"Prosumers, Produce and Roll Out!", Warner Bros CEO of Global Streaming and Games looks at using the Prosumer model in live-service games.

[ggx2ac]

First off, if you don't know what a Prosumer is, it's a consumer that's also a worker. I made an in-depth thread about it if you haven't seen it: https://www.installbaseforum.com/fo...e-industry-part-4-rise-of-the-prosumers.2393/


I only noticed this news now because Mat Piscatella was quoting this from the following article: https://www.gamesindustry.biz/wbs-p...turns-carries-real-risk-this-week-in-business

A live service game where people live and play sounds fine to me, especially if you mean "live" as in "spend some free time" instead of "permanently inhabit." But a Harry Potter game where people build? Where they work? Those don't sound like Harry Potter player fantasies; they sound like a gaming executive dreaming of having the user base not only make the content but pay you for the privilege of playing it.

And I'm like, "Hey (points) I recognize this."

Quoting from my own thread about the Prosumer model:

There are also some readers who might be thinking, "This is so dumb, why would consumers do the work themselves and give money to the company for doing that work!?", we'll get there.

So I look for the original source of the article and I find this article from GameSpot: https://www.gamespot.com/articles/w...an-into-free-to-play-and-mobile/1100-6521597/

The GameSpot article links to a Morgan Stanley speaking event where this talk from "Warner Bros. Discovery gaming boss J.B. Perrette" first appeared:

"Rather than just launching a one-and-done console game, how do we develop a game around, for example, a Hogwarts Legacy or Harry Potter, that is a live-service where people can live and work and build and play in that world in an ongoing basis?" he said.

Everything he's saying, is stuff I have already talked about the concept of in my thread about the Prosumer model including the idea that having the Prosumer do the work of game development reduces operating expenses for the company because they don't have to pay wages to the Prosumer.

There wasn't much else related to the prosumer model in that article. If you haven't read my thread about the prosumer model, you can read that and you can keep a mental note that Warner Bros. wants to get into the prosumer model of live-service games.

Edit:

Forgot to mention, the "Prosumers, Produce and Roll Out!" line is me referencing the line that Optimus Prime says in Transformers G1: "Autobots, Transform and Roll Out!"

If you look at the definition of Roll Out, you get:

officially launch or introduce a new product or service.

How funny is that? The Prosumer produces a product and then rolls it out.

 

[ggx2ac]

I just updated my thread on the prosumer model with a new post, here is the link: https://www.installbaseforum.com/fo...part-4-rise-of-the-prosumers.2393/post-237646

It is about who I think is the pioneer of the Prosumer model.

 

[Kenka]

Companies like the GAAFA are laying the bricks (pun intended) to have a share of everyone's revenue streaming in in the near future. Microsoft, specifically, has the goal in mind to produce a synthetic reality which would act as a sandbox to set up and iterate any specific setting. Imagine they pivot slightly to selling virtual settings and have you complete them and selling them to other dwellers.

 

[derby_440]

WB didn't learn any lesson from disastrous Gotham and SS flops. No one want to play story driven franchices as GAAS.

 

[Aostia82]

Who monetizes in this model?

 

[ggx2ac]

Who monetizes in this model?

As in what live-service games have a Prosumer model? As mentioned in the thread I made talking about the Prosumer model: Roblox and Fortnite.

 

[ggx2ac]

Cross-posting again because I'm sure people will want to look at the finer details about Roblox since that's one of the major live-service games with a prosumer model. I just posted this which I had to edit three times because I kept looking for more info:

Bad ending route for the video game industry part 4: Rise of the Prosumers

Link to all bad ending threads: https://www.installbaseforum.com/forums/threads/bad-ending-routes-for-the-video-game-industry.1998/post-228671 This might be your once in a lifetime opportunity to create a startup business with unicorn status i.e. A one-billion-dollar valuation to your company...

www.installbaseforum.com

I had to dig for so much info because it wasn't just to find out what their losses are coming from, but also, how many creators are there? How many are being paid? how many developers does Roblox have in comparison?

Here's a small part of that post:

We have a number, at the end of 2022, Roblox Corp employs 1600 staff that do product and engineering roles.

At the end of September 2023, there were 5.6M creators that received payouts.

There, you have your ratio of employees that get paid wages to prosumers that get payouts. Go to the linked post for more details.

 

[Liha]

The problem with GAAS is that it operates on a 'winner takes all' principle. There are only a few successful GAAS titles, but those that do succeed earn a significant amount of money. You just have to look at MMORPG in the last 20 years since WoW Classic, everything besides FFXIV Reborn failed spectacularly. You can't have two games like Fortnite on the market, one of them will sooner or later loose. Fortnite was also a failure until Epic swiftly implemented a copied battle royale mode from PUBG with the best tool on the market (unreal engine), while PUBG had serious development and cheater issues.