Kongregate is a distributor of more than 200 virtual-goods games developed by developers small and large, Eastern and Western, casual and hardcore. As such, it has a unique perspective on what types of mechanics and characteristics of games have the most success monetizing. This talk will focus on similarities and differences in performance between Asian & Western games, look at site-wide trends and dig into specific game metrics and mechanics to understand what makes games succeed & fail with Western audiences. This talk was given at GDC China 2012
Don't Call Them Whales: Free-to-Play Spenders & Virtual Value GDC 2015emily_greer
Individual large spenders -- so called "whales"-- form the foundation of the free-to-play business model that has overtaken the game industry in the last few years. This talk from GDC 2015 examines this phenomenon by looking at demographics, play and buying patterns for big spenders on the Kongregate web platform and mobile games, how expectations of game spending and value are formed, and how attitudes toward spenders and spending shape the whole industry -- not just free-to-play.
Effective Testing of Free-to-Play Gamesemily_greer
Mobile games have become increasingly high-stakes over the last few years. Successful games make billions, but most games launch to failure, and few get a second chance from either platforms or players. Most developers test their games in various ways, from individual playtest sessions to geo-locked launches in Canada and Australia. But many games still launch with poor retention, monetization, tech problems, or some combination of the three. What's going wrong?
Kongregate has now put more than 20 games through test markets, learning valuable lessons along the way. This talk from GDC 2016 is a pragmatic guide to creating a test strategy, taking into account budget and schedule along with the benefits and pitfalls of various methods and the psychological traps that teams fall into as they evaluate results. The talk is illustrated by case studies and metrics from Kongregate's portfolio including AdVenture Capitalist, Spellstone, Raid Brigade and more.
In the last five years, data analysis, A/B testing and predictive modeling have transitioned from an afterthought to a given in the game industry. Data can be invaluable in understanding the player and making decisions, but it can just as easily lead us astray. This talk exposes common mistakes and pitfalls, both technical and emotional, as well as provide practical guidance on how to improve the rigorousness of your tests and the quality of your data.
Breaking Labels: Core, Casual, and Other Misconceptions -- Casual Connect Eur...emily_greer
As video games become more and more mainstream the industry labels of "core games" and "casual games" become less and less useful. I'll look at the forces that drove the categories, what's breaking them down, and how it changes how we should think about games.
GDC 2014 Core Games, Real Numbers: Going Cross-Platformemily_greer
Kongregate has been sharing great data on web games for years - now they're launching mobile games and are ready to start sharing iOS and Android numbers as well. Learn how monetization differs by platform, country, and device, what type of CPIs to expect for different kinds of games, and what's most important in making your free-to-play mobile game a success.
A high-speed run through some of the most important and interesting patterns and advice that we've discovered about our games on Kongregate. This talk was given by Anthony Pecorella at Casual Connect Kyiv.
Don't Call Them Whales: Free-to-Play Spenders & Virtual Value GDC 2015emily_greer
Individual large spenders -- so called "whales"-- form the foundation of the free-to-play business model that has overtaken the game industry in the last few years. This talk from GDC 2015 examines this phenomenon by looking at demographics, play and buying patterns for big spenders on the Kongregate web platform and mobile games, how expectations of game spending and value are formed, and how attitudes toward spenders and spending shape the whole industry -- not just free-to-play.
Effective Testing of Free-to-Play Gamesemily_greer
Mobile games have become increasingly high-stakes over the last few years. Successful games make billions, but most games launch to failure, and few get a second chance from either platforms or players. Most developers test their games in various ways, from individual playtest sessions to geo-locked launches in Canada and Australia. But many games still launch with poor retention, monetization, tech problems, or some combination of the three. What's going wrong?
Kongregate has now put more than 20 games through test markets, learning valuable lessons along the way. This talk from GDC 2016 is a pragmatic guide to creating a test strategy, taking into account budget and schedule along with the benefits and pitfalls of various methods and the psychological traps that teams fall into as they evaluate results. The talk is illustrated by case studies and metrics from Kongregate's portfolio including AdVenture Capitalist, Spellstone, Raid Brigade and more.
