Lifetime Television, which has worked with RealNetworks for several years, is getting together with them again to go deeper into the casual game sector.
Called Lifetime Presents, the new batch of games will be monetized by a 30-second pre-roll advertisement. Contrary to people calling the 30-second ad dead, in the middle-aged female demographic, they are more than willing to view an ad in exchange for playing free games. They are not just willing, but overwhelmingly willing, as 83 percent said in a survey they didn't mind.
It's probably not news to most people that casual gaming is hot at this time, but some are warning there'll be a glut of the product probably sometime in 2008.
My response to that at this time is: Who cares? Games in this market can be created quick and efficiently; and yes - cheaply. This means that as long as the market is there, it's a no-brainer to enter into it if it fits with your business purpose.
I could even see adding some of these types of opportunities to women of that age if you serve up other products or services to them. Why not have a little monetized play space on your site they can interact with when they visit? It would have to complement what you're doing, but there are a number of Websites this could work with.
For publicly traded companies casual gaming will eventually not add that much to the bottom line as more and more companies enter into the field, but for private companies, this could be a nice added stream of income to their bottom line.
One hint I'll give you can do: Add a game that helps a user learn about a product or service you offer. When they get to a certain stage or points, you could offer insights or answers to questions people have about your products or services. You could even have a type of "Did you know this?" when a person ends the game.
It's limitless what you could do in a combination of a game and learning about your offerings. Who cares if the space gets crowded in the future. You could continue to add or build to the game or games you provide as you improve or add products to your service.
This is just one of a lot of ways you could have a simple game developed for you specific business. Casual gaming isn't going to go away.
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