Handango Backs Multi-player, Wireless Games

Posted By: Ed Friday, June 14, 2002 8:25:52 AM

Handango has announced a deal with Pixel Technologies Ltd. to licence its JIVE multi-player cross platform technology. Handango will host JIVE powered multi-player servers and publish multi-player games developed by both Pixel and third parties.

Free trials of multi-player games are now available from Handango. The first commercial multi-player games will be launched in the fourth quarter of this year and will include a total of ten games for the Palm OS and other platforms.

"Games are a best-selling category in the mobile software market, and this is a groundbreaking partnership to grow that category even more rapidly," said Laura Rippy, chief executive officer of Handango.

According to a recent study by the ARC Group, there are 42.9 million wireless gaming users worldwide. By 2006, wireless gaming is predicted to jump ahead of music in popularity with almost 850 million global users.

This is part of a campaign from Handango to increase development and sales of mobile games. It has just started a section on its site dedicated to games and created a new dedicated games newsletter, the Handango Champion -- Games Edition.

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Perfect for Palm OS Smart Phones

I.M. Anonymous @ 6/14/2002 10:27:30 AM #

If they pull this off correctly they may have a winner - much better than WAP based games - and with much larger developer support. Handspring, Kyocera, and Samsung should do whatever it takes to make sure this gets off the ground.

RE: Perfect for Palm OS Smart Phones

I.M. Anonymous @ 6/14/2002 1:56:39 PM #

Multiplayer gaming could be the killer app for smartphones. I hope the games are good.

Developers are starting to boycott Handango

I.M. Anonymous @ 6/14/2002 10:09:40 AM #

Handango's extortionate commission charges are hurting shareware developers chances to get established or even just to stay in business. More and more developers are getting sick of having to use Handango. Handango charges start at 30% of the takings from the sale price, and spiralling up to taking 60% from the developers and this is plainly wrong.

Handango are behaving like a greedy go-between because they keep telling people they are the only choice and keep pushing the idea that they are the only real choice for developers. So the more people hear it said, the more people start to think there must be some truth in it. But it's not true, it's just what Handango's marketing department wants people to think. Handango are building one hell of a bad reputation for themselves. They should be a lot more careful as it's the developers who they support themselves upon. If Handango had no new products to sell, they would go out of business. Handango needs the developers more than the developers need Handango. New software sales companies are starting up with far lower commissions and more and more developers have had enough of working with Handango.

If you want to read more about this, there's currently a discussion on one of the PocketPC sites and while this is obviously a PalmOs site and so no great love of PocketPC, it shows what Handango is like and the sentiments of developers, and many shareware developers already work on both PalmOs and PocketPc products, so there is some cross over for developers. The bottom line is that Handango have lost the trust and respect of developers, the same people Handango has to depend upon to survive.

http://www.pocketgamer.org/showthread.php?threadid=545

RE: Developers are starting to boycott Handango

wm5051 @ 6/14/2002 1:33:30 PM #

Business

The Handango argument is interesting. In fact, it reminds me the AvantGo argument a few months back. I think the problem here is perspective.

What we are seeing is the maturing of a market. The prices that companies like AvantGo and Handango charge are researched and studied before they are put into place. The costs of running the business have to be weighed against what they offer their customers. In the end, they price their products according to their findings.

So this should not be anything new to anyone reading these boards. At the same time, you should look at what Handango is really offering developers.

Obviously it is a centralized location for mobile software. So just by being listed there, your software is many times more likely to be found by a potential customer.

They provide the e-commerce engine and support for transactions.

They provide the marketing. If you go to the Microsoft, Palm, Handspring, Sony, Casio or Compaq Web site and look for handheld software you will see that they are ALL powered by Handango. If you open the box of the new Palm you bought, you will see there is a flyer for Handango. No other handheld outlet has that kind of reach. Palmgear might have at one point, but Handango has surely surpassed them now.

Ask any software company how much of their revenues go to marketing, distribution, and sales costs and I think it is fair to say you are looking at a MINIMUM of 40% of the cost, and in most cases it is higher.

