By Tukko Test Team-
Recently, Sparkplay Media announced its closing its doors and of the uncertain future of its MMORPG title Earth Eternal. Unfortunate as it is, it’s difficult to really say that no one saw this coming. All too often we hear about companies closing their doors as they fail to capture their target market and funds dry up. These things do happen more often than people realize, and sad to say, it’s easy to spot when one knows what to look for.
One thing that needs to be made clear is that the Virtual World / MMOG space is now one of the most crowded areas of the internet world. For developers and investors, it’s easy also to see the attraction, with the success of games such as World of Warcraft and the huge growth of companies such as Zynga and Playfish. What this ultimately amounts to unfortunately is too many MMOG games out there that are trying to do the same thing. For a consumer, the choice is great, but ultimately this means that some brands will prosper while some will fall to the wayside. Just like products in a grocery store, there will be fast moving items, as well as items that get forgotten on the shelf. Sparkplay Media going belly up is one of those similar situations wherein they simply did not have a strong enough title to sustain their operations.
So why is it that some game brands end up stronger than others? It’s really a variety of things, some listed below:
- From the conceptualization stage of your game you need to start a feedback loop very early on. That’s why there are such processes and services that cater to the inception of an idea stage. Don’t just copy a winning formula, because you’ll pretty much enter the game cycle of that genre too late and from there, suffer being stepped on by the more established players
- Trying to come in second to an already proven gameplay experience will not guarantee you sales. Going back to our grocery store analogy, two types of soap can be similar, but there are always strong reasons why consumers stick to the brands they know.
- How strong your product is on the market is only a reflection of how much you invested in your market research. It’s actually quite shocking how many marketing desicisions are based off “gut feels” and outdated data. Market research is a sadly under-rated part of the overall product strategy, and generally not given as much attention (and funding) as it needs to really provide usable results.
- The QA and feedback loop process should come with the early stages of your product development, no question. But what is more important is getting the feedback from the right people. That is to say, make sure you listen to your target market and audience throughout the entire development cycle. ). If coding starts on an already flawed concept or just with a bullet point idea system in place, then this only spells out a lot of backward work come launch day in just trying to save what sales were initially generated.
- Don’t invest simply in market research for a single product. A lot of data can be generated and applicable to several diverse markets and products utilizing the same tools and with minimal additional effort.
