. Games like Doom pioneered the model of giving us unrestricted access to a hefty chunk of the game (a whole nine levels in the case of Doom), in the hopes that'd we'd fork over some cash for the rest if we liked it. Then came free-to-play, and after a few rocky years, it too was mostly good. We got access to excellent games like Team Fortress 2, Dota 2, and League of Legends, to name but a few, and if we liked them we could give back to the developers by buying silly hats and other such cosmetic enhancements for our avatars.

So far, so good for thrifty players. But then came the dreaded freemium game, and things took a nasty turn. The games were still free, but rather than give away all the content, or ensure that games were balanced, fun pieces of software, someone somewhere decided that by charging a premium fee for special features, powers, or content, they could make a substantial amount of money from a small subset of players, known in the business as "whales." Soon after that, they discovered that by purposefully constructing levels too difficult to complete by skill alone, or by poor online matchmaking, they could turn even more players into whales out of sheer frustration.

This isn't to say every freemium game out there is like this (see Hearthstone), but there are many out there that intentionally prey on those with addictive personalities in order to make a buck. The other way to do freemium—which some, but not all prefer—is to load them with advertising. By selling advertising to willing companies, developers can release their product for free, while also offering a paid product for those willing to fork over some cash. Trouble is, flat display ads don't bring in the cash that they used to.

So what to do if you're a developer, keen to make give away your games for free, but don't want to necessarily to go down the classic freemium road?


View-to-play

Well, if you're Jami Laes, Rovio's head of games who oversaw Angry Birds and Bad Piggies, you go "view-to-play." Laes, who stepped down from Rovio earlier this year, has started a new studio called Futureplay Games that—in one of the most dry and unappealing descriptions for a games company I've ever heard—will on focus on "a natural integration of broadly accessible gameplay and ad-based monetization." And really, isn't that what playing video games is all about?

While Laes hasn't divulged what genre of games his studio will be working on, or what platforms it'll be making games for (although, given his background it'll likely be mobile), he did reveal more details about the business model, which will require players to watch an ad before being able to play the game. "Our focus is on creating a new category of 'view-to-play' games—broadly accessible gameplay with a natural integration and rewarding ad-based monetisation," reads the about page on the studio's new website. "We believe in F2P and ads—both done right can be great, you will see. We want to develop fast and have fun launching multiple games per year and not work multiple years per game."

Interestingly, Laes will be backed by some big name industry veterans, including Kai Auvinen, formerly VP of games at Remedy; Mika Rahko, who worked on multiple Angry Birds games at Rovio; and Arttu Mäki, who led level design at Rovio and was VP of design at Boomlagoon. Laes himself was also head of Playfish's global studios for EA before taking his role up at Rovio.

Whether or not that'll convince people to watch a pre-roll ad before being able play a game remains to be seen. While pre-roll ads are common on video streaming sites like YouTube, as well as free services like Wi-Fi in airports, the nature of mobile games—which often involve quick bursts of play while on the move—don't lend themselves well to having to sit through a 30-second pre-roll ad. Then again, we don't yet know how long those ads will be. And how often will you have to watch them? Every time you boot up the game or once a day? Laes promises answers are coming soon, but in the meantime, I'm starting a campaign to bring back the joys of shareware. Who's with me?

Source

 

[Tzaero]

 

[Norfleet]

I forsee this fuelling great advances in the Adblock technolergies installed on my computar.

 

[thesoup]

adblock will fix it

 

[Zarniwoop]

What, you mean like the Android Market (Sorry, Google Gay Store) has been doing for YEARS already, flooding every game and app with ads?



No.

 

[markec]

Cant wait for games to have commercial break every 10 min.

 

[Mr. Pink]

actual patent owned by sony

 

[Explorerbc]

Mobile gaming, lol

 

[AlexOfSpades]

Except the (real) game industry doesn't follow the rules of the mobile gaming industry. So, no, its not the future of games, its a trend for mobile games. And they all suck anyways.

It may catch on with a few F2P games, but with the existence of AdBlock I think its just easier to charge for a hat.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Here's an example of a clever product placement: Space Quest 5.

Every subspace communication ended with a short screen appearance by the Sprint logo, suggesting that Sprint was a leading corporation in a future telecommunication market. It worked brilliantly because:

1) It was appropriate, as Space Quest had parodied many known corporate brands throughout the series (Monolith burger, anyone?).
2) It was humorous (like how Taco Bell was the only restaurant left in Demolition Man).
3) It was non-instrusive (it appeared for barely a second at the end of every sub-space message).

But doing that takes a little brainpower to pull off, instead of just forcing an ad slot onto a game and inserting whatever ad fits in there - which is probably why you don't see stuff like that anymore.

 

[GrainWetski]

Cant wait for games to have commercial break every 10 min.

Have you seen American TV, especially sports? You'll be lucky if it isn't every 4 minutes!

 

[pippin]

 

[Astral Rag]

 

[LordDenton]

... Rovio chief says ...

Stopped reading there.

