![]() ![]() The trend is upward, and, he said, “We are happy with the progress.” “We are well over 100,000 monthly unique users, and high quality users who view tons of page views and lot of time on the site,” said Kurita. What’s more, he said, the success of ShiftyLook is attracting interest within the company, so more IPs may become available in the future.įor the moment, Shiftylook is measuring its success by the number of unique visitors to its website. “We have very strong IPs, but we have to develop more, and these classic IPs are a very good way to have more content to provide users,” said Yutaro Ikegaya, Namco Bandai's v-p for strategic development. I think there is something very cool there, and with the medium of Web comics, it was something we could do very quickly and very cheaply and just see how it goes.” or Europe, they are really fascinating titles. “Stuff like Bravoman or Wonder Momo, or Valkyrie, even though they were not released in the U.S. “We are trying to make a lot of different IPs and different styles and different kinds of creators, and Namco Bandai has a really rich history, especially in the Namco arcade area,” said Rob Pereyda, v-p for business development. “It’s something that's owned by our company, so this is a good medium to use to introduce some new characters to people,” he said. That makes perfect sense to Kurita, as they are not being developed in any other way at the moment, so this is one way to revive them. Most of the comics on ShiftyLook are based on games, such as Galaga and Mappy, that are not only 25 years old but were never released in the U.S. "ShiftyLook is all about speed and new things and being nimble, and that fits well." “The great thing about games for smartphone platforms or browsers is you can execute them very fast and also very cheaply compared to console games that take a couple of years' development cycle and lots and lots of money,” he said. In terms of game platforms, Kurita said, the focus would be on smartphone and browser based games. That could include not just games but toys and “chip music” (music made using sound chips from video games) as well. “More realistically, for bigger stuff, it could be a year,” he said. For the most part, Kurita said, the push toward monetizing the properties would start in spring 2013. There were also some T-shirts at the booth. ShiftyLook has already launched two mobile games, Alien Confidential and Rocket Fox, which are free to play but have paid upgrades. In fact, what ShiftyLook is doing is creating an entire content-consuming culture, starting with comics and expanding to web animation, music, and more, and that means that any individual piece of it doesn't have to make money as long as it contributes to that culture, Kurita said: "We do look at things from a very big picture: How does this promote everything? And if this ultimately helps drive forward this cool culture, then that's great." Once there is enough of that base together, we can do stuff that makes money, like games or other experiences where it's something where someone actually wants to pay money to get something.” So you put stuff online for free, you build a fanbase. “It’s more about building an audience and getting a lot of fans. “In the first phase, we are not worried about monetization,” he said. As music pulsed and fans played the arcade games and watched a live show (which was being streamed on Twitch TV), Kurita talked about the importance of building the ShiftyLook brand. That's only the beginning, as Namco Bandai senior v-p Shigetaka Kurita explained during an interview behind the ShiftyLook stage at New York Comic-com. At San Diego they took over the courtyard of a nearby hotel and set up a free game arcade at New York Comic-Con, they had the arcade plus a performance stage and a pizza party for fans.Īll this to get people to read free comics? ![]() In addition, ShiftyLook has had a major presence at numerous comics and game conventions since last March, including Pax East, Comic-Con International in San Diego and New York Comic Con. ![]()
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