Commercial Entry to Space from Games

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Commercial Entry to Spacefrom Games

• Dr. Sam Dinkin
• CEO
• SpaceShot, Inc.
• www.space-shot.com

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Fundamental pain

• Spaceflight is expensive
• Someone who wants to go to space must do one of
  the following
• Wait
• Get selected
• Get rich
• Win a game!

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How much demand?

• gt50 of demand can come from games
• Higher demand leads to higher utilization and
  higher profits for fulfillment vendors
• Customers of games easily converted as mass
  production reduces unit costs
• Millions of potential customers
• Broad ownership of space creates political power
  for the industry
• Enough revenue to spark a space equity boom

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Industry Revenue without Games
From 8/24/06 white paper updating 2002 Futron
Study Conclusions
5
Industry Revenue with Games
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Rocketplane Kistler Game Share

• No competition to SpaceShot, Inc.
• 40 of demand after entry from Virgin
  Galactic Quest/Fun Games

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What game?

• Lotteries are state monopolies
• Gambling and other games of chance are illegal
  in most states
• Party Gaming closing US operations now that
  they may not use credit cards
• Most skill games like tennis and golf have a
  small number of regular winners
• Weather prediction!
• Many players can be competitive
• Top professionals are not taken seriously
• (premise of The Weatherman with Nicholas Cage)
• Similar cadence to daily lottery which is played
  by about half of adult Texans
• 7-8 million people in Texas alone
• 400-500/year
• 3.4 billion/year in Texas alone

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What prize?

• Need adequate demand to pay for the prize or you
  have to pay 3x for hole-in-one insurance
• Need a popular product to pay for infrastructure
• Suborbital spaceflight!
• Rocketplane XP is scheduled to fly first and
  they said Lets do it!
• 100k cash co-prize

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Bracketology meets meteorology-Alan Boyle,
MSNBC.com

• Tournament
• 2N entries/flight
• Pools of entries at each level
• Single elimination
• Game Weather prediction
• Predict the high temperature for Central Park,
  New York City
• Closest wins
• Predict and resolve to nearest degree, .01, or
  
• Ties broken on low, precipitation and humidity

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(No Transcript)
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Pricing Pay to Play

• 3.50 for the whole tournament
• 6/18 (save on credit card fees)
• Provides 393,216 if everyone pays 3/entry and
  starts at level 1
• 0.40 gross profit per play for 262,442 plays

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Design features

• Single elimination tournament provide maximum
  player competitiveness for average player
• Average player must play only twice per entry
• Players can play without waiting for an opponent
  to be online at the same time
• Head-to-head battle is conservative on
  predominance of skill vs. for example best of
  1000 predictions which would have skill
  predominate less

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Space access Christmas Club

• Many who yearn for space would need far more
  than 200,000 to buy a trip
• Therefore if they are offered the face value of
  their trip, they will take the money instead
• If trips are transferable, they will not take
  the trip
• By limiting prize redemption to spaceflight and
  not cash, players commit a portion of their money
  that will only ever be used for spaceflight
• By overlimiting redemption, popularity will drop
  due to legitimate risks such as failing medical
  examination

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Risks/Mitigation

• Risk Gaming law a grey area
• Mitigation Opinion letter, conservative game
  design, 3 of net to charity
• Risk Technical risk of development
• Mitigation Diversity of suppliers
• Risk Liability for accidents
• Mitigation Insurance, education, liability
  releases

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More design elements

• Corporate legal
• Gaming law
• Trusts
• Contracts
• Funding
• Employee incentives
• Hosting
• Security
• Payment
• Site analytics
• Insurance
• Technical services
• Customer support
• 3rd party resolution of predictions

• Fulfillment
• Marketing
• Affiliates
• Advertising buys
• Advertising sales
• Promotions
• Media relations
• Intellectual property
• Regulation
• Pricing
• Advisory board
• Player ergonomics
• Winner relations
• 3rd party research

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Give it a try!

• Space-Shot.com