 

[Akratus]

 

[darthaegis]

rovio basically made the same mobile game dozens of times, and it's not a particularly original one. Have they even done anthing that isn't for the mobile (aka timewaster) market?

 

[Somberlain]

I always read the site's name as Arsch Technica.

 

[pippin]

rovio basically made the same mobile game dozens of times, and it's not a particularly original one. Have they even done anthing that isn't for the mobile (aka timewaster) market?

This one came out before Angry Birds:

OMG! Angry Birds is such a ripoff of this game. Just like Candy Crush is such a ripoff of Bejeweled.

 

[darthaegis]

rovio basically made the same mobile game dozens of times, and it's not a particularly original one. Have they even done anthing that isn't for the mobile (aka timewaster) market?

This one came out before Angry Birds:

OMG! Angry Birds is such a ripoff of this game. Just like Candy Crush is such a ripoff of Bejeweled.

Yeah I know, I remember crush the castle, fun little game.

 

[Norfleet]

I remember Crush the Castle before it was a video game. In my youth, we would construct sandcastles, and then attempt to bring down the opposing castle by taking turns flinging rocks at them with miniature catapults we had constructed.

 

[markec]

How to do subtle product placement in movies



And this is how you do it in games

 

[Bio Force Ape]

 

[Kane]

Forget freemium: ex-Rovio chief says “view-to-play” is the future for games

Are you willing to sit through a pre-roll ad before playing a game?
by Mark Walton - May 22, 2015 7:14pm CEST


First there was shareware, and it was good. Games like Doom pioneered the model of giving us unrestricted access to a hefty chunk of the game (a whole nine levels in the case of Doom), in the hopes that'd we'd fork over some cash for the rest if we liked it. Then came free-to-play, and after a few rocky years, it too was mostly good. We got access to excellent games like Team Fortress 2, Dota 2, and League of Legends, to name but a few, and if we liked them we could give back to the developers by buying silly hats and other such cosmetic enhancements for our avatars.

So far, so good for thrifty players. But then came the dreaded freemium game, and things took a nasty turn. The games were still free, but rather than give away all the content, or ensure that games were balanced, fun pieces of software, someone somewhere decided that by charging a premium fee for special features, powers, or content, they could make a substantial amount of money from a small subset of players, known in the business as "whales." Soon after that, they discovered that by purposefully constructing levels too difficult to complete by skill alone, or by poor online matchmaking, they could turn even more players into whales out of sheer frustration.

This isn't to say every freemium game out there is like this (see Hearthstone), but there are many out there that intentionally prey on those with addictive personalities in order to make a buck. The other way to do freemium—which some, but not all prefer—is to load them with advertising. By selling advertising to willing companies, developers can release their product for free, while also offering a paid product for those willing to fork over some cash. Trouble is, flat display ads don't bring in the cash that they used to.

So what to do if you're a developer, keen to make give away your games for free, but don't want to necessarily to go down the classic freemium road?


View-to-play

Well, if you're Jami Laes, Rovio's head of games who oversaw Angry Birds and Bad Piggies, you go "view-to-play." Laes, who stepped down from Rovio earlier this year, has started a new studio called Futureplay Games that—in one of the most dry and unappealing descriptions for a games company I've ever heard—will on focus on "a natural integration of broadly accessible gameplay and ad-based monetization." And really, isn't that what playing video games is all about?

While Laes hasn't divulged what genre of games his studio will be working on, or what platforms it'll be making games for (although, given his background it'll likely be mobile), he did reveal more details about the business model, which will require players to watch an ad before being able to play the game. "Our focus is on creating a new category of 'view-to-play' games—broadly accessible gameplay with a natural integration and rewarding ad-based monetisation," reads the about page on the studio's new website. "We believe in F2P and ads—both done right can be great, you will see. We want to develop fast and have fun launching multiple games per year and not work multiple years per game."

Interestingly, Laes will be backed by some big name industry veterans, including Kai Auvinen, formerly VP of games at Remedy; Mika Rahko, who worked on multiple Angry Birds games at Rovio; and Arttu Mäki, who led level design at Rovio and was VP of design at Boomlagoon. Laes himself was also head of Playfish's global studios for EA before taking his role up at Rovio.

Whether or not that'll convince people to watch a pre-roll ad before being able play a game remains to be seen. While pre-roll ads are common on video streaming sites like YouTube, as well as free services like Wi-Fi in airports, the nature of mobile games—which often involve quick bursts of play while on the move—don't lend themselves well to having to sit through a 30-second pre-roll ad. Then again, we don't yet know how long those ads will be. And how often will you have to watch them? Every time you boot up the game or once a day? Laes promises answers are coming soon, but in the meantime, I'm starting a campaign to bring back the joys of shareware. Who's with me?

Source

 

[Unkillable Cat]

And this is how you do it in games

The Brits seemed to have a way with this. Zool above is one example, another is the puzzler One Step Beyond, that had a very subtle product placement from a snack brand I've never heard of (Quavers).

 

[Alfons]

Don't you have to buy storage space in TF2 if you want enough space for all the weapons?