Quake Live’s partner IGA Worldwide going through hard times
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.
7 comments
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Loading ...
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,..? 😮
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.
Another interesting article about this subject @ cnet. Standards will drive in-game advertising:
#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 :P).
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.
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.
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!