Transcript
Mobile St Cloud
Inside Freemium Gaming
Overview
- Quick Intro
- What is a Freemium game?
- History of Freemium Mobile Games
- Market Overview
- Core Fundamentals of Freemium
- Freemium Game Mechanics (Jimi Van Guilder)
- Making it Social
- Post Launch Strategies
- User Acquisition
- Monetization
- Analytics and Measurement
- Questions
Quick Intro
- Ringtones (MIDIRingtones)
- Mobile Videos Games (THQ Wireless)
- Recharge Studios
What is a Freemium Game?
Free = Freemium?
Not quite….
What is a Freemium Game?
Freemium =
Free to download and play
+
Virtual Goods, In-App Purchases, Virtual Economy, Premium Currency,
Cash Transaction, Ad Revenues, Freemium Game Mechanics, Social
Interactivity, Etc……..
What is a Freemium Game?
50% Business Intelligence
50% Game Design
History of Freemium Mobile Games
Mobile Games Social Games
History of Freemium Mobile Games
Mobile Games Social Games
2008 Apple Allows In-App Purchases
History of Freemium Mobile Games
Mobile Games Social Games
=
Freemium
+
• Mobile app revenue is expected to rise by another 81.5 percent in 2011 to hit $3.9 billion.
• A key driver of growth is the “freemium” business model
• As application stores become more and more crowded, studios are opting to release their content for free.
• Freemium purchases will count for around half of all North American app revenues by 2014, up from 24 percent in 2010. Freemium’s share will be even higher for games.
Source: IHS
Market Overview
Mobile Freemium Content = $10Billion+ Industry by 2014!
Yes, That a “B”
Source: IHS
Market Overview
Market Overview
Market Overview
Android iOS
Top 10 5 6
Top 25 9 15
Top 50 15 24
Top 100 21 36
Top 200 31 72
Top 400 37 131
Android vs. iOS Freemium Games in Top Grossing
Market Overview
iTunes Top Grossing 3/31/11
Market Overview
Market Overview
Estimated Monthly Revenues
CompanyEstimated Total Monthly
Revenues (March)
ngmoco $2,841,150
Capcom $2,780,700
Pocket Gems $2,740,400
Storm 8 $1,612,000
Addmired Inc $1,047,800
The Playforge $1,007,500
Team Lava $947,050
Zynga $886,600
A Thinking Ape $664,950
Gameview Studios $624,650
Pokerist $604,500
Haypi Co $604,500
Tiny Co $382,850
Bayview Labs $342,550
Playmesh $322,400
Shazam $282,100
Z2Live $282,100
Nimble Bits $282,100
NBA Digital $282,100
Dream Cortex $282,100
Core Fundamentals of Freemium
- Sources and Sinks
- The Compulsion Loop
- The Virtual Economy
Sources and Sinks
Core Fundamentals of Freemium
Definitions
Sink: Investment
Source: Value Creation
Examples:
Sink: Purchase Wheat Seeds to Grow Wheat
Source: Waiting 5 minutes to grow 10 Wheat
Source
Sink
The Compulsion Loop
Source
Sink
Core Fundamentals of Freemium
Sample Compulsion Loop
Celebrity
$
Ingame
money
Horses + skills
Farm services
Allow
Competitions(massive)
Visits
Services(many to many)
Lignage(one to one)
Activities
FriendsBoost
activities
Publications (journal, news)
Playersvotes,
visits, buy
$Catalog
$Inscription
Horse
customization
and training
Farm Stum
customization
MP
Solo
$Catalog
$Catalog
The Virtual Economy
Core Fundamentals of Freemium
Is not just the shop…..
The Virtual Economy
Core Fundamentals of Freemium
It involves every transaction in the game…
Top 10 Freemium MechanicsTaken from the
Recharge Studios Freemium Playbook
Jimi Van Guilder, Mobile Games Producer
1. Tutorials
• Retention
2. Leveling/Experience Points
• Retention
3. Daily Reward
• Retention
4. Decay
• Retention, Monetization
5. Reward Schedules
• Retention
6. Local Notifications
• Retention – do not abuse!
7. Disincentives
• Retention
8. Leaderboards
• Retention
9. Achievements
• Retention
10. Modifiers
• Monetization
Viral Game Mechanics
Viral Game Mechanics
Interacting Real-time with friends!
