AMOEBA MOBILE GAMES

Business plan

By

HARISH RANJAN SINHA

 Table of Contents

1.0 Introduction

1.1 Objectives

1.2 Mission

1.3 Vision

2.0Management Summary

2.1 Organizational Structure

2.2 Management Team

3.0 Services

3.1 Service Description

3.2 Technology

3.3 Product Portfolio

4.0 Market Analysis Summary

4.1 Market Overview

4.2 Indian Market Overview

4.3 Indian Consumer Behavior

4.3 Market Size

4.4 Market Segmentation

4.5 Value Chain

4.6 Distributing a Service

4.7 Main Competitors

4.8 Porter’s 5 force analysis

5.0 Marketing and Implementation Strategy

5.1 Business Model

5.2 Pricing

5.3 Marketing Strategy

5.4 Billing Model

5.5 Future Sales Strategy

5.6 Critical Success Factors

5.7 Certification

5.8 Limitations

6.0 Financial Plan

6.1 Budgets

6.2 Projected sales

6.3 Break even

7.0 Conclusion

8.0 Reference

1. Introduction:
Amoeba is formed as a mobile gaming company specializing in developing & marketing mobile
games. It offers mobile network service providers, a value added service. Initial focus will be
development of urban areas & later expanding to rural areas. Amoeba, a Bangalore based
company, owned by principal investors & principal operators. Bangalore was chosen as
headquarter due to the availability of IT infrastructure in the city. Industry competition comes in
several forms, the most significant being those companies who develops mobile games. Few of
these are - SmackAll, Cellufun, Gameloft, Dhruva etc. These companies are generalist in nature
& do not focus on particular niche market. The advantage of Amoeba over others is that it
provides high- level complete gaming solutions to the end users. In the future, Amoeba will
broaden its coverage by opening own retail chains which will be providing mobile games to the
end users. We will cater only to high – end segment, the price of our games will range between
Rs. 100 to 150. Our primary focus will be service provider’s like- Airtel, Hutch, and reliance etc.

1.1 Objective

1. Having 20% of the market by 2015.

2. Total high end service quality.

1.2 Mission

Amoeba is a mobile gaming company providing high end single player & multiplayer games for
existing and next-generation web-enabled mobile phones. We offer Mobile Entertainment in the
best possible way to the clients. We have an exclusive expert team for research on new
innovations and development. Our development team provides a successful porting and testing
solutions.

1.3 Vision

Our vision is to bring state of the art single player & multiplayer gaming to the world's most
prevalent and rapidly growing personal computing platform – the cell phone.

2.0 Management Summary

The initial Management team depends on the founders themselves, with little back-up. As we
grow, we will take on graphic/editorial, sales and marketing team.

2.1 Organizational Structure

Amoeba will be managed by working partners. In the beginning we assume 3-5 partners:

The Organization has to be flat in the beginning, with each of the founders responsible for his
own work and management.

2.2 Management Team

The Amoeba business team requires a very high level of technical expertise which means that it
will be not be easily leveragable in the common company mode in which partners run the
business and make sales, while associates fulfill. Partners will necessarily be involved in the
fulfillment of the core business proposition, providing the expertise to the clients. The initial
personal plan is still tentative. It should involve 3-5 partners, one strong graphical person with
good staff support, one strong marketing person , an officer manager , and a secretary. Later we
will add more technical and sales team.

3.0 Services:
“Amoeba” will offer high end games development expertise to all its clients and customers.
Amoeba realizes the varying needs of business, and so will offer its clients with adapted
solutions at a reasonable cost. We are a extremely talented team of professionals that give us the
flexibility to deliver customize solutions to our clients consistently.