In the last five years, data analysis, A/B testing and predictive modeling have transitioned from an afterthought to a given in the game industry. Data can be invaluable in understanding the player and making decisions, but it can just as easily lead us astray. This talk exposes common mistakes and pitfalls, both technical and emotional, as well as provide practical guidance on how to improve the rigorousness of your tests and the quality of your data.
Breaking Labels: Core, Casual, and Other Misconceptions -- Casual Connect Eur...emily_greer
As video games become more and more mainstream the industry labels of "core games" and "casual games" become less and less useful. I'll look at the forces that drove the categories, what's breaking them down, and how it changes how we should think about games.
GDC 2014 Core Games, Real Numbers: Going Cross-Platformemily_greer
Kongregate has been sharing great data on web games for years - now they're launching mobile games and are ready to start sharing iOS and Android numbers as well. Learn how monetization differs by platform, country, and device, what type of CPIs to expect for different kinds of games, and what's most important in making your free-to-play mobile game a success.
A high-speed run through some of the most important and interesting patterns and advice that we've discovered about our games on Kongregate. This talk was given by Anthony Pecorella at Casual Connect Kyiv.
GDC Talk: Lifetime Value: The long tail of Mid-Core gamesTamara (Tammy) Levy
Are you maximizing the life in lifetime value? Using genre-specific predictive models developed from the Kongregate portfolio, we demonstrate how and why post-D30 retention can be key to increase your revenue. Through case studies, you'll learn strategies to boost both early and late revenue, as well as game core loop modifications to drive better player investment in the long run.
Emily Greer at GDC 2018: Data-Driven or Data-Blinded?Kongregate
In the last decade of data analysis, A/B testing and predictive modeling have transitioned from an afterthought to a given in the game industry. Data can be invaluable in understanding the player and making decisions, but it can just as easily lead the industry astray, or worse, narrow the way the industry thinks. When should you be driven by data, and when should you let your imagination roam free? This session will expose common mistakes and pitfalls, both technical and emotional, as well as provide practical guidance on how to improve the rigorousness of your tests and the quality of your data, and how to make sure you don't lose the forest for the trees.
GDC Talk - Nature vs Nurture: Unpacking Player Spending in F2P GamesTamara (Tammy) Levy
Have players committed to spending money in free-to-play games before they even install the game? Are you wasting time trying to get more people to spend money in your game? What monetization metrics should you be focusing on improving instead? In this talk, Tammy uses several case studies from live Kongregate games to explore how and why some player behaviors are easier and more rewarding to change, while others have a nearly unbreakable ceiling.
PC and Mobile: Going Cross Platform Post LaunchKongregate
These are slides from Mel Montano’s talks about PC and Mobile cross-platform game launches at Casual Connect Berlin and White Night Prague 2017. She uses her experience in publishing and cross-platform games via Humble Bundle to provide real-world actionable items to help in pursuing a secondary (or tertiary or more) launch on a very different platform.
Going cross-platform increases your potential audience, pleases your current userbase, and can grow your lifetime revenue. The leap from mobile to PC and vice-versa is fraught with complications from perceived game value, freemium/premium, to the specifics of UX/UI changes. This talk gives actionable insights for your cross-platform PC and mobile plans.
Understanding Players Who are Payers | Nick BerryJessica Tams
Delivered at Casual Connect USA 2018. The Lion's share of developer revenue comes from in-game micro transactions, with money being spent inside games that are free to download. What percentage of people pay? How often do they pay? What is the breakdown of whales and minnows? Nick has boiled the ocean and counted every penny spent on every web-based game on Facebook, around the world, for the last six years. In this presentation he will reveal what's behind the curtain and present this data.
Josh Larson’s Talk at White Nights Prague '18Kongregate
During a special Valentine’s Day session at White Nights Prague ‘18, Josh presented “Mining the Web for Cross-Platform Gems." The talk explored how Kongregate has used its web platform to discover games that have potential for cross-platform success on mobile, PC and console. By looking at hits like AdVenture Capitalist, Realm Grinder and Bit Heroes, the presentation extracts the characteristics and KPIs for cross-platform potential.
