Task 3 Business Models

Digital Distribution

Consoles, Boxed Games + DLC

When games are bieng made for consoles and pc the developers are also thinking about DLC, DLC standing for downloadable content. DLC can be something that adds something to the game (Add-on) like another city or Island or mission(s), DLC can also be called an expansion pack which expands the game by adding new vehicles and weapons and maps, there is also something that are coming more common on some certain genre of games, micro-markets. Micro-markets are where you can perform micro-transactions, these are just little things in the game for an approximate maximum of £20, that can help the player have a chance against the higher leveled and more expeirenced players in the game, but this means they are taking a shortcut or cheating when they buy these items, and this can annoy a great many gamers who have put in alot of hours into the game to get this far and earned the items that a new player has bought right at the beginning and not worked for and earned these items themselves. Some games can also be shipped with eclusive day one DLC that the player can get straight away and expand and change thier game, this DLC can depend on the edition of the game you bought with the standard edition you will not get any DLC but if you buy an edition that is limited like the limited edition or collectors edition you will almost always get exculsive DLC that only poeple that got the same edition of the game you did.

Content listed on the right would be the day one Eclusive DLC  players who  get this edition

this is a DLC add-on that was released for Digital download for the game "The Elder Scrols V : SKYRIM"

Online Play (Free-to-play)

Online play games are most of the time free to play games that anyone can download for free and play for free, but when you think about it you ask yourself how can the developers afford to make the the game and hope to make a profit if they are not charging a price to get the game, well they get there pay from advertisements on the game screen and all around it. this sort of business model has its advantages aswel as its disadvantages. the advantages bieng they could get a large player count due to the fact of it bieng a free to play so the adverts will be seen and they sometimes add micro-transactions into these games so people can buy them to get better guns, vehicles, ETC... so basically they can buy to win which means if they want to be good at the game and have an edge over there enemies. the disadvantages could be things like there game not bieng popular so not alot of people play it.

This game "Planetside 2" is a free to play currently on the PC it has a very large player count.

MMO's

Massive multiplayer online (MMO) are very popular games on the PC but with the next generation of games consoles right around the corner they will get even more popular with console gamers. they normally consist of fantasy worlds with dragons, goblins and other things from that genre, World of Warcraft which is refered to WoW is the most popular MMO i know but with many more coming soon like "The Elder Scrolls Online" another fantasy setting, "The Crew" a racing MMO where the map is the whole of the USA and "The Division" a MMO that is based in modern day new york but i crisis has hit it in a bad way you and your friends or people you be-friend have to try and survive against the other players whilst keeping healthy fed warm and not thirsty. these games are good but they if you wish to play them you need to pay a fee of around £10-£15, this is called a monthly subscription and this is how the devolpers earn extra money from their customers. Though some MMO's like The Division are free.

On Demand 

Onlive is pay-per-play service where gamers can pay to play for there games, like for example the picture below shows what you could do if you wanted to play Darksiders II : Death Lives:

The image above the shows what you can do if you want to play darksiders II: Death Lives you can play for 3 days by paying £3.99, play for 5 days £5.99 or buy the full game and  pay £34.99.

Social Gaming (Through Social Networking)

There are games now on facebook like farmville and other games what people can play and get their friends involved, but there is a catch and that catch is that if you are a impatient person or just want to play the game faster you can buy things like fertilizer or more money to buy onther things or special money to buy special things and you buy all of this will real life money.