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* The Long Tail and Videogames *
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dodoskido says:
An interesting read on the Long Tail and how it's bringing an end to the the stranglehold content distributors and filters (think: RIAA) have on our ability to entertain ourselves (get your mind out of the gutter).
Originally from game girl advance...
Chris Anderson, editor-in-chief of Wired magazine, wrote an article called "The Long Tail" for the October 2004 issue which argues the commercial viability of non-hits. He's currently maintaining a blog on the topic while he works on a book-length version.
Anderson has some great examples, like how Netflix has allowed documentary films to undergo a commercial renaissance, and how more than 50% of Amazon's top sales come from outside its top 130,000 titles. He makes a pretty convincing argument that an internet-based distributer can make good money on non-hits by offering a couple thousand different titles, priced fairly.
Of course, videogames are quite famously not music, books or movies. Can this distribution model work for them? I say why not? Again, don't think about how to shoehorn Halo into this distribution model. Halo is a hit, and the industry already knows how to sell hits. The long tail model requires a flood of content with limited appeal. Think Katamari Damacy clones, PopCap, curling simulators, Indie Game Jam entries. Think all the videogames with reviews that caution "unless you're a die-hard fan, pass this one over," because the die-hard fans, the niche markets, are the territory of the long tail.
The long tail isn't "the end of hits." Anderson is happy to point out that the long tail isn't a lot of things. The long tail could be a way to bring back the commercial garage game, and it might very well be the best way to save the point 'n' click adventure game. As long as I keep working at Electronic Arts, I'll probably never get anywhere near it, but I think almost every developer here would love to see this kind of market emerge, if only so we can play what comes out of it.
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