This document discusses key platforms in games including social games, MMORPGs, consoles, and mobile games. It provides details on top performers, core audiences, reach, business models, and opportunities for brands for each platform. While social and mobile gaming is growing in relevance for marketing, console and MMORPG games are better designed products and gamers of these genres are less tolerant of advertising that disrupts gameplay.
2. Key platforms in games today
• Social games
• MMORPGs (massively multiplayer online role-
playing games)
• Consoles
• Mobile games
3. Platform Social Games on Facebook
Top performers Zynga’s CityVille and FarmVille
Core audiences Mostly ~48 years old (46% >50) Women (55%)
2010 ISG
Reach CityVille: 90.6 MM players
Farmville: 45.8 MM players
Total number of players est. in 250 MM
Business Freemium: ~5% of the players pay for Zcoins to exchange for
model in-game virtual goods
In 2010, $ 510 MM were spent in virtual goods
Opportunities In-game product placement
for brands In-game advertising
Promotions with Zcoins
Branded social games (ex.: NY Jets Ultimate Fan on
Facebook)
8. Platform MMORPG
Top performers World of Warcraft (more than 50% mkt share)
Core audiences Mostly Men (84%) ~30 years old
2010 dedalus/xeroxParc
Reach 10.3 MM subscribers (WoW - nov. 2011)
Business Prepaid limited game time
model Subscription (credit/debit cards monthly fees)
(free starter edition – up to level 20)
Opportunities In-game advertising
for brands Mainstream games like WoW don’t place in-game ads, but
other less popular games do (ex: Anarchy)
10. Platform Console games
Top performers Nintendo Wii Microsoft XBOX
Sony PS3 Sony PSP
Nintendo DS
Core audiences Mostly Men (58%) ~37 years old (29% 50+)
2011 Entertainment Software Association
Reach Wii: 89.5 MM XBOX: 57.9 MM
(hardware sold) PS3: 55.4 MM PSP: 70.9 MM
DS: 149.3 MM
Business Selling:
model Consoles ($249-499)
Accessories ($9.99-$269.99)
Games ($49.99-149.99)
On demand games, movies, music – through services like
XBOX Live, PS Network or Wii Channels
Opportunities In-game advertising
for brands Branded Games (Burger King)
15. Platform Mobile Games
Top performers AppStore
Android Market
Core audiences Mostly Women (53%) ~28 years old
Juniper research
Reach 37% of Iphone owners game daily
70%-80% of all downloads are games
Angry birds has been downloaded 140 MM times
Business Game selling ($0,99-4.99)
model In-app purchase (new levels, skills, etc) ~$ 0.99
(Free lite versions)
Opportunities In-game product placement
for brands In-game advertising
Branded games
18. Relevance from brands perspective
• Social and Mobile are growing more relevant as
marketing/branding tools
• Ad spending in social games is expected to hit $
293 MM in 2011 compared to $ 183 MM in 2009,
a 60% growth.
• In 2010, mobile game developer made $ 87 MM
off advertising revenue. By 2015, this figure is
expected to be 10 times that amount: $ 894 MM
19. Why not console and MMORPG?
• Fact 1: console games are better designed and value-added
products compared to social and mobile games (2010’s Grand Theft
Auto 4 cost $ 100 million)
• Fact 2: console and MMORPG gamers are more critical than others,
assigning great value to elaborate graphics and storylines, and are
in general less tolerant to in-game advertsing when it is clearly out
of the context.
• This drives the industry focus increasingly on the player and less on
the advertiser (Last year, Microsoft shut down its dynamic in-game
advertising division called Massive).
• Now, big producers like Eletronic Arts control the dynamic in-game
advertising display for their games. The trend is that only games
where advertising is a natural part of the storyline (like Fifa Soccer
and NBA Live) will carry in-game advertising.