2004 Web and Downloadable Games White Paper(pdf 93)英文

2004 Web and DownlOAdable Games WhITe Paper
Presented at the Game Developers Conference 2004
by the IGDA Online Games SIG
The IGDA Online Games SIG Steering CommITtee:
Brian Robbins
Greg Mills
John Welch
Jeferson Valadares
Alex Jarett
Elonka Dunin
Jon Estanislao
Jennifer MacLean
Dave RoHRl
White Paper EdITor
White Paper Assistant EdITor
Chair
Assistant-Chair
Chairperson EmerITus
2004 Web and DownlOAdable Games WhITe Paper
IGDA Online Games SIG
Page 2 of 93
FORWARD
The concept of downlOAdable games is nothing new. Small free games have been available for
downlOAd for many years. As a revenue-producing section of the industry though, Web and
DownlOAdable games have come into their own over the past couple years. One of the places this is most
apparent is at the annual Game Developers Conference, held in March in California. When our group was
forming in 2000 and 2001, few people seemed to understand what web/downlOAdable tITles were about.
At GDC 2002 more people understood the market, and from the buzz you could start to see that this
might become a significant portion of the game industry. At GDC 2003, Web and DownlOAdable games
had a bit of a coming out party. There were numerous sessions devoted to the format, lots of developers
creating these titles, and quITe a few successful companIEs making the rest of the industry take notice.
As of this writing we are getting close to GDC 2004 and IT is very easy to see that the Web and
DownlOAdable games industry is transITioning from the early growth stages of the past few years,
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