Hey guys,

I just launched a radically different video game site: www.goodgametv.com.  Think "HBO online for gamers."  Subscribers get exclusive, long-form (20+ mins) shows, with professional writers, casts, and crews.  All of the shows involve video games and/or gamers.  Our headline shows as of launch include Debuffed, Road to Pro, and Gamer Reaction.

The key is that subscribers pay $3.99 every month.  They get access to our custom hi-res Subscription Player (a really sleek Flash player), all of our shows and their most recently aired episodes, a forum to discuss the shows and give feedback directly to the content producers, and eventually an online store.

What makes our site cool is that by subscribing, we can sustain and improve the shows and the overall lineup.  The idea is to produce really high quality, high budget content once we get momentum and more subscribers.  Imagine a 12 part CGI series retelling the Warcraft story arc with official licensing from Blizzard or a 2 season series of Battletech/Magic/Final Fantasy/name your favorite franchise, either live action or anime.  Or live streams of the latest big money gaming tournament with proprietary spectator software to make it understandable and enjoyable.  Our goal is to make every gamer's fantasy into a spectacle of a show.  That's what we hope to bring you guys down the line.  We want to do the EXACT OPPOSITE of ad-based shows and sites (low budget, low production, 3 minute shows with 1 minute ads).

Of course, right now we're a Level 1 Startup noob.  We're self-funded (paid out of our paychecks and savings) and have maxed out our budget.  We need support from all the gamers if this is indeed what they want.

I'd love to give you guys a free demo in exchange for a writeup and general PR.  Msg me if you're interested or to leave feedback.

Interesting concept, that's for sure.

At $3.99 a month it's kind of hard to imagine you can make a profit when you are providing your subscribers with high budget, exclusive, long-form shows, taking into account you will not have any other source of (ad) revenue / income. On the other hand, for a Level 1 Startup, $3.99 a month seems like a high price to pay.

In my humble opinion, the website and logo do not give the impression of being a place where high quality content is offered.

Don't get me wrong, I really like the idea and would love to see this project grow.

Well, you gotta start somewhere, I suppose.

This is the first time somebody's commented on our website and logo not looking professional enough, not sure what you were expecting. Perhaps this is something to look into down the line.

$3.99 is a price, we believe, where people who can get over the hump of paying for content, are actually willing to pay. So assume most people are not willing to pay for content. They won't pay whether it's $12.99 or $1. But assuming people are willing to pay b/c they identify with the content, then $3.99 isn't too big of a price hurdle. So I don't think asking for $3.99 is too high, whether it's a company with a reputation or not. We have a product and we need to sell it. There's actually no room to go below $3.99 is the honest truth, not if subscribers is going to represent our revenue stream.

In our opinion, going the ad route isn't viable. We've actually been approached and pitched by ad networks and are still in talks with them. But if you take the time and consider sites such as GameTrailers, Revision 3, Giant Bomb, Screw Attack, they're all not sustainable over the medium-long period. In fact, most of them are subsidized by investors (not Screw Attack), who are unhappy with their returns. At the end of the day, there just isn't any profit to speak of, especially as ad prices keep getting driven lower and more sites pop up giving ad buyers more options. This is, in fact, what I'm told by my contacts who invested in these projects and by my colleagues who work at these companies.

That's not to say we won't look at ads as a supplemental revenue stream, but it can't be the primary.

Bregt, if you'd like, would be more than happy to give you a free demo trial if you can write about the site afterwards if you have a distributed blog or something.

Definitely, I've been involved in  various startup projects myself with varying success and I'm always willing to support this kind of initiatives.

goodgameTV looks like an ideal startup for Mashable’s Spark of Genius series, which highlights a unique feature of startups or Venturebeat's Startup Spotlight. You might want to take a look at those initiatives to get some more exposure. I'm sure there will be journalists around here that are willing to write an article as well.    

In French they say  "Des goûts et des couleurs, on ne discute pas." Literally it says: Tastes and colors don't need to be argued. And the meaning is that each one is different and that you don't have to judge others' tastes. Still I don't think it's a waste of time to look into this

Most interesting info - looks like you've done the homework 

Anybody care to help me spread the word?

New York, NY. March 10, 2010
goodgameTV, LLC announced the appointment of Carl Macek as the new Director of Content Development effective as of March 1, 2010. Macek’s main responsibility for goodgameTV is to cultivate key relationships with premium content producers and acquire content licenses for exclusive distribution on goodgameTV.com.

“Carl is a respected figure in the entertainment industry. His work with Robotech as well as many other anime, films, and studio projects have left a lasting influence on pop culture over the last two decades,” says Brian Tang, co-founder of goodgameTV. “More importantly, his track record and experience as the co-founder and president of Streamline Pictures proves that he knows what we’re going for and how to get it done. If he can achieve success with goodgameTV as he did with Streamline, watch out.”

Macek attended California State University, Fullerton earning a degree in the theory and criticism of visual media and has over thirty years of experience in the entertainment industry. He is most known as the creator and guiding force behind Robotech - a popular and influential 85-episode animated television series. Macek later founded Streamline Pictures, one of the first American companies to successfully deal with the acquisition and distribution of Japanese animation to the domestic American market. Among the many titles released by Streamline are Hayao Miyazaki’s Laputa: Castle in the Sky, Fist of the North Star, Akira, Lupin III: Castle of Cagliostro, and Lupin III: Mystery of Mamo. Streamline’s distribution business was ultimately assigned to Orion Pictures, freeing Macek up to pursue more creative pursuits.

mpact in Film
Macek is largely credited with exposing and proliferating Japanese animation to the US market. Many of the films he worked on or distributed are arguably the most influential and famous anime titles to-date and are universally recognized as genre classics. These works have later gone on to inspire many aesthetic styles and storytelling methods in the American cartoon industry.
Macek is a staple guest celebrity in the comic book and anime convention scene and is one of the more recognizable names in the American animation industry.

About goodgameTV
goodgameTV is an internet-based VoD network streaming original and exclusive premium content themed around videos “inspired by games.” Their goal is to create a profitable digital distribution alternative for commercial-grade videos themed around a niche genre. The company is based in New York, New York.
More information can be found online at http://www.goodgametv.com.