Adrian Crook's speech at GDC 2008, entitled "The Power of Free To Play". Focuses on free to play revenue models in games, design tips, growth challenges and market trends. More info at www.FreeToPlay.biz
For more information, visit: www.adriancrook.com
There are many reasons to opt for the Free-To-Play monetization model. At the forefront is that Free-to-Play games are generating more money than premium sales at nearly a 10-1 margin.
It is not just the big AAA productions that can succeed. With an average of 15,000,000 Steam Players online at any given time and 90 million console gamers in the US alone, strictly considering a mobile publishing avenue severely limits your audience reach. In addition, plenty of these platforms are doing their best to embrace the F2P evolution in gaming.
A+C has 10 years and over 130 clients worth of freemium experience. From increased monetization to retention and virality, we have delivered for clients such as LEGO, Pokemon, Electronic Arts, Zynga and many more.
This is a presentation we gave at Gameplay Space in Montreal recently, to a room full of indie developers.
Contact us at www.adriancrook.com today.
4 Emotions that Drive Monetization in Free to Play Games GDC 2014Nicole Lazzaro
Gameplay that converts players creates strong emotions that A/B testing and traditional marketing methods can't measure. Other methods can, and developers that access player emotions early in game development can innovate with much less risk. Beyond level packs and ammo, players crave specific emotions in exchange for their hard-earned cash. Come find out how games such as Candy Crush Saga, Minecraft and Jetpack Joyride go beyond emotions like fiero and schadenfreude to motivate players to convert. Starting with new XEODesign research of the top grossing free-to-play games, together we dive deep into the world of player emotion to explore why players pay for lollipop hammers and custom G-suits. This diagnostic approach to sculpt emotional responses can improve conversion as early as the design document. Emotions are more than rewards for a job well done. Join us for the full story and add the emotions that aid player conversion to your game. Free white papers on emotion and games: http://4K2F.com
Mobile game design trends from east and west mgf - simon newsteadSimon Newstead
10 mobile game design trends from East & West, as presented at the Mobile Game Forum event in 2015. Topics covered include:
Touch-first interface
RPG mechanics cross genres
Evolved mechanics
Sacha keeps growing
Auto-play
IP useincreasing
Better word of mouth
Deeper cross promo
Production quality rising
Added depth to social
Presented at Casual Connect 2013
Time limited contests, events, seasonal activities and any special content are fall under the category of live operations.
For mobile game indies, live ops are a chance to bump up retention and monetization and turn a successful game into a hit.
These slides give a summary of what live ops are, case studies of different types and lessons learned.
Kongregate - Maximizing Player Retention and Monetization in Free-to-Play Gam...David Piao Chiu
Presentation from Digital Taipei 2013 on Maximizing Player Retention and Monetization in Free-to-Play Games with a Comparative Analysis of Asian & Western F2P Games
GDC Talk: Lifetime Value: The long tail of Mid-Core gamesTamara (Tammy) Levy
Are you maximizing the life in lifetime value? Using genre-specific predictive models developed from the Kongregate portfolio, we demonstrate how and why post-D30 retention can be key to increase your revenue. Through case studies, you'll learn strategies to boost both early and late revenue, as well as game core loop modifications to drive better player investment in the long run.
Emily Greer at GDC 2018: Data-Driven or Data-Blinded?Kongregate
In the last decade of data analysis, A/B testing and predictive modeling have transitioned from an afterthought to a given in the game industry. Data can be invaluable in understanding the player and making decisions, but it can just as easily lead the industry astray, or worse, narrow the way the industry thinks. When should you be driven by data, and when should you let your imagination roam free? This session will expose common mistakes and pitfalls, both technical and emotional, as well as provide practical guidance on how to improve the rigorousness of your tests and the quality of your data, and how to make sure you don't lose the forest for the trees.
