Recently, Spotify revealed a staggering 1 million subscribers had signed up to their paid service. A substantial amount of money is being made at Spotify HQ, as these are recurring payments on a monthly basis. This million mark got me thinking about the hit PC sensation, Minecraft. Want to play it? Then you need to make a one-off payment that allows you access to the game before its final release.
Whilst Mojang has made more money than they could have ever dreamed of, it got me thinking about how Notch and the Minecraft team could capitalise on the amount of users it has, and really rack up the dough.
The concept
When listening to the free version of Spotify, you are subjected to the occasional advertisement. A slight annoyance, but a must if the free service is to stay free. What does this have to do with Minecraft though, you ask? Well, in-game ads come to mind. Either a sponsored block here or there, or random spawning advertisement structures might be an idea…
Who’s done it before?
Advertisements in games to a lot of gamers will conjure up pesky spam messages from gold farmers on WOW, or an ad in casual game such as Angry Birds on Android.
This concept is not new and has been successful in the past. Popular first-person shooters CounterStrike 1.6 and Quake Live have utilised ads as either a means of revenue, or to get an extra cash boost from a popular game people aren’t buying as frequently as they used to.
So how would it work?
How could this be done in Minecraft then? Examples of this could be random buildings or logos around the world. Would you object to stumbling across a McDonald’s on your travels?
Or in your attempts to dig some chasms bumping into a sponsored block?
It’s an interesting concept and would help to monetise a franchise that, whilst it is continuing to grow, has a business and marketing angle just ripe for exploitation! A few ideas we’ve been throwing out are things such as:
- Sponsored Items e.g. Coke Can, Chocolate bar
- Ad Based NPC’s (this could get annoying!)
