Krone and Aon.at have joined Trymedia’s distibution network of downloadable games, with 4,200 affiliates offering over 650 titles.
The two companies join AOL UK, which is providing its members with instant access to hundreds of major game titles for purchase and download from a co-branded site on the AOL UK service. AOL UK is the first major UK ISP to offer Trymedia’s complete catalogue of downloads to users.
Trymedia’s partners include Atari, Activision Value and Team 17, along with many others. Titles available from the Trygames site include bestsellers like Prince of Persia, Driver and Temple of Elemental Evil.
Broadband adoption now means that a 550 mb download for a game is no longer unthinakble – just ask all the gamers who have eagerly downloaded Half-Life 2 from Steam in the past week or so. Industry analysts are predicting that the market for downloadable games will pass US$270 million (€220 million) in 2009.
“You don’t need to be a games-focused website to generate revenue from downloadable games,” said Gabe Zichermann, Trymedia’s VP of Strategy and Communications. “As clearly demonstrated by the strong growth of Trymedia’s distribution channel and its revenues, we believe that all Internet destinations can benefit from adding an outsourced games channel that delivers increased visitors, retention, stickiness and direct revenues.”
Games distributed via Trymedia’s technologies are protected by the ActiveMARK content protection system. The DRM system allows consumers to make back up copies of games and even play them on multiple computers. They are even allowed to give copies to others – though the copy then reverts to free trial mode, giving an incentive for the recipient to register and pay for the copy.
