In the News

Sennari Looks to Change Mobile Model with PrizePlay

Date:

GameDAILY

Mobile CRM company Sennari hasbeen fairly successful in the U.K. with its mobile gaming servicePrizePlay. Now the company is preparing to bring the PrizePlay systemto the U.S. Sennari CEO Bill Barhydt discusses the alternative revenuemodel of PrizePlay and why he thinks it can grow the market.

Mobilegaming might still be in its beginning stages, but at least thefundamental categories that mobile games can be broken into have allshaken out, right? Not if you ask Bill Barhydt, CEO of mobile CRM(customer relationship management) company Sennari. The company'sPrizePlay gaming service has been a big hit with consumers in the U.K.,whileng up a whole new world of potential mobile gaming revenuefor mobile publishers.

Barhydt believes that consumer loyaltyand CRM applications will drive the future of the mobile market. GivenPrizePlay's early success and the service's upcoming U.S. debut, itseems like a viewpoint to pay attention to. Modojo spoke withBarhydt after his participation on the CES 2006"Mobile Games:Advertainment and the Custom Branded Experience"panel.

Know Your Consumer

"Mobilegames can take advantage of their connectedness through more than justmultiplayer,"Barhydt explained."It's a tremendous opportunity formobile publishers to get to know who their consumers are, and to speakto them. Suggesting that a gamer who plays a lot of one game might likeanother game, or adjusting a game's difficulty according to theirplaying habits are a couple of examples."

[

"Thereare plenty of opportunities [for mobile games] to make revenue inalternative ways as long as you're interacting with the gamer...Publishers need to take advantage of knowing who their customer is,"Bill Barhydt, Sennari CEO

]

Mobileconnectedness should (and if Sennari has its way, WILL) lead to amobile gaming landscape where a gamer doesn't buy individual titles fora one-off download or monthly subscription, but instead purchasestokens or other currencies (via SMS, in-store, or carrier subscription)that can be redeemed to buy any of that publisher's games. Real-timein-game interaction and messaging would allow for tournaments orbetting to gain additional tokens.

Once skill-based games thatrequire (and reward) more tokens per each individual play have beenadded to this formula, you have a literal virtual arcade, and anentirely new and compelling way of making money in the mobilemarketplace. This is the system that Sennari has developed.

PrizePlay Compells Consumers

Launchedin late Q4, PrizePlay has seen early anecdotal success. Whendownloaded, a PrizePlay game comes with a handful of free"plays,"atwhich point tokens must be purchased for each subsequent play. Barhydtnoted that Sennari expected consumers to use their first set of tokensin 1-2 weeks, but in reality consumers were ordering more in 1-2 days,drawn to the opportunity to win real physical prizes.

"We havetwo types of prizes: digital and physical,"Barhydt said."We assumedthat early on the vast majority of prizes redeemed would be digital,things like ringtones, because they require less tokens to redeem. Inreality the early consumers response has been so overwhelming that mosthave springed for the larger physical prizes, like a 10 (pound) giftcertificate to Virgin Megastore."

Barhydt also reported thatVodafone was"so enamored"with these casual PrizePlay games that thecarrier created an entirely new"PrizePlay"category for them on theirdeck. Right now the small company is gearing up for its U.S. debut, butBarhydt was unwilling to spill the beans.

"The service will beappearing on multiple U.S. carriers, but we won't be making anyannouncements for another 1-2 months,"Barhydt said."We've alreadybegan porting our titles to U.S. handsets. So far we've found theporting process to be the biggest challenge."

Widens Mobile Revenue

It's unclear to Modojowhy consumers are so willing to spend purchased tokens for eachindividual play, when even subscription models are given a bad rap forbeing a poor value. Perhaps the lure of real, high-cash-value prizesproves too much, and gamers are convinced that their skills will makethem a winner. Whatever the reason, Sennari's mobile arcade hasdthe mobile revenue doors a little wider. Barhydt thinks theopportunities can be further expanded.

"There are plenty ofopportunities [for mobile games] to make revenue in alternative ways aslong as you're interacting with the gamer"he said."A long-term gamewhere a nicer sword or shield can be bought with real world money, or atitle that costs 5 or 6 cents per play. Publishers need to takeadvantage of knowing who their customer is."

To View More Sennari News, Click Here