[Antdizzle]

You can get a lot of hype going around a free game. Just send it to all the gaming sites and if you have a quality game they will have stories, reviews, etc. on it. With a lot of people getting faster connections downloading a quality, free game won't be much of a problem. I don't know if you could get enough money to pay developers with just advertising.

[Drew]

It seems like the only model that works with advertising is if the developers are in for the long haul. If you can design a game with minimal expense ($2M say) and not require a full-time staff to update the game, advertising could work. With a MMO you could have dynamic advertising where the game grabs a jpg from a server and displays it on the load screen. Or you could have a racing game with billboards shooting by. But advertising will not pay off instantly. It could take years to recoup the initial expense. If you did it correctly, however, and made something as popular as WoW or Everquest, I think you could have a winner on your hands. I'd have to do some more number analysis before I could determine if advertising were more or less effective than a monthly fee.

[Antdizzle]

How about having the potential player of your free game sign up with a company's offer before they can receive the game. Like what Freepay does. I heard they get $50 per signup. It could bring in way more money to your company than website advertising alone. If something like this does work, I think you would need to get a lot of startup funds to keep your company until the game finishes. And you can build a commerical game with less people, you just need to know how to use them.

[NVTimports]

The video gaming industry is growing fast, there is alot of money to be made there and now there are pre release video game parties which alot of celebrities attend.

[jon#1]

Just to add my contribution to this topic...

I have just signed up to a particularly good website www.trendwatching.com, which looks all over the world for unique business ideas and looks at the opportunities avaliable...and I found a rather interesting article, but it is actually from its sister site www.springwise.com

http://www.springwise.com/lifestyle_leisure/manboo/

...who's going to set up the new Starbucks for the PS2/Xbox 360 generation outside Japan?

OMG, I think this has got huge potential!

[Mpyre]

I have seen lounge type places popping up all over. The better ones have the hottest pc's to date, lavish funiture, snack bar, Huge projection screens for team play games. They charge an hourly fee, I think they could make much more with a monthly fee - they could hide more "inflation." I want to start one of these with my brother but have yet to think of a business model thats makes the money I would want to run a B&M business.

[NeeJam]

I want to own my own business selling game console and games like www.play.com but i dont know where i can purchase them wholesale from...does anyone know?

[nytronix]

actually i thought about starting business in gaming industry. but i put away these thoughts for a while.

in past (on my previous job) i worked on a gaming project - sports bets. i think that this experience will be usefull in future but such business could not be started from the spot. every detail should be explored before you start.

[FreeDropshipping]

Online and Console Gaming is going to be around for a lot longer i'ts not ready to go downhill.
As there is a big market there is still big opportunities to make money online.

[Dwaltin]

Do any of you know what MLG is? its Major League Gaming www.mlgpro.com check it out. Some players (especially Halo 2) are making 6 digits a year. And many of them have created their own business by training other players, w/ xboxlive they are making a killing on this. Also one gamer is making his own clothing line, hes trying to merge the jeek clothes w/ the hollister and AE clothes, pretty much make gamer clothes "cool" (if thats possible). On top of all this they are also trying to aquire their own Television channel.