2010: News Stories of the Year Part Two

World of Minecraft

On a lighter note, one of the more pleasant stories to watch this year was the rise and rise of Minecraft developer Mojang Specifications, and a few of the other unexpected hits.

For a start, it seemed to be impossible to attend any industry gathering this year (from DICE onwards) without some conversation about an amazing base that had been created in the user-gen game, or reference to a ridiculously over-achieving YouTube clip of somebody recreating the entire world in blocks of stone and sand.

What we were experiencing was a triumph of purism - a simple and (mostly) accessible level editor that allowed creative people to manipulate mundane objects to create the spectacular. All that was needed was a bit of vision and a lot of time.

Well, the games industry is full of people with fantastic levels of creativity, and who aren't shy of pushing their hobbies well into the early hours (which, yes, some would call 'crunch') - and the result was a game/tool that the industry took to its heart. Even trade journalists gave it a go, although I won't comment on my own degree of success (or lack thereof).

The game itself was a fun diversion, but became a serious news story when the man behind Minecraft - Markus Persson - revealed he was bringing in a very healthy income estimated at $350,000 per day during peak periods. In fact, so successful had the venture become that he noted his plans to open his own studio and expand beyond just himself, thanks to a total windfall of about $3.8 million.

The industry, frankly, was shocked at the level of success for something that was so lo-fi - but it was great to have a truly inspiring story to write about, with a really strong endorsement for the indie development scene. Proof, in a year when even mighty indie names like Introversion admitted it was close to demise, that hope really does still exist.

Free-to-Play - it's the New Subscription!

While we tackled social media acquisitions yesterday, the success of the free-to-play sector has been truly astonishing this year. Even companies that you'd really not expect to be interested in what seems, on the surface, like a risky proposition are getting in on the act.

Codemasters decided to jump in with both feet, transitioning its Lord of the Rings MMO onto a free-to-play model - most significant for a game that was created firmly with the subcription model only in mind.

Another MMO - Champions Online - went free-to-play later in the year as publishers seemed to decide that going up against Blizzard on a like-for-like business model probably wasn't going to happen any more.

Meanwhile another core game big-hitter, Crytek, announced that its latest venture Warface would be an online shooter based on a free-to-play model, while it's been claimed that EA's massive Star Wars project may never be profitable with its cost base and subscription plan.

Other announcements or successes were a bit more expected. Mobile developer Rovio revealed its expectations that a free-to-play version of hugely popular Angry Birds would bring in $1 million in advertising revenue per month on the Android platform, and the total free-to-play market has been estimated to grow to as much as $7 billion by 2015, according to a report from DFC Intelligence.

And none of that touches the Facebook platform, with companies like Zynga and Playfish basing all their revenues on either the ad-supported or micro-transaction model - and there will only be more games, virtual worlds and other online entities that look to capitalise on an attractive bet.

Naturally, the trick is not so much in attracting players to a free game - although that can be a challenge - it's in converting them to actually shelling out on in-game items and the like, and 2011 will no doubt continue to see techniques in that area become ever-more refined.