The Bigpoint Success Story - some useful facts and figures on online games

Bigpoint that has built its success on developing online games, which users play for free but can purchase in-game items.

Their business model demonstrates a strong economy for virtual goods and how this can generate significant revenues and profits for companies. The company generates well over €20m per year and some of its users spend more than $100 per month on in-game purchases. The company also has several strong media partners, including NBC, MSN and SyFy.

Bigpoint’s Chairman of the Board, Simon Guild (former CEO of MTV Networks Europe) is attending the Social Gaming / Virtual Goods Summit for Bigpoint and is giving the opening keynote speech

Bigpoint Success Story

·         Bigpoint.com is one of the world’s largest portals for browser games and has just announced that they have over 150 million users worldwide with 250,000 new users daily

·         Bigpoint generates enough revenue to fund in-house development of high-profile and high-quality games titles such as Ruined Online and Battlestar Galactica Online – something that many other games publishers are struggling with

·         The company  has now expanded to 500 employees from 35 nations

·         Simon Guild was previously president and CEO of MTV Networks Europe and responsible for the European expansion of MTV, Nickelodeon and Comedy Central

In-game purchases / advertising

·         Games through Bigpoint are free-to-play and revenues are generated through in-game purchases with some users spending more than $100 per month

·         Bigpoint is hugely successful with significant annual revenues – for instance, in 2008 they announced annual revenues of €20m and they have grown exponentially since then in users and revenues

·         Bigpoint is also able to work with organisations to place in-game branded content and in-game advertising

Media Partners

·         Bigpoint targets specific audiences through appropriate media partners for individual games, or collections of games, so that they can tap into readymade and relevant audiences. The relationship is mutually beneficial as the game publisher brings value-add content and a new revenue stream to the media partner

·         Bigpoint has teamed up with major players such as NBC, MSN, MTV, SyFy to offer more content and collateral around existing and new products such as Battlestar Galactica Online