Pedro_Magna

5 ms·

1.
by Pedro_Magna 4y ago
With shorter games, the model is still a challenge. Pay-what-you-want is an interesting idea.
2.
by Pedro_Magna 4y ago
To get players, we're looking at influencer partnerships. That's where the indie community tends to be. To get games, it is a bit tougher. Individual outreach, partnership with large publishers, partner with gaming conventions...
3.
by Pedro_Magna 4y ago
Really? What do you think about the streaming quality?
4.
by Pedro_Magna 4y ago
the constraints of canva hehe. Good that you like the idea, streaming is interesting but as said in other replies, its presents a much tougher business model. Hopefully one day!
5.
by Pedro_Magna 4y ago
Why would they? They've got great things going on with the bundles and now HB choice/monthly. Same for Steam and other large storefronts.
6.
by Pedro_Magna 4y ago
Depends a lot on the game and player. It's true, there are many short, narrative indies out there. But there are also roguelikes, strategy games, simulation, survival, city-builders, etc. which can be infinitely replayable. Even a game
7.
by Pedro_Magna 4y ago
Basically, we pay a higher price per player than Spotify pays per listener, which closes out with the unit economics of indie game sales. Whereas Spotify represented a huge drop in revenue per listener to artists (before piracy), we are kee
8.
by Pedro_Magna 4y ago
Love this, you just gave us a pot of golden ideas, thanks!
9.
by Pedro_Magna 4y ago
Could you expand on why you think this?
10.
by Pedro_Magna 4y ago
I feel like a Mac first sub would be too limited in market, something like 95% of the players on Steam use windows as an OS. Shame to hear that though, I think we'd probably have to win you as a consumer some other way maybe... competi
11.
by Pedro_Magna 4y ago
Thanks for the feedback! The website needs some work to sell the games better, we're working on it!
12.
by Pedro_Magna 4y ago
Interesting, most of the devs we talk to are pretty concerned about not having DRM. Same goes for implementation, they want the least amount of work possible. You're right about penalizing smaller titles though, we're trying to fi
13.
by Pedro_Magna 4y ago
Yep, that's why we haven't approached them and have focused more on indie publishers and devs, although a partnership with them could be interesting
14.
by Pedro_Magna 4y ago
Thanks for the tip! Will look into it
15.
by Pedro_Magna 4y ago
Those are all valid points, but I think the trade off might not favor them. Although piracy mighttt in some situations help games, I don't see how it could help us. No free trial would mean we miss out on users too. Plus, from what we&
16.
by Pedro_Magna 4y ago
Having some kind of "early access/alpha" is an idea we had, but something more like patron is a really good idea. Thanks for the suggestions on network effects! We're doing our first YT partnership on Monday, so I'm
17.
by Pedro_Magna 4y ago
Glad to hear you like it! Haven't done that, but it's pretty easy to find some really great hidden gems! We already have a few really amazing titles that are quite small on other platforms, check out Existensis, Evertried or Super
18.
by Pedro_Magna 4y ago
Great book, already read it! I don't think GOG is very good for the developers, and not having DRM would also harm our business as we'd miss out on subscribers that pirate games and leave. I appreciate your opinion on the value pr
19.
by Pedro_Magna 4y ago
It is both a requirement from the devs/publishers, but also for ourselves. Without DRM, someone could make a free trial, pirate all our games, cancel their sub and play them out without paying. That's a pretty interesting article
20.
by Pedro_Magna 4y ago
People complain a lot about Steam DRM, but I'm hoping players will be less critical on our case since we're a subscription service.
21.
by Pedro_Magna 4y ago
We could offer more stuff on top of the distributed subscriptions. But, we're not going to be changing our model without letting developers know. I'm pretty sure we'd be committing some kind of fraud.
22.
by Pedro_Magna 4y ago
Fair criticism, the model right now truly favors replayable games. If a game sells for $20, it probably gets $10 after commissions and sales taxes. That's probably mean someone needs to play a game for a little under 2 months to earn t
23.
by Pedro_Magna 4y ago
User retention is quite tricky, especially for gaming. We think that it won't be too hard adding new content, since there are so many titles releasing each year, but getting highly anticipated titles might be tough. We think part of t
24.
by Pedro_Magna 4y ago
Placed it really well! Ultimately, it comes down to the business model. Streaming is very capital intensive and requires more tech built out, both from us and the devs (adding barriers to entry to MagnaPlay). Streaming is definitely going
25.
by Pedro_Magna 4y ago
Nope! We pay devs by distributing player subscriptions at the individual level, not the aggregate. I.e. what others play on a given month doesn't affect how we'll distribute your subscription in that month. This way, devs are meri
26.
by Pedro_Magna 4y ago
Not us! Funny coincidence though. We chose "Magna" because it means great/big in latin, maybe they had a similar idea. Interesting service too, hadn't heard of it before. Was it discontinued? I saw the website didn'
27.
by Pedro_Magna 4y ago
That's a good idea, I think partnerships are definitely the way to go, especially with content producers like HB. White-labeling is also very interesting, we know of a few really good examples of that in the mobile market. Probably som
28.
Launch HN: MagnaPlay (YC W23) – Indie gaming subscription service for PC
94 points by Pedro_Magna 4y ago|114 comments