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Nexon's Min Kim on the 'Free2pocalypse'
Nexon bigwig Min Kim recently checked in with Gamasutra for a brief interview regarding the state of the company's global free-to-play initiative. In short, business is booming, and while MapleStory was viewed as an oddity when it launched with a F2P model eight years ago, it's now much closer to the norm. "A lot of people laughed at the business model, and now a lot of companies are starting to try to understand it or experiment with it. We've been calling it 'the free2pocalypse.' Every company is looking at it; the market is just way larger," Kim explains. He also talks a bit about Nexon's new Live Games division, which consolidates the company's operations, marketing, and communications groups into a single entity under his direction. Finally, Kim explains the logic behind the decision to remove Nexon's name from its uber-successful retail store game cards. In a nutshell, the benefits of unifying the virtual item currencies across a diverse selection of games outweighed the name recognition afforded by the Nexon banner.
Runes of Magic and Playspan team up for game cards
Runes of Magic has been enjoying a nice burst of success recently, and as a free-to-play game one of the biggest things that helps it is increased visibility and access to the game's microtransaction system. So it should come has little surprise that Frogster Interactive has teamed up with PlaySpan to start moving branded game cards into 7-Eleven stores, improving both visibility and accessibility in one fell swoop. In addition, Diamonds will be purchasable at PlaySpan's online store, already a hub for several popular free-to-play game currencies. The game cards, which will come in $10 and $25 denominations, can be redeemed for in-game mounts, enhancements, and other improvements. Overall, this deal will give Runes of Magic a game card presence in over 46 thousand stores inside the US, a high visibility for a fairly young game that's pushing a still-developing business model. And it's certainly not going to hurt that you can pick up some game currency at the same time you grab a soda and one of those little taquito things for a snack on your way home from work.
Retail gets PSN 'Game Cards' in NA, PSN vouchers in the UK
click to embiggen With the launch of Sony's PSP Go this week, the first download-only gaming device from a major console developer has finally arrived on the market. Given the profitability of the used games market and brick-and-mortar's relative stronghold on game sales, we asked Sony of America (SCEA) and Sony of Europe (SCEE) how they're going to get download-only games onto retailer shelves. SCEA's answer: PlayStation Network Game Cards.According to an SCEA rep, 10 titles (all of which can be found after the break) will be available "in North America at select retailers" and should be available as of today. Unfortunately for retailers across the pond, no such luck -- at very least in the UK. An SCEE rep told Joystiq, "We don't have any plans for vouchers/gift cards like this ... at the moment we are only selling the PSN vouchers of £20 and £50 for the UK," though that isn't to say PSN Game Cards will never arrive on European shores. At least for now it seems that SCEA will be keeping a foothold in retail with its download-only titles (and even some UMD-based titles now available as downloads) through these game vouchers. UK retailers ... well ... at least people will be coming in for the PSP-3000, right?%Gallery-74473%
Where in the wiki is Mitra?
The fine folks over at AoCWiki have noticed that the Hyborean god Mitra has gone missing, and need our help to find him. The strange bit is: he's lost somewhere in the Wiki! So, to help recover him, readers are being solicited to go through the Wiki and follow a series of clues that will reveal the location of the missing god. Do it for the Hyboreans, whose prayers to Mitra have gone unanswered! Or, simply do it for these flash prizes: Five (5) Age of Conan Beta keys Five (5) Age of Conan 3-month pre-paid game cards And, of course, the respect and admiration of your peers. Unless, of course, you beat them to the win, in which case, watch for arrows in your back. The rules and full details of this contest are available on the referring page. This contest has begun, and continues until April 21st. Put on your sleuthing helmets, warriors, and help find Mitra! Personally, we think it's Crom's fault.
Reminder: Guess when Patch 2.4 goes live, win free WoW
Don't forget that we're asking for your guesses on when patch 2.4 will hit the live realms. To enter our contest, just head over to the original post (don't leave a comment on this post, because you can't) and leave a comment with your guess of when the patch will go live using the XX/XX date format (as in, 03/12 for a guess of March 12th).Personally, I think it will be during March, but later, so Adam's mathematical guess of March 25th is pretty good. Then again, I always predict things to come later than they do, so knowing Blizzard, they might drop it earlier in March. But your actual guess is up to you, of course.Enter your comment on that post (not this one) before March 3rd, and be a US resident and 18 years of age or older to enter to win a game card if you pick the correct date (or are closest, or are one of four random people who picked the date, if there are more than four). Good luck everybody, and we'll find out the winner when Blizzard finally drops the new content patch!
7-Eleven sells Nexon Game Cards
Worlds in Motion reports that you can now buy game cards for MapleStory and other Nexon games at your local 7-Eleven convenience store. The game cards -- which cost $10 or $25 -- can be used to purchase in-game items.At first, this struck us as bizarre, but it actually makes some sense. A 7-Eleven representative is quoted in the Worlds in Motion article saying that the cards are perfect for the "tweens and teens" who enjoy MapleStory -- a demographic that also happens to frequent 7-Eleven. The representative calls it "the Slurpee-beverage crowd."It's a strange world. Next thing you know we'll be buying EQ2 game-time cards at the gasoline pump!
Poll: Do you use a game card or a credit card?
I'm very interested in seeing the answer to this one-- I have always used a credit card to pay for my account, just because it's all automatically done between Blizzard and my bank, and I don't ever have to worry if my account is all paid up. But I'm sure there are tons of people out there, like popsixx, who play from game card to game card, buying them one after another, or hoarding them up (from gifts or elsewhere), and putting them in when necessary.For the life of me, though, I can't guess which one would be more popular. There are definitely a lot of kids playing the game, and they'd use game cards for sure. But then again, most of the folks I play with are a little older and financially more stable, and more likely to use credit cards (or PayPal for that matter)So which is it? Game cards or credit cards? And feel free to tell us in the comments why you do what you do-- maybe there's some huge benefit to using only game cards that I haven't noticed yet.%Poll-4045%
Win a Free Year of Warcraft
MMO Portal is having a drawing to give away a free year's subscription to World of Warcraft (i.e. 12 months' worth of game cards). What do you need to do to qualify? Well, you need to be a member of MMO Portal, be at least 13 years old, have a physical mailing address for them to send the game cards to, and "do not live in a state or country in which contests of this nature are prohibited by law." (You're on your own on that last one.) If you can handle that, all you need to do is submit this form every day until August 30th for another chance to win.
