Last week the Austin Game Developer's Conference turned up the heat in Texas. Austin, once the home of Origin studios (creator of Ultima Online), has become THE place to live if you want to develop massively multiplayer games. Dozens of studios have sprouted up, which makes the Austin Game Developer's Conference a kind of MMO festival (with great music and good food).

Two trends really lit up the show this year, both of which I've blogged about before. First up, everyone noticed the rapid adoption of casual MMOs, like Habbo Hotel or Club Penguin (see my earlier blog about casual MMOs or my notes when Club Penguin was sold). That trend has been on a slow boil for a while, and everybody there was aware of how important it was.


Another trend is wider acceptance here in the West of microtransactions as a way of paying for an online game. Again, not new -- but big enough this year that a keynote speaker talked all about it. Minho Kim, Nexon North America's Director of Game Operations, spoke at length about microtransactions. Nexon has been creating online games in Korea since 1994, but here in the West you're probably most familiar with their hit game Maple Story. You can download Maple Story from FilePlanet, where it's part of our Free MMO Club. Maple Story is a 2D platformer RPG, kind of like a massively multiplayer Super Nintendo game -- proof that you don't need 3D-card-devouring state-of-the-art graphics to create a game that people will have a lot of fun with.

Maple Story might not look like much in screenshots, but over a quarter of South Koreans have game accounts set up, it's growing fast in the U.S. and Europe, and the game brings in $16 million dollars (U.S.) every month. That's a success story that's turning heads. Kim explained in his keynote that there are a lot of pitfalls to microtransactions: fraud has to be managed, and hackers can cause huge damage.

But assuming companies can manage these problems, the microtransaction model is great for gamers and game developers. From the gamer's perspective, there's no cost to entry: you just download a free MMO and start playing. You also don't have to worry about subscription fees: you pay money as you play, and the moment you stop playing, you don't have to pay any more. You pay based on how much fun you're having with the game.

From the developer's perspective it's even juicier, because there's no top end. Really hardcore players are free to spend hundreds of dollars a month (or more -- those players are out there!). It ads up.

This business model has already proven itself in Asia, and I guarantee you'll be seeing more of it in the 'States and in Europe in the years to come.

      -Fargo