publishing games on digital portals: 10 ways i messed up (so you don’t have to) yan marchal, sanuk...

Publishing games on digital portals:

10 ways I messed up (so you don’t have to)

Yan Marchal, Sanuk Games

Who am I? Why should you care?

• Yan Marchal: in the game industry since 1996.

• Started Sanuk Games in Bangkok in 2003.

• 20 to 40 co-workers at different periods of time.

• Released 30+ retail gamesas a contractor, and 20+download games as adigital publisher.


• Was very successful as a dev contractor during the highlight of the DS and the Wii.Released 30+ games for Atari, Avanquest, Bigben, Eidos, Mindscape, and others.

• Was left with nothing when this bubble bursted in early 2009.Decided to invest in small games and publish them digitally.


• Tested the market on PSN, DSiWare, WiiWare, iOS.• Released 20+ SKUs on these platforms:

– Games we designed and developed internally,– Games we licensed from 3rd party developers for ports.

Mistake #1

Starting too late on a platform.

Starting too late on a platform

• We developed Oscar In Toyland on DS for Virtual Playground(a Sonic-like platformer, originally released on Amiga ages ago)

• Unable to find a retail publisher,Virtual Playground eventually released it on DSiWare in August 2009.

• One of the first game released on the platform.

• It did very well, even at a veryhigh price (800 points).


So then we decided to release our own titles on the platform…

Telegraph CrosswordsMay 2010–500 points

Telegraph SudokuMay 2010–200 points

3D Twist & MatchApril 2011–200 points

7/10NintendoLife

8/10NintendoLife

5/10NintendoLife


These 3 games came too late after Nintendo’s big push for the DSiWare service.

Even though they were in the top 20 on their weeks of release, they barely amortized their development and publishing costs.

Game Release Price Volume to date

Telegraph Crosswords 05/2010 500 pts <low>

Telegraph Sudoku 05/2010 200 pts <low>

3D Twist & Match 04/2011 200 pts <medium>


PlayStation Minis (small games for PSP & PS3) started in August 2009.

We released “Spot The Differences!” shortly after, in November 2009.

Our biggest hit as a digital publisher so far! It benefitted from Sony’s pushof the category.

Games released much later on the platform (e.g. 2011) did not get any close to this figure.


Spot the Differences! 11/2009 €2.99 / $2.99 <high>

Mistake #2

Picking the wrong platform for your game.

Picking the wrong platform for your game

We released crossword and Sudoku games on PlayStation Miniswhen the format was still hot.

They did nowhere as good as “Spot The Differences!”

7.5/10pspminis.com

7/10pspminis.com


Telegraph Crosswords 12/2009 £3.49 / $2.99 <low>

Telegraph Sudoku 02/2010 £2.49 / $3.99 <very low>

Picking the wrong platform for your game

We released 3D Twist & Match on PlayStation Minis at the same time as on DSiWare. It did not even achieve 20% of the DSiWare sales.

Board games and gesture gamesare a pain in the ### on a devicethat doesn’t have a touch screen.

Casual puzzle games do not resonate well with the male, core gaming audience of PlayStation.

8.5/10pspminis.com


3D Twist & Match 03/2011 €1.99 / $1.99 <very low>

Mistake #3

Buying genericbrand licenses.

Buying generic brand licenses

Influenced by the success of branded crossword games we had developed for retail publishers on Nintendo DS,

I bought brand licenses for our digitally published crossword games:

Only in France did we release a non-branded crossword game*: Mots Croisés (for no French brand was interested in a deal). * Published

by Bigben Interactive


Although the brand is one factor among many, sales figures on iPhone make it very clear that it doesn’t help:


Telegraph Crosswords 12/2009 Tier 2 <medium>

Mots Croisés 02/2010 Tier 1 <high>


Brands that I would deem dangerous:

• Divisive rather than federating(e.g. newspaper brands).

• Not closely related to the game(opportunistic tie-in).

• Widely know but unexciting.

• Low crossover with platform audience.


Brands that I would deem workable:

• Coming from the gaming universe.

• Well known and appreciatedby the platform audience.

• Yet not frontally competingwith AAA brands.

• Licensors understand thesmall market size and pricetheir brand accordingly.

Mistake #4

Targeting niches.

Targeting niches

We released Drums Challenge (from Musigames) on PlayStation Minis to a very enthusiastic community of music game lovers.

Although critically praised, the game failed to find an audience of decent size.

8.5/10pspminis.com


Drums Challenge 06/2011 €1.99 / $1.99 <low>

Targeting niches

• The download market on consoles is too small for niches to be relevant.

• The download market on phones is bigger, but it is chart-based: your game is nothing if it hasn’t been in the top at the beginning of its life. Therefore, no way to promote niche games.

Mistake #5

Focusing too much onPR and reviews.

Focusing too much on PR and reviews

“Spot The Differences!” was released, on PlayStation Minis, iPhone and WiiWare, to very little media and bloggers’ attention.

Very few articles. Very few reviews. And they were underwhelming!

The game’s performance, however, was good.

6/10NintendoLife

4/10pspminis.com


Spot the Differences! (PSP) 11/2009 €2.99 / $2.99 <high>

Spot the Differences! (Wii) 01/2011 500 points <medium>


Oppositely, games highly praised by reviewers did not sell very well.

People who work on game review websites, often as volunteers or for a very low pay, deserve a lot of respect.

However, they reach only a fraction of the downloadable games’ audience.

