Thursday, February 25, 2010
By: Matthew Doucette
Listen to Matthew Doucette of Xona Games speak on software pricing (mp3 link) at InNOVAcorp's Business Over Breakfast:
Business Over Breakfast: Software Product and Service Pricing and Packaging Strategies
(mp3 podcast: 58.9 MB)
There were three of us on the panel:
- Matthew Doucette, Game Designer and Producer, Xona Games (xona.com)
- Patrick Hankinson, Director of Marketing, Tether (tether.com)
- Duncan Enman, Founder, Can Stock Photo (canstockphoto.com)
It was a pleasure to meet both of them. This was an amazing experience for me, to pretend to be an expert! The crowd was 30 to 50 people in size, mostly business and media related. There's amazing talent in Nova Scotia, Canada! Tether was the overall provincial winner of the I-3 Technology Start-Up Competition we entered and won.
Here's a breakdown of the session, as quoted from InNOVAcorp (some links added by me):
Hear from Patrick Hankinson, director of marketing for Tether, Matthew Doucette, Game Producer of Xona Games, and Duncan Enman, founder of Can Stock Photo, as they discuss the logic of their pricing strategies and what they have learned about pricing’s impact on top and bottom line growth.
Patrick Hankinson, Director of Marketing, Tether (www.tether.com) – Tether has developed a simple and inexpensive way for laptop users to connect to the internet through smartphones, including the BlackBerry. For users who do not have free wired or WiFi access, but need to connect their laptops to the internet in an airport or a taxi, for example, Tether enables them to quickly connect through their smartphones, for a one-time fee, without incurring any additional charges. Tether has attracted worldwide media attention, including coverage in The New York Times, and has already been sold to thousands of users. In addition to his role with Tether, Patrick is president of Ninja Otter Inc., a marketing and advertising company.
Matthew Doucette, Game Designer and Producer, Xona Games (www.xona.com) – Xona Games is an independent game development studio targeting Xbox 360 and PC gaming platforms. The company concentrates on intensifying retro-style games and has already gained international recognition, placing 7th in the world and 2nd in Canada in Microsoft’s 2009 Dream Build Play competition. Xona’s game Decimation X is the number one rated Xbox LIVE Indie Game in Japan.
Duncan Enman, Founder, Can Stock Photo (www.canstockphoto.com) – Can Stock Photo is a microstock agency, a company that sells stock photos and illustrations very affordably. Duncan founded the company in 2004, and it soon became the busiest stock-photo site in the country, today representing 2.2 million photos and 50,000 members. In 2008, US-based stock-photo giant Fotosearch acquired Can Stock Photo and hired Duncan to run the company.
Panel moderator – Dan MacDonald, President and CEO, Innovacorp
(See more InNOVAcorp discuession at their Business Over Breafast Series.)
About the Author: I am Matthew Doucette of Xona Games, an award-winning indie game studio that I founded with my twin brother. We make intensified arcade-style retro games. Our business, our games, our technology, and we as competitive gamers have won prestigious awards and received worldwide press. Our business has won $190,000 in contests. Our games have ranked from #1 in Canada to #1 in Japan, have become #1 best sellers in multiple countries, have won game contests, and have held 3 of the top 5 rated spots in Japan of all Xbox LIVE indie games. Our game engines have been awarded for technical excellence. And we, the developers, have placed #1 in competitive gaming competitions -- relating to the games we make. Read about our story, our awards, our games, and view our blog.