About Our eNewsletter: GameNews Weekly
Launched in May 2005, the GameNews Weekly enewsletter covers current issues affecting the Australian game industry, and the people and companies that make up the industry. It's free for trade to subscribe, see subscription box at the bottom...

GameNews Weekly - Issue 58, 24 October 2006
[extract - Feature Article]

Aussie Broadband vs Game Demos (Part 1)

The marketing demo has become an important part of video game promotion with the ubiquitous Internet an ideal way to deliver up video game demo files to PC gamers and new generation console players. As game publishers and developers seek to provide richer game content and experiences, and storage capacity increases and hardware improves, there has been a trend to increase the size of game demos. However it is questionable whether Australian broadband is actually allowing a beneficial level of value to be extracted from marketing demos.

Historical data suggests that game demo size increased four fold between 1995 and 2000, according to a 2004 research paper by Panagiotis Markopoulos, a PhD student at the University of Pennsylvania (see link below).

Select recent examples now suggest that 400 megabytes is a typical demo file size. For instance both the Joint Taskforce demo from Vivendi Games and the Heroes of Annihilated Empires demo (game available locally from QV Software), weigh in at a bit more than this size.

If in each month there are four or five decent game demos for the PC or made available through Xbox Live, then file size can quickly add up.

The abovementioned Research Paper comments that until the year 2000, consumer broadband internet adoption [in the US] had not kept pace with the increases in game demo sizes. According to the researcher, this results in the gaming public having an information deficit, to the detriment of the publishers and developers. Put simply, without the ability to download game demos freely, the marketing benefit of game demos is substantially decreased.

After 2000, according to the Research Paper, uptake of broadband services had a positive effect on the general ability of the gaming public in the US to download freely, resulting in the marketing value of game demos increasing.

The question is, is today's typical Australian broadband connection up to the task? If not, the marketing value in making game demos available to the Australian gamer public may be less than other western countries.

The OECD currently ranks Australia 16th for broadband subscribers per 100 inhabitants. Australia has an estimated 17.4 persons with broadband out of each 100 inhabitants. For comparison, Canada ranks number 9 with 22.4 people per 100, the UK ranks number 10 with 19.4 people per 100, and the USA ranks number 12, with 19.2 people per 100.

While it is one thing to have a broadband connection, the quality of the connection is another issue, although details about the quality of the typical connection are hard to fathom. At a high level, the OECD breaks down broadband subscriptions into DSL, Cable, and Other. Australia has 13.9 people per 100 with DSL, 2.9 out of 100 with Cable, and 0.6 out of 100 with Other. Other includes satellite, fibre, and fixed wireless. The USA on the other hand, while it ranks 12 overall, has 9.8 per 100 with Cable, ranking it third in this measure alone, while Japan overall ranks 13 but ranks number 1 in the Other measure, with the OECD remarking that most of the 4.9 out of 100 Other broadband connections in Japan are actually fibre to the home connections.

Australian households may not to be too far behind the pack with respect to having an always on internet connection, but speed and quota limits have an incredible affect on the quality and therefore utility of the service.

To gain some insight into the quality of the typical broadband connection it is worthwhile taking a look at the range of connections advertised by the household brand telcos in our market.

DSL plans for Telstra's BigPond service start at $29.95 per month for 200MB, and if you move up to a faster broadband speed then a 400MB per month connection will set you back $39.95 per month if you have a fixed line with Telstra, and if not, then $49.95 per month. Each additional MB over quota will set the customer back 15 cents, unless they take up a liberty plan to 10GB plan on the slowest broadband speed for $59.95 per month. Telstra advertises seven BigPond plans on their website, and plans at $69.95, which sit around the middle to upper range of their offerings, provide either a medium speed and 10GB quota with any excess shaped at dial up speed, or fast speed and 500MB and any excess charged at 15cents a MB.

Optus DSL starts with a 100MB quota plan per month which provides an additional 200MB during midnight to midday, for $19.95. Another ten dollars buys 300MB plus 600MB during midnight to midday, while an additional ten dollars on top of that buys the middle plan in Optus offerings, a 2GB quota plus 4GB during midnight to midday. Optus advertises five plans, topping out at $69.95 per month. These prices require the customer to have a fixed line plan in place with Optus and so are already discounted.

Finally, Primus DSL starts at a 100MB quota stand alone plan for $14.95 per month, with the next highest plan a 500MB quota connection for $34.95 per month, and then a 1GB quota connection for $44.95 per month. This last plan is equivalent to the mid price point in the 13 plans that Primus offers. The highest plan is $89.95 per month but the customer must have a bundled Primus fixed line phone connection as well.

Given the size of game demos, a household could easily use up 2GB per month downloading demos to the PC or the Xbox 360. And given the range of plans outlined above, a 2GB quota limit is a fair way into the offerings that are typically provided. Based on the above a local game industry marketer might be hard pressed to agree that local household broadband connections encourage multiple demos to be downloaded per month.

[Next issue: we look at the future of game demo size, the issue of bigger media clips, look at typical connections further and the Telstra Next G network, and the impact broadband has on game diversity.]

Links: you must be an email subscriber to get the links.

Subscribe to Gamenews Weekly below...