August 1st, 2006 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Ad Funded Gaming | 1 Comment »
Following up on our previous post featuring the deal between Greystripe and HandyGames, we have spoken to HandyGames CEO Christopher Kassulke himself about how the system works.
[Arjan] The Greystripe idea of providing free games to consumers sounds really great, but can you explain where we can expect your ads are to pop-up?
[Christopher] Depending on the game it will pop up. Of course in the beginning of the game and partly also between the game sessions.
[Arjan] So we can conclude the adWRAP itself pauses the game and continues after displaying the ad?
[Christopher] Depending on the game and what we / or the customer want.
[Arjan] Greystripe announces on it’s website that the advertising is latterly wraped around the game. We expect this influences filesize to some extend. How did HandyGames cope with this as Greystripe announces no changing to the games is needed?
[Christopher] Filesizes are not the big issues cause HandyGames always take care about that. For developers with huge filesizes that might be a problem.
[Arjan] Are there plans to also start supporting ad-subsidizing your games on the DoJa platform?
[Christopher] We are currently not planning to use it in DoJa Games. Perhaps that’s changing in the near future.
[Arjan] What everyone of course likes to know, are revenues comparable to the regular purchase systems we know, or is it performance based?
[Christopher] Of course we don’t have any real figures currently. But it is performance based if the game is used more often we are getting more revenues. That’s very good for our kind of games like Townsmen or Spellboys that you play very often.
[Arjan] So this means every game is a connected game as the adWRAP needs to sync it’s data with the adWRAP server. Aren’t you afraid users will get fed up with high bills for data usage?
[Christopher] in several countries the operators don’t charge airtime or airtime is included in the package. Yes there might be some costs for the endcustomers but not significant ones. We are not downloading whole games etc.
[Arjan] Any final words about your experience with adWRAP?
[Christopher] We see adWRAP as good chance to attract new customers and we can generate extra revenues beside the operators. If a customer like the game and play it very often we will also generate significant revenues. So just ask me in half a year if it’s a successful way of offering mobile games.
[Arjan] Thanks for your valuable contribution.
Sounds really interesting, IMHO don’t like ads pausing the game. The idea is avoid intrusive marketing, and I like the way to include the brand softly in the game.
Also free downloadable games could speed up the mobile game market, because now seems walk slowly.