Anatomy of Japanese Social Game Design and Operation A comparison with SEA developers Toshihiko Suyama Director of Market Development DeNA Asia Pacific.

Anatomy of Japanese Social Game Design and Operation

A comparison with SEA developers

Toshihiko SuyamaDirector of Market DevelopmentDeNA Asia Pacific Holdings

2

Who am I?

• SEA Game Production Alliance Director

• Experience in social games and webs– product manager of DeNA’s in-house social game– head of Mobage Japan’s community and User

Generated Contents– etc

3

The growth of Japanese social games

• Growing rapidly…

0.4

1.3

3.3

5.8

0.0

1.0

2.0

3.0

4.0

5.0

6.0

7.0

2009 2010 2011 2012

>

4.1

Source: Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley, US$=80JPY, *2012 is forecast

And will surpass the console marketBillion$

Console software*

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High ARPU

• Compared with other country’s successful players,our average revenue per active user (ARPU) is much higher

*MAU-based

$12.06/month

$0.66/month

18 xSuccessful USCompany

⇒ Several games earn over 10M US$ per month

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Why?

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Uniqueness of Japan

1. High disposable income

2. High 3G penetration rate

3. Almost all post-paid subscription and easy carrier billing

4. Gacha?

5. Ninja’s secret activity?

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We are also successful in the U.S.

US GooglePlay market Top Grossing

Rage of Bahamut

No.1

Tapfish No.10NinjaRoyale No.14

4/10 4/234/15

1st

20th

40th

60th

80th

100th

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What is in-game event?

Regular Event

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In-game event revenue

Ninja Royale (ARPDAU)

EventA

15x

EventB

Event C

EventD

3/15 3/24 4/21

SkyFall (ARPDAU)

5x

EventE

EventF

3/23 4/273/30 4/5 4/13

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True Story

• Success of Japanese social game is driven by in-game events

• What is behind the event design and operation? And what can we learn from that?– Even if you do not plan to go to Japan or US market,

we can learn something

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Difference

1. Monetization design

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The way of monetization

Japanese marketSEA market

・ Most of revenue is from virtual goods

・ Lots of options-Virtual goods-Paid apps-In-game ads-Ads game

• In the Japanese market, developers can focus only on virtual goods

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ActiveUsers

PotentialPayingUsers

ActualPayingUsers

0

20

40

60

80

100

User difference sample

Activeusers

ActualPayingUsers

PotentialPayingUsers

0

20

40

60

80

100

• Potential paying user ratio is totally different

ClearStrategy

■SEA market ■Japanese market

unmanageable

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Monetization point

• Monetization point in Japan is lean and simple

Japan

・ Parameter enhancement item・ Stamina refill

SEA

Pet’s food

Avatars

BuildingsPets

⇒ Easy to manage

・ Broad variety of virtual goods

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How to manage

Whole Event 1 ～ 3days

Payingheavy

Payingnormal

Nonpaying

・ Motivate competition withsame level users⇒ Increase battle against higher ranked users

4 ～ 6days

・ Encourage users to keephigh ranks by matchingbalance

・ Stimulate desire to beatpaying heavy users

⇒ Increase limited time challenges

・ Make users realize how hard to beat paying users even during limited timechallenges⇒ Well balanced matching

• Divide user segment like below and make the goal and plan for each segment day-to-day

・ Give now-or-neverfeeling during limitedtime challenges

・ Stimulate user’s desirefor revenge againstpaying users duringlimited time challenges

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Difference

1. Monetization design Lean/simple and easy to manage Segmentation and day-to-day control

2. Team Organization

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Game development team organization

• Small team(6-8 people), but 1 person who is in charge of analytics and parameter design

Producers Engineers Artist

Analyst

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The detail of analyst’s work

Define KPI which clearly shows if the event is going well or not and develop reporting-tool for sharing the KPI

Design game parameter. For example, how to control the user progress, how to match higher ranked users, etc

If user activity is different from estimation, or even worse, analyze game logs and improve the parameter or event/game- design timely

Advise game/event design from parameter point of viewInput to game designInput to game design

Parameter designParameter design

Define KPI and developreporting tool

Define KPI and developreporting tool

Analyze and improvetimely

Analyze and improvetimely

• Analyst takes care of whole flow of game/event development

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Example of logs

• Analysts need to manage user’s logs and analytics– DeNA’s internal team analyzes 1.2TB logs per day

・ Who （ User_ID ）・ When （ date/time ）・ Which Device・ What （ Item_ID ）・ How many (Item_num)・ How much spent coin

・ Who （ User_ID ）・ When （ date/time ）・ Which Device・ What （ Item_ID ）・ How many (Item_num)・ How much spent coin

・ User Level・ Remaining stamina・ Boss encountering・ Limited time challenge

encountering・ Ranking　　　　　　　　　 etc…

・ User Level・ Remaining stamina・ Boss encountering・ Limited time challenge

encountering・ Ranking　　　　　　　　　 etc…

＋

Ex) Log of consumption of virtual currency

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Analyst’s professional background

• Analysts have no defined professional background– Business Consultant– Marketing Research– Sales– Super Computer Engineer

• Of course, if they have data-mining back ground,it is better…

⇒ Assigning one analyst per team is important

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Role of other team members

• It is important that every team member knows about the KPI

⇒ Fast event operation becomes possible

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Daily activity

9am: Analyst looks at logs and sees users getting bored of the event

10am: Team decides to add a new stage by the end of today

7am: Event logs and KPI are sent to team member’s mailbox

5pm: Launch the new stage of event

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Difference

1. Monetization design Lean/simple and easy to manage Segmentation and day-to-day control

2. Team Organization Analyst takes care of whole game operation All team members understand KPI for fast operation

3. Time management

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Monthly sales trend image

• Event schedule is very important because Japanese usersspend lots of money at the beginning of the month

0%

50%

100%

150%

200%

250%

300%

1 6 11 16 21 26

1st Event 2nd Event

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⇒ 1day delay, 10% revenue loss

average

st th th th th th th

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How to keep to the schedule

• The way to keep to the schedule uses common methods– Day-to-day schedule– A morning assembly to check

⇒ Sometimes only hard work can solve the problem…

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Difference

1. Monetization design Lean/simple and easy to manage Segmentation and day-to-day control

2. Team Organization Analyst takes care of whole game operation All team members understand KPI for fast operation

3. Time management Strictly keep day-to-day schedule Dare to work hard

⇒ Let’s see an actual developer’s result

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Our partner from SEA region

• After launch in Japanese mobage with our support,the ARPU becomes almost 700% in 6 months

0

200

400

600

800

100%

695%

1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th

Yes we can!

month

Startrunning event

ImproveParameter

design

Time management

struggle

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Mobage platform introduction

Japan Global China Korea

FP SP PC SP SP SP

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• Let’s go to the big markets with Mobage platform

「 Opportunity for Mobile Socialin Japan, China and Korea 」

Tetsuya MoriManaging Director ofDeNA Asia Pacific

Mobage platform introduction

• Do not miss the other DeNA’s presentation

24th 10am at Hall301-302

⇒ We can support with our knowledge and experience

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Thanks!!

Contact: [email protected]