GDC Talk - Nature vs Nurture: Unpacking Player Spending in F2P GamesTamara (Tammy) Levy
Have players committed to spending money in free-to-play games before they even install the game? Are you wasting time trying to get more people to spend money in your game? What monetization metrics should you be focusing on improving instead? In this talk, Tammy uses several case studies from live Kongregate games to explore how and why some player behaviors are easier and more rewarding to change, while others have a nearly unbreakable ceiling.
PC and Mobile: Going Cross Platform Post LaunchKongregate
These are slides from Mel Montano’s talks about PC and Mobile cross-platform game launches at Casual Connect Berlin and White Night Prague 2017. She uses her experience in publishing and cross-platform games via Humble Bundle to provide real-world actionable items to help in pursuing a secondary (or tertiary or more) launch on a very different platform.
Going cross-platform increases your potential audience, pleases your current userbase, and can grow your lifetime revenue. The leap from mobile to PC and vice-versa is fraught with complications from perceived game value, freemium/premium, to the specifics of UX/UI changes. This talk gives actionable insights for your cross-platform PC and mobile plans.
Understanding Players Who are Payers | Nick BerryJessica Tams
Delivered at Casual Connect USA 2018. The Lion's share of developer revenue comes from in-game micro transactions, with money being spent inside games that are free to download. What percentage of people pay? How often do they pay? What is the breakdown of whales and minnows? Nick has boiled the ocean and counted every penny spent on every web-based game on Facebook, around the world, for the last six years. In this presentation he will reveal what's behind the curtain and present this data.
Josh Larson’s Talk at White Nights Prague '18Kongregate
During a special Valentine’s Day session at White Nights Prague ‘18, Josh presented “Mining the Web for Cross-Platform Gems." The talk explored how Kongregate has used its web platform to discover games that have potential for cross-platform success on mobile, PC and console. By looking at hits like AdVenture Capitalist, Realm Grinder and Bit Heroes, the presentation extracts the characteristics and KPIs for cross-platform potential.
Adrian Crook's speech at GDC 2008, entitled "The Power of Free To Play". Focuses on free to play revenue models in games, design tips, growth challenges and market trends. More info at www.FreeToPlay.biz
For more information, visit: www.adriancrook.com
There are many reasons to opt for the Free-To-Play monetization model. At the forefront is that Free-to-Play games are generating more money than premium sales at nearly a 10-1 margin.
It is not just the big AAA productions that can succeed. With an average of 15,000,000 Steam Players online at any given time and 90 million console gamers in the US alone, strictly considering a mobile publishing avenue severely limits your audience reach. In addition, plenty of these platforms are doing their best to embrace the F2P evolution in gaming.
A+C has 10 years and over 130 clients worth of freemium experience. From increased monetization to retention and virality, we have delivered for clients such as LEGO, Pokemon, Electronic Arts, Zynga and many more.
This is a presentation we gave at Gameplay Space in Montreal recently, to a room full of indie developers.
Contact us at www.adriancrook.com today.
4 Emotions that Drive Monetization in Free to Play Games GDC 2014Nicole Lazzaro
Gameplay that converts players creates strong emotions that A/B testing and traditional marketing methods can't measure. Other methods can, and developers that access player emotions early in game development can innovate with much less risk. Beyond level packs and ammo, players crave specific emotions in exchange for their hard-earned cash. Come find out how games such as Candy Crush Saga, Minecraft and Jetpack Joyride go beyond emotions like fiero and schadenfreude to motivate players to convert. Starting with new XEODesign research of the top grossing free-to-play games, together we dive deep into the world of player emotion to explore why players pay for lollipop hammers and custom G-suits. This diagnostic approach to sculpt emotional responses can improve conversion as early as the design document. Emotions are more than rewards for a job well done. Join us for the full story and add the emotions that aid player conversion to your game. Free white papers on emotion and games: http://4K2F.com
Mobile game design trends from east and west mgf - simon newsteadSimon Newstead
10 mobile game design trends from East & West, as presented at the Mobile Game Forum event in 2015. Topics covered include:
Touch-first interface
RPG mechanics cross genres
Evolved mechanics
Sacha keeps growing
Auto-play
IP useincreasing
Better word of mouth
Deeper cross promo
Production quality rising
Added depth to social
Presented at Casual Connect 2013
Time limited contests, events, seasonal activities and any special content are fall under the category of live operations.
