By Morgan Ramsay — August 18, 2010

At GDC Europe, EEDAR cofounder Greg Short caused a stir when he suggested that games-on-demand services, such as Gaikai, will put social games on the chopping block. Will games on demand kill social games? Let’s look at the marketing problem.

Games-on-demand services are platform-agnostic distribution systems. These services promise to play a key role in the future of marketing video games. Producers will be able to deliver media to any web-enabled device without the usual constraints, and disparate titles that have never been in direct competition will occupy the same virtual shelf space.

Greg asked, “Why would you play FarmVille when you can play World of Warcraft on the same machine?” Metaplace cofounder Raph Koster responded on his blog, “A huge part of the audience that likes social games doesn’t like World of Warcraft. I know this is shocking and bizarre to hear, so let me reiterate it. They don’t like the games you do.”

While there are separate markets for these different products, why are they separate? Monopoly is a board game. Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune is a PlayStation game. FarmVille is a Facebook game. The markets for games have traditionally been defined by the platforms on which games are first and primarily available.

By definition, platform exclusivity limits who is exposed to platform-dependent games. When barriers to consumption have long-defined the markets for games, the “different strokes for different folks” argument is easily made. After all, the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior, right? But what happens when the platform doesn’t matter anymore?

Gaikai has already demonstrated that World of Warcraft can be played on Facebook.

What happens when all of the barriers to consumption, which have informed our present-day understanding of the marketplace, are eliminated? We’re in for a fun ride. Conventional wisdom will be challenged. Consumers will have more options. And I think we’ll see more opportunities, more competition, and more product categories.

I don’t think games on demand will kill social games. Social games will stick around; however, when we can choose to play Red Dead Redemption or My Vineyard on the iPad, social games will probably not be seen the same way. Nor will anything else.

Morgan Ramsay founded Entertainment Media Council and serves as President/CEO. He is also an advisor to Coronado Promenade Concerts and San Diego Filmmakers.

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