Viral Game Mechanics
Reinforced social sharing - Allowing your users to
results will not only drive awareness, it will drive
downloads!
Viral Game Mechanics
Envy – Allow your users to brag!
Viral Game Mechanics
Gifting – Reinforces user behavior and
drives the economy
Viral Game Mechanics
Companion Gaming – Give reasons for
users to play with each other
Back to Business
Post Launch Strategies
- Beta Launch
- Dynamic Content
- Dynamic Game Balancing
- Tutorial Optimization
- The Evolving GDD
Core Fundamentals of Freemium
Beta Launch
- Launch in
- Test, Measure, Revise
- Build Ability to Balance on the Fly
- Plan for it!
Post Launch Strategies
Dynamic Content
- Introduce story lines, characters and levels
- New features need to be carefully introduced
- Carefully calculate level progression
- New content = more $ from the whales
Post Launch Strategies
Dynamic Game Balancing
- Small test, be careful to change to many
variables
- Let the data speak for itself, don’t
assume
- Focus first on rate of play
- Be careful of giving away too much
Post Launch Strategies
Tutorial Optimization
- Spend %50 of focus on making tutorial
more effective
- Tutorial can be long tail
- Effective education vs. fluid gameplay
Post Launch Strategies
The Evolving GDD
- Continual updates keep users engaged
- Game depth changes over time
- Stay focused to strategy and theme
- Changes in economy structure need
special attention
Post Launch Strategies
User Acquisition
- CPI (Cost Per Install)
- CPC, CPM (Banner Placements)
- Barter Installs
- Pre Launch Awareness
- Blogs, Social Media, Review Sites
- Apple/Google Feature
- Operator Feature
User AcquisitionPPI Display Search
Pricing CPICost per install
CPMCost per impression
CPCCost per click
Cost per click ~.05-.15 ~.05-.30 CPC
Cost per install ~.40-.75 CPI ~.75-1.25 ~.75-3.00 CPI
Targeting In device Mass audience Key words
Saturation Yes No No
Predictable Yes No No
User Acquisition
Its important to build sustainable and scalable
means of user acquisition
User Acquisition
Bursting can help drive down your cost of user acquisition
Estimated download volume needed for Top 100 ranking:
App Store Position Est. # Downloads Needed
Top 10 ~50k-150k
Top 25 ~30k-50k
Top 25-50 ~17k-30k
Top 50-100 ~10k-17k
Sub 100 Free 100s-depending on category popularity
Once in the Top 50, Volume of organic downloads will increase significantly.
Monetization
- In-App Purchase
- Subscription
- Ads
- Typical Banners
- Interactive Banners
- Video Pre/Post Roll
- Incentivized
- App Installs
- Alternative Offers (Lead Gen)
SalesSales will not only drive monetization, they will also
drive re-engagement.
Analytics and Measurement
Lifetime Value Analysis
And Everything Else….
- Tracking Engagement
- Consumption Patterns
- Funnel Tracking
- Understanding Pitfalls
- Conversion
- Tools
- Cohort Analysis
Cohort Analysis
asdsd
Questions?
Recharge In the News
Recharge Results
Dolphin Play
- First marketed Recharge product
- Launched on December 2010
- Roughly 1,300,000 installs
- Highest Achieved Top Ranking in Free Apps = 10
- Days in Top Overall Free Apps = 31
- Days in Top Overall Free Games = 36
- Days in Top Overall Free Simulation Games = 84
- 100,000 Daily Active Users
A Few Of Our Partners
Jenkat Games
Riptide Games™
SkyVu Pictures
TrioDesign Studio
InEarth
Hive Media
Purple Talk Veiled Games
About W3i
- 20 Years of app distribution and monetization expertise
- Install IQ: advanced technology, optimized on more than 500 million installs - 120 million in 2010
- Founded in 2000, W3i is majority-owned by the founders, and backed by Alta Communications
- Profitable for 36 consecutive quarters
- 70 employees, HQ in St. Cloud, Minnesota
Interested In a Partnership?
Contact Matt Tubergen
Matthew.Tubergen@w3i.com
Phone: 612-803-8143
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