Griffon Games
07-19-2008, 12:59 AM
In their July newsletter <a href=http://www.gametableonline.com>GameTable Online</a>, the popular online multiplayer strategy gaming site, informed their subscribers that they wouldn’t need to pay their usual fees from now on. The company recently made the move from a subscription service to an ad-supported free gaming site.
Since 2003 GameTable Online (GTO) has been charging a small monthly subscription fee for access to its stable of online tabletop strategy games and revenue from those subscriptions was shared with the publishers or designers of the games that they licensed. Now this shared revenue will come from ads.
“When the site was first conceived in 2000 the Internet was a much different place,” explained Jay Adan, marketing director for GameTable Online. “The dot com bubble was in mid-collapse and ad revenues were in a tailspin. In those conditions a subscription site made a lot of sense. Much has changed since then and we see this move to an ad-based system as keeping up with those changes. The new model is better for everybody: more players get access to great online games, game publishers showcase their titles to a wider audience and we better promote all of our work.”
GTO’s business isn’t solely focused on their gaming portal. In recent years the company has done outside game development. Most notably, GTO did the development work for Wizards of the Coast’s online gaming portal – Gleemax. Using their <a href=http://www.metagame.biz>Metagame</a>® platform, GTO created online versions of Axis & Allies, Acquire, Vegas Showdown, Robo Rally, and Guillotine. Their work has also expanded to Facebook, where they recently released <a href=http://apps.facebook.com/gtobackgammon/>a new version of their Backgammon game</a> through that platform.
Since 2003 GameTable Online (GTO) has been charging a small monthly subscription fee for access to its stable of online tabletop strategy games and revenue from those subscriptions was shared with the publishers or designers of the games that they licensed. Now this shared revenue will come from ads.
“When the site was first conceived in 2000 the Internet was a much different place,” explained Jay Adan, marketing director for GameTable Online. “The dot com bubble was in mid-collapse and ad revenues were in a tailspin. In those conditions a subscription site made a lot of sense. Much has changed since then and we see this move to an ad-based system as keeping up with those changes. The new model is better for everybody: more players get access to great online games, game publishers showcase their titles to a wider audience and we better promote all of our work.”
GTO’s business isn’t solely focused on their gaming portal. In recent years the company has done outside game development. Most notably, GTO did the development work for Wizards of the Coast’s online gaming portal – Gleemax. Using their <a href=http://www.metagame.biz>Metagame</a>® platform, GTO created online versions of Axis & Allies, Acquire, Vegas Showdown, Robo Rally, and Guillotine. Their work has also expanded to Facebook, where they recently released <a href=http://apps.facebook.com/gtobackgammon/>a new version of their Backgammon game</a> through that platform.