Some Day Your Prints Will Come

Printing is one of those things that many game companies have to deal with. For some, in the adventure game industry, it's their biggest cost, and thus deserves their full attention. If you're a small indie game developer of a flash-based game, or an iPhone game, you may have never even considered it. Printing fliers, though, might be a good idea even for purely electronic games, if you have an audience at a convention where likely customers abound. For instance, the Game Developer's Conference might be a good place to find key influencers who would spread the word about your title. You have to be careful about how you hand out or post fliers, in order not to violate the rules. But that's true of any convention.

When you go to buy printing, there are a few things to keep in mind:

• Get some quotes to compare. If you haven't bought printing before, you may be astonished at how much prices can vary from printer to printer. It turns out that there's a huge variety of equipment to print with, and most printers will quote on nearly any job even if they don't have the best equipment for it. Which means it can be pretty costly sometimes, if they're printing a small job on a press designed for large runs. (Or they just buy the printing from another printer, mark it up and pass sit along to you.) So get quotes from different places.
• Ask questions. Don't hesitate to ask why it costs so much, or why it takes so long. Maybe there are simple changes you can make to your design that would save you a bundle. (If you want to print a poster, for instance, find out what size sheet the printer is using in the press, and design your poster to fit neatly into that size, or fractions of that size.)
• Widen your search. Often the closest printer is not the cheapest. If you're doing a book, or a poster, you may be better off buying printing from a distance and paying the shipping charges. Some companies buy their color hardback books from printers in China; that has its own set of issues, but it's certainly commonplace to get book quotes from all over the US and Canada. Generally, printing in the Midwest is going to be cheaper than on the coasts.
• Get references and samples. If it's more than just a simple flier, try to get references you can talk to and some samples of other work they've done. Cheap is not the only thing you're looking for; quality counts, too.

There's a lot more to savvy print buying than this. It can be worth your while to have a print buyer do your shopping for you; ask around to see if other game companies you know use one.

The Followup

Many folks have just returned from the Origins game convention, no doubt exhausted by a long weekend of selling, demoing, and shmoozing. After a day of recovery, it's time to do The Followup. Marketing depends on both putting information out, and getting information in. This week is when you make sure you've got both ends covered.

First, add up all the money you spent on marketing specifically at the show. Fliers? Prizes? Ads in the convention booklet? That girl in the chainmail bikini you hired to stand in the hallway and give fliers to passersby? Add it all up and see how it compares to your sales. Hopefully, you tracked each marketing effort, so you can see what worked and what didn't. For instance, how many of those coupons in the fliers got redeemed? If you add up the cost of creating the flier, did the coupon generate enough extra profit to pay for itself? How about the different flier the girl handed out... did the redemptions cover her costs? This will tell you what tactics to use at the next show, and what to avoid.

Next, what did you learn from the show? What new products were hot, and which were not? Whose booth was great, and whose booth was lousy? Where were people crowding around, and why? Any trends in new products become apparent? Any buzz about industry trends? Make some notes so you don't forget this info. Was there any key thing ou learned that should affect your product development or marketing going forward, and how?

Finally, follow up on all those personal contacts. A quick email is fine in most cases. Someone interested in licensing? Give them the info they needed. Some retailers who want to carry your products? Give them that retailer packet you made up against just such an occasion. Distributors? Call that buyer and get them whatever they need, and don't delay.

The endless marketing cycle continues... and you need to get ready for the next show. It doesn't matter whether you do paper games, or electronic games, or novels... there are plenty of shows, consumer and trade, where you have opportunities to sell your products and build your fan base. Take full advantage of them!

Core Marketing

Word-of-mouth (or keyboard) is the best marketing strategy for small companies. If you have a message that can go viral, you'll get it seen by thousands of people without having to pay for those impressions. How do you get this seemingly magical audience?

You might get lucky, but you should try to improve your odds.

