hi5's President & CTO, Alex St. John, will be speaking at AlwaysOn's OnMedia NYC 2010 conference on February 2. The two-and-a-half-day event, hosted at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in New York City, brings together hundreds of top executives from the Internet, advertising and entertainment industries.Alex will join a panel discussion on the topic "Are Virtual Goods and Gaming the Holy Grail of Brand Integration?" moderated by Atul Bagga, a vice president at ThinkEquity and one of the leading analysts on the rapidly emerging virtual goods and social gaming marketplace. Alex's co-panelists will include:
- Nir Eyal, CEO, AdNectar
- Kevin Xu, COO, IGG
- Mitch Davis, CEO, Live Gamer
hi5 was honored along with Twitter as an AlwaysOn AO Global 250 Category Winner in the Consumer & Community category last year.
Industry Gamers ran a transcript of an interview today with Alex St. John, hi5's President & CTO. A portion of the article appears here:
Interview: Alex St. John Reminds Us Why Console Gaming Is Dead
Posted January 26, 2010 by David Radd
Alex St. John, who became CEO of social network hi5 late last year, is one of the most famously outspoken personalities in the sphere of online gaming. He's seen the gaming industry grow up, first at Microsoft where he helped push the DirectX technology and later as co-founder of WildTangent, which was on the leading edge of monetizing online PC games primarily through micro-transactions. St. John also famously declared consoles dead in 2008, something that IndustryGamers asked him about in a recent interview among other things (hint: he's not backing down from it.)
For full transcript, go to Industry Gamers site here.
[NOTE: This blog post initially appeared on Industry Gamers]
By Alex St. John, hi5 President & CTO
I'm well aware that making this claim is as close to heresy as declaring game consoles dead by 2012 was back in 2007, but as before my reasons for believing this are based on careful analysis of the facts and tremendous experience with online gaming over many years. The reason why this claim is true is simple and easily understood. The core value proposition of online gaming is fundamentally different from that of the console game world. Console games are sold on the promise of being great entertainment. The typical marketing budget for a console game is roughly 12.5% of its development budget. Those marketing dollars are spent buying the consumer perception that the contents of the box they buy will be a great game AFTER the consumer has plunked down $60 bucks for it. The consumer isn't allowed to find out if the game is really worth the money until they've committed their money to it. In this scenario putting Spider-Man or Harry Potter on the box certainly helps to sell the promise of great entertainment.
The online world, however, harkens back to the days of the game arcade, which didn't demand a major cash outlay on the consumer's part to find out if Pac-Man or Asteroids was truly a great game. It cost a quarter, and if the game didn't deliver the consumer never played it again. Thus, like modern online games the amount of money an arcade game made was in direct proportion to how addictive the actual gameplay mechanic was, NOT on how big its marketing budget or movie-tie-in was.
Online games usually start out as free-to-play, converting the consumer to a purchase after enough free play has been consumed to reasonably assume that the consumer is addicted, at which point, the game may up sell to a premium offer. It thus shouldn't come as a shock to anyone to observe that there are no examples of hit online games based on a Hollywood IP franchise. In fact, the most successful IP-based online games are based on famous games themselves such as Scrabble, Wheel of Fortune and Family Feud.
The analogy is similar to the difference between hit television shows and hit movies. Hit movies are often based on famous IP and have huge marketing budgets because, like boxed games, they rely on the PROMISE of being great entertainment to get consumers to purchase tickets to them. Hit television shows, however, are rarely based on famous IP; they rely on their own content quality to create a successful brand such as Friends, Seinfeld, Sopranos, Lost and many others. A hit television series' primary marketing vehicle is the addictiveness of its own content.
There is only one point in an online game's lifecycle when a brand association may have a measurable impact on its success and that point is when the consumer is surfing an online gaming site looking for games and sees an icon associated with a familiar brand. It may well be the case that a good brand can increase the probability that a consumer will click on that particular game. Although this point has not been proven, it has been repeatedly demonstrated that pictures of pretty girls, cute animals and fake Windows warning dialogs and almost anything animated are far more likely to be clicked than, say, a Spider-Man icon.
