Kazaa’s not a game!
Most people hate Flash and no-one downloads 10Mb Flash games! At least, no one I’ve ever met
A killed that awful WildTangent thing on my computer, mainly because I didn’t remember installing it and one day it was just there and secondly because once it was there it never did anything ever again. Huh?
Chris - nearly all the computers in the world are far less powerful and connected than what you’re used to. The majority of the world still has weedy computers and a 56K modem if lucky. And the stats I have gleaned from online publishers is that after 5Mb downloads drastically tail off with a corresponding reduction in sales. Because of the major Java incompatibility issues and general hassle installing it - it’s not transparent, no matter how much you try, the very fact that it even exists is irrelevant to a consumer - you have to ship the entire JRE with your game every time and bundle it in an installer because the game has to be a self contained installable unit which will have no effect on the users system. That’s so crucial and it’s probably worth reading through that internal memo again to let it sink in.
And that means 16Mb downloads. Result - one fiftieth the sales potential.
Now if Java were genuinely and completely modularised and versioned we’d be interested! If it came as a launcher (Webstart) and autopatcher, JVM, and stub library - you could be on to something. If you could get that feature set down to under 1Mb, you have probably got a success story on your hands. It puts the onus of installation on the developer, where it belongs, who would have to ensure the correct versions of packages were supplied with the correct dependencies for a game, and the appropriate stub JVM - and leave the other 10Mb of baggage behind.
Cas