Archive for the ‘Finance’ Category

How long before the Kickstarter bubble bursts?

May 8, 2012

There are currently 314 projects live on the Video Games Channel on Kickstarter. Several are fully-funded already (like YogVentures). Others never will be (I’ve seen at least two massive open-world sandbox games proposed by people who have never made any games before). The ones I worry about are the ones that combine the two: fully funded projects by wildly-optimistic promoters. That is where the trouble will start.

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Posted in: Finance, Opinion

Tagged with: bubble, crowdfunding, doublefine, funding, kickstarter

2 Comments
50 questions: Should I let my lawyer negotiate the deal?

April 26, 2012

“Going toe-to-toe with an experienced venture capitalist negotiating on concepts that are new, difficult to understand, and important to the future of your business is not an easy challenge,” says Nic Brisbourne in an Equity Kicker post. “But it is one that the best entrepreneurs step up to.” It is tempting to have your lawyer negotiate a deal for you, but while he might understand the legal issues, he doesn’t know your business like you do. Ultimately, you have to negotiate in order to represent your own interests.

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Posted in: 50 questions, Finance

Tagged with: 50 questions, games law, lawyers, negotiation, venture capital

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Five reasons why you shouldn’t use Ads in your free game

March 20, 2012

I am not a believer in the ad-supported business model. Too many people (mainly those working in traditional media) believe that free=ad-supported. This is flawed, and wrong, and dangerous for your business.

Here are my five reasons why you should not use ads in your free game.

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Posted in: Finance, Opinion

Tagged with: advertising, battery life, business model, cpm, free-to-play, iads, ltv

26 Comments
EA to lose $17m in profit from GAME’s Demise?

March 12, 2012

At a Wedbush investor conference last week, John Riccitiello, CEO of Electronic Arts, said: “One of the challenges that we have this quarter is we did flag a risk on one of the major European retailers having trouble, costing us sort of mid-single-digit EPS [earnings per share]. “That now looks like all but a certainty. [...]

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Posted in: Analysis, Finance

Tagged with: electronic arts, eps, game

9 Comments
50 Questions: What should an entrepreneur be looking to get out of a first pitch meeting with a VC?

March 2, 2012

Nic Brisbourne gives an unconventional answer to the latest question in this series. Many people will tell you that the aim of your first pitch meeting is to get another meeting. Nic disagrees. Your goal is to raise money, not find more excuses to talk about your business.

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Posted in: 50 questions, Finance

Tagged with: equity kicker, raising money, venture capital

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50 questions: How does a VC evaluate a company’s product?

February 15, 2012

How do venture capitalists judge the fruits of your labour? In Nic Brisbourne’s latest contribution to the 50 questions series, he gives a brief and clear overview of the methods VCs use to assess a company’s product.

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Posted in: Finance

Tagged with: investment, product, venture capital

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Double Fine’s Kickstarter project is just like Zynga’s Free-to-play model

February 9, 2012

Yesterday, Tim Schafer and Ron Gilbert, creators of classic point-and-click adventures such as Day of the Tentacle and Monkey Island respectively, broke new ground in the funding of video games.

They put up a Kickstarter page asking for fans to fund them $400,000 to build a new point-and-click adventure. Within 24 hours, they had raised the full amount, and then some, and the process they have demonstrated how the digital world has totally transformed the nature of content creation.

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Posted in: Analysis, Finance

Tagged with: double fine, kickstarter, power law, ron gilbert, tim schafer

10 Comments