Find the core. Do you already have a core audience for your products? Customers who know your stuff and love it, and talk about it? Great! Make sure that your newest products connect to them, and that they talk about your products. Find out where these customers hang out... is it Facebook? Discussion boards on some web site for fans? Your own discussion boards? Once you've located where they are, talk to them. Tell them what's coming up and why they should care. Maybe it's more of what they already like, or maybe it's a change of pace. Give them some back story, some hints or tips, maybe a special offer. Ideally, drop this info a bit at a time leading up to your release, and then regularly after. Some additional content for free will help move the buzz along.

Create the core. Ah, you don't already have a fan base. You need to create one. Find out where fans of games like yours go; at least, find the most enthusiastic fans. Maybe it's RPG.net for RPG fans, or Touch Arcade.com for iPhone games. Somewhere, there is already a group of people who are interested in your type of game, and fanatic enough to gather online to talk about such games. (Maybe there are multiple places, depending on the theme or genre of your game.) Find those places and start talking. Ask for their help. Solicit their feedback. Many are happy to talk about games and what they like and don't like. You can pick up some good pointers on how to improve your game. Yes, sometimes you'll disagree with people's opinions, and they may even be hostile. You'll be judged on how well you keep your cool in difficult online situations, so try to avoid a heated response.

If you have crafted a strong marketing message for a good game, the word will get around when you talk to the enthusiasts. Make sure you have new things to add to the discussion on a regular basis, and you can keep the buzz going. Even if you never make this game a huge seller, you're laying the groundwork for the next one.

Nintendo Admits Failure

Nintendo actually owns up to their lameness in WiiWare and DSIWare, their online stores for digital distribution.
 They admit they haven't done a very good job, and plan to do better in some unspecified fashion, at some point int the future. Of course, no mention of this was made at E3, but then again E3 is all about the traditional retail channel and you wouldn't want to piss those guys off by talking about digital distribution.

What could Nintendo do better? Well, offering demos for all of the titles would be a good start. Allowing a wider range of titles would be nice. How about allowing all sorts of price points? Or maybe even making it easier for developers to put titles into the store? Free-to-play titles?

I'm afraid that the high-growth areas in the game industry, like social games and free-to-play games, are just not going to be in the classic manufacturer's strategy plans. They are too cautious about alienating the current retail channel, especially after Sony got hammered for the PSPGo (which attempted to make digital distribution the only way to get games). Of course, the PSPGo had other problems, like a high price point and insufficient flexibility compared to an iPod Touch.

Nintendo has traditionally been slow to adopt any changes in their business model, even as they like to innovate on the hardware side. Of course, their innovations always tend to be very cost-effective; they never push the envelope on losing money on their hardware sales. Nintendo resisted the move to CD-ROM for a long time, preferring cartridges that gave them a better control (and profit margin), even though in the end that let Sony pull way ahead with the Playstation. The Wii didn't offer much of a horsepower advantage over the Gamecube, and no HD support; what it did have was an innovative control option (which Sony and Microsoft are finally getting around to imitating, in a much more expensive way).

I don't think that Nintendo will be a good place for small independent developers to invest resources. The Flash game market, the downloadable PC game market, the Facebook game market, and the iPhone/Android markets are all easier to get into and less expensive to develop for. Marketing is a problem for all of them, but that's pretty much true these days for any game market. You have to develop a brand name and an audience.

I just don't think Nintendo is going to offer any help to developers, whatever changes they make. They have never cared much about third party developers, except as a source of licensing fees. (Kind of like Apple.) Don't expect that to change.

Top Spin Fails To Clear The Net

Nice try, thanks for playing. Activision's CEO attempts to spin the fact that 70% of Activision's operating profit comes from World of Warcraft as proof that their "online strategy" is working. I think it's more than a bit of a stretch to call one game a "strategy", especially when you've never been able to duplicate it. And you acquired it rather than built it. And you've never even tried to duplicate its success in any way.

Gee, perhaps it might be a good idea to have more of those sorts of things... now having a plan to do that would actually be a strategy.

