Quake Live’s partner IGA Worldwide going through hard times

14Mar/097

Quake Live’s partner IGA Worldwide going through hard times

iga-depression IGA Worldwide, the company providing the in-game advertising for Quake Live, is struggling with funding due to the continuing global depression.

Chairman Justin Townsend yesterday announced in a phone call with Venturebeat.com IGA either needs new investors or find someone who'll take over the company.

Venturebeat.com further reports:

While Townsend said he did not want to sell the company, he acknowledged that times are tough. After the economic turmoil erupted in September, he said that ad budgets were scaled back and the company realized it wouldn’t be able to make its projected revenues. In November, IGA laid off 25 percent of the company, leaving it with about 45, Townsend said. But Townsend said IGA did not want to accept “low ball offers” to purchase the company.

As a general observation it might be interesting to ask in which way this will affect Quake Live. The depression seems to have very little effect on the gaming industry in general. Finding sponsors willing to advertise in games, however, is an entire different story:

The bigger question is, are IGA’s problems its own doing, or are they inherent to the in-game ad industry as a whole? On the one hand, the video game industry is one of the few areas of the economy that remains resilient, with growing revenues. On the other, the ad industry has taken a hit, with brands less willing to spend money on advertising at a time when consumers are less likely to respond.

Read the full story at venturebeat.com. More discussion about free games, in game advertising and Quake Live at techradar.com as well.

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Posted by Malice

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Malice
March 14th, 2009 - 12:45

An article at techradar discusses the future of “free games”.

What’s interesting is the following part they have to say about Quake Live:

For now, it has in-game billboards and that’s it. That’s the sort of thing you see in paid games, so it’s hard to balk at them. There are more plans in the offing, reportedly ? paid-for character models and your favourite level maps from days gone by are the most likely bets. The question there is at what point a player thinks, “well, I can buy Quake III for a fiver and then download the other bits for free”.

Paid models,..?
Lashknife
March 14th, 2009 - 13:18

In a world where everybody sees the enemy as a keel/bright model, I don’t think paid models are going to be a big hit.
However, some good income can be generated by following up exactly what ads to display ingame and onsite. And my guess for a cashflow source will be the gamers who are interested in renting servers.

About the maps, well if they introduce some sort of premium account that has access to non-regular content, I think many players will be willing to pay some bucks to be able to play maps that are way more suited for competition. Say a dollar a month for being able to play 3W maps? That’s 12 a year, anybody can afford that, even youngsters can ask their parents for this kind of money. If they can pay for soccer class and an internet connection I don’t think a buck a month is alot

And err, imagine a buck a month times playercount :d *ching*ching* !!
But my guess is as good as yours.
Malice
March 14th, 2009 - 23:02

Another interesting article about this subject @ cnet. Standards will drive in-game advertising:

It appears that if IGA falters it may be its own fault, having made some bad deals for upfront payments. But that’s only part of the story. The bigger issue is that in-game advertising is not like other mediums and requires the industry as a whole to mature.

The current problem is that every in-game advertisement is a custom project. You can’t just pop in text or graphics as you do with an ad network such as Google or Yahoo and have it appear correctly in a video game.
Venji
March 15th, 2009 - 22:50

#2, I doubt it would be 1 dollar a month though – look at WoW. If they ramp up prices like that I doubt this community would survive at all (I don’t believe they will even consider adding in a pay-per-play monthly fee though btw ).
Venji
March 15th, 2009 - 22:59

Didn’t mean to submit yet!

No successful FPS in history has ever used monthly fees, only rpg’s bother with this annoying idea. And, more importantly, who would want to pay for a game where you can only play public for the forseeable future until they bring out the server admin options.
Lashknife
March 16th, 2009 - 06:47

a dollar was just a random number

And we’re not paying yet are we “for just being able to play public online”
I think they’ll keep it for free using the ingame ads, and will offer some sort of premium service for whatever and then there is the server renting thing.
macr
March 24th, 2009 - 11:53

Malice: An article at techradar discusses the future of ?free games?.
What?s interesting is the following part they have to say about Quake Live:
Paid models,..?

Might be able to buy it for a fiver but its a pain in the ass to find games and play properly with the right mods etc… Quake Live is click and play!