| Two years ago, Magmic Inc., one of the companies in | | | | The subscription service brought the price to start to |
| the forefront of connected mobile game development | | | | zero - when the game was downloaded it came with |
| secured the rights to create and distribute the coveted | | | | a full week of daily crosswords to test drive as well |
| New York Times Crossword game on all cellphones | | | | as the complete archive of crosswords available |
| and smartphones - including Research in Motion's | | | | digitally from the New York Times website, all free of |
| BlackBerry and Apple's iPhone. | | | | charge. |
| I recently sat down with Jeff Bacon, Director of | | | | The NYT's Crossword game went through multiple |
| Product Management for Magmic, about the | | | | code revisions, 3 price changes and a business model |
| company's experience developing and launching the | | | | change until it finally stabilized. A casualty of this were |
| product and it was an enlightening discussion on the | | | | obviously the reviews and ratings the product was |
| ongoing launch, now two years in, of this venerable | | | | given in the early days. As any developer knows, |
| brand. | | | | relying on reviews and world of mouth establishes the |
| With this brand, the challenges were more complex | | | | reputation of the application and with all these changes |
| than just releasing the company's own intellectual | | | | the game suffered in the beginning. |
| property and expectations would be so high that | | | | Part of the challenge was getting the people who |
| invariably this would be the most important brand the | | | | played the game and loved the game to offer their |
| company would launch, good or bad. The comforting | | | | reviews and ratings - the most severe failing in the |
| corollary to this is that the New York Times was a | | | | iTunes software is that the user is only prompted to |
| patient partner with a history of early technology | | | | rate the application when they delete it from their |
| adoption. | | | | iPhone, usually in anger. Magmic designed an in-game |
| The first thing that struck me was the length of time it | | | | review reminder that coaxed the satisfied gamer to |
| has taken the company to get to a strong business | | | | action after a number of days or a number of plays. |
| model. They started development on the BlackBerry | | | | Since implementing this, the reviews have skyrocketed |
| and J2ME phones, selling through carrier decks at a | | | | and ratings are mostly 5-star. |
| fixed fee. This is where the relationships with the | | | | One of the other side-effects of launching this brand |
| carriers were so important - before AppStore made | | | | has been the pull it has been able achieve on other |
| its debut and altered the way we buy applications. | | | | games Magmic supports and distributes - some of its |
| Reception of this model was good but this game, as | | | | own IP as well as acting as a publisher on behalf of |
| with all other applications, needed a means to make | | | | other developers. In order to capitalize on this unique |
| additional revenue or risk losing the battle with the | | | | opportunity, Magmic built an in-game catalogue of their |
| latest and greatest development project Magmic was | | | | applications which resulted in a huge increase in sales |
| working on. | | | | activity as a result of being on hundreds of thousands |
| Challenges were many but mostly around the | | | | of devices with the main product. |
| development of a usable interface that was worthy of | | | | Another huge challenge of being a game developer |
| the brand. Constant development advances needed to | | | | targeting these penultimate brands is matching the |
| be integrated into the game or it would become a | | | | mobile gaming expectations with the real-world game |
| secondary brand in the very competitive casual | | | | play across hundreds of different devices - you can't |
| games market on smartphones. Devices at the time | | | | just release to only one platform, you need to be |
| were limited and expectations were not as high until | | | | everywhere for everyone. This means the gameplay |
| the iPhone was released. | | | | experience will be different and the purchase process |
| Enter the iPhone | | | | with be inconsistent depending on the device (for |
| The approach with the iPhone was clear from the | | | | example, the BlackBerry doesn't offer in-app |
| start and it afforded the ability to completely revamp | | | | purchasing nor does it offer subscription capabilities). |
| the UI and really extend the brand from the paper to | | | | One last comment to dispel the myth that big brands |
| the device. The power and usability of the device | | | | are easy to port to applications. It is always hard to |
| needed to be harnessed and replicated - the iPhone | | | | launch any application with the noise of close to |
| was made to play crosswords. | | | | 200,000 apps across multiple devices and, while the |
| Pricing on the iPhone was another opportunity for | | | | NYT Crossword is a world wide known entity, support |
| change. Knowing that the subscription model was the | | | | and leverage from its marketing might does not |
| most appropriate for a game such as this it was | | | | guarantee success. Tweaks to the pricing and |
| always the intent but the technology hadn't been | | | | business models, modifications to game play and UI, |
| completed by the time the game launched. Not | | | | and listening to customer feedback is still of paramount |
| wanting to wait the number of months until Apple | | | | importance - without which no amount of support will |
| completed in-app purchases, Magmic launched the | | | | help. |
| game with a fixed fee until the end of 2009 and | | | | However, a full-page ad in the paper wouldn't hurt. |
| launched the subscription service in the fall of 2009. | | | | |