The lesson here is that you shouldn't try to spin everything, because you end up looking stupid. And making the customers think you're stupid. And possibly alienating potential business partners who might think you're stupid.

Bobby Kotick just shouldn't talk to the press. He's not good at it, and it doesn't help his company or their stock price.

Kinect Revisited

Microsoft is being coy about Kinect's lag issues; the lack of responsiveness in this interview was deafening. Concerns are still an issue, as this article on 1Up shows (Rare denies it's a problem, but then says in their Kinect Sports title it's 150 ms, which is nontrivial for action gamers); and showing the Kinect on Jimmy Fallon you can see where lag is still a big problem.

Meanwhile, Microsoft's online store has Kinect priced at $149, so I guess I shouldn't give Microsoft the benefit of the doubt about holding off on pricing. Looks like it's a done deal at the $149 price point. Which seems odd for a device clearly targeted at casual gamers, who can get a Wii for just a little more (if they don't already have one, that is). Hardcore gamers might drop $149 if the hardware made their games cooler, or there were interesting titles that were Kinect-only, but that doesn't look to be true at all, or even possible given the amount of lag. Perhaps you could enhance gameplay a bit with Kinect, but not if your buddy online kills you every time because he's using a controller.

Bottom line: The Kinect looks like a loser to me. It will sell some units, but the Wii was there years ahead and already captured the market, and still has a price advantage. The Kinect will not be for hardcore gamers, and unless it sells a lot of units quickly (which seems highly unlikely at $149), developers won't be rushing to support it... and it will never take off. Perhaps they can incorporate the technology into a next version of the 360 (if there is one), and at that point maybe advances in processor power can make the lag issue go away inexpensively. Until that happens, don't expect much from the Kinect.

Sony's Move? A little better, because at least it offers a $49 entry price (which quickly mounts when you look at all the other stuff you probably want to buy, though... and then each player will need one, too). Lag should not be an issue, so it's possible to see the Move being used for action games. Still, it all comes down to installed base. If Sony can get enough units out there fast enough, developers will support it. I predict mediocre success; more units than Kinect, and another reason to buy a PS3, but not a huge industry boost.

Meanwhile, Wii trundles forward... and if either Kinect or Move starts to look like a threat, Nintendo can drop the price to $149 and stab their grandiose dreams through the heart.

It's kind of sad when you think of all the marketing effort and dollars that went into these motion control devices. That was their best shot? Wasted effort... should have spent more pushing their games. If they really wanted an influx of players, they should have cut deals with social game companies or opened up their download markets even more. That would have been a... smooth Move? Added some Kinect energy to the game industry? I guess Wii'll never know...

Publishers Weakly

Some thoughts on the digital publishing revolution from Clay Shirky in this interview with Publisher's Weekly. Bottom line: It's coming and you'd better adapt to it. Certainly e-readers are helping in this transition; today we find out that Apple has just hit 3 million iPads sold, with the latest million units sold in 3 weeks. The Kindle and the Nook were just dropped in price yesterday to $189, no doubt partly in response to the iPad. The iPhone's iOS 4 was released yesterday, so now all the iPhones and iPod Touches (around 90 million of them) are now e-readers, too, with the addition of the iBookstore (yes, third-party apps could do that before, but now we should expect it to become more common).

So publishers (whether or RPG books, or fiction, or individual authors) need to actively market to this audience. Product development has to adapt to electronic editions, and certainly marketing needs to change. One important issue becomes how to handle the connection between the paper edition of a book and the electronic edition. Some publishers sell them separately (the traditional publishers); some RPG publishers give you the e-book when you buy the paper book. Some just sell the e-book, and you can order a printed book if you like from a POD outlet.

There doesn't appear to be only one correct strategy here. The best advice is to make sure you spend time thinking about your options, and perhaps try some experiments (maybe with part of a product line) and see what sort of results you get. Speculation is far inferior to actual data when it comes to making decisions that affect your income.