Other publishers, too, are considering models including charging-for-content, readers' clubs with value-added extras, selling physical merchandise and memorabilia and even reader donations.
In that new market reality fans engage with products that spread from print, to TV, films, games, the internet and seemingly endless variations of physical merchandise.
And its iconic pixelated aesthetic powers a strong physical merchandise business.
These purchases combine with mobile app sales and physical merchandise to make Rovio a very well monetized developer.
Offering physical merchandise is something a number of game developers try, but it often requires upfront investment.
Another, much smaller source of revenue is physical merchandise, such as caps and T-shirts, based on some of the most popular virtual items.
"Over 60percentt of today's Patreon creators either want to or are already delivering some kind of physical merchandise," says Patreon's VP of Product, Wyatt Jenkins.
The revenue model will be VIP accounts, virtual gifts, virtual furniture/clothes, themes/styles, profile applications, advertising, branded communities and physical merchandise like t-shirts.
They hope that people will put their mikons on MySpace profile pages, blogs and a wide variety of physical merchandise that will be available soon.
For launch, they're digitizing materials from a series of consultants and speakers such as DreamUniversity and MightyVentures who currently sell millions of dollars in physical merchandise directly to their customers.
