Heyzap, the Y Combinator startup that offers an easily-embedded widget containing thousands of Flash games, is launching a major new product today that introduces the company to an entirely new source of revenue. Dubbed HeyZap Payments, the platform offers developers a way to easily integrate a microtransaction system into their games, which could be a boon for both developers and Heyzap alike.
Up until now one of the problems plaguing small-time Flash game developers has been monetization. These games are often ripped from the sites from which they originated, so aside from ads that are integrated into the games, developers haven’t had many good ways to generate revenue. Heyzap Payments may help change this: regardless of where a Flash game is embedded, its developer will be compensated for any in-game purchases through the HeyZap platform. Co-Founder Immad Akhund says that the platform is extremely easy for developers to integrate, with a “drop-in” set of code (he says it shoud require about as much effort as integrating Google Analytics would).
Once integrated, users will be able to buy a currency called Heyzap coins, which can be used with any game that has implemented the system. Gamers can acquire points either through Offers (surveys, etc.), Credit Cards, Paypal, or via billing to their cell phone. Points and game saves can be tied to both Facebook Connect and Twitter accounts, allowing the platform to keep track of the goods you’ve purchased in various games.
Heyzap is offering a 50/50 revenue share for developers, and will also allow publishers to receive a cut for embedding games. It’s also offering a $50 bonus to any developers who sign up as a means to jumpstart the program.
Given the addictive nature of many Flash games out there, this is a great idea, and established casual gaming companies like Zynga have proven how lucrative in-game microtransactions can really be. However, there are still a few obstacles Heyzap will have to overcome. The platform may be easy to integrate, but developers will still have to come up with in-game items or bonuses that users would be willing to actually pay for, so the process won’t exactly be painless. That said, many games already have logical places to implement payments (like in-game stores), so this may not prove to be much of a deterrent.
If this sounds famililar, it’s probably because Mochi Media is also launching a similar product that allows developers to integrate payments into their Flash games. Akhund ackowledges that for the time being the products are pretty similar, though he says that Heyzap has a streamlined integration procedure (he says Mochi is more involved) and also points out the $50 incentive being offered to developers, which may be enough to get them to choose Heyzap over Mochi.
If you’d like to try out the payments for yourself, check out the demo game below.
This seems like it might be setting stuff up to be a lot more complicated than it actually needs to be.
What a great idea! Flash games really needed a system like this. Hopefully people will make even more flash games now that they can make good money from them
We’ve all been really impressed with what HeyZap is up to. Virtual goods is a big buzzword these days — but it’s driving real revenue. Games have changed from stack-of-quarters arcades to console platformers to now lightweight, networked flash / social casual games that are totally accessible to everyone with a browser.
Zynga has proven this is real. But it’s still a wide open space, and HeyZap is kicking some ass here. Congrats guys.
Woah, this is cool. Looks really interesting. Couldn’t it be used just like Apple’s “In App Purchase” to unlock levels or something along those lines?
Nice. Great idea.
Congrats Immad+Jude!
Wow this is very creative and nice
Not trying to be hyper critical here-
but.. This looks like nothing more than getgambit with some flash widgets. Im pretty sure you can do almost all of this with gambit alone- Including a higher rev share for yourself (since there would be no middle man)
Am I missing something?
I looked into it a bit more-
Saw the “use our games” model and was excited- Wow, I can find some randomly addictive game and make money from it!
Imagine being able to leverage the awesomeness of desktop tower defense, and I make 50% of the money when someone buys upgrades (because I embedded the game to my site) Yeah- this doesnt do that, they want you to embed it for free. Lame.
Any developers out there? Huge potential here imo. Create a system where I can pick from tons of games (especially addictive ones) and I can embed them to my own site and when users purchase virtual items through your games, I make a % of the money. What a awesome thought.
Sick Idea, Dan! …It would provide so much more incentive–because the result would be that game sites that scrape games would scrape even more games, which would lead to more money for the developers and then HeyZap as well. Now sites and people that scrape games and put them on their own sites get no incentive except for having more pages for users to view and stack up pageviews on banner ads. The only issue is that a lot of Pyramid schemes fail due to complexity.
Hi Dan,
This is a great idea. Something we are definitely building.
We did not have time to get it in to this launch. But we will do it soon.
Thanks for the feedback,
Immad,
Heyzap
Neat.
The demo and payment pages look really well integrated, i’m impressed.
Sure, a group of people that care about what you say.
Heyzap keeps on innovating – it’s really impressive!
I don’t know if buying a bigger net for a butterfly game should be a good example. It’s kind of a cheap tactic in order to pay for useless upgrades of a game they’ll probably never play again.
A one time payment for a game is a good enough idea for me. Micropayments kind of seem to be BS.
a one time payment to play a game will never work. that’s the whole point of what they’re offering. the prices of playing games are free so nobody will pay to play. the point here is that once you get someone sucked in and addicted to the game, you’re more likely to make money selling themselves something they need–and also because they can’t get it elsewhere.
did you find yourself addicted to the butterfly game, enough to pay for it?
Thats kinda the point, there are only a few addicting level games out there, and most of them have a ton of clones, if developers start charging for upgrades, people will just move on to the next game
I’d be surprized if ebay doesn’t jump in soon
heygames.com is for sale
anybody wants to monitize it?
This is a whole new market for app developers. I’m sure its gonna compete with the App store in the future if heyZap does it the right way.
This totally rocks! Congrats Heyzap crew
Arcade 2.0 F’ing brilliant!
I like the way they allow game developers to create the upgrade. This opens up endless possibilities for creative upgrades. Plus they scratch everyone’s back (developers, publishers, and their own), so they’ll get quality games and placement.
Arcade 2.0 F’ing brilliant!
I like the way they allow game developers to create the upgrade. This opens up endless possibilities for creative upgrades. Plus they scratch everyone’s back (developers, publishers, and their own), so they’ll get quality games and placement.
Looks great guys! Really interesting next step for the youtube of casual games…
smart move, heyzap. you guys move fast considering mochi just announced something similar earlier today.
I checked Mochi’s products, don’t see anything like this. http://www.moch...a.com/products/
Do you have a link?
MochiCoins is in private beta, the information you’re looking for isn’t available yet.
50/50 is pretty steep. Glad to see the PR machine is working though.
Nice work guys. Game on!
Is this just gambit embedded in flash or am I missing something? seems like the gambit guys could get this done in 2 days if they wanted, with much higher than 50/50. Not to mention offerpal, super rewards, trialpay, etc etc etc