IGames Summit 2009

Thanks to Morgenthaler Ventures, I got a free pass to this new conference called iGamesSummit09. This conference is all about iphone which is very relevant to Think Bulbs.

Panel 1: Lessons Learned: Why iPhone Games Work
- Getting on Top 25 apps list mean unit sales, not dollar sales.
- Free product and in-app purchases
- Tap Tap could have made couple million dollars but the whole user base is much smaller
- Walmart and Best Buy in the pocket
- How to get software above the noise? PR activity before the release, Cross-promotion invented in the games, profile and points relationship, localization (half of revenue for ngmoco from abroad)
- Kotaku or Penny Arcade are good blogs
- More engagement means more social; connect you with new people that share the same interest
- Not if but when regarding Android, Blackberry, Palm Pre
- Building authenticity and community around the game: quality of the game

Breakout Session #1: Building Social Games for the iPhone
- In game items that increase status and ability
- Daily Active User is the important metric
- Social games: Push notifications, micropayments, beginning of multiplayer
- Zynga only interested in API smartphones, Better Plumbing, Industry Needs to Work Together
- Admob is coming out with linkexchange
-1/3 ads, 1/3 lead gen, 1/3 userpay: social game business model
- Cool example: Bejeweled on Facebook

Breakout Session #2 Social Games, Anytime, Anywhere
- iPhone is a device to access social graphs
- Social Graphs now have APIs
- Ganes are good at generating emotions
- What about Social Emotions?
- Success Formality: virality, engagement and monetization
- 100 million DS sold, 180 million console, 1.3 billion web enabled PC, 3 billion mobile (Access)
- 150 million Myspace, 175 million Facebook, 500 million Social Network (Utility)
- Adsense for Games

Breakout Session #3 Social in Motion by SGN
- iFun
- NiiMe
- Vision: Convergence (ability to use facebook connect)
- The Good Noise: Price Elasticity
- Platform-Agnostic Gaming: The Future of Social Motion

Panel Session: Where do we go from here?
- Want to drive to retail: location where you can actually complete the purchase (referring to the Map enabled feature in iphone 3.0)
- 3.0 push notification can drive users back over time; more social experience
- $10 CPM; Display, Lead Gen, and (?)
- Video demo on App Store would be a nice feature