business cases

Massive Multiplayer Mobile Games

Massive Multiplayer Mobile games are likely candidate for becoming the next commercially viable subgenre of pervasive games. These games, that are run continuously for a long time and where the content is maintained, can combine end user charges (monthly subscriptions or on a transactional basis) with advertisement revenue. Pervasive Mobile games can also support social gaming in many ways that traditional games cannot. The content can adapt to the player’s social network, her proximity to other players, and influence when and where she plays the game. Mobile games offer rich opportunities for players to contribute to the game by adding player-generated locative content.

Example IPerG games that fit this model: Mythical Mobiles: The awakening, Day of the Figurines, Coup

Local Location-Based Games

By localising content to an area, these applications create content based city tours where locally relevant history (or music, or trivia) is streamed to the mobile device depending on where the player is. The approach can be used for tourist guides as well as for cross-marketing purposes (where visitors are led to bars, restaurants and shops depending on the focus of content). Other potential usages are as educational applications, e.g. targeting schools on field trips, and theatre-like events. A host of similar applications are already available e.g. as museum tours based on traditional technology (typically tape recorders).

Example IPerG games that fit this model: Rider Spoke, Interference

Alternate Reality Game and TV Show

Alternate Reality Games (ARG) is a well established pervasive game genre. Recently there has been an increased interest in combining ARG with television series. The most well-known example is the ReGenesis production, a Canadian TV series with an associated game that has won several prizes.

The combination of ARG and TV is typically financed through advertisement. Shows like ReGenesis can be financed through ordinary TV advertisement and product placement in the game. Several ARG have also been produced as advertisement campaigns for movies and computer games.

Example IPerG games that fit this model: Prosopopeia 1 “Där vi föll”, Prosopopeia 2 “Momentum”

Cross Media Games

Cross media games merge diverse entertainment concept such as interactive movie elements in a pervasive game. Crossmedia game spaces are potentially accessible anytime and anywhere by a wide range of media devices and offer a range of game experiences by combining a variety of devices, interfaces and media in a single game. The business case is similar to the AR games TV extensions, but in the cross-media scenario the TV is used as a game extension rather than the other way around. Elements of the game could be used to form a TV show or a movie, inviting a wider spectatorship with potentials for influencing the game e.g. by voting on the winner.

Example IPerG games that fit this model: Epidemic Menace

Advergaming

Pervasive games can form the basis of advergaming campaigns; games launched as a way to market a new product or to build a brand. Figure 8 shows a possible campaign model for such games, in this case a campaign for a movie. As IPerG has not specifically researched advergaming we will not discuss it in depth in this report. It should be noted that Alternate Reality Games (ARG) have been used successfully as advergaming campaign since the launch of the AI game in 2001 and that some of these campaigns have had budgets in the range of several million Euro and included spectacular large-scale real-world events.

Example IPerG games that fit this model: Most IPerG games could be used for this purpose. A time limited game like Epidemic Menace is the right choice for short term promotion, whereas a continuously running game service with a lower profile such as Mythical Mobiles could be used to build a brand long-term.

User Created Games

Pervasive games have a long-standing tradition of being designed by dedicated amateurs and communities rather than as commercial games. This creates an opportunity to package simple pervasive games in retail boxes together with the hardware needed to run the games. This business model lies closer to the toys market than to that of the games or the media industry.

Example IPerG games that fit this model: The location box and the magic lens box have been developed as product prototypes with this business model in mind.