3.1 Products/Services Description:

· Mobile Games
· Web Design, development and hosting
· Multimedia
· Customized software

3.2 Technology:

Amoeba will maintain the latest Mobile platforms capabilities that include:
· Brew
· J2ME
· Symbian
· Microsoft Windows Mobile
· Palm Source

3.3 Product Portfolio:

· Bollywood Games
· Sports Games
· Games with religious themes
· Advert games (games which are based on a storyline developed around a brand, for
brand promotion)
· Localized International Games for the Indian market
· Games with Indian theme intended for a global audience
· Social awareness games (games developed and distributed in order to create awareness
about certain social issues)
· Crosswords
· Dictionary
· Geographical contours games

4 Market Analysis Summary

4.1 Market Overview:

Strong growth and innovation in the wireless communications industry has led to the emergence
of thewireless entertainment market. Factors such as the rapidly increasing availability of multi-
media capable phones, unprecedented growth in the number of wireless subscribers and
deployment of nextgeneration wireless networks are responsible for the enormous growth being
experienced in the wireless entertainment market. The global mobile phone entertainment is
expected to double over the next 5 years reaching $38.1bn by 2011. In the year 2006 the mobile
entertainment market generated world wide revenues of $18.8bn. Of this music and images
dominated the revenues accounting for around 64% of the total revenues. It is estimated that
mobile games and mobile video which together represented 25% of the total entertainment
revenues in 2006 will increase to 50% in the next 5 years. The Asian Contribution of the total
entertainment revenue is expected to reach 37% by 20111.

4.2 Indian Market Overview:

The market for gaming development in India was estimated at USD 30 million in 2005. It is
expected to witness a CAGR of 78 percent and reach USD 300 million by 2009. Mobile gaming
will dominate the market with its share in the total Indian gaming market (from the developers'
perspective) expected to increase from 53 percent in 2005 to 68 percent by 2009. Key services
currently outsourced in gaming include production and testing activities. In animation and as
well as in gaming, a number of Indian companies are changing their business model and are
moving from an outsourcing to a co-production model2.

Why Mobile Gaming in India? A typical game title today takes around 24 months to make and
will have a production budget of $ 4 -10 million. The game industry is under increasing pressure
to reduce development time and the cost of production. Reason enough for major publishers and
studios to look at outsourcing development. This is where the Indian game developers with their
world-class quality and game development experience step in. India has excellent programmers
and the rapid growth of the market is adding to the allure. The Indian market has 4 to 6 large
game development companies with 50 seats and more, while there are another 100 odd small
game developers with 5 to 10 seats, which are dedicated to developing for the wireless. Leading
Indian game companies like Indiagames, Dhruva Interactive, Paradox and Mobile2Win develop
for a range of platforms such as PC, console, wireless and online.

4.3 Key Segments in Indian Market:

Outsourcing to India in this sector can be divided into three broad segments:
1. Computer games that are delivered on disks or CD- ROMs and played on a PC.
2. Video games that use dedicated consoles to play the game.
3. Wireless games market that is dominated primarily by games played on mobile phones.

Indian companies are aggressively developing games in all these three segments. India has
carved a niche for itself even in the console market dominated by giants like Sony's Playstation
2, Nintendo's Game Cube and Microsoft's Xbox. Another overlapping segment has opened up
with the advent of online functionality in the computer and video games market. Nearly 1.5
million people in the United States played games online using their Playstation 2 or Xbox
console in 2003, with that number expected to rise to 5.4 million in 2007. With online
connectivity, data can be updated constantly by downloading content, making the game fresh and
relevant throughout the season. The console and PC based online gaming are separate non-
competitive markets although Indian companies produce games for both worlds. Console games
are more action oriented and graphics heavy while PC based games tend to focus on role-playing
and first person viewpoints. Indian companies cater to online only game sites as well, with titles

1
Source: Informa telecoms and media
2
Source: Nasscom study of India mobile industry
delivered via download or streaming technologies rather than on a disk. Big names such as AOL,
MSN and Yahoo are joining the likes of Shockwave and RealNetworks to offer online gaming
communities. Online only games tend to be simple, often based on puzzles, board games and
quizzes. Another small sector is that of Advergames, where companies look at enhancing their
brand image by employing games to hook the user to a particular brand. These games are not
restricted to the Net and can be deployed offline, on media like kiosks.

