2BeeGames is a brilliantly thought-out concept from the folks at Zoo Games, makers of several awesome Wii games… at it’s very essence, the idea behind the site is essentialy “Britain’s Got Talent” or “Pop Idol”… only for video games.
The deal is this… Aspiring developers and game creators sign up at 2BeeGames – then submit their app through a form on the site’s members area.
The games themselves are fantastic. The site offers a mix of both downloadable games and flash games and the developers submit their apps as part of regular competitions, for small prizes – for fame and glory – for the chance of seeing their concept published.
After somehow managing to steal 95 minutes of my life away from me, I can whole-heartedly recommend you try Auditorium. A crazy music-based puzzle game. (For the record I couldn’t for the life of me get past Act 3 Stage 5). Update: 23rd July – I beat the game.
Back to the point, however… and why I write this… (This is a supposed business blog afterall.)
From a business perspective, 2BeeGames is total genius. Get a ton of absolutely awesome ideas submitted to your doorstep at no cost to you (besides a small prize, whether that be a Nintendo DS, a few hundred dollars or something of the ilk) – then get a community, your audience, the people who will eventually buy the product – to vote on what they like best. The idea-makers do it for fame and glory. The company running the contest gets a royalty-free license to do whatever they want with the content.
In this case “you grant to Zoo Games, and its successors in business and assigns, a perpetual, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, distribute, modify, edit, display, adapt, create derivative works from and market and promote the content, for any commercial purposes, and in any medium now existing or hereinafter developed, and to use your name, likeness, voice, performance, and any personal information you submit with or contained within the content, without your prior approval or the payment of any compensation and without notice”
If you’re just wanting games, 2BeeGames has some of the most interesting, addictive and innovative around. Heck – even as a developer it’s worth it for the exposure (this isn’t some basement-version of Miniclip, people). An interesting marketing concept executed to perfection. Even enough to distract us marketers for an afternoon. Or two. Or three. 
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