For mobile game indies, live ops are a chance to bump up retention and monetization and turn a successful game into a hit.
These slides give a summary of what live ops are, case studies of different types and lessons learned.
Kongregate - Maximizing Player Retention and Monetization in Free-to-Play Gam...David Piao Chiu
Presentation from Digital Taipei 2013 on Maximizing Player Retention and Monetization in Free-to-Play Games with a Comparative Analysis of Asian & Western F2P Games
Building Games for the Long Term: Pragmatic F2P Guild Design (GDC Europe 2013)Kongregate
Every Kongregate talk they're always saying "guilds, guilds, guilds". Sure, but does that even work for my type of game? And what should a guild design for my game look like?
In this design-focused talk, guilds will be deconstructed into their kernel and then built back up feature-by-feature with an eye on implications for retention, monetization, and engagement. Examples from the industry will be used to look at best practices and missed opportunities while it explores traditional and experimental guild elements. It will also walk through the exercise designing a guild system for a popular casual game, challenging the audience to step outside the boundaries of traditional genres when thinking about guilds in games.
Idle Games: The Mechanics and Monetization of Self-Playing GamesKongregate
Idle (or incremental) games is one of the newest genres of video games. At first glance this may be perplexing to "core" gamers, but there are a lot of interesting systems at play that keep the games fun and entertaining, and can even make them into a viable free-to-play business.
We’re all camping at UX Camp West, so I thought I’d use the metaphor of a tent to share with you my view on the field of User Experience. I will describe the 7 poles of the tent's structure (research, design, evaluation, implementation, business, strategy, and management) and show you some random objects that I found in its corners. It is my goal that afterwards, we can all appreciate the beauty of the big tent, and realise how we contribute to a happy stay.
Kongregate - Maximizing Player Retention and Monetization in Free-to-Play Gam...David Piao Chiu
Tokyo Game Show 2013 JETRO presentation:
Kongregate - Maximizing Player Retention and Monetization in Free-to-Play Games: Comparative Stats for Asian & Western Games
DavidPChiu Kongregate - Maximizing Player Retention and Monetization in Free-...David Piao Chiu
Presentation from the Brazil Independent Games (BIG) Festival 2014 on Maximizing Player Retention and Monetization in Free-to-Play Games with a Comparative Analysis of Asian & Western F2P Games
Kongregate - Maximizing Player Retention and Monetization in Free-to-Play Gam...David Piao Chiu
Kongregate - Maximizing Player Retention and Monetization in Free-to-Play Games: Comparative Stats for 2D & 3D Games and Asian & Western Games (MIGS 2013 Presentation)
Presentation on F2P game monetization for browser and mobile games for midcore and hardcore players with stats, best practices and common mistakes to avoid
United games-Brought to you by former director of EA SportsHassan Crawford
Hottest New App coming Fall 2016. If you want to know how you can be a part and get paid to share this app.
The core of the mobile game is based upon analysing and predicting results across the full spectrum of events that occur within a live sporting event. Within the game players analyze the sporting event ahead-of-time and make certain predictions (called ‘picks’), and during the live event will make further real-time decisions using multimedia screens within the mobile game app, based on their grasp of the ebb and flow of the live sporting event.
Making the correct pre-game and live real-time predictions provides fascinating competition for sports fans, where players of all experience levels may participate and receive loyalty rewards.
Our IT team created the Madden games and other sporting properties. We are launching a global free app that pays to share. Major celebrities with us.
We are allowing an exclusive group of people the opportunity to take part in this emerging tidal wave and be the first people in the world to see the app, use the app, play with the app, and share it with others.
1. Get paid every time someone you share the app with gets a token.
2. Get paid when you invite others to play with you.
3. Build an Affiliate team, and earn as they share and play.
To register you must have an invitation code that needs to be asked.
send message to receive registration code.
