Video Games & E-Business

POPCAP GAMES Presentation

PopCap Games is the leading developer of fun, easy-to-learn, captivating casual computer games that appeal to everyone from age 6 to 106.

PopCap boasts over 16 billion hours of gameplay since 2000, over 350 million downloads of the Bejeweled®franchise games (that represents one third of the 1+ billion downloads of all PopCap titles) and one Bejeweled game sold every ten seconds.

I have the great pleasure to interview Mark Cochrane, Business Development Director EMEA at PopCap Games International. Mark is responsible for directing PopCap’s business efforts in Europe on all digital platforms and markets.

Mark, casual games are not « games for the rest of us » anymore, how would you define them today? (easy gameplay, low control, addictive, relaxing, inclusive, accessibility …)

A casual game should make it possible for literally anyone, with any level of experience of hardware platforms and digital games, to pick it up and begin to play. At PopCap, we have a “mom test” to determine if a game will work…that is, the founders and employees sit their mothers down to play to assess a games potential success!

There are certainly a number of elements common to casual games such as simple game rules, easy, straightforward game controls, maddeningly compelling gameplay and extremely broad appeal. Anyone from 6 to 106 should find the game fun and engaging.

In an ideal world, casual games would be regarded in the same way as card or board games – not in the way they perceive hardcore video games i.e. you wouldn’t say: “I’m a casual gamer” anymore than most people now would say “I’m a card gamer”. But if you asked if you ever played videogames, you might say “Sure – from time to time”. Casual games are a part of everyday life – not a niche hobby.

A little bit of history, how did this success story began?

PopCap was formed in 2000 by three entrepreneurs – Brian Fiete, Jason Kapalka and John Vechey. They had all formerly worked at online game companies and thought they could do a better job making their own games – and simultaneously control their own destiny in what is largely a mercenary industry in which creators lose control of their creations .

When PopCap was founded, the plan was to work on Java web games, which could be licensed back to bigger companies to make enough money to enable them to work on more games. Then the bottom fell out of the online advertising market. The business model was crumbling. PopCap’s founders decided to experiment with a different business model: try the game for free, and if you like it, send money!

Since then, PopCap has enjoyed phenomenal growth. This “try-before-you-buy’ model has been extremely effective, and is now used by nearly everyone in the casual games business as the primary source of revenues.

Would you tell me more about PopCap and the Try & Buy? (story, concept, business model, conversion rates …)

PopCap had an ominous start when the dot-com industry collapsed. The online advertising was shrinking and web games, which made money from ads, were no longer worth anything.

PopCap’s founders came up with a new plan – try the ‘shareware’ model first used in the earliest days of personal computers: try the game for free, and if you like it, send money! And so, the three entrepreneurs launched their first deluxe game by creating an enhanced version of Bejeweled (known back then as Diamond Mine). The industry was skeptical – after all, why would customers pay $20 for a game (albeit a fancier version) that they could play for free online for free?

Despite the detractors, they went ahead. To coincide with the launch of their first deluxe game, Bejeweled Deluxe, one of the founders, Brian, wrote a little application that would sit on the desktop and make a cash register, “KER-CHING” sound whenever they got a sale. They knew things were going ok when they had to turn the thing off because the “KER-CHING”s were coming nearly non-stop and driving them crazy.

Can we talk about PopCap franchises? Classics, New Ones, To Come?

The Bejeweled franchise – Bejeweled, Bejeweled 2 and Bejeweled Twist – is PopCap’s flagship franchise and one of the most ubiquitous and accessible in the history of video games, with versions of the game available for Web, PCs and Macs, mobile phones, Xbox and PlayStation consoles, PDAs and Blackberrys, iPods and iPhone, in-flight on leading airlines, on-demand TV systems in hotels – even scratch-off lottery tickets in many states. All told, Bejeweled and Bejeweled 2 have collectively been enjoyed for an estimated 6 billion hours. More than 350 million copies of the Bejeweled and Bejeweled 2 have been downloaded from the Web, accounting for nearly a third of the 1 billion-plus downloads of all PopCap titles. Tens of millions of copies of Bejeweled have been installed on mobile phones worldwide, more than 25 million units of the game have been sold across all platforms. Bejeweled 2 is also available in over 30 UK retail stores including ASDA, Borders, Currys, Game, Morrisons and PC World.

Peggle is another key franchise. It has been received so well by such a broad audience across so many platforms and is winning new fans on both XBLA and iPhone. Peggle combines elements of pinball, pool and pachinko to create a completely different kind of casual game that plays with the casual games genre.

PopCap’s latest hit is Plants vs. Zombies, which is enjoying an unprecedented level of rave reviews. The goal for PvZ was to take the tower defense standards and simplify them down to the point that almost anyone could pick up and play. The result is a hilarious game which sees the player furiously plant garden shrubs to battle against zombies who want to eat your brains.

How would you describe PopCap Games? What makes the difference for you?

