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Telltale Games' Dan Connors

CEO discusses his company's decision to go digital ahead of the crowd and why episodic has worked so well

Feature by Kath Brice Contributor
Published on
GamesIndustry.biz So within a series of episodes, how many players drop off from start to finish? How many would, for example, download the first free one, then perhaps not return?
Dan Connors

Well that's Fable's model, that the first one satisfies the need for the product and when it comes time to sell the second one, they've already had enough Fable. Unless they can make something really compelling in the story to move people to the next one, then they run into that problem of converting them into paying customers. So they're going to need to convert them again.

Now the good news is they have an install base to talk to. At Telltale what we found is we've had success in selling the season at a discount – selling all of the episodes in the season – and then it really changes the attitude of the player because they've bought in. They've already bought the game and when the new game comes, they're anticipating it and they're excited to get it, and consume it and get ready for the next one.

It's not like they need to be sold again, it's like they're getting an exciting thing in the mail, or an exciting email or something. We've found that people that want to pick up all five and sign up for subscription look forward to that monthly subscription like you look forward to your favourite magazine, or anything you would care enough about to get a subscription to.

GamesIndustry.biz And Fable II also has the advantage of letting consumers buy it in a box or download it. Which smaller developers may not have the luxury of doing. Do you think signing with a publisher is still a good option if it enables a studio to take both routes to market?
Dan Connors

I think it has potential and I think there's a lot of opportunity. We've built a lot of content in our multiple seasons and they could be packed up as many different types of retail products. Like a best of, series or holiday special with all of our Christmas or Halloween specials from Sam & Max. There's a lot of different opportunities as far as what you can bring to market and if you can find a flexible publishing partner who is interested in exploring different ways of selling the content then I think there's a lot of opportunity there.

GamesIndustry.biz In your experience are publishers willing to experiment in that sort of way?
Dan Connors

I think they all feel like they need to start making moves into digital. And I think there's certainly a need to try new things, and marketing departments are always looking for new ways to sell the games. So I think there's still interest, but a lot of the energy in the bigger companies is going towards their big fall Q3/Q4 releases and that's what the bulk of the company is riding on. Focusing on anything that takes energy away from that is difficult for them. There are a lot of publishers out there looking for more cost effective ways to be in business using not just the big blockbuster model, and those are the partners that are going to be flexible.

GamesIndustry.biz Telltale is very proactive in communicating with its community. It's something Charles Cecil spoke about recently – that he believes people are more likely to pay for games and support them if they come from a company they have a relationship with, instead of a faceless corporation. Is that a sentiment you agree with, and was the community aspect a conscious decision you made?
Dan Connors

I don't know how conscious our choice was. We knew we wanted to build a website. We knew we had a lot of good voices to talk to fans with what we were doing. And we just let the team treat the community like they were all friends. Our corporate voice was a friendly one. We heard what they said and sometimes we pushed back, sometimes we engaged the conversation, sometimes they'd say stupid things, sometimes they'd flame. But I think people feel very much like they know Telltale, and that certainly has created a really strong core for us to work with.

I think the most exciting bit about the whole thing is when we're building the episodes, the level of engagement with the community has led to this creation of the game that's almost like doing live programming in a way. We're building the game and we're talking to the community at the same time, and there's a real strong connection. It's not like we're alone in a vacuum building something that we hope people will like. We're building something that people are telling us how they feel about and we're engaged with them and I think it leads to a different experience. And it's really only the tip of the iceberg so far as how you can integrate community into the games that you're building and the entertainment that you're building.

GamesIndustry.biz PSPgo has just been released and is the first games console to really make a bold step in the digital world. What do you think of it?
Dan Connors

I think kudos to Sony for continuing to push the envelope. You look at the number of games that are selling on the iPhone and it's a pretty safe idea for them. And for us, as a digital distribution company that builds content the right size and a style of play that maps easily across multiple platforms, we're always happy to see someone pushing out a new platform and making it possible to get in front of new gamers. I'm very impressed with this step that they're taking and as we continue to move towards handhelds, it's certainly going to be part of our plan.