Practice

 Opening up this blog, I bashed the concept of the EVO; a box marketed as a Linux gaming console. In theory, it's a great idea, but that idea never made past the idea phase and consumers ultimately received a mini-computer with no promise.

 How do you get the idea of a Linux console off the ground? Well, if anyone's listening, I'll give you this tip for free. Well, the tip is free, but I want recognition when this awesome idea gets made. As a matter of fact, if you're a potential hardware developer looking for a good, cheap way to score a profit without resorting to a system with a $300+ price tag, you are absolutely welcome to pay attention so long as you understand that by continuing on you are assuming a basic form of contractual obligation. By using this idea or a significant portion of the idea, you are given the right to negotiate for usage and must automatically provide acknowledgement and minor compensation. Also, I can still tell you "no."

 My idea? Practice. Do it small, and do it right. No company should enter the "Linux console" market without starting small. Look at the GP32X and what a nice bit of machinery it is. It's a portable Linux console all in itself, but the trouble is that it's expensive. It'll cost you just as much to nab one of those as it would to get a PSP or a DS, and right now, all of that power is completely unnecessary. There's no reason to demand that customers pay a premium on a device that goes well beyond what the average gamer really needs or wants.

 People don't generally get a PSP with the intention to pirate Sony's catalog of games. People do try to get it for that reason at times, but for the most part, portable retro is what the consumers are in it for. No one needs a cell processor or a dedicated graphics chip to run Nintendo games. All they need is a screen, the controls, and the most basic of specs.

 The timing is perfect for a handheld like this. Gamers are increasingly interested in retro gaming, and basement programmers create simple games all the time as a hobby. Free or not, the supply and demand is there. All that is required is a point of focus, and in this case, it is a common platform that releases can find a home on. Personal computers that can run this stuff all the time, but that's not the definition of a dedicated console. A hardware architecture built specifically to run basic games would not only be extremely cheap to produce, but yield significant rewards for hobbyists and small development teams looking to practice their art.

 Sure, netbooks and the iPhone can do everything that this handheld could, but the difference is in cost and freedom. The way I see it, the equivalent of making a Game Boy Advance could not possibly cost any more than $30 to produce, and that sort of power isn't even necessary. Adding in wi-fi or the cheaper Bluetooth option plus an SD card slot would cost $15 at the most. We're talking a system that comes into profit selling at $40, and maybe not even that much. So for less than $40, you can experience on-the-go gaming with complete freedom and a large development community. How large? Get the specs posted on the internet and let the people do the rest. The trouble with these DIY projects floating around is that so few of the systems are created and no one makes them available to the public, but this handheld would have widespread acceptance as a system anyone could develop for.

 So how do you make money off of this? Well, I hate to say it, but the indie scene is going to have to fend for themselves on this one. About the only way that the company producing the handheld could assist indie developers in making money is by having an approval board and a Steam-like depository for published games. Being able to use the digital delivery model that Steam introduced would help offset the lack of profit piracy would cause. The idea is that the handheld would be completely unprotected, leaving it up to the community to put the hardware to work however it saw fit. Free games, piracy, and open source projects would be accepted, but having the convenience of an iTunes inspired click-and-buy interface would encourage gamers to support others and not feel as if their wallet is taking a massive hit.

 Another source of profit is so freakishly easy that even major third-parties would get on the bandwagon. Creating a game like Mega Man 9 is not like making Street Fighter IV. The costs are less, the manpower is minimum, and the development timeline is kept short. In the time that it would take Konami to produce one quality next-gen Castevania game, at least four NES/SNES style games could be produced without costing them much money at all. How do you make a profit off of this? Well, assuming that at least a few thousand downloads will be purchased ones, you can also assume that about half of the development costs can be recouped. The rest is simple: advertising. If you're going to put out a Castevania game on a handheld, you could easily ask a movie studio to slap an ad on the intro and make the game sponsored by AMP. No pirate will take the time to remove those advertisements, as seeing them would be as pain-free as the company credits you see at the beginning of any other major title out there.

 The way I see it, if you stick a couple of interns and supervising programmer in a room to develop retro games, you're probably only costing the company a hundred grand to get the game made. I'm pretty damn sure that you're going to find a couple of companies that will pay you $25,000 each to get an advertisement in a game that, paid or not, could reach millions of people. Sales make up the rest. Thus, it's entirely proven that major production houses will get in on the action. Making things better, a good indie concept that has a platform outside of the PC might just get their IPs bought by one of these producers in a good example of trickling riches.

 Whoever makes the handheld would be driven by the profit of sales. Since the system would be so cheap to produce, money could be made immediately on every handheld sold, and the cheapness also reflects the relatively low risk point for creating it in the first place. It's not like a PS3 that, with its high production cost, revolves around game sales for company profit.

 Look, it's a SNES+1, an LCD screen, and Bluetooth. That's it. This cannot be the most expensive thing in the world to make, and there are a lot of gamers that dream of constant streams of old-school gaming. The time is ripe for such a simple concept, and no one would be spending a lot. In a a perfect scenario, millions of people snap up the handheld for as little as it costs to buy a Blu-Ray movie and everybody's happy. The open-source community finally has a concrete goal to strive for, major gaming companies have a low risk way of promoting their IPs while still making a little extra cash to fund their big-budget games, and the hardware manufacturer makes bank. Everybody wins, and on top of that, hundreds of games would be immediately available to toy with on the go.

 Someone out there needs to take a shot with this. If you need a better business model, then talk to me, because this should definitely happen. Digg It Stumble it ! Reddit