PopCap is all about fun and quality. We spend a lot of time enhancing the casual game experience – prioritising a superior design process and spending about twice the usual time developing and polishing each game. It is expensive but results in extremely high quality games that set PopCap’s top titles apart from other casual games and make them truly special and memorable – and hopefully nearly infinitely replayable!

What makes your games so appealing? (design, audio, marketing, system requirements, controls, learning, game mechanics, characters, narrative, themes)?

I think what makes PopCap games so appealing is that they prioritise fun. This can be difficult to prescribe or quantify but I can give some insight into PopCap’s starting point.

In the early days, PopCap’s founders used a ‘mum test’ to gauge a games’ potential. They would sit their moms down in front of a game in Alpha or early Beta stage, and leave them there. If the moms were still playing 30 minutes later, the company co-founders knew they were headed in the right direction. If you make games that moms find appealing, without actually building “games for moms,” you’re off to a good start.

It’s a similar – though larger scale – process today. We begin by asking: “Do WE like playing this game? Is it adversely affecting productivity because everyone in the office is playing it all the time? Good – that’s an excellent sign!”

Who’s playing?

PopCap makes gamers out of non-gamers. We believe that EVERYONE is potentially a player of casual games – though broken down, different audience segments will play at different times, in different places and, therefore, on different platforms.

What about market growth, integrations, cooperation vs. competition?

The casual games market continues to grow and PopCap is growing at a very healthy rate globally and particularly in Europe. That’s testament to our unwavering focus on building the highest quality products and the great partners we work with to take them to market across platforms.

The casual games business is a little strange in that we cooperate with our competitors in many instances, particularly online. This is because platform providers move into content development and so this causes conflicts. I am not a fan of the platform/service provider being a content provider – it causes conflicts of interest. So far, we have not had too many issues with this.

What about casual games audience and its evolution?

The casual games audience for PopCap is anyone from 6 to 106, but the audience that play our games is different dependent on the platform they play our games on or the channels in which they play them.

PopCap maximises its brand exposure through the adaptation and distribution of its franchises across a diverse array of digital hardware platforms – these platforms bring our games to new audiences that these platforms target.

We’re pretty quick at identifying new platforms and channels that will bring new audiences to PopCap games.

How would describe the PopCap way?

Accessible, FUN, quality, value all the way!

What about casual gaming future?

It is difficult to speak for the entire industry but we at PopCap are of the opinion that that everyone is a potential player of casual games and we will continue to strive to make our games accessible and appealing to everyone and anyone – commuters, office workers, families – as well as hardcore gamers.

To reach these diverse audiences, our overriding mission at PopCap has to be to have our games in as many different places, and on as many platforms, as possible. We also make it a priority to keep an eye on new technologies and trends that give audiences new and exciting ways and wheres to game e.g. at the moment, both smart phones and social networking are giving the casual games industry more ways to play.

What about newcomers?

All of the established companies in this space are growing up very quickly, but there is still a huge amount of innovation going on around business models, pricing models, community models, etc. There is plenty of change. The nature of the business means there is lots of room for a small developer – maybe even literally based in his/her bedroom – to come out with a fresh and innovative hit game. It’s still anybody’s ‘game’ – nothing is written in stone. That’s what makes the industry so exciting, it’s not like what the traditional videogames consoles business has become which requires teams of 50+ people working on a project for 18+ months. It’s more akin to the late 80’s where a talented programmer and artist could make a great game. As more developers come in, it will no doubt get harder to make your product stand-out from the crowd and only teams that increase their investments to enable this will succeed

What about distribution channels?

PopCap aims to reach as many customers as possible by building game experiences that uniquely leverage the characteristics and capabilities of each platform. This multiplatform strategy means every platform – whether PC/Mac, online, mobile, iPhone, PDAs, iPod, consoles – is important as it serves to reach a different audience segment.

What about new platforms including iPhones?

In terms of iPhone specifically, this platform is responsible for a lot of industry buzz as it redefines the parameters of mobile gaming and serves to open the industry to discover new and exciting ways to have fun on the go.

PopCap have launched a number of titles for iPhone already – we have recently learned that Bejeweled 2 is the #4 paid for application of all time in the Apple app store! Plus our other titles, Bookworm and most recently, Peggle are getting fantastic reviews. So absolutely, it’s a very exciting and increasingly important platform for PopCap.

What about new territories? Asia, India…

I think casual gaming is a global phenomenon at this point – though different territories have/are evolving at different rates and often in different directions. For instance, APAC is a completely different landscape to Europe so PopCap opened a dedicated office/studio in Shanghai last year to create products and services that are tailored for the Asian market. That’s the right approach, versus build “Eastern” products in the West.

What about new business models? Skill games, ad-based revenue, subscription, micropayments, MMO casual games, social network games…

The other great thing about the Casual Games space is that there is so much scope for innovation in business models, try-before-you-buy/one hour free trial is by no means the definitive business model. I get excited about how even bigger audiences can be reached by lowering the barrier to entry/purchase and through the use of community/viral and social networks. PopCap are working on some pretty interesting projects right now in terms of innovating with business models in these areas and I am excited to see what results these yield.

Interview by Corinne REMY.

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