There was a time early in WildTangent's history when this debate raged avidly within the company, and finally to settle the point I allowed a deal to rebrand one of our most successful downloadable games with a hugely famous Hollywood movie franchise and launch it side-by-side with the unbranded original on Yahoo Games weeks ahead of the release of a major motion picture based on the IP. The two games were identical except for brand association. The result was that although the branded version of the game got more initial clicks, its conversion rate was 1/3 less than the hit unbranded game. Yahoo, excited to have the branded franchise game even promoted it more actively across their site to no great avail. Why the huge difference? The original unbranded game had been given a strong winter/Xmas theme intended to impart a festive holiday spirit to the player without being an overtly Xmas game. The result was that parents were much more likely to buy it for their children as gifts especially during the holidays. In this case, all things being equal, a well crafted theme trumped a hugely popular children's brand by 3X in sales.
By Alex St. John, hi5 President & CTO
I'm well aware that making this claim is as close to heresy as declaring game consoles dead by 2012 was back in 2007, but as before my reasons for believing this are based on careful analysis of the facts and tremendous experience with online gaming over many years. The reason why this claim is true is simple and easily understood. The core value proposition of online gaming is fundamentally different from that of the console game world. Console games are sold on the promise of being great entertainment. The typical marketing budget for a console game is roughly 12.5% of its development budget. Those marketing dollars are spent buying the consumer perception that the contents of the box they buy will be a great game AFTER the consumer has plunked down $60 bucks for it. The consumer isn't allowed to find out if the game is really worth the money until they've committed their money to it. In this scenario putting Spider-Man or Harry Potter on the box certainly helps to sell the promise of great entertainment.
The online world, however, harkens back to the days of the game arcade, which didn't demand a major cash outlay on the consumer's part to find out if Pac-Man or Asteroids was truly a great game. It cost a quarter, and if the game didn't deliver the consumer never played it again. Thus, like modern online games the amount of money an arcade game made was in direct proportion to how addictive the actual gameplay mechanic was, NOT on how big its marketing budget or movie-tie-in was.
Online games usually start out as free-to-play, converting the consumer to a purchase after enough free play has been consumed to reasonably assume that the consumer is addicted, at which point, the game may up sell to a premium offer. It thus shouldn't come as a shock to anyone to observe that there are no examples of hit online games based on a Hollywood IP franchise. In fact, the most successful IP-based online games are based on famous games themselves such as Scrabble, Wheel of Fortune and Family Feud.
The analogy is similar to the difference between hit television shows and hit movies. Hit movies are often based on famous IP and have huge marketing budgets because, like boxed games, they rely on the PROMISE of being great entertainment to get consumers to purchase tickets to them. Hit television shows, however, are rarely based on famous IP; they rely on their own content quality to create a successful brand such as Friends, Seinfeld, Sopranos, Lost and many others. A hit television series' primary marketing vehicle is the addictiveness of its own content.
There is only one point in an online game's lifecycle when a brand association may have a measurable impact on its success and that point is when the consumer is surfing an online gaming site looking for games and sees an icon associated with a familiar brand. It may well be the case that a good brand can increase the probability that a consumer will click on that particular game. Although this point has not been proven, it has been repeatedly demonstrated that pictures of pretty girls, cute animals and fake Windows warning dialogs and almost anything animated are far more likely to be clicked than, say, a Spider-Man icon.
There was a time early in WildTangent's history when this debate raged avidly within the company, and finally to settle the point I allowed a deal to rebrand one of our most successful downloadable games with a hugely famous Hollywood movie franchise and launch it side-by-side with the unbranded original on Yahoo Games weeks ahead of the release of a major motion picture based on the IP. The two games were identical except for brand association. The result was that although the branded version of the game got more initial clicks, its conversion rate was 1/3 less than the hit unbranded game. Yahoo, excited to have the branded franchise game even promoted it more actively across their site to no great avail. Why the huge difference? The original unbranded game had been given a strong winter/Xmas theme intended to impart a festive holiday spirit to the player without being an overtly Xmas game. The result was that parents were much more likely to buy it for their children as gifts especially during the holidays. In this case, all things being equal, a well crafted theme trumped a hugely popular children's brand by 3X in sales.
The DiscoveryBeat conference -- organized by Matt Marshall, Editor-in-Chief of VentureBeat, and Dean Takahashi, Lead Writer at GamesBeat -- was held yesterday in San Francisco. The standing-room only event was packed with developers, entrepreneurs, and executives from leading social entertainment companies. Alex St. John, hi5's President and CTO (second from right), joined Michael Chang, Founder & CEO of Greystripe (far left); Jon Vlassopulos, CEO of Moderati (second from left); and Lisa Marino, VP of Sales at RockYou (far right) in a lively panel discussion about the challenges and opportunities of large entertainment companies entering the social gaming category.St. John remarked that the recent "discovery" of micro-transactions and virtual goods as a business model has actually been a vibrant and growing part of the gaming industry for years. He also highlighted several crucial differences between traditional console games and social games -- including designing virality into the core game mechanic, the need to build an addictive game that will maximize yield from users who start playing for free, and the increasing irrelevance of IP licensing to a game's success.
