- To start gaming, someone only needs a computer in his house, something that’s seen as a requirement to function in this society
- The availability of games is only growing (iPhone, wireless internet, etc.)
- A greater variety of games is released every year
-  Game interface is ever changing; who could’ve imagined the Wii a few years back? or the Natal?
- Integration of gaming in our daily lives; friends meeting on WoW or for a game of FIFA is not strange or uncommon anymore

Sure, you’ll say, gaming will be big. But what will this mean;
1. Gaming will be basic.
2. The question will not be whether you play or not, it will be what you play and when.
3. The top gaming titles, IP’s, will have turnovers much larger than any other form of entertainment.

It is hard to say where professional gaming (e-sports) will be, what a game will look like or even how a game will be operated in 10 years time. But what I do know is that gaming will be growing for all the years to come. Which is why I personally want to be involved. Do you?

Preferably, I would take a lesson learned from this and be done with it.

When discussing business ideas, the hard part would be to think of something new, or better said by Seth Godin; Something Remarkable. It seems common knowledge nowadays that the music industry’s business model of making obscene profits on record is slowly fading. It’s being replaced by the long tail in music preference and selection, better suited for today’s online market. If you have any doubts about this, read “The Long Tail” by Chris Anderson. But for gaming it appears exactly the same thing is happening!

And just as we have concluded with the music industry: You cannot blame the market! Powerhouse Electronic Arts put in a big loss over last year, also blaming market conditions, this in a period in which various research reports and publications told us ‘gaming is recession proof’. Perhaps the traditional publishers should consider the fact that their passive approach to market conditions is what lead them to this point, it´s not some external failure. Looking at Valve´s Steam model I can only conclude they have managed to translate market changes to a better product. Well at least a better distribution model. 

Or consider Lord of the Rings Online, Turbine´s MMORPG set in Tolkien´s world. They have thought of another way of keeping their game alive; lifetime subscriptions! One large fixed fee to be able to play the game as long as you want, even though the addons they publish on a proposed 1,5 year basis are to be paid for. Allowing them to create  a vast group of customers that percieve themselves playing a ‘payed gamed’ for free.

I can understand that a corporate entity like EA has trouble turning away from a business model earning them billions, but their losses should be a sufficient signal. And let’s face it, the bottom line is that the winner in the long term when it comes to b2c selling, will always be the one offering best value for money, even if its only percieved as being best.

So, what will the next market about to change be. Your gues is as good as mine.

For my professional activity this week you should look towards www.wiihuren.com a site aimed at the Dutch region for professional rental of gaming hardware! Let me know what you think!

As this is a sales oriented job, I’m still working out how this business is different from the one I was in before. Right now the major difference basically is that I don’t have to worry about anything but selling events, and having them run well ofcourse. Before, I was worrying about cashflows and liquidity, right now I can just focus on making money for the company. I really noticed I had to focus more on general information and networking, walking up to people and talking about their needs and expectations. I’m not saying this is running at its best, but obviously there is some experience already there so I’m comfortable in saying that I will manage quite well in the coming months.

For me, this is the kind of job I would like to stay in. The Revol7 project is still very much alive, but its all on a more long-term track right now. So what I expect is to be working this job at least for the coming 6 months. After which I will decide what more there is to be done. The company itself, WZZRD B.V., is looking to make the event division seperate from the main company that’s based on running gamingcafe’s, but this will only be possible after reaching a certain key revenue point.

Main challenge? Getting to that revenue point!

Next week I will try to be a bit more extensive about the Revol7 project. I might even put up some of the artwork we had prepared for future presentation purposes.

http://www.wzzrd.nl

But is this true? Ofcourse, a 1.7% decline in the biggest advertising in the world is a big sign, but we’re talking about a country that is seeing one of its biggest employers slipping (car industry) and while the president-elect shows signals of hope, the rest of the world, and especially the national businesses are not that positive for the coming year. After the read more I’ll show the table that lead them to these conclusions.

Funny isn’t it? Just the conservative media are in the decline, and while the online media are not performing in double-digits anymore, there is still a growth.Perhaps advertising budgets are spent more closely, and more effectively? Because everyone is growing towards the believe that just screaming at everyone that could hear you might not be the best way of doing business. A 1.7% decline could be quite a good efficienty improvement! Would be interesting if they could conclude that it is money companies could spend but dont. Or perhaps are they improving on their customer service? 

I’ll try and stay this positive! Will you?

Do you like the name?

For the ones celebrating, enjoy Sinterklaas, it is what I am going to do!

With that in mind, yesterday, I made my first acquisition in quite some time. 

The domain I bought is gamingzoom.com and as most of you know I am fairly active in the gaming market. This domainname makes sense and could very well be brandable as stand-alone website or extension for a brand. Even though I might park this page for the time being I do intend to add this domain to the to-be developed list. 

What do you think about the name?