Launching Open-Source Multiplayer Games for Adults: A New Paradigm in Online Gaming

1. FarSides July 25th, 2010

2. Purpose We create and operate free to pay multi-player online games, for an adult target, in an open source environment.

3. Problem • Huge growth of the online gaming market in the recent years which creates a change of paradigm in the industry • New categories of players enter the market, and traditional players have matured and have new expectations => With these new targets, niches remain unexploited • There is, from the players, a general need for openness and a growing urge for ownership and involvement, that remains unfulfilled by the industry

4. Solution • Create free-to-play games… • Not time consuming • Accessible • Socials (multiplayer engagement) • …for adults… • Games that tend to blur the frontier between the game and the world around us • …that will push further the community trend • Give the core players a sense of ownership • And gather around these trend setters a strong community committed to the games

5. Underlying magic • Build an open source model • Push the paradigm shiftingin regards to the relation between users and the services => provide ownership to the players • In a decentralized company • Use the best talents at a competitive cost, and deliver the flexibility and openness required for the open source model • And rely on a reactive development process • Release at an early stage, update often

6. Business model • The studio operates free to play games • All the game can be played for free, therefore building a large base of players • paying provides an added value to the game, that an average 5% of the players will buy • The studio builds a brand which creates value and is difficult for competitors to mirror • Other possible revenues : Serious games as services

7. Current dev - HackIt • An adventure that takes place on the real web, • Where the player is involved in a process where he can progressively gain control over web sites and impact the web • And partner with IA which he will help acquire consciousness and that will, in return, offer him to enter the rabbit hole… The game is aimed at sci-fi fans, but not specifically at hardcore players nor a given gender • We currently have achieved a first framework on which to build the actual gameplay => http://hackit.cx/ • The next step will be to build the ‘sim’ part of our game, represented by the IAs

8. Market & Competition • Players can come from two markets : • Social gaming/web based market : Around 1 billion $ (US&Europe) in 2009 and 300 million social gamers, forecast to grow to 1,6 billion in 2010 • ‘Traditionnal’ MMO Market - Around 2 billions $ (US&Europe) • We reach the players through a combination of • Word of mouth based on trend-setters, Facebook/Social networks viralityleverage, PR coverage & events, Online ads, Affiliation & rev-share partnerships • Main competitors : • ‘Traditional’ retail game developers and publishers • Online gamefreemium studios • Farmville • Developped by Zynga • 80 million active users • Estimated revenues around 11M$/month

9. Team • David Blanchard (Director, Operations and Production) • Experience: Ubisoft (Studio manager, Producer) • Role : Companyoperations and production • Xavier Antoviaque (Director, Open Source & Community) • Experience: Community management (Disney/Club Penguin, MMOs) & Open Source development • Role : Open source production and community management

10. Next steps • HackIt! development • "Alpha" iterations: Game basics & validation of conversion/retention/monetization (2-4 months) • "Beta" iterations: Growth stage & validation of virality (3-9 months) • We assume a burn rate of 180k€ for the first year • Start small and limitate the risk until we validate the concept with metrics (conversion rates, virality, churn rate, ARPU • Milestone after 6 months (70k€), and according to the metrics, we will reduce or increase the pace of development and the burn rate accordingly

11. Financials