And now we turn to AvantGo.

By becoming a Channel Partner, your content is exposed to the LARGEST handheld network in the world.

When you open the box of a new Palm OS handheld chances are there is an AvantGo CD in the box. When you turn on a new Pocket PC, AvantGo is the ONLY third party software included as part of the operating system.

They have advanced tracking and monitoring tools that allow content providers to know their audience better and MONETIZE those audiences.

The truth is, AvantGo and Handango are out to make money. They only want to deal with developers and content providers that are looking to do the same. To me this is a good thing. If the mobile economy cannot turn a profit, we are looking at bigger problems for everyone.

So the message is, if you cannot afford to play the game go somewhere else. Mazingo, iSilo, PocketGear and others are offering solutions now that cost little if nothing and they are picking up the runoff. They do not offer the same reach or depth that Handango and AvantGo do, but you get what you pay for. As tough as it is, that is life.

RE: Developers are starting to boycott Handango

I.M. Anonymous @ 6/14/2002 1:52:36 PM #

30% sounds outrageous but it really isn't. Go into a store a take a look at a $60 shirt. Odds are, the store paid less than $40 for it. If it is a big department store, they probably paid less than $30.

If you don't like Handango, don't list your software with them. I'll bet you find out the exposure is worth every penny you pay because promoting your own products is expensive.

RE: Developers are starting to boycott Handango

I.M. Anonymous @ 6/14/2002 6:00:45 PM #

I like PalmGear, too. But unless PalmGear will pay my check *on-time,* I'll eventually skip to Handango.

RE: Developers are starting to boycott Handango

I.M. Anonymous @ 6/15/2002 12:50:57 PM #

It's not just business.

"What we are seeing is the maturing of a market"
That comment above is just spin-doctor manipulative talk, which basically means in this case, the growth of a very aggressive company with a monopoly trying to push out any other company in whatever way it can. That is very bad for consumers and developers.

"So just by being listed there, your software is many times more likely to be found by a potential customer."
That's actually not an advantage for any developer, as people need to find that developer's software on the Handango web site. Try doing that even when you are specifically looking for a product on Handango. It's not easy at all. And the more developers Handango gets, the more difficult it becomes for all developers just to have their products found on the site. So it's not such a great advantage to be listed on Handango as Handango's marketing department wants people to believe.

"They provide the e-commerce engine and support for transactions."
That is worth *ONLY* 10% to 15% maximum. Check out other 3rd party ecommerce engines. This is what they are starting to offer. (And I don't mean PalmGear, there are other 3rd party ecommerce engines to put on the developer's own web site). And here is one of the major problems with Handango. While they have access to the hardware manufacturers, then they can ask for a far higher percentage, which they do, which is 30%. However, they cannot justify their increasing scale of percentages which go up to 60%!!.

Surely if a product is good, it should be the developer who gets the majority of the money so they can continue to go onto write more good products. It's only fair and right. Letting Handango take up to over half the money is totally wrong. Handango's argument is if the product sells well then it's *solely* because of Handango, which is totally false. If it's a good product, it sells well, which is because of the work the developer put into the product to make it a good product. And Handango don't have marketing campaigns for the vast majority of products on their site because it's impossible for them to market all products all equally. Yet they claim they do. It's impossible for them to market even just hundreds of products all the same amount and yet they base their increasing percentage takings from the developers on this false claim.

"They provide the marketing"
No, Handango do not have marketing campaigns for the vast majority of products. And only products Handango specifically do marketing campaigns for can claim to have a right for Handango to take increasing percentages of the money. Handango do specific marketing for very few products, yet all developers pay increasing percentages for the sole sake of increasing Handango's profit with no benefit to the vast majority of developers. Very few developers get the benefit from Handango's specific product marketing so all developers that do not have specific marketing campaigns run by Handango should not have to pay an increasing percentage of money. 30% is already way more than enough and more than any other company. Then adding on top, yet more increasing percentages is very wrong.

