This week, I want to talk a little about current trends of the game industry. First off is the sale of virtual goods. I just read that virtual goods micro-transitions could generate $500 million in revenue for game and app makers on Facebook this year. The top third-party company on Facebook, Zynga, is set to make $60 million and the same goes for Playfish and Playdom. I personally have witnesses these transactions. When it was my birthday last year, a couple of my friends sent me gift images. Each one costs about $1.
I think the concept of virtual goods is pretty remarkable. People are so convinced that they “own” something, when the items aren’t even real. How can pixels be worth so much money?
Even scarier is the rise of free games. There are thousands upon thousands of free games on social networks, the iPhone, etc. When a person has to decide whether to play a free version or a paid version, of course the free version will be picked. I got an iTunes gift card for Christmas and have yet to use it because I always end up downloading or torrenting free music. I always ask myself, why would I use the gift card if I can get it for free? So what is going to happen to newspapers, movies, music, and other media as reliance on the Internet continues to increase? The Seattle Post Intelligence already went out of business. I can only hope that other companies such as Seattle Times and Gamestop would be able to endure.
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