MMOGrader Feed for 10 most recent articles

The best part of the games industry - Browser MMO games

andreasp — Mon, 29 Mar 10 23:44:22 +0200

Tim Merel, corporate finance director for games and other sectors at IBIS Capital in London, sees lots of action coming in the video game industry as it expands to become one of the biggest entertainment industries in the world. He just released a 60-slide review of the global opportunities for investing in video games. He looks at everything from funding to merger opportunities throughout the industry, from console games to social games.

And here is what he has to say about the MMO sector and browser MMOs in particular:

- The MMO sector is interesting in that it’s both high growth and consolidated, while still being cash generative. It remains an early stage market with evolving dynamics, but there is a clear hierarchy of successful business models. High end retail MMO offers significant rewards, yet remains as hit driven and risky as the pure console sector. The businesses I like most are subscription and in-game item/micro-transaction supported (like Bigpoint) which have already delivered significant revenue and profit traction. The trick here is “game balancing” to ensure that the players who spend the most don’t spoil the game for free players.

So in conclusion, if you are going to put your time and money in some part of the games industry, browser MMO is the best place to be!

GamesBeat: Investment banker sees big growth in game investment and mergers as industry fragments

Browser MMO developer Junebud makes an IPO

andreasp — Sat, 12 Sep 09 22:00:11 +0200

Junebud is a browser MMO developer based in Sweden that currently develops a game called Million Morning, or MilMo in short. Work on the game began during the summer of 2008 and is currently going from alpha to closed beta, with a plan to go to public beta in the fourth quarter this year. MilMo is a social browser MMO game with 3D graphics based on the powerful Unity engine.

The company was founded by Ola Holmdahl and Carl Lundgren who got to know each other while working at Dice (Digital Illusions) with the development of Battlefield 1942 and other games.

Junebud has previously received 1.4 million SEK (0.14 MEUR) in funding and is currently raising 2.9 million SEK (0.25 MEUR) thru a public share issue. The pre-money valuation for the current share issue is 6 million SEK. The company’s shares are planned to be listed on Aktietorget on the 23 October. Aktietorget is a Swedish stock market (MTF) for mainly startup and growth companies. There are currently 116 companies listed, and among them the well known independent game developer Starbreeze.

The game does not have a public web site yet, but Junebud have released nice video teaser that you can watch here at MMOGrader.

An investment in such an early stage should be considered as high risk. But the company is running a tight ship and according to their calculations in the investment memorandum they will get a positive cash flow at 60 000 players, which isn't much for a free to play browser MMO game, with optional micro payments.

Junebud and their game MilMo have definitely caught our attention. You can look forward to more updates about them and we hope to be able to get an interview with the company later on.

Andreas Poike

Virtual goods is hot in America

andreasp — Sat, 01 Aug 09 01:17:19 +0200

Analyst firm Frank N. Magid Associates reports that roughly 12 percent of Americans have bought a virtual item at some point in the last 12 months, according to a study they made for virtual currency provider PlaySpan. With the virtual goods and currency market estimated to reach $1.8 billion this year, the Magid study offers some insight into exactly who’s doing the buying, and where.

Demographically, for example, while 15 percent of males aged 12-24 reported purchasing virtual goods, 15 percent of women between ages 35-44 did so, too. As Mike Vorhaus, president of Magid Advisors, put it, the boys are getting virtual swords for their MMORPGs, while the women are buying virtual flowers on Facebook. Vorhaus noted that categorization by ethnicity was also diverse, with Asian-Americans on the high end (16 percent), and the rest some 1-5 percent behind.

Segmenting that 12 percent according to consumers’ Internet activity and device ownership, social network gamers and iPhone owners are strongly represented (27 and 28 percent, respectively); PC and handheld console gamers were almost as likely to buy virtual items (between 19 and 22 percent.) However, active console gamers lag just a bit behind those segments.

Unsurprisingly, the most significant variable in purchase rate is virtual world usage: Nearly half of the respondents who report being active MMO participants are also virtual item consumers.

Meanwhile, Eric Hartness, chief marketing officer at PlaySpan, said that he expects that by this time next year, that 12 percent figure will rise to 15-18 percent.