On the Online

I agree with that, I think it really depends on what your objectives are with iPhone. If you're trying to get to market to trial and test, then I think it's a fantastic platform to allow people to do that. I think there are successful examples of people doing that, and then looking at other formats.

What we try to do at PlayReplay is look at the overall strategy in terms of the games market - so if you want to get coverage for your iPhone game then we have access to the contacts that can put you across the App review sites. That doesn't necessarily make the game fly off the shelf - it has to live and breathe on its own merits, but what we can guarantee is that people are talking about your game.

I think if you're thinking your whole business can be based on iPhone sales, then that's probably an unrealistic approach to making games.

Absolutely - and I think that's in the nature of the games themselves. We've all gone out and spent GBP 50 on a shooter or epic RPG. Those are available, and that's the way people have always gone a looked for games.

But the way the internet has come around and the amount of free browser-based games that are drawing in the younger generation already - for free, they have no perception of value in terms of what it costs to have a decent game.

And there are obviously the platforms as well - consoles, but also across Steam, Direct2Drive, all of those - but the type of game that's coming through is the bite-sized snack game, because of our shorter attention spans. People want a quick fix, and that's what we're seeing at the moment in terms of game content coming through.

It's not about an epic journey, necessarily, it's about satisfying your instant craving with something to excite you.

Well there's some information on our website at the moment, which is new. There's a bit of information on some of the games we're worked on previously, across platforms. They range from working in the Home space, and putting together ideas there for certain titles, through to engaging online communities as well as traditional PR campaigns that are out there.

I think the challenge is simple - the power is shifting back to developers, so the developer is king in terms of creating content. They are investing sizeable parts of their business into the self-publishing arena - they see the opportunity to have a direct relationship with the consumer, whereas before it would have been with the retailer or publisher.

So it's very exciting - and creating that content takes resource, time and investment, and I think the key thing for people to realise is that they also need to invest in the marketing and promotion... They will always ask what they can do, and what are the ways to do it, but if you're investing GBP 1 million in these lower budget titles and not wanting to invest tens of thousands into your marketing budget...

The digital shelf is infinite and even now we are seeing an increased number of weekly releases on the digital platforms. The challenge then becomes: "How do I get visibility for my game?" Although some platform holders are making small steps to address this, there is an incredible amount of noise to cut through when influencing a customer's purchasing decision. The commitment and investment in a coherent marketing strategy for the product is the only real way to get ahead of the pack. The challenge for developers is to incorporate this into their overall business plans.

Hopefully as some of the shrouds of secrecy come away from the sales information out there, that can convert into better decisions about how the marketing can be done, and which products to go for.