It seems like years that I have been calling for cross-platform gaming. Not multi-platform where a game is on several, we have that in spades with some games hitting up to seven platforms or more. No, this is all about being able to play the same game and same character on any platform. Well Heiko Hubertz, CEO of online gaming portal Bigpoint.com, couldn’t agree more according to his talk at the London Games Conference.
“As users get more and more switched on to technology, they don’t want their games to be trapped onto one format. So the future of gaming won’t be PC-based, console, mobile or browser but online games that work across these range of technologies. At Bigpoint.com, we believe that in the future the demand from users will be to play the same character in the same game no matter what platform they are on and interact in real-time with other players,” explained Hubertz.
Hubertz also revealed the two main reasons why online games are seeing such massive success at the moment. Firstly, online games lend themselves to easily be distributed internationally through localised versions of the individual games. Secondly, the cost of developing online games is typically much lower than a traditional retail game which requires huge investments of capital to create and market, making it easier to secure a return on the investment.
Hubertz also warned against the risks of a Facebook-only strategy for casual and social game publishers. Despite the media attention, recent research has demonstrated that even the most popular Facebook games continue to lose players, and there’s tough competition for new entrants to gain a foothold in the market. There is also a real danger if companies rely on Facebook as their sole source for revenues as Facebook can choose to change their policies without any prior notice, such as the recent decision to reduce the number of clicks received by CPM advertisers, which can have a severely detrimental effect on the success and profit of games.
“Relying on Facebook to generate users and revenue opportunities creates a dangerous dependency on the platform. Game publishers need to cast their net wider to ensure the right people are playing the right games in their portfolio. Facebook is only one source of traffic and doesn’t allow publishers to reach niche audiences. A far more effective approach is to find relevant media partners for individual games, or collections of games, so that they can tap into readymade and relevant audiences. The relationship is mutually beneficial as the game publisher brings value-add content and a new revenue stream to the media partner.” added Hubertz.
I think part of the problem with Facebook is that while the service itself is cross-platform, games and other apps are not. There are very real limitations on what can be done via that iPhone or Ovi Store apps for Facebook. Not only that but many game simply won’t play well on some platforms. Many games on FB just wouldn’t cut it on the mobiles. These ideas of course won’t work for many AAA titles which require a much larger amount of processing power than is available in most portable devices and mobile phones. But allowing gamers to play the same game and account/character across multiple platforms means a much more engaged audience.
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