4.4 Indian Consumer Behavior:

As derived from the survey done by Nokia on various parameters in the Indian market on mobile
gaming, the following characteristics were observed in the Indian market.

• The vast majority of Indian respondents (96%) play mobile games at least once a week
with the average session lasting 38.9 minutes.
• Typically, 87% prefer to play at home followed by playing while traveling/commuting
(62%) and while waiting (41%).
• Nokia’s next generation mobile gaming option is preferred (68%) over its Java 2D (14%)
and Java 3D (17%) counterparts.
• Quality of graphics (93%) and good game play (89%) are key motivators when
considering which mobile games to purchase.
• Quality of graphics (93%) and quality of sound (91%) are the most important features
when deciding to play Nokia’s next generation mobile games.
• Almost half (48%) would prefer to get their games over-the-air (OTA) while 31% would
prefer to get them over-the-internet (OTI).
• If given an opportunity to trial a game before buying it, 43% would prefer to trial two to
three games per week as opposed to only one (15%).
• Paying for a full game outright (49%) is a more popular option than paying by
subscription (36%). Only 15% prefer to pay by the level.
• 23% play multiplayer games on their mobile phones everyday while33% play at least
once a week but not everyday.
• 89% are interested in sending demos of games to friends while 92% are likely to trial
games sent by friends.

4.5 Market Size:

1. Outsourced projects from the global players (publishers).

2. Games development contracts from handset manufacturers
3. Games development contracts from Carriers.
4. Retail customers across the globe and India (in particular).

The Indian Mobile development industry is a $100mn business with an annual growth rate of
100%. The domestic demand comprises 20% of this business and this share is expected to grow
30% by 2010. Not only these, a large no of these games are being developed in India and the
country is slowly becoming an outsourcing hub for global wireless mobile gaming market.
The no of cell phone subscribers in 2006 was around 128 million among which 35 – 40%
handsets were gaming capable. This makes our market very lucrative. This advancement in the
handsets is expected to keep growing at the rate of 20%. So we have a good consumer base to
target.

4.4 Market Segmentation:

High End Mobile Handset Market: Mobile Handsets supporting features like Edge, 3G, WiFi,
and high end Symbian and Windows Mobile Platforms. We offer 3D graphic games which take
the Gamers to the next level of Gaming.

4.5 Target Customers:

Not every game appeals to every player. So our target consumers are casual players both male
and female, players under 10 and the teenagers, sport players, action gamers. We have games
targeted at business executives as well as elder age group.

4.6 Channel of distribution:

Handset Manufacturers: We look forward to enter into an agreement with the handset
manufacturers to offer 7 day trial versions of our Games. After the Trial period the games can be
purchased from our website. Service Providers – Hutch We offer our Games to be downloaded
through GSM and CDMA Service Providers website. the games can be directly downloaded
through EGDE and GPRS technologies. The games
developed here are as requested by the provider.

Cell Phone Retailers: We have tied up leading Mobile phone Retail Chains like The Mobile
Store , Reliance Web World, and Sangeetha where our games can be installed directly in the
Consumer’s handsets.

Website: Games can also be directly downloaded through our website, and installed in the
handsets. Payments can be made through Credit cards or can be billed in the Consumer’s Mobile
Service Account.
4.7 Main Competitors:

Small Device was founded in early 2001 by industry veterans from US and India. Today, SD is
team of 50+ engineers with a presence both in India and USA, catering to global publishers,
developers and operators. Small Device is the leading Mobile Porting and QA Solutions provider
for publishers, developers and operators globally. SD SMART - SD's proprietary porting process
enables publishers and developers to port java games and applications to a wide range of
handhelds cost effectively and quickly efficiently.

