Investing in platforms that enable consumers to connect

I am a big believer in Umair Haque's hypothesis that remaking branding is the next step in media 2.0. For those readers interested in exploring branding 2.0, do refer to my collection of links to Umair's writings.

This is the reason why I am happy that we have invested in a new startup called GameRenkei that attempts to do so for causal games. They are building a platform where fans of a particular game can engage with each other via uploading and selling hand made merchandise based on the assets of the game. Something like mini Etsy for each game. I believe this is right as it finally recognises that fans want to get together to do something cool for the games they love.

That being said, I don't think they have gotten their model right. First, they need to think about how to make the game plastic, i.e. giving fans the ability to remix the asset of the games into whatever hand made item they desired. This requires them to think about how to extract things like character images, background, music et al and make it easy for fans to play with them.

Second, they need to ensure the quality of the games are high enough to attract fans. They must remember fans love a game because of certain qualities. Nobody is going to be passionate about crappy games.

Finally, they need to mindful of the network effects. They need to think about how to do cross game promotion or enabling fans of different games to connect with each other. If not, keeping fans within each game is going to kill the network effects dead.

If you are keen to follow what they are up to, do follow their iphone game blog. I think what they will be learning in the upcoming months will be interesting for those keen to explore in this space.

Posted in: Personal