Thanks for the post. I wanted to clarify the timing of the Flash Games Market Survey. The survey provides a snapshot of what the industry was like in early July of 2009, which was prior to the launch of many of the Flash micro-transactions platforms out there today (including our platform Mochi Coins, which launched at the end of July). Since the survey took place we've seen quite a bit of activity and adoption of the virtual goods model, and we're looking forward to seeing next year's 2010 survey to reflect a significant shift in that direction. Hope that helps!
There were microtransaction platforms available to Flash developers in mid 2008 (namely Nonoba and Andrograde) but there was very little adoption. The reason is because once you establish your market identity as 'free to play', it's hard to suddenly start charging for things. There are thousands of flash games out there, why should someone pay for one game when they can go play another game for free. This is coupled by the reality that the vast majority of flash games have 5 minutes or less of engaging gameplay thus making a weak value proposition.
The whole market needs to move at once for this transition to be successful. This is one of the reasons Mochi's system is working so well, they own the vast majority of the flash game developer market so when they say something, it is heard by the masses immediately.
Thanks for the post. I wanted to clarify the timing of the Flash Games Market Survey. The survey provides a snapshot of what the industry was like in early July of 2009, which was prior to the launch of many of the Flash micro-transactions platforms out there today (including our platform Mochi Coins, which launched at the end of July). Since the survey took place we've seen quite a bit of activity and adoption of the virtual goods model, and we're looking forward to seeing next year's 2010 survey to reflect a significant shift in that direction. Hope that helps!
Ada Chen
Mochi Media
There were microtransaction platforms available to Flash developers in mid 2008 (namely Nonoba and Andrograde) but there was very little adoption. The reason is because once you establish your market identity as 'free to play', it's hard to suddenly start charging for things. There are thousands of flash games out there, why should someone pay for one game when they can go play another game for free. This is coupled by the reality that the vast majority of flash games have 5 minutes or less of engaging gameplay thus making a weak value proposition.
The whole market needs to move at once for this transition to be successful. This is one of the reasons Mochi's system is working so well, they own the vast majority of the flash game developer market so when they say something, it is heard by the masses immediately.