The previous panel discussion included Sebastien De Halleux, COO of Playfish; John Pleasants, CEO of Playdom; Roy Sehgal, GM and Executive Producer at Zynga; and Neil Young, Founder & CEO of ngmoco. The panelists discussed the rapid pace of innovation in the social gaming space, the importance of continuous measurement and testing of key game metrics, and the fact the space is still looking for the category-defining hit -- among other topics.
For more coverage of the event, see the following articles on VentureBeat:
- 11 things I didn't know about app development
- Playfish exec says social gaming is still waiting for its Super Mario Bros.
- Zynga's tips for social gaming success
- Game makers say Apple is still the gatekeeper of success
Alex St. John, hi5's President and CTO will be speaking at DiscoveryBeat on Tuesday, December 8 at 5:40 PM. The event, being held in San Francisco at the Automattic Lounge in Pier 38, will feature industry experts from social gaming and entertainment discussing the "secret recipe" for application discovery and success.
Alex will join a panel discussion titled "Discovery 3.0: Bringing in the big guys" -- a description of which follows:
Additional speakers and panelists in this afternoon event include: Randy Angle, Director of Game Design, SGN; Julian Farrior, CEO, Backflip Studios; Ge Wang, Co-Founder, CTO & COO, Smule; Peter Farago, VP Marketing, Flurry; Sebastien De Halleux, COO, Playfish; John Pleasants, CEO, Playdom; Roy Sehgal, GM, Zynga & Executive Producer of Cafe World game; and Neil Young, Founder & CEO, ngmoco.
More details about the event and the agenda are available on VentureBeat's site at http://events.venturebeat.com/discoverybeat2009/ Limited spaces are still available via online registration.
Alex will join a panel discussion titled "Discovery 3.0: Bringing in the big guys" -- a description of which follows:
Established video game companies and entertainment giants are eyeing the social networking and mobile platforms as a source of future growth. For success, the big guys need to apply the secret ingredients in different proportions.
- How much should they invest in these areas, and how should they do it?
- Which kinds of partners should they recruit? Which business models are the best?
- Who has made the transition already?
- What's the right mix of social networking, marketing, analytical measurement, advertising and web design ingredients they should apply?
Panelists:
- Jon Vlassopulos (CEO, Moderati - maker of the virtual light Zippo iPhone app)
- Alex St. John (President & CTO, hi5)
- Michael Chang (Founder & CEO, Greystripe)
- Lisa Marino (VP Sales, RockYou)
- Moderator: Roy Bahat (President, IGN Entertainment)
Additional speakers and panelists in this afternoon event include: Randy Angle, Director of Game Design, SGN; Julian Farrior, CEO, Backflip Studios; Ge Wang, Co-Founder, CTO & COO, Smule; Peter Farago, VP Marketing, Flurry; Sebastien De Halleux, COO, Playfish; John Pleasants, CEO, Playdom; Roy Sehgal, GM, Zynga & Executive Producer of Cafe World game; and Neil Young, Founder & CEO, ngmoco.
More details about the event and the agenda are available on VentureBeat's site at http://events.venturebeat.com/discoverybeat2009/ Limited spaces are still available via online registration.
Google released their annual Zeitgeist results today of the most frequently searched terms, and hi5 was included as #5 among the Fastest Rising search terms in the U.S.
Media coverage of the announcement appeared on the TODAY Show (re-run in print on MSNBC), TechCrunch and eWeek.
Media coverage of the announcement appeared on the TODAY Show (re-run in print on MSNBC), TechCrunch and eWeek.
SAN FRANCISCO, Calif.; Dec. 1, 2009 - hi5 today announced Alex St. John, founder of one of the world's largest online gaming sites and a lead creator of Microsoft's DirectX gaming platform, has joined hi5 as President and Chief Technology Officer. In his new role at hi5, St. John will be responsible for product development, technology, network operations and audience acquisition - spearheading the company's successful social gaming and entertainment strategy."We are very excited to add a gaming visionary like Alex to the hi5 team as we continue our evolution into becoming a dominant, next-generation social entertainment platform," said Bill Gossman, CEO, hi5. "Alex's background is a perfect fit for moving the company forward. His extensive experience and leadership in gaming platforms, traffic optimization, and game monetization make him a vital addition to the hi5 team."
