Game Sponsorship

[Nick_s]

Has anyone had experience with having flash games developed with their own arcade brand inserted, also know as "game sponsorship"? I'd like to know how that's worked for you, as I'm thinking doing something along those lines.

Thanks

[Mike]

I haven't tried it but there's a few guys here who have. From what I've heard they certainly help bump your traffic.

They'll probably go into more detail though...

[Generalissimo]

Everyone is doing it now. If you were in relatively early like myself and Westech were you'd have done well. Starting now with so many other sites sponsoring games mean that the price of games has gone up, and also the amount of games for sites to choose from has too.

[MaxS]

I haven't done it, yet. I have a few flash game websites, though. At this point, I don't want to drop a few grand on custom games.

[Emancipator]

westech will hopefully see this post he has one of the best flash sites online..... im sure he will share his views.

[Generalissimo]

I'm not sure he has one of the best flash games sites, what I am sure about is he has some of the best flash games made for him...

[Giles]

i love his site, it uses a free script that was posted here once which he has modified but kept the design. it's not super dooper best ever but it's pretty good and functional and gets a load of traffic and he has some of the best games on the market made for him.

i don't think it's necessary to have games made for you to be a moderately successful flash games site but if you want to hit the big time you're going to have to compete with the big bad boys.

i also noticed westech has released a deathmatch flash game called pawn, theres a link to it from crazymonkeygames.

[Emancipator]

I'm not sure he has one of the best flash games sites, what I am sure about is he has some of the best flash games made for him...

the games are what make the site. What are you judging it by? The games are why its one of the best flash game sites on the internet and so damn popular.

[Cutter]

Bumping an old thread here, looking for some clarification.

For the record I am working on building traffic with a specific target market, not looking to launch a general arcade site.

When you pay to have a custom game developed is this done to drive traffic because other game sites will host your game themselves or because other game sites/game players will link to your site and come back to it? (or a mixture of both) Additionally, is a lot of effort spent going after other arcade sites "pirating" your games?

[Westech]

To answer the original question: Like Incka said, it's probably going to be difficult to get a new site started at this point as the market has become pretty saturated.

This type of site uses a lot more bandwidth per visitor than most, the "free games" niche has lower ad rates than most, and you'll need to pay quite a bit of money to get good games that will be noticed and bring in good traffic. Because of these factors, it would probably be difficult for someone just starting out to break even, much less be profitable. This business model only really works if you can take advantage of economies of scale. Having a very large amount of traffic allows you to:

1. Make more ad revenue per visitor by selling direct ads and by negotiating better rates with ad networks.

2. Pay less for bandwidth by buying in bulk.


Cutter, I may have a way to help you out with what you're doing. Feel free to contact me to discuss. To answer your question: Both, but the main benefit for most people is that other sites host the games and this puts your brand and URL in front of a lot of players.

Because we WANT as many other sites as possible to use the games, standard content theft isn't really an issue. What does happen sometimes is that people will decompile the games to remove our links and logos and in some cases even replace them with their own! We do spend a good chunk of time and energy going after these people.

Anyone interested in this topic should read this article:

http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?op...6283&Itemid=51

Business Week also ran a watered down version of the same article. Luckily, they left most of my quotes intact. http://www.businessweek.com/innovate...079_297608.htm

[MaxS]

Thanks for the great post Westech. I have an arcade site that's a few years old that I may devote some energy to.

I contacted a game developer and asked him how much he would charge for sponsorship, and he said $4,000. His games are great, though. Anyone here willing to divulge the contact information of a good flash game developer?

Edit: http://mashable.com/2007/07/20/adsense-for-games/

Thanks

[Mike]

Edit: http://mashable.com/2007/07/20/adsense-for-games/

It sounds good, but with CPC so low for games I don't know if it would work or not.