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How Will Kids Pay For GeekStack?
Posted on | August 24, 2009 | No Comments
I got an insightful comment from Eva on my previous post:
just wondering what your revenue stream would look like. If you are focussing on online, how are you going to get your target audience to pay?
I think the reason traditional cards are so successful is because they are cash purchases – those kids don’t have credit cards.
I guess you could sell “credits” for the online game in stores, but it does add a layer of complication.
Here’s my response.
First and foremost, the goal is to make the game ridiculously fun and engaging. If I can accomplish that, people will be happy to find a way to pay for it.
Second, having said that, I want to make it as easy as possible to pay for. Credit card, PayPal, whatever the Facebook currency ends up being, one time purchases, subscriptions (“Johnny, you can have 2 packs a week”), etc. I certainly don’t want payment friction to prevent anyone from buying.
Third, I’m relying on the fact that it’s education to reduce the parental aversion to shelling out for a game.
Fourth, while I believe there is a big market for an online game, the physical world is a large and proven market and I’d be silly to ignore it. I fully intend on printing cards when the game is proven fun (and has earned enough money to pay for all the art and printing). I can release a game with no art, filler art, or art only for certain cards and then upgrade people’s experience as playtesting, beta, and early gaming is going on, but I can’t upgrade a piece of cardboard once it’s out of my hands. There will also be a connection between virtual and physical cards that I’ll talk about more later.
So to recap, I’ll make it too awesome to not buy, super easy to buy, appealing to parents and available in whatever format works best for each person.
Thanks for the question Eva!
Do you have a question? You should ask me on @geekstack or at contact@geekstack.com
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