RSSMicrosoft to Share Game Ad Revenue
By Ed Oswald | Published February 7, 2007, 4:42 PM
Casual game developers will soon be able to share in some of the revenue from MSN Games thanks to a new system developed by Microsoft. The new option is available immediately, and could mean as much as $250,000 in shared revenue for the five most popular titles.
Two levels of participation would be provided. The first level would require little or no change in the development process and would share ten percent of generated ad revenues. The second option would share 20 percent, but would require the developer to add more functionality to their games.
Examples of this added functionality would be localization, Entertainment Software Rating Board ratings, and the creation of a "deluxe" game experience that offers players at least 10 hours of engaging free Web-based gameplay.
Microsoft says this would enhance the overall experience for users, as it gives developers an added incentive to produce more in-depth and engaging games. In turn, this would generate more revenue for both Microsoft and the developer.
"By sharing in-game advertising revenue, we're allowing a more diversified business model that gives our partners more resources to create new, innovative titles for the 13 million people we see every month on MSN Games," Microsoft Casual Games studio manager Chris Early said.
Interested developers should contact their Microsoft distributor to participate in the program. Independent developers can contact Microsoft at MCG@microsoft.com for more details.
Oh, so Microsoft wants to try to share the wealth now huh? How long's it been since MSN Games has been around? I don't know exactly, but I know it's been around long enough to generate tons of ad revenue already.
Plus, Microsoft is just trying to mimick Google' business model anyways.
Sorry to tell you Microsoft, but your days of dominating the I.T. industry are done!
Guess what Microsoft? I'm going to freely distribute cracked versions of Vista and Office 2007! Will you sue me for the clothes on my back because of this? Or will you continue to ignore the small businesses and cater to larger corporations?
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wow, what a smart comment...
how exactly microsofts action entitle or justify you pirating/distributing their stuff?
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Especially when the article are responding to is about Microsoft distributing its income a little more fairly.
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Not sure of the specifics of this, but if upon further research I find out this is basically another way for MS to make money off of spyware then I'll certainly give them a peice of my mind.
Spyware (a.k.a. "Market Research") has gone way too far, and any and all support for anything even remotely benefiting those who make money from it should be choked off completely. That is the only way this nonsense will stop--if spyware wasn't generating so much revenue, nobody'd waste all of their time and effort to writing it.
On the other hand, this is an "if...then" clause--does this give any benefit/revenue to any spyware companies or programmers? If not, then I have no problems with this decision from Microsoft.
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