Dhruva Interactive has pioneered game development in India and is the country’s oldest and
most experienced game developer. Dhruva was established in 1997 and is today in its 10th year
in business. Dhruva was the first company from India to be signed on for developing a title by a
major international games publisher, when in December 1998, Infogrames Entertainment
commissioned Dhruva to develop the PC version of their hit title ‘Mission: Impossible’. Over the
years, Dhruva has built an excellent pedigree and reputation as a high quality provider of
outsourced game development services to the global games industry and is considered among the
Top 5 leading providers of such services. Dhruva’s product development and publishing
initiatives are focused on the emerging Indian market; creating and publishing high quality
games with mass-market appeal in India’s contemporary social and cultural context. Dhruva’s
mobile division is an award winning developer of innovative mobile games and the PC games
division is seeding the growth of PC gaming in India with casual, multiplayer titles.In the last 6
years, Dhruva has contributed to the development of over 15 blockbuster games, most recent
work being: Project Gotham Racing 3 (X360), Battlefield: Modern Combat (X360), Forza
Motorsport (Xbox), Asterix & Obelix XXL2: Mission Las Vegum (PS2).
A unique blend of youthful enthusiasm and mature professionalism
Tinfo Mobile is an ideation to creation mobile innovation company. They are equally excited
about developing a 2006 international Best Platform Game winner for an international publisher
and winning awards for the world's first vernacular language learning tool for the mobile again in
2006. That makes us the only Indian wireless company to consecutively win top awards for its
products, year after year. After all, we are in the business of making every sure-shot Aha! a
WOW! experience. Tinfo Mobile is a small team of people with offices in India.
Trinket Media Limited
Trinket Media develops compelling content for the mobile phone market place. They specialize
in both games development for Java enabled handsets and tools development to enable content
licensees and owners to exploit this exciting new media. They also have a range of applications
from content creation tools to high score server and game credit recharge technologies.
Blitz Technology Solutions
The company is specialized in mobile game development. Its development centers are based in
India with services including development of mobile games and applications for mobile phone
devices that support Java platform (J2ME). Other competitors are
· Cellufun
· Cosmic Games
· Gameloft
· Instantcom

4.8 Porter’s 5 Force Analysis:

1. Bargaining Power of Suppliers:
As the industry is booming, the developers, publishers, animators, musicians and content
providers could bargain for a higher compensation.

2. Bargaining power of Buyers:

30% to 40% of the mobile games available in the market are free downloads, this would form as
a basis for bargaining power of gamers to squeeze the price offered in the market by Amoeba.

3. Rivalry among competing Sellers:

Already established players like Dhruva, Indiagames, Mobile2win, Paradox are posing a threat to
Amoeba.

4 . Potential New Entrants:

Cell phone service providers like Airtel, Vodafone and others might want to enter the mobile
gaming segment considering the potential that it offers. This could pose a threat as these well
established companies could exercise their financial power to dominate the industry.

5. Threat of Substitutes:

Specifically designed Video games that cannot be used as phones could be a substitute. Phones
may have limitations in terms of sound, effect and more. However these Video games would
provide a real time gaming experience to gamers thereby it could be a substitute to Mobile
Games.
5.0 Market implementation strategy

5.1 Business Model:

Since we follow a mixed business model (outsourced and co production), the target market base
eventually gets a bit spread. In the beginning of our business and also in later years we will
continue to develop games for third party. We expect this business to contribute 30 - 40% of our
total revenue. Our collaboration with the telecom providers and handset manufacturers to build
games for them and the domestic market (Indian) gives us the flexibility to work and generate
revenues on our own. The company website enables us to reach an infinitely large retail
consumer base. We expect this model to generate 5 -10% of the total revenue. With more
emphasis on business from the telecom providers and subsequently from the web, Amoeba plans
to strengthen its business model and eventually evolve it as a sustainable model to follow.

