Quote: " Really, so you care to sit there and carefully explain to me how to get supporting facts for a service which currently does not exist?
You can do all the market research you like, problem is, if something doesn't exist it is all theory.
"
Well yes, It's called a business plan. You craft an idea, then verify it's viability through research and analysis. But that's common sense!
Quote: "
This all said, this is the exact reason why i didn't start this post with my ideas for this; why?
Exactly because of your post. Rather than actually making suggestions all you've done is sit there and try to rip apart what has been suggested, but that said *only* taking into account the last post and none of the rest of the idea even remotely.
"
What a surprise, your paranoia is showing through again. Any business idea
needs to be scrutinized heavily. While we know this will most likely never eventuate, but since you posted publicly looking for 'thoughts' on the concept, of course people are going to question the viability. You asked your it. It's your responsibility to demonstrate that you have strategies to achieve the things you say. Not ours.
oh that's right, you only wanted to hear your own
opinion reiterated.
Quote: " What exactly do you want to see from my post, my plans for gaining coverage?
"
It would be nice to see how the publisher gains this key ingredient .. The Exposure... with at least some demographics and strategies to support their is a need, and the commercial viability of such a proposal..
There is no point giving people false hopes.. aka another "nFinify"
In case anyone is not familiar how to gather marketing information, in terms of demographics/stat's there is a world of free/commercial info available online. Visit google
When in doubt, survey your potential customers!. They know what they want better than you do !
Quote: "Do you honestly stand there and believe that website banners work?
Sorry but internet advertising is about as worthwhile as chocolate teapot, always has gained between zero to no interest. Although Rich has noted 'yeah the adverts here gain us quite a bit of revenue', I've talked to my mates over at GameSpy Industries who have shown me the figures for thier advertising.
"
[/quote]
Erm no, you just reiterated what I previously said. Banners don't change browsing behavior, as people are mostly desensitized to them.
Quote: " I'm aware of the more effective advertising routes, and your right this is going to cost a s**t-load of money to achieve coverage.
What more is the site design is going to need to be simple to use, quick to get access too; but that over it is also likely to have a 'Steam'-like program.
"
Agreed.
Quote: " The first aim is to get people visiting the site, or using the 'Steam' like software.
If the 'Steam' Software has say a Messenger (Aim/MSN/Yahoo) Access within it, giving people a messenger software; can tempt people in by giving them low-impact multi-messenger. This would mean when they sign on, they'll have sitting there the news pages and such.
Making certain area's look tempting to checkout, will sucker a good majority of people.
"
That's a huge strong hold to break into, and certainly not something done quickly or cheaply. An affiliation might be the better concept.
I.e via perhaps presenting the stream tech as some type of plug service for peoples existing messaging software, or offering the tech to an establishing multi messager developer ..
Just out of curiousty, it's be interested to see if users here would change their messager software to a new one, that provided such game content.
Quote: " The key component here isn't 'build it and they will come', hell no... if this is done it is done the Sony way!
A full advertising campaign will be setup and just totally saturate the market in order to make sure everyone and anyone knows about games that are available.
"
Funded by ?
Quote: "
Signing already key players in order to sponge from thier already set client base is going to be a key point.
Not been sitting here thinking 'oh well i'll set this up, charge developers and then see what happens'... hell no! you'll be paying for a service and i would loose money if it doesn't succeed. the market is already saturated by 1001 crappy sites that offer similar things; but they won't promote titles no matter how good they.
They won't be earning money for you, but giving you a place to upload.
"
Well, this is where the sums obviously don't make sense. In order to promote the service (in your words) the Sony way, this alone will cost the business, well you, a massive amount.
This is obviously impractical if the start up capital is solely generated by developers & advertising sign ups. Since the amount of developers/advertisers needed, or what you'd have to change them, would be astronomical. So where is the incentive here for anybody to sign up for an unproven 'pay for' service ?
So first things first, what type of cost(s) would developers have to fork out (per year)? $100, $250, $500 ?
Quote: "
Also as i've said, i like hard copies of games and software.
Like, how would you like to be able to purchase Milkshape 2 on CD with a full manual and tutorial CD?
That would totally rock! having a hard copy of that sort of software.
Right now PlayBasic is a $5 Donation software,
"
No PlayBasic is commercial.
Quote: " well what if you had a system which gave you the ability to not only have the software update itself as and when you uploaded a new update but also checked against a server for online protection.
What if there was a developer specifically hired to develop games with PlayBasic, showing off how good it was ... could promote it as the software behind these titles even though they were specifically paid for to be developed.
"
The streaming concept is certainly appealing.
Quote: "Getting support for games is very easy by throwing coverage just about everywhere. You sew the seeds of promotion of it in a number of key gaming forums (FilePlanet, HL2.net, SW-Galaxies, etc...) some free taster games and you'll end up having people come for the free games, checking out the software that made them; could easily end up changing that $5 Donation to a $20 pricetag.
"
Now that's an underestimation of epic proportions.
There seems to be a myth among the developer community that high traffic equates directly to the inevitable high sales. Which is largely false. This leads back to my previous point, about the quality of the targeted traffic is the
most important thing from a marketing perspective..
If the point is too sell, and sell in real volume, then every effort has to be made to target each product at the right customers as cost effectively as possible. Creating awareness is one part of the puzzle, getting them to hand over their hard earned is equally a science within itself.
I'm certainly no marketing guru, but after having done this for the past few years, you start to appreciate the importance of understanding your customers better.
Anyway, on the related subject of publishing your game yourself, Dexerity.com is as good as place to start doing some reseach from the developers view point..
[url] http://www.dexterity.com/articles/[/url]
