Have Your Cake & Eat It Too! Monetizing Casual Games in Virtual Worlds

Have Your Cake & Eat It Too! Monetizing Casual Games in Virtual Worlds : Slide audio & slides(36 MB)

Even one of the most famous and most loved casual games, Cake Mania, faces the risk of losing a significant portion its audience in light of emerging MMOs, virtual worlds and new online gaming platforms. By incorporating the Cake Mania brand and gameplay into the Flash-based environment of ourWorld, Sandlot Games has established a renewed brand presence and an untapped channel for distribution of its top-selling game. This lecture with ourWorld founder Derrick Morton, and Daniel Bernstein from Sandlot will examine the opportunities of incorporating traditional causal games properties into virtual environments, and new revenue streams generated from these types of partnerships.

Delivered at Casual Connect Seattle, July 2008

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Derrick Morton (email)

Derrick is CEO of FlowPlay, a company developing virtual worlds where casual games drive the economy.
Derrick began his career in casual games in 1994 as VP Development of Graphix Zone – publisher of Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune PC games among others. In 1999 he joined iWin as VP, Executive Producer. After iWin was purchased by Uproar for $80 million and Uproar was purchased by Vivendi for $140 million, he became VP, Product over all of Vivendi’s casual games websites – Uproar, iWin, Virtual Vegas and Flipside -- which in 2002 had a combined audience of over 20 million monthly uniques. He left Vivendi to join GameHouse in January 2003 with the chief responsibility of running GameHouse.com. GameHouse was acquired by RealNetworks a year later.
At RealNetworks, Derrick was GM of Mobile Games, a division he founded. His team developed and distributed over 20 titles during his tenure. He left to form FlowPlay in September 2006.
Derrick attended USC School of Cinema-Television on a full scholarship and received a BA with magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa honors. He received an MBA from UCLA’s Anderson School.

Daniel Bernstein (email)

Daniel Bernstein founded Sandlot Games and has served as President & CEO since its inception in 2002. Sandlot Games is the world’s premier publisher and developer of casual and family-friendly games across a variety of platforms. Daniel is a veteran of the gaming industry and has over ten years of content strategy, game development, publishing and production-related experience having successfully launched over 20 game titles with Kesmai Studios, Monolith Productions and WildTangent. Prior to starting Sandlot Games, Daniel held the position of Director of Product Strategy at WildTangent, where he devised and executed a successful online fee-based games business. An accomplished composer, Daniel also writes music for most of the games developed and published by Sandlot Games. Daniel holds a BS in Computer Science and an MA in Music Composition from the University of Virginia.

HOME \| LECTURES & ARTICLES \| BUSINESS MODELS \| Have Your Cake & Eat It Too! Monetizing Casual Games in Virtual Worlds audio & slides(36 MB) Even one of the most famous and most loved casual games, Cake Mania, faces the risk of losing a significant portion its audience in light of emerging MMOs, virtual worlds and new online gaming platforms. By incorporating the Cake Mania brand and gameplay into the Flash-based environment of ourWorld, Sandlot Games has established a renewed brand presence and an untapped channel for distribution of its top-selling game. This lecture with ourWorld founder Derrick Morton, and Daniel Bernstein from Sandlot will examine the opportunities of incorporating traditional causal games properties into virtual environments, and new revenue streams generated from these types of partnerships. Delivered at Casual Connect Seattle, July 2008 DOWNLOAD Derrick Morton (email) Derrick is CEO of FlowPlay, a company developing virtual worlds where casual games drive the economy. Derrick began his career in casual games in 1994 as VP Development of Graphix Zone – publisher of Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune PC games among others. In 1999 he joined iWin as VP, Executive Producer. After iWin was purchased by Uproar for $80 million and Uproar was purchased by Vivendi for $140 million, he became VP, Product over all of Vivendi’s casual games websites – Uproar, iWin, Virtual Vegas and Flipside -- which in 2002 had a combined audience of over 20 million monthly uniques. He left Vivendi to join GameHouse in January 2003 with the chief responsibility of running GameHouse.com. GameHouse was acquired by RealNetworks a year later. At RealNetworks, Derrick was GM of Mobile Games, a division he founded. His team developed and distributed over 20 titles during his tenure. He left to form FlowPlay in September 2006. Derrick attended USC School of Cinema-Television on a full scholarship and received a BA with magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa honors. He received an MBA from UCLA’s Anderson School. Daniel Bernstein (email) Daniel Bernstein founded Sandlot Games and has served as President & CEO since its inception in 2002. Sandlot Games is the world’s premier publisher and developer of casual and family-friendly games across a variety of platforms. Daniel is a veteran of the gaming industry and has over ten years of content strategy, game development, publishing and production-related experience having successfully launched over 20 game titles with Kesmai Studios, Monolith Productions and WildTangent. Prior to starting Sandlot Games, Daniel held the position of Director of Product Strategy at WildTangent, where he devised and executed a successful online fee-based games business. An accomplished composer, Daniel also writes music for most of the games developed and published by Sandlot Games. Daniel holds a BS in Computer Science and an MA in Music Composition from the University of Virginia.