5.2 Pricing:
The company is aiming to skim the market by its aggressive pricing strategy. Cost of a game
download will be priced in the range of Rs.100 to Rs.150. We expect downloads in a day to be
around (including all the channels) 400 to 500 initially. In a month the revenue is projected to be
in the range of Rs.55000 to Rs.65000. The total revenue in a month only from downloads is
expected to be in the range of Rs.700000 to RS.800000

5.3 Marketing Strategy:

Amoeba is a new company in the mobile game business, so driven by our corporate objective we
will adopt an aggressive marketing strategy. The objective of the marketing strategy will be to:
1. Create an awareness about Amoeba as a mobile game provider
2. Create an interest for the games developed by Amoeba
3. Position Amoeba as a premium high quality game developer and hence establish it asBrand

Marketing Plan:
The launch:
The company decides to launch with great pomp and show. We decide to have the launch at some
IT gaming fest where lots of enthusiastic gamers come including the business and software
professionals. This launch will be followed by a press conference.

Marketing Media:
The company will primarily use print media and web as the major means of promotion.
Magazines like Digit, Chip and Dataquest will not only advertise our products but will also offer
demo versions of some games. The company will develop its web portal where it will show all
its existing games with their features, requirements, price and locations where it is available. It
will also use the portal to provide the games a platform to download the games. The website will
also provide information about the games that are in the development phase and will soon be
launched.

Sponsorship:
Sponsoring college events and IT fest in major cities where we have a large consumer base will
give the company the kind of awareness it seeks. This will also serve as a platform to interact
with the end users.

Carriers as a promotional partner:

The telecom service providers will serve as the promotional partners of the company. SMS send
by the carriers promoting our games will be sent to all its subscribers. Also the postpaid bills and
vouchers will carry games pictures and descriptions at the back.

Online games competitions:

This will not only give the games a live experience of the games but also help us to create a
scintillating effect among the target customers. These competitions which will have cash
rewards, promotional offers and club membership privileges will be an effective way to attract
and generate interest in Amoeba and its offerings (games).

Banners and Posters:

The company plans to use this medium of communication to cater a mass awareness. These
posters containing games snapshots, descriptions will be put at Mobile outlets, company
showrooms, malls, gaming centers.

Audio and Visual Promotions:

Short ads about the games will be aired on radio FM channels; visual ads will be shown in
theaters attracting a large pool of customers.

5.4 Billing Model:

We will follow one or more of the following billing models:
· Charge to phone bill: consumers can put their game purchases on their phone bills and therefore
do not need to enter credit cards or other personal information. This “trusted source” for billing is
very important for the end user.
· Relatively low price: a game price is generally low, facilitating impulse purchases.

· Store open 24/7: gamers can purchase, download and play games whenever and wherever they
want. This makes purchasing of games very easy. The same mechanism that facilitates the
purchase has various options. For example:

As the business will grow the company may follow on or the other billing model. Subscription
model will suit the company’s need in the current growing scenario.

5.5 Future sales strategy:

In the wake of intense competition Amoeba plans to open new venues of revenue generation. We
plan to launch a chain of retail stores which will serve as a one stop destination store for all
mobile game lovers. These stores will not only provide them with a wide range of games and
applications but also guide the consumers on technology and mobile handsets/devices. The stores
will have a unique combination of games and handsets to choose from. We also plan to enter in
to agreements with existing mobile retail chain outlets from the handset manufacturers like
Nokia, Motorola, Sony, Samsung etc, along with stores like Mobile Store
5.6 Critical Success Factors:
We understand that these are the major areas that are unique to cell phone game development and
success. Excellence in fulfilling the promise and developing visibility to generate new games
will help us succeed in the market. While some critical issue that, when addressed will result in
our success are:

1. Porting
2. Development cycle time
3. Cost of Development
4. The number of devices it can run on
5. Making the game available to all
6. Functionality and ease of usability

To make that product available on many handsets and many carriers in order to establish a
market presence we will follow a very aggressive and attention seeking marketing strategy. By
developing a porting strategy from day one will help us to ensure that the applications generate
the profits that they deserve. A far as the development cycle of a game and the number of devices
our game can run on is concerned we, by means of strong technical abilities and passion towards
the business will be able to address satisfactorily.

