Gamezebo
Open main menu
Search

Tag: monetization

  • Less than 36 Hours after Launch, GOLFINITY Is Now Ad-free
    News
    • iOS
    Less than 36 Hours after Launch, GOLFINITY Is Now Ad-free

    By

    Whether you loved or hated GOLFINITY’s monetization, there’s one thing I’ll bet you weren’t expecting: for it to go away. The latest title from NimbleBit, GOLFINITY launched on Wednesday night to mixed reactions. The core gameplay was to be applauded, but …
  • Sony Online Entertainment’s New Strategy: One Price, All the Games
    News
    • PC
    Sony Online Entertainment’s New Strategy: One Price, All the Games

    By

    There was a time when subscription-based MMO's ruled the roost, but in the world of free-to-play, those few stalwarts of old have had a harder time pulling in an audience than they used to. How do you turn those fates around? How do you turn free players into paying customers? Sony Online Entertainment has a clever idea: offer a single subscription price to get top-tier memberships in all of their games.Starting today, Sony Online Entertainment will deliver full memberships in all of the following games in exchange for a mere $14.99: Everquest, Everquest II, DC Universe Online, Planetside 2, Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, and the upcoming games Everquest Next, Landmark and H1Z1. You'll also get 500 Station Cash every month, a 10% discount on marketplace purchases, and "access to exclusive promotions and offers throughout the year."So what's the catch?
  • BREAKFINITY’s monetization is brilliant
    News
    • iOS
    BREAKFINITY’s monetization is brilliant

    By

    When developing a free-to-play game, there's one question every developer faces: how is it going to make money? In-app purchases are one way to go. Ad revenue is another. In many cases, you'll see a mix of both. Phil Hassey's BREAKFINITY is no exception - but it's the way he balances the two that makes it so compelling.BREAKFINITY is what would happen if Breakout or Arkanoid were an endless runner. Players will clear just enough blocks to see their ball move up to the next stage in a never-ending quest for points. You'll only get one ball, but - and here's where things get interesting - you can buy more with premium currency OR get a free ball by watching a video advertisement. You can get two free balls every game in this manner, but since it caps out at two there's still a sense of competition. Your high score is going to be based on those combined three balls alone, not upsetting the leaderboards (unless you want to buy more with premium currency, of course).Plenty of other games provide incentives for watching video advertisements, but the reward usually comes in the form of premium currency, and it's often balanced in a way that prevents you from exploiting the system and raising an infinite amount of in-game cash by watching an afternoon of commercials. BREAKFINITY goes in the opposite direction - watching a quick 15 second video is BREAKFINITY's answer to "insert coin to continue." The more you play, the more ad dollars Phil Hassey gets. It's a win/win.But is it working?
  • The .15% of blue whales who support the entire mobile games industry
    News
    • Android
    • iOS
    The .15% of blue whales who support the entire mobile games industry

    By

    Free-to-play is the greatest thing to happen to the games industry (and gamers) since Pong.  Here's the thing, though:  it's common knowledge that only 1-3% of all gamers of free-to-play games pay, the rest don't.  These gamers are commonly referred to as whales.According to a new survey by Swrve (pronounced, I have no clue), that 1 - 3% is a bit off, by a lot.  Only .15% of mobile gamers are responsible for 50% of total mobile game revenues.  In biological terms, these players are blue whales (the largest mammals on earth) of the mobile game world.As reported in VentureBeat, this is a classic good news/bad news story.  These blue whales pay the bills for the mobile games industry and are helping to grow the market to astronomical heights.  The bad news is that the vast majority (let's call them minnows) are becoming accustomed to playing games for free, and there is no clear path to turn a minnow into a blue whale.And what happens if these super whales get bored of playing and tired of paying?  .15% is such a small number, just one small drop in this bucket could have a huge impact on the future of the global gaming industry.In Vegas, whales are comp'd with free hotel suites.  How are these super blue whales rewarded in the games world?  
  • How Playnomics is helping developers to better monetize their gamers
    News
    • Android
    • iOS
    • PC
    How Playnomics is helping developers to better monetize their gamers

    By

    There's no question that the free-to-play model is here to stay in the gaming industry. After all, there's no better way for developers to get more people to check out their latest game than by using that alluring "Free" label. And for gamers, well who doesn't love getting free games? But then of course, the big question for free-to-play developers quickly arises: "How do I get users to actually spend money while playing my game?" The sad truth of the matter is that for many of today's smaller game developers, getting a lot of people to play their games for free doesn't necessary put money in their bank accounts. But luckily for them, Playnomics is here to help bridge that gap: by introducing their innovative PlayRM suite that serves as a platform for developers to analyze their users' in-game spending and staying habits, while effectively creating marketing campaigns to cater to these different individual monetization segments.I recently had a chance to send some questions to Chethan Ramachandran, the co-founder and CEO of Playnomics, and find out some more about the latest additions to the PlayRM suite, how the company sees the relationship between game developers and their high-value users, and of course, how the future of free-to-play games factors into the equation. Well for starters, Ramachandran chocks up the challenge of creating a free-to-play game that is constantly able to draw in monetization from users over long periods of time as being dependent upon two overarching industry problems. This realization ultimately led Playnomics to introduce two brand new features into their PlayRM suite in order to address these problems head-on: the Acquisition Value Predictor and the Churn Predictor."The first problem, as he tells me, is that "games must buy new users constantly to remain profitable." What's more, developers will tend to waste precious money and resources on marketing these new-user channels, only to bring in more players (acquisitions) who are unlikely to even spend anything in the long run. One way that the Acquisition Value Predictor aims to alleviate this problem is by displaying each player's Lifetime Value rating (or LTV) only a few days after they initially start playing. This way, the marketing team can quickly shift their efforts to key in on these higher-value users, as a result of determining the overall ROI of each player source or channel. The AVP also predicts the likelihood of player spending for a 90-day period after they've entered into a game, and it continues these predictions throughout the entire lifespan that a player stays with the game.
  • Despite Apple’s ban on incentivized installs, Tapjoy now in 10,000 apps
    News
    • Android
    • iOS
    Despite Apple’s ban on incentivized installs, Tapjoy now in 10,000 apps

    By

    When Apple dropped the hammer on incentivized installs back in April, most folks had believed that would sound the death knell for then-thriving companies built around the pay-per-install business model. Instead it forced them to get creative. Take Tapjoy for instance. Back in June, they launched a $5 million fund to help iOS developers make the jump to Android - a platform where incentivized installs are still fair game. Now, only two months later, they've announced new partnerships that bring the total number of apps using their monetization services to more than 10,000.