Also, Handango's spiralling percentages are based on total software sales, which is again very wrong, because if a developer has say 20 products on sale, then they are far more likely to suffer Handango taking more money from them as Handango's percentage takings are based on sales per developer, not sales per product. The more products a developer writes, means the more work the developer puts into their business, it does not have anything to do with work done by Handango so Handango's basis for the increasing percentages is yet again very wrong.

"Ask any software company how much of their revenues go to marketing, distribution, and sales costs and I think it is fair to say you are looking at a MINIMUM of 40% of the cost, and in most cases it is higher. "
No, shareware companies which are the vast majority of software development companies working on PDAs do not suffer a minimum of 40% for marketing etc.. They are companies with low overheads which is how they can try to earn a living in this relatively small market place.

The bottom line is that almost all consumers do not want to pay more than they have to. So unless you work for Handango, its very unlikely you would want to pay more just for the benefit of Handango.

Consumers are very against paying extra just to pay for a greedy company that is trying to push the message that it's the only real choice in the PDA market place. This is just what Handango's marketing department wants people to think. It's not true and developers are moving away from Handango.

RE: Developers are starting to boycott Handango

wm5051 @ 6/15/2002 11:11:18 PM #

Then, as I said before...

"So the message is, if you cannot afford to play the game go somewhere else."

I am all for competition. If a third party commerce engine is less and suits your needs, use them. If enough users want to boycott Handango and move to another service, you might get your message heard. But if you want to have your software available to Amazon, Palm, Micosoft and other sites' customers, Handango is the only game in town.

RE: Developers are starting to boycott Handango

wm5051 @ 6/15/2002 11:14:46 PM #

And for the record, I do not work for, nor do I have any association with Handango.

RE: Developers are starting to boycott Handango

I.M. Anonymous @ 6/16/2002 7:29:04 AM #

In business, the reputation of a company does matter.

Handango supports itself upon the work of developers. Handango gives developers no choice other than having to accept the worst possible deal that Handango's staff think they can get away.

By all means in business, I am sure most people accept that negotiations of deals is hard fought, but Handango are going to far and in the process harming their reputation and more importantly, Handango is failing to win the long term support and loyalty of developers. Handango's staff are just looking at the short term gain for Handango from squeezing developers for all they can. Handango's staff are failing to look to the longer term implications of how they treat developers. Using a very aggressive stance against developers is not going to work in the long term. Developers are supposed to be Handango's business partners. Handango needs developers more than developers need Handango. Handango is not winning the support of developers, Handango is trying to force the support of developers and Handango wants people to believe they are the only choice in business. This is not the case. There are other ways to market. This is not a bricks and mortar business model where a distributor can hope to dominate shop chain distribution. The PDA software business is online software distribution, so overheads and running costs are far lower than conventional retail businesses and far easier to setup.

One of the worst parts of Handango's deal is the increasing percentages. (As already explained, its not justified at all for the vast majority of developers). These percentages hurt developers and more importantly in the long term, it makes it a very bad deal to get involved with. This puts developers off even wanting to sign up with Handango. It's a very bad deal.

Your attitude sounds like you think the only people who don't want to work with Handango are the little companies, whereas this also implies Handango is a major choice for bigger companies. This is wrong. If anything, the increasing percentages make it an ever increasingly bad deal the more the developer earns. So the perception is that bigger developers will suffer more from trying to work with Handango. However, for the little companies with obvious hopes and plans to grow larger, the increasing percentages are seen as a major obstacle to growth. Even just starting with 30% is a major obstacle to growth. Starting at 30% is already painfully high, but then adding the increasing percentages is totally unjustified and Handango are the only one's with such a bad deal. So for both small and large developers, Handango's deal is very bad.

Its just in the PalmOs (and PocketPC) markets, Handango are trying to build the belief they are the only choice for business. This is not the case and if Handango do not chance their stance with developers then Handango's business will suffer. If Handango is to grow its business and get new developers to sign up to it, then its got to change how it treats developers. Handango is by far the worst deal around.

So the message should be, Handango needs to change if it even hopes to progress. Developers, especially games developers are a very close community where so many people know other people. Avoiding signing up with Handango is an ever increasing topic of conversation. Many developers have had enough.