I would just hope that the options would be laid out, whether it be a
sponsored game or a for sale game, so that those involved know if there
was potential for it to have a monetary payback of some sort.
You could, for example, say, we want a Flash game that draws at least
1000 visitors a day (whether new or return) and grows a bit every
day/month. Then go from there.
I once saw a game that was originally a Flash game and made it to
PS2. There’s nothing really stopping that from happening to
anyone else as long as the game is great enough. Ultimately, I
would hope that the game is both (a) rewarding to the player, and (b)
rewarding to the creators, whether its just experience, success, or
monetary reward, or perhaps, hopefully, all three.
I would say definitely don’t set a final price until the product is
well along in development, but don’t totally eliminate other options;
games don’t have to be sold to the user to be profitable anymore.