As founder of WildTangent, St. John grew the company into the world's largest privately held gaming site and 5th-largest gaming property worldwide with over 30 million monthly unique visitors. St. John led several key revenue innovations at WildTangent, including a highly successful virtual currency, WildCoins, used for microcurrency transactions, and an advertising partnership with WPP to sell sponsored microcurrency to Fortune 500 brands. WildTangent's game studio produced over 100 downloadable, streaming and multiplayer games during his time at the company, and publishes over 200 third party games to its network a year. St. John also pioneered several technology innovations, including the WildTangent WebDriver, a browser plug-in for streaming 3D games, instant messenger based gaming for AOL and an extensive patent portfolio, including patents in online game streaming, in-game advertising, game compression, instant messenger based multiplayer gaming and DRM.
Prior to WildTangent, St. John was instrumental in creating Microsoft's DirectX media architecture, a suite of programming APIs for everything from 2D and 3D graphics, sound, video, multiplayer gaming and input control which became the basis for Microsoft's Xbox gaming OS. As Group Manager for Windows Media Strategy and Marketing at Microsoft, St. John led the company's successful strategy to make DirectX a leading gaming architecture. He also led the design and development of DirectPlay, which became the multiplayer architecture for Microsoft's casual game network, and managed the company's game developer programs.
"The next wave of innovation and differentiation in gaming is happening in social gaming and hi5 is at the forefront of this sea change," said St. John. "I've long said that the current generation of game consoles will be the last and that the future of the game business will be online. I'm thrilled to be joining a company that has the team, technology and vision to lead that transition."
About hi5 Networks
Founded in 2003, hi5 today is among the top 20 largest web sites in the world and the leading destination site focused on social gaming and entertainment. Combining a robust social platform with premium content and game mechanics, hi5 delivers a fun, expressive, and interactive entertainment experience to millions of users around the world. Available in over 50 languages, the site features localized games, virtual goods and other content that is monetized through hi5 Coins, a global virtual currency supporting over 60 payment methods and 30 currencies worldwide. For more information on hi5, visit http://www.hi5.com.
Press Coverage:
- VentureBeat
- Virtual Worlds News
- paidContent
- Gamasutra
- GamesIndustry.biz
- MCV
- Inside Social Games
- Industry Gamer
- Develop Online
- GamePro
- TechNews
- TechOat
- Gizmodose
As part of hi5's new brand identity, we have created a completely redesigned corporate web site. The new site, located at http://www.hi5networks.com/, emphasizes hi5's focus on friends, games, and fun -- while providing essential information to advertisers, partners, developers, and press. Initially launched in mid-October, the site also reflects the new look and feel of hi5, including our cool new corporate logo. If you haven't been to the site in a while, be sure to come check it out.NOTE: For all partners, press, and others that use the hi5 logo on your sites, please replace old versions of the logo with the new version. The new logo is available in various formats and sizes on our media kit page.
hi5 CEO, Bill Gossman, will be speaking at Piper Jaffray's Fifth Annual Global Internet Summit which starts tomorrow in Menlo Park, California. Gossman will join the "Social Networks" panel, which is scheduled for Tuesday, November 10 at 2:15 PM Pacific at the Rosewood Sand Hill hotel.
The panel will be moderated by Gene Munster, managing director and senior research analyst at Piper Jaffray who specializes in Internet and Digital Media. Other panel participants include:
The panel will be moderated by Gene Munster, managing director and senior research analyst at Piper Jaffray who specializes in Internet and Digital Media. Other panel participants include:
- Mark Goldston, Chairman, President & CEO of United Online, Inc.
- Dan Serfaty, CEO of Viadeo S.A.
- Representatives from Ning and Friendster
The Social Media World Forum, North America opened today at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, California. hi5's VP of Marketing, Mike Trigg, joined speakers from MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn and other leading social media sites to talk about trends in the social media category. The panel discussion, titled "The Evolution of Social Networking", focused on how the space has evolved, and how social media can be leveraged as part of successful new marketing initiatives.
Moderated by Giovanni Rodriguez, managing partner and co-founder of the Conversation Group, the panel also included:
Moderated by Giovanni Rodriguez, managing partner and co-founder of the Conversation Group, the panel also included:
- Jeff Taylor, CEO of Eons
- Chris Heuer, Chairman and co-founder of Social Media Club
- Steve Patrizi, Head of Advertising, LinkedIn
- Erik Rabasca, Vice President, Converseon