How to Succeed in the West: Stats, Best Practices and Common Mistakes for F2P...David Piao Chiu
As a platform for free-to-play browser games for core gamers, Kongregate has a unique perspective and a wealth of data on what types of mechanics and characteristics of F2P games are most effective at maximizing player retention, monetization and satisfaction. David will begin by looking at the retention and monetization metrics of free-to-play games by Asian & Western developers. He will then share the best practices and game mechanics that Asian developers can learn from their Western counterparts, highlight common mistakes that Asian developers make in bringing their games to a Western audience, and cover specific DO’s and DON’Ts regarding game themes, gameplay mechanics, community management/customer support and pricing with specific examples. Asian developers will walk away with a better understanding of the Western market, how to avoid costly mistakes and how to maximize success in Western markets.
R2 Games F2P Monetization Presentation and Clicker Heroes Case Study: Best Pr...David Piao Chiu
A F2P Monetization Presentation and Clicker Heroes Case Study given by David P. Chiu at Game Connection Europe 2015. This presentation includes best practices, stats and learnings for F2P mobile and browser games targeted at a midcore gamer audience.
How to Succeed in the F2P Market: Stats, Best Practices and Common Mistakes |...Jessica Tams
Delivered at Casual Connect Asia 2016
Free-to-play games dominate the PC browser and mobile markets. But with ever-increasing UA costs and fierce competition from existing and new games, how can you compete in this crowded space? It is necessary to have a solid understanding of F2P to know what drives strong long term retention and monetization. This session will share real-world stats, best practices and common mistakes to avoid in order to maximize your chances of success.
Talk presented by Daniel James at GDC Worlds in Motion Summit 2009.3.23. Daniel is CEO of Three Rings, creators of Puzzle Pirates and Whirled. This talk is an introduction to metrics for MMOs and contains real data from Puzzle Pirates and Whirled.
Similar to Core Games, Real Numbers: Asian & Western Games (20)
1. Core Games, Real Numbers
Comparative Stats for Asian & Western Games
Emily Greer
November 2012
2. What is Kongregate?
• Open platform for browser-based games
– Flash, Unity, HTML5, Java, etc.
• 60,000 games, 1300 uploaded monthly
• ~200 games selling virtual goods
• Revenue from virtual goods (70%) & ads (30%)
• 15M monthly uniques, core gamers
• Traffic is 40% US, 40% Europe, 10% Asia
• Acquired by GameStop July 2010
4. Background
• All stats are lifetime
• ARPU: average revenue per user
• ARPPU: average rev per paying user
• User = Player: a registered user who loaded the
game at least once
• Games included have all been on Kongregate at
least 6 weeks
• Bubbles on charts represent size of total
revenue
5.
6. ARPU & ARPPU
• ARPPUs for single-player games cluster around
$5-$10
• Multiplayer games range $20-$230
• Average ARPPU for a game from Asia: $118
• Average for Western multiplayer game: $40
• ARPPU is the main factor in high ARPU for
Asian game, important factor for all games
7.
8.
9.
10. ARPU & % Buyer
• % Buyer ranges from 0.05% - 3.6%, much larger
range than ARPPU, average is 0.63%
• Single-player average 0.9%
• Multiplayer game average 0.57%, slightly higher
in Western games, slightly lower in Asian games
• Much greater range from top to bottom in %
buyer in Western games
• High revenue multiplayer games 1.5% or higher
11.
12.
13. Big Spenders are a Big Deal
• 4 out of the top 5 games get the majority of their revenue from those
spending $500+
• All top 10 games get the majority of their revenue from players spending
$100+
14. How We Look at Retention
• % Repeat
– What % of players ever return
– Shows initial impressions/interest in the game
• Repeat Reg
– What % of players who repeat become regulars (10+ plays)?
– How strongly is the player hooked in the early-middle parts of the game?
• Reg Commited Player, aka % Commitment
– What % of regulars become committed players (50+ plays)?
– Engagement of end-game content
15.
16. ARPU & % Repeat
• Surprisingly little correlation with ARPU
– Games that lose 75% of players immediately are just
as likely to have a high ARPU as one that keeps 75%
• But games with higher repeat rates have higher
revenue at the same ARPU
– Games that have high repeat rates get higher ratings
and viral spread, more players more revenue
• Average for Western games slightly higher than
Asian games but top performers much higher
17.
