Casual Games in Israel

Casual Games in IsraelThe Israeli Casual Game Market - Recent Developments

Dudi Peles, CTO & Co-Founder QuizArt Yuval Bayrav, Senior Editor Vgames.co.il

Program in Science, Technology & Society,Bar Ilan University

April 2008

Who are we?

• Dudi Peles – CTO QuizArt

• Yuval Bayrav – Senior Editor Vgames.co.il

• Bar Ilan University (Program in Science, Technology & Society)

What are Casual Games?

• Casual Games are video games developed for the mass consumer, who would normally not regard themselves as a “gamers”.

51%51% 49%49%

62%62% 38%38%

Female Male

Over 35 Under 35

Casual Games vs Hard-Core

CharacteristicCasualHard-Core

DemographicsAll ages, male and female, 100% of population

18-35 years old males, <15% of population

Where PlayHome, work, on the way…Home

Why PlayFun, relaxation, escapeExploration, stimulation, adrenaline rush

Play Time5-15 minutes to complete level20 minutes – 2 hours to complete level

PlatformPC, Mac, TV, Phone, inexpensive console

Game consoles, hi-end PC

Game PriceFree - $20$30-$60

Our Definition

• Little preliminary “gaming knowledge” required to play

• Very flat “Learning Curve”• Very wide “Comfort Zone”

• Note: gamers play casual games as well

Casual Games Business Models

• Trial to Purchase• Advertising Supported• Subscription• Skill-based Games• Microtransactions• Mobile• Retail Boxes• In-Game Advertising & Advergaming

Trial to Purchase

• Big Fish Games: >750,000 downloads a day. Average conversion rate 1%-2%

• Xbox Live Arcade: ~1.5M downloads a day. Average conversion rate 18%

• In 2006, “Trial to Purchase” accounted for 42% of the whole market

Advertising Supported

• 34% of internet users play free games (Aug ‘07)

• Big Portals: Yahoo Games, MSN Games

• Game Portals: MiniClip, AddictingGames, NeoPets, NewGrounds, Kongregate

• Messaging Tools: ICQ, LIVE messenger

Subscription

• Club Pogo: 1.5M subscribers paying $6 a month or $35 a year (Dec ’07)

• Club Penguin: 700,000 subscribers (Aug ‘07). Acquired by Disney for $350M.

• Other Web Sites: Shockwave Unlimited, RealArcade, Big Fish Games

Skill-Based Gaming

• King.com - 190 million games played a month (Feb 2008).

• Other Web Sites:www.worldwinner.com www.gameduel.com

Microtransactions

• Kart Rider: Over 16 million Koreans (>30% of Korea's population) have played Kart Rider.

• Maple Story: 72+ million users, $16 million per month worldwide via microtransactions (Apr ’08)

Business Models - Summary

• Global Market Size in 2007: $2.25 billion.

• 20% year over year growth.

Casual games in Israel

• Major models: Internet free-to-play games, cellular games, TV set-top box games, Retail

• 50-75% of Internet users play games online – that’s 1.75-2.8M users

• In 07’-08’ we have conducted a survey among Israeli Internet casual players, with some surprising results…

The Israeli Casual Gamer

51%51% 49%49%

62%62% 38%38%

Female Male

Over 35 Under 35

25%25% 75%75%

31%31% 69%69%

Female Male

Over 35 Under 35

Based on an online survey of >10K players

Players in the Market - Advertising Supported

• Big Portals, e.g.:– Walla Fun– Nana10 Games

• Game Portals, e.g.:– www.flashy.co.il– www.netgames.co.il– www.moomoo.co.il– www.webgames.co.il

• Many players, low income

Players in the Market - Advergaming

• Usually produced by interactive companies as part of a marketing campaign, targeting young audience.

• Examples: Dibs (Nestle), Prigat, Bisli Dak (Osem), Bamba (Osem), Elite Puzzles (Elite), Shugi (Telma)…

Players in the Market - Mobile

• 300,000 downloads a month (estimate).

• Number of downloads increased by 50-60% since 2006

Players in the Market - Retail

• Casual retail is dominated by children’s games and edutainment

• Disney games, Matah, Comfy, Compedia

• Compedia has just launched a semi-online virtual world of edutainment called Peleland

New Players in the Market - Subscription

• Orange Games – by Orange (Partner)• Launched: early 2008• Price: 19.90 NIS• Offering (some of) Oberon Media games• Marketing exclusively to Orange’s existing 2.9M cellular

telephone clients

New Players in the Market - Subscription

• BGames – by Bezeq• Soft Launched: early 2008• Price: 19.90• Offering mainly older (>4 years) and non-AAA

games, edutainment• Marketing to Bezeq’s existing 2.6M telephone

clients

Players in the Market - Skill-based Games

• Play65 – by Interlogic• Launched: 2004• Offering backgammon

• More then 5M registered players• Closed (for cash games) on December 2006

and reopened at May 2007.

New Players in the Market - Skill-based Games

• Noobo• Launched: May 2007• Close to 200,000 registered users• Has a going partnership with the successful TV trivia

brand “1 Vs 100”• Hosts Popcap games (Zuma, Bejeweled)• >1.3M game sessions in the 1st month• >1M NIS played on during the first 3 months.

New Players in the Market - Skill-based Games

• Shapo – by Tapuz• Launched: January 2008• Reportedly invested $1M

Yuval

Israeli Developers

• Enabling technologies• Distributing technologies / platforms• Games ?• Casual Games ?

Summary

• The casual Israeli market is closer to the global market then the non-casual market. Casual Games are very relevant to Israel.

• Israel as a casual game market has potential and is still at its infancy

• Let the games begin…

Foe more questions: dudi@quizart.com or editor@vgames.co.il