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GameStop's Zork 'customer acquisition engine' experiment was a success
The free-to-play browser game Legends of Zork has been a bit of an experiment for GameStop. The retailer has promoted the free-to-play browser game both in-store and online as the major title in its "Free2Play" service. It hasn't just been an experiment in offering online content to customers -- GameStop has also used it as a testing ground for promoting specific games. "Targeted customers received free in-game play cards with purchases at GameStop and they used the codes on cards to enter the game site online," explained COO J. Paul Raines in yesterday's investor call. "The results were that we added a large number of new game players to Legends of Zork, roughly doubling the audience of that game in four weeks. Our customer acquisition costs were significantly lower than advertising driven customer acquisition, and it is clear to us now that stores can efficiently convert online game players and provide a multi-channel gaming experience." Later, in response to a question about the growth of web-based games and its effect on GameStop, Raines called GameStop stores a "customer acquisition engine" for specific online games, as proven by Zork. GameStop's idea appears to be to earn revenue by promoting online games in stores -- and then possibly sell DLC cards. If it can do those things, it has nothing to fear from browser games.
Legend of Zork online adventure goes live
It may seem odd at first, but if there's a more perfect day to launch an online Zork game, we don't know about it. So we feel pretty confident in reporting that Legends of Zork really did go live today. You can start playing for free right here.We haven't spent much time with it, but we love the art style, and the requisite humor seems to be there. Give it a spin and let us know what you think.
New Zork game no longer an MMO
If you've been following along with the site, you may remember a story we ran on a brand new Zork game, and the press release that told us that it was to be a casual MMO. In fact, we believe the exact sentence was "designed to provide gamers with a casual MMO game they can play on their laptop, desktop or Apple iPhone (in school, work or on the bus)."It now appears that the game is no longer an MMO at all, but a "casual persistent online adventure."ShackNews has gotten the information straight from Jolt's CEO, Dylan Collins, that Legends of Zork will be a casual adventure that will "sneak into your soul" and not an online MMO. Looks like we're back to having daydreams about black screens and white text again.
Zork returns in 'Legends of Zork,' a casual MMO
Sometimes, it seems that games are created just for us. They're lovingly mixed together from base ingredients we can't resist, rolled out on a floured surface, cut into Joystiq-logo shaped cookies and baked to a delicious golden brown. That's exactly what Jolt Online has done by resurrecting the "Zork" franchise in Legends of Zork, a casual, browser-based MMO. Aside from telling Gamasutra that the game would feature microtransations and that it could be played on a computer or iPhone, Jolt's hasn't spilled much in the way of details. But rest assured that we'll be buying the game (or buying a wicked cool sword in the game, as the case may be) on day one.