18.
19.
20. ARPU & % Commitment
• Strong correlation with ARPU
– Smaller bubbles to the right are generally newer
games, their revenue & ARPU will grow with time
• Correlation slightly weaker with Asian games,
but Repeat Regs very strong
– Longer sessions lengths & stronger early-game
monetization probably explain
21.
22.
23.
24. Asian vs Western Style
• Asian games: High ARPPU, tight player funnel
– Monetization caters well to big spenders
• Western games: Lower ARPPU, wide player
funnel
– Monetization focuses more on initial retention and
broad conversion to paid at lower prices
– Pay 2 Win is not accepted
• Mixed games: can combine the best of both
approaches
– High conversion, wide funnel, still create big spenders
28. First Advice
#1 Don’t push too hard too fast
– People are not going to buy the first time they play your game. In the
first few sessions focus on fun & giving them reasons to return, not
upsells.
– Western players expect & value some level of fairness – pay for
advantage (and reduction in grind) okay but non-buyers should feel
they have some chance to compete
#2 Don’t underprice, don’t intimidate
– There is very little price elasticity below $5. It‟s an emotional decision
to spend for progress and status, focus on that.
– Use intro paid currency, first time buyer packages & deals to get
people into the habit of purchase
– Really expensive items early may scare players away who might
accept them later
29. Big Spender Advice
#3 Make sure players can spend $1,000+
– Games are hobbies, no different from golf, cooking, live music
– Those who get deeply involved devote significant time, energy, and
money
– Have lots of items that are appealing and useful to a committed
player and price them higher (if possible) than items meant for
early/mid-game play. [Higher means $30-100, not $1000]
– If you make a fun game someone will want to spend an infinite
amount. Don‟t create a situation where spending is capped by
availability or utility.
30. The Most Important Lesson
#4 – Retention, Retention, Retention
• Every high ARPU and high revenue game on Kongregate
has a strongly social and competitive end-game. Common
features (mix and match):
– Guilds/leagues
– Guild warfare or leaderboards
– PvP (either synchronous and asynchronous)
– Visible status & character progression
– Guilds/leagues (it bears repeating)
• You have to keep feeding the game
– New content, new modes, new events
– New servers are good but not enough
31. Fantasy Online: A Coming of Age Tale
• By Pixelated Games
(Jeromy Stroh)
• Launched May 2010
• 4.20 rating
• 7.2M gameplays
32. Fantasy Online: A Humble Start
• Popular and good retention, but couldn‟t
monetize well. Only sold aesthetic equips.
First month (Jun „10) Monthly ARPPU: $5.50
• Added new zones for modest growth to $8.50
in Sept. Minimal updates for next few months.
• Nov 2010: Monthly ARPPU faded to $8.11
• Dec 2010: Guilds launched, Monthly ARPPU
jumped to $12.93
• Jun 2011: Crafting, mining, XP potions, etc.,
kept growing to $18.66
33. Fantasy Online: Big Growth
• Jul 2011: “Gem Packs”, expensive “uber”
items ($30+) were added to court whales.
Monthly ARPPU soared to $32.80
• Nov 2011: New content, new equipment slots,
Halloween event, grew to $36.23 in
• Jan 2012: Guild Warfare, peak of $41.86
• Mar 2012: New high level content, $54.37
• June 2012: 2-year anniversary event. Lots of
revenue, still high ARPPU at $43.97.
36. Fantasy Online: Summary Stats
• Traffic stayed strong through high rating and
repeated Kongregate promotion
• % Buyers generally ~1.1% with promotion,
~1.5% without
• Monthly ARPPU grew from $5.45 to $54.37
• Monthly ARPU grew from $0.04 to $0.70
38. To learn more visit
developers.kongregate.com
Contact us at apps@kongregate.com
Editor's Notes
Emily Greer is the co-founder and COO of Kongregate, with a background in statistics and economics. Anthony Pecorella is the Producer for virtual goods games on Kongregate, with a background in indie game design and