Games will need to be “discoverable, direct, shareable, and free”, according to Louis Castle, former founder of Westwood and current CEO of Instant Action.
His argument is Zynga, the developers of Farmville which at its peak had over 80 million users, “they are taking all of our customers, offering something we haven't yet.” They've given everyone an easy method to play their games. They don't even need to search: there's not one Facebook account in the world that hasn't had a Farmville update from a friend appear unprompted.
It doesn't matter if it's a casual game or a 20 million dollar plus epic, according to Castle, everything is about to change. Steaming services like OnLive and Gaikai and social networks will be the only way to stop the industry heading for “disaster in the retail space”, losing revenue from the thin margins that traditional development and retail models use.
He was at pains to point out that he's not got all the answers, but in his view this is the way the industry needs to head.
