The lush green hills of Seattle, Washington are home to many surprises. And hidden amongst these hills is Alex Tarrand, the Senior Product Manager for Microsoft’s Xbox division, who is hard at work as a mobile advertising specialist and supervisor of titles in the mobile and social game space. He hopes that Xbox’s new slate of games, when released, will bring a sense of wonderment and excitement to the end user - the same sensations he felt when he was hooked by the interactive entertainment industry as a child.
Of Puppies and Personal Computers
“When I was 5 or 6 years old, my older brother walked into my room, holding something mysterious behind his back. I was convinced it was new dog, so I squealed ‘puppy!’. He shook his head and revealed a Commodore 64 he had purchased from a friend. I asked why he was giving me a keyboard, but, of course, this was no ordinary keyboard. He plugged it in and we played the only cartridge he had – International Karate. It was one of the best afternoons I’ve ever had. I knew what I wanted to do with my life. I was obsessed.”
From that moment onward, Tarrand set himself on a course to become who he felt himself destined to be, and now manages the strategic planning of Xbox mobile free-to-play titles and Windows 8 third party games. In these roles, the ability to communicate across disciplines is key, as he is often called in to facilitate meetings between business teams and the game developers.
New Ways To Pay
As the next generation of gaming approaches and production costs rise, payment paradigms are evolving alongside the needs of both the player and content provider. The current method of paying a one-time fee for most games could eventually disappear completely. Free-to-play and Freemium models, which once took a back-seat to the more traditional modes of content delivery and payment, are poised to make a huge splash in the vast blue ocean ahead. Tarrand reminds us why:
“There are two main reasons that we’re seeing growth in this area - path of least resistance and quality. I’m a laissez faire kind of guy,” Tarrand says, “and I think freemium and F2P titles succeed because they are a risk-free decision for the consumer. In addition, the quality is accelerating in proportion to a gross earning potential that’s just starting to be tapped…It’s all about value exchange, regardless of the model. Within a paid title, the user needs to be given a curated, top notch experience. On Free-to-play, the user should be rewarded for engaging with an ad, and for Freemium you need to reinforce the MTX purchase decision, pre- and post-sale.”
Just stumbling into a pricing model without doing the necessary research could prove to be a costly mistake. There are difficulties that should be avoided when initializing and integrating a new monetization methodology. Tarrand finds advice in an unlikely source:
“Public Enemy said it best - Don’t Believe The Hype. Mobile is a venture capital incubator with new advertising companies emerging on a weekly basis. Their value proposition may be stunning, but always take a long, hard look at the client list before you spend money to integrate the SDK.”
A Brave New World
Ours is an industry that follows a path that begins with innovation, continues with market cannibalization, and ends in disruption before we are surprised by a new fork in the road. As that fork steadily draws near, Tarrand has a few words of wisdom for his fellow travelers:
“It’s a generally accepted notion that the future is cross screen, and the console market is an important part of that. Things like Smart Glass - Microsoft’s new initiative designed to connect Xbox to the millions of mobile devices already in the wild - are going to bridge the gap between first and second screen experience in new and exciting ways. Beyond that, crowd source game ideation and generative gameplay will bring new opportunities for developers.”
Of course, there is more to the future than just multiple screens. Customization is also going to play a strong role in the years ahead.
“The games of tomorrow will be less about guiding users through a limited series of options, and more about letting users create those options for themselves, from the ground up,” Tarrand states.
A future where more power is placed into the hands of the end user is a tantalizing dream indeed, and one with the promise of innumerable surprises in store.
Comments
You must log in to post a comment.