5.7 Certification:
A game will be considered “defect free” on any platform and on any environment once it
passes functional testing. But due to today’s ever increasing technological and financial
challenges of designing and building a game that will capture a user and bring them back for the
repeat purchase, usability as well as functional testing becomes critical.
Usability testing starts with consistency. “Action” keys perform the same task through each
advancing level, “Soft-keys” display the correct wording relevant to the key’s action, etc. The
same principal applies to many other forms of software on many other hardware platforms. This
ensures ease of use for the user during the play of a new game as well as a low learning curve for
subsequent games that user might purchase. Below are the most relevant requirements that every
development studio and QA department should consider during the game’s production lifecycle.

Menu Options
Menu items should be clear and concise and relate to the game’s overall purpose. With that said
every game should have a variation of the following.

• New Game/Start allows the user to immediately start the game play with a minimum
number of clicks to begin. Save/Load Game allows the user to save their current progress
and begin again from the point of exit at a later time. This type of functionality would
depend on the depth of the game such as an RPG or Action Adventure where each would
have multiple levels.
• Options/Settings allows users to change the game-play variables such as difficulty and
sound/vibrate on or off.
 • Help/Instructions tells the user how to play the game and what keys perform the
necessary actions of the game, and gives any background information about the game that
isn’t apparent to the user.
• Quit/Exit ends the game. Other menu options are encouraged when needed such as High
Score, Community Login, etc. but the core options should always be available.

Sound & Vibrate

Sound and vibration within games add to the experience and at times can enhance the overall
game-play. However, due to the fact that the device is first and foremost a phone neither sound
nor vibrate may be appropriate when in a public setting. Therefore, users should be able to toggle
the vibration and sound of any game from within the game’s main menu structure
(Options/Settings) as well as during game-play. For example this can be accomplished through
the use of a pause menu or quick keys such as the hash or asterisk key.

Soft-keys
When soft-keys aren’t necessary they shouldn’t be made visible to the user. This is true during
loading screens, splash screens, and so forth. When soft-keys are available their function should
be clearly labeled and intuitive. A good example would be “Pause”.

Common Issues
The three most common issues that arise during final QA include memory allocation problems,
canvas sizes, and grammar/punctuation/spelling issues:

Canvas size: The game should fill every possible pixel the phone is capable of
displaying. If there’s real estate, make use of it.

Limitations to development:
The following limitations are there which challenges our abilities to grow.
· Device limitations
· Business model fluctuation
· Bandwidth constraints

6. Financial analysis

6.1 Budget

This is the budget for our initial start up.

6.2 Projected sales:

The company is aiming to skim the market by its aggressive pricing strategy. Cost of a game
download will be priced in the range of Rs.100 to Rs.150. We expect downloads in a day to be
around (including all the channels) 400 to 500 initially. The total revenue in a month only from
downloads is expected to be in the range of Rs.2000000 to RS.2200000

6.3 Break even

If the revenue generated from downloads in one month is around Rs 2000000to
2200000Then in one to two months we will be able to reach the breakeven point.
And after this period of two months the profit will be generated after deducting the
monthly expenses.

Conclusion:
All said and done, with all strategies falling in place we will hope to achieve the set targets
emerge as a big player in the mobile gaming industry in the coming years. As a company we
wish to keep our learning curve always up and grow within limitations.
8.0 Reference:
1. http://www.mobile-weblog.com/50226711/mobile_games_industry_growing.php
2. http://www.mobilejgames.com/index.php/71/general/mobile-game-industry-
focus-on-social-networking-sites
3. http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/sales-of-mobile-games-have-flatlined-
report
4. http://www.3g.co.uk/PR/May2005/1459.htm
5. http://www.pluggd.in/indian-gaming-industry/indian-gaming-industry-zapak-
launches-corporate-gaming-tournament-mobile-games-eye-socionets-1241/
6. http://www.builderau.com.au/news/soa/Mobile-games-hit-next-level-in-
India/0,339028227,339159661,00.htm
7. http://www.softexdigital.com/
8. http://parmesh.net/2006/10/mobile-games-in-india_11.html
9. http://god.indiagames.com/premium/index.jsp
10. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1520039.cms
11. http://www.smackall.com/