Yahoo has instituted a flurry of user changes in the past few weeks, canceling its popular online invitation service and charging fees for previously free services such as e-mail forwarding and online data storage. "We've done well on the advertising side, but to really scale the business and keep our strategy moving forward, it's important to us to start putting out services that are worth paying for."
"This is an enhancement to the ad revenue we're seeing from games it's not at all a reaction to the business model not working on that side," he said. While declining to give specific numbers, Hart said games have become one of the more profitable parts of the Yahoo empire. "The bottom line is that if you're going to start charging people, you have to offer some significant improvement of the game experience."
"I think there's going to be a lot of experimentation about how to get money from online gaming," she said. While most paid gaming services have focused on offering exclusive content, Yahoo's premium-blend approach could pay off, said IDC gaming analyst Schelley Olhava. While fantasy role-playing games such as " EverQuest" have attracted substantial subscription-paying audiences, the vast majority of online play centers on free, advertising-supported games such as checkers or cribbage. Yahoo reports it hosts more than 3.5 billion minutes of online game play per month.īut online games have been a tough business proposition. Yahoo Games is the second most popular games site, after Electronic Arts' service, according to recent Nielsen/NetRatings rankings.
We think this will make it easier for people to focus on having fun." "The ability to be the leader of your own league and set the rules in that environment was an idea people really liked. "What we heard is that users want to take more control over their experience in the games, both in the community aspect and the game play," he said.
Subscription prices are $7.95 a month, $19.95 for three months, or $59.95 for a full year.ĭan Hart, senior director of games and entertainment for Yahoo, said the selection of new features was based to a large degree on user feedback. Other premium services will include tools for running tournaments and leagues and voice chat capability.
Update Yahoo announced Thursday that it will sell a premium service for online game players, another step in the Web giant's quest to squeeze out profits during an industrywide advertising slump.Īs previously reported, Yahoo Games All-Star won't offer any new games from Yahoo's current lineup of card, board and word games on its free Yahoo Games site, although Yahoo executives said exclusive content may be offered to subscribers in the future.įor now, the service will offer extra services for players, including the ability to set up private game rooms, where players won't have to deal with "the riffraff in the public rooms," according to a Yahoo promotion. an*lyzer shows you the minimum, maximum, and average score for each permutation along with an in-depth statistical an*lysis of all possible flip card results.Special report: Analysts skeptical of online console gaming cribbage classic also has a discard an*lyzer bonus feature that can help you decide on the optimal discard to play given a particular cribbage hand. statistics are also kept so you can see your average pegging score, your average hand score, and your average crib score! also shows you a summary of all of the sub-optimal plays you made at the end of the game and tracks your error rate over time so you can see yourself improving. by tweaking the settings you can take this app anywhere from a lazy-thoughtless-time-waster game to a skill-sharpening-master-tutorial helping you to crush your next opponent. or just play in fast mode where all counting is done for you and you get to simply focus on discarding and pegging. cribbage classic has a number of settings that can help you to learn the best move for your situation and offer *ssistance if it notices that you are making a sub-optimal play. this is the best free cribbage game online. Cribbage classic | play online in your browser for free!