Most of your audience will only rely on information from within the digital store or the manufacturer’s channel.


Platform Discoverability Attractiveness

PlayStation Store

New releases“Customers also bought…”Home-page / PlayStation Blog featuringSony-backed promotionsGenre / A-Z search

Customer ratingsIn-Store appearancePS Blog comments (when applicable)

DSiWare New releases In-Store appearance

iPhone/iPad Top 200“Customers also bought…”“New and Noteworthy”Cross-promotionFreeAppADay and such…

Customer ratings Customer commentsIn-Store appearanceUpdates

Mistake #6

Advertising.

Advertising

I had tried banner ads for “Spot The Differences!” on iPhone.

After game went #1 of the top in Italy but unnoticed everywhere else,I tried this for $250/month on a premium UK website:

Obviously, when selling $1-$5 items on a non-recurrent basis, no advertising solution is cheap enough.

Impressions: 714,000 CPM = $0.35

Clicks: 203 CPC = $1.23

Sales: ? @ £1.19 retail price.

Mistake #7

Neglecting in-storeappearance.

Neglecting in-store appearance

The title, icon, screenshots, sales talk are the most important parts of your game. They trigger the purchase.

It is disheartening to spoil the launch of a game with stupid mistakes.

Months of effort developing a great game.

Unattractive icon,Missing screenshots,

Broken sales talk,Etc.

Mistake #8

Creating a game that’s not self-descriptive.

Since most people just rely on what they see in the store, unless your game brand is widely known,

The title, icon and screenshots must be enough to tell what the game is.

We got it right on “Spot The Differences!”, wrong on “3D Twist & Match”.

Creating a game that’s not self-descriptive

Mistake #9

Failing to managerelationship with

1st parties.

Failing to manage relationships with 1st parties

I could manage to have Sony Europe and Sony America post PlayStation blog articles on Hysteria Project (from Bulkypix).

It helped tremendously.


Hysteria Project 04/2010 €1.49 / $1.99 <high>


I could not manage to do the same thing for Hysteria Project 2.

The sales were nowhere as good.(although there are other parameters involved)


Hysteria Project 2 08/2011 €1.99 / $2.49 <medium>


Our French crossword (“Mots Croisés”) on iPhone had a mild start…

…until Apple picked it up for their nationwide print adcampaign.

Since then, the game sold a high volume. It is still in the Top 200 games in France.

We never got this lucky again with Apple.


Other examples…

• “Pix’n Love Rush” (from Pastagames) has been one of our top-grossing games on PlayStation Minis, because Sony bought the license for a flat fee to offer the game for free to their premium users (PS+).

• “Spot The Differences!” on PlayStation Minis has seen its daily sales multiplied by 8 (with a price cut) when participating in a Sony-backed promotion.

Mistake #10

Taking age ratingslightly.

Taking age ratings lightly

Games released on Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft platforms must obtain age ratings by ESRB in America and PEGI in Europe.

It is not the case with Apple (they have their own –free– rating system).

You may think of these rating boards as entities whose role is merely to collect a fee when you release a game:

Rating board Download game fee(restrictions apply)

Retail game fee(full price)

ESRB $500 per game on all platforms (was $800).

$4,000 per game on all platforms.

PEGI €250 per game per platform.

€2,000 per game per platform.


But the ESRB is much more than just that. They also threaten you with very high fines if you make mistakes when filling their forms.

1 mistake is a “Class C violation”. 3 violations get you a $2,500 fine!

Hysteria Project: this spot over the bandage is a “pertinent blood effect”. Failure to indicate it results in a “Class C violation”.

Oscar World Tour: Sounds of burping, farting and toilet flush had to be removed in order to warrant an “E” (Everyone) rating!


The European PEGI also enforces its rules, as we experienced…

…but at least they don’t threaten you with fines.

Mistake #11

Not anticipatingtax issues.

Not anticipating tax issues

• Cross-border royalty transaction is subject to tax – 33% if you do nothing!

• Treaties between countries: Tax can be suppressed in most cases when dealing between two Western countries.Tax can be reduced to 5% / 10% / 15% when dealing with most Asian countries.

• For treaties to work, you have to fill forms and involve tax authorities in both countries. Expect hassles if your revenue officers

are corrupted!

Not anticipating tax issues

• Additionally, some countries charge VAT on incoming royalties!

Some tax forms you’ll have to deal with:

Partner Tax forms from…

Nintendo Germany (NOE), USA (NOA)

Sony UK (SCEE), USA (SCEA)

Apple None! (iTunes is incorporated in Luxemburg, which is form-free)

Any licensor for a game or a brand

Your country, to sign by tax authorities of licensor’s country.

Mistake #12

Underestimating themoney you need.

Underestimating the money you need

2 ways you can underestimate the money you need:• Underestimating production costs for game to be as fun / polished

as required by the market.• Underestimating time between investment and income.

Our longest investment lockup was with “Spot The Differences!” on Wii:

Production starts

Game submitted to Nintendo

Game approved by Nintendo

Game on sale 1st threshold reached

1st royalty payment

May 10

Jun10

Jul10

Aug10

Sep10

Oct10

Nov10

Dec10

Jan11

Feb11

Mar11

Apr11

May11

Jun11

Jul11

Aug11

Sep11

Oct11

18 months!

[ Q & A ]

Yan Marchal – [email protected]

publishing games on digital portals: 10 ways i messed up (so you don’t have to) yan marchal, sanuk...

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