What do people think of the trend of offering games that can be played both online and offline? Specifically, I'm referring to the works of PopCap (http://www.popcap.com) and GameHouse (http://www.gamehouse.com). Both of these companies are offering popular games like Bejeweled and Collapse, available for play on their websites and large portal sites, like Microsoft's Zone (http://zone.msn.com) and Yahoo (http://www.yahoo.com).

The online versions are Java applets. You are lightly nagged in between plays to download the "trial" or "super" version. This version is licensable (as Yahoo has done). Despite being applets, neither company's applets work outside of Windows. The offline Windows versions are between 1.5 and 2 meg (GameHouse tends to be smaller) and offer more features, including a larger screen. It's time or replay limited and needs to be paid for to continue.

What I find great about this model is they can get money by licensing to web hosts and from purchases by customers. I don't like that they have to create two versions of the games, but I wonder if they use JNI to wrap C/C++ code since the applets are Windows-only. Additionally they offer on their websites downloadable Palm and Windows versions of some games.

These companies also offer various custom game deals, although I don't think they do branding. On the other hand, a company that does do that is Ultimate Arcade (http://www.ultimatearcade.com). Real offers games through RealOne Arcade (http://www.realonearcade.com) but I haven't examined their model yet.

I really don’t think that model works very well because people can already play the game for free online. Why would they register for a version with better graphics? My wife was totally addicted to bejeweled and was really excited to try the "Full version" (which they offered in demo form at the time) she played it once or twice and felt it was too gimmicky, didn't like any of the things they added, and promptly went back to playing the online version. (for free)

Small applet type games are usually tough to create a compelling upgrade for. You can't create new levels for bejeweled (bejeweled doesn’t have levels), you might be able to add new types of pieces with special abilities, but this would likely annoy existing fans rather then delight. It's a tough problem; games like bejeweled are better marketed as part of a service like the zone or yahoo games then as individual products with a demo and full version. (in my opinion)

This model could work,however, if there was a compelling reason to upgrade.

As a marketing device this sort of thing works really well actually. I agree though that there has to be a compelling reason to upgrade. As with all shareware what you sell is the "difference" between the full version and what user's already have. There's one online version of a game we made, which was actually developed by another company, but just a small mention of our game in the instructions, and it was helpful in bringing in sales. Just recently another large distributor that I work with confirmed that they wanted to boost the presence of internet games that also have full PC versions as that was working quite well for them. If I had the resources to do it I'd definitely make web versions of some of our games for promotion.

Silver Creek Entertainment (http://www.silvercrk.com/) had an interesting marketing move a short while back. The made a very polished version of minesweeper with lost of extra little goodies. They included lots of references to their other products ("if you enjoyed this, check out our other games...") in the game, and then they gave the game away for free. I'm not sure how well it worked as I never got around to asking them, but my intuition tells me that it was likely successful in bringing more visitors to their site. The interesting thing to know is if it has a positive impact on sales as well.

A lot of people use freeware to advertise. We do the same with a game called 4free, although to be honest it's not entirely clear how effective it was. Certainly it brings in traffic, but sales wise I didn't track carefully how visits from that freeware game led to sales.

Popcap and Gamehouse collect a licensing fee for letting other sites host their games. Even if no one buys their offline game, they still make money from the online version. I imagine they make more money from the offline game than the licensing, but it is another revenue stream.

Dan brings up a good point with Bejewelled. To upsell a game from a free or trial version to a paid one you either have to remove negative features (limited number of game plays or timed nag screens) or add positive features (more levels, objects, weapons, gameplay, etc.). There are nag screens in online Bejewelled but they're not timed and easy to click past. Do you think a game like this needs more negative features to provide enough incentive?

A freeware game to attract people to your website seems like a great hook. Of course you'll have to pay if you want to get that free game listed on download.com. :D

Sometimes the reason to upgrade is so that you don't need to be online to play. I love popcap's games, and if I didn't have Cablemodem, I would want to buy a few of their games. This is shockwave.com's method as well.

Shockwave.com also sticks ads in front of their downloads, and a lot of their games are trial versions.

Hanford

After I get a few of my own games going, I actually thought about putting a purely online based game on my site just for the fact of generating a friendly atmosphere, then visitors may be more inclined to download other games and eventually buy. For instance... I may have an online tetris/bejeweled type game for people to play while they are on my site (meanwhile they keep seeing screenshots/links for say an original puzzle game i made that they could download/buy) What do you think of this idea?

BC