Inside Mobile Freemium Gaming

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Mobile St Cloud Inside Freemium Gaming

Transcript of Inside Mobile Freemium Gaming

Page 1: Inside Mobile Freemium Gaming

Mobile St Cloud

Inside Freemium Gaming

Page 2: Inside Mobile 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

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Quick Intro

- Ringtones (MIDIRingtones)

- Mobile Videos Games (THQ Wireless)

- Recharge Studios

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What is a Freemium Game?

Free = Freemium?

Not quite….

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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……..

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What is a Freemium Game?

50% Business Intelligence

50% Game Design

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History of Freemium Mobile Games

Mobile Games Social Games

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History of Freemium Mobile Games

Mobile Games Social Games

2008 Apple Allows In-App Purchases

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History of Freemium Mobile Games

Mobile Games Social Games

=

Freemium

+

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• 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

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Mobile Freemium Content = $10Billion+ Industry by 2014!

Yes, That a “B”

Source: IHS

Market Overview

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Market Overview

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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

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Market Overview

iTunes Top Grossing 3/31/11

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Market Overview

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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

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Core Fundamentals of Freemium

- Sources and Sinks

- The Compulsion Loop

- The Virtual Economy

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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

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The Compulsion Loop

Source

Sink

Core Fundamentals of Freemium

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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

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The Virtual Economy

Core Fundamentals of Freemium

Is not just the shop…..

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The Virtual Economy

Core Fundamentals of Freemium

It involves every transaction in the game…

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Top 10 Freemium MechanicsTaken from the

Recharge Studios Freemium Playbook

Jimi Van Guilder, Mobile Games Producer

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1. Tutorials

• Retention

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2. Leveling/Experience Points

• Retention

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3. Daily Reward

• Retention

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4. Decay

• Retention, Monetization

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5. Reward Schedules

• Retention

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6. Local Notifications

• Retention – do not abuse!

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7. Disincentives

• Retention

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8. Leaderboards

• Retention

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9. Achievements

• Retention

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10. Modifiers

• Monetization

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Viral Game Mechanics

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Viral Game Mechanics

Interacting Real-time with friends!

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Viral Game Mechanics

Reinforced social sharing - Allowing your users to

results will not only drive awareness, it will drive

downloads!

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Viral Game Mechanics

Envy – Allow your users to brag!

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Viral Game Mechanics

Gifting – Reinforces user behavior and

drives the economy

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Viral Game Mechanics

Companion Gaming – Give reasons for

users to play with each other

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Back to Business

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Post Launch Strategies

- Beta Launch

- Dynamic Content

- Dynamic Game Balancing

- Tutorial Optimization

- The Evolving GDD

Core Fundamentals of Freemium

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Beta Launch

- Launch in

- Test, Measure, Revise

- Build Ability to Balance on the Fly

- Plan for it!

Post Launch Strategies

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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

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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

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Tutorial Optimization

- Spend %50 of focus on making tutorial

more effective

- Tutorial can be long tail

- Effective education vs. fluid gameplay

Post Launch Strategies

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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

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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

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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

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User Acquisition

Its important to build sustainable and scalable

means of user acquisition

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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.

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Monetization

- In-App Purchase

- Subscription

- Ads

- Typical Banners

- Interactive Banners

- Video Pre/Post Roll

- Incentivized

- App Installs

- Alternative Offers (Lead Gen)

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SalesSales will not only drive monetization, they will also

drive re-engagement.

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Analytics and Measurement

Lifetime Value Analysis

And Everything Else….

- Tracking Engagement

- Consumption Patterns

- Funnel Tracking

- Understanding Pitfalls

- Conversion

- Tools

- Cohort Analysis

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Cohort Analysis

asdsd

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Questions?

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Recharge In the News

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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

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A Few Of Our Partners

Jenkat Games

Riptide Games™

SkyVu Pictures

TrioDesign Studio

InEarth

Hive Media

Purple Talk Veiled Games

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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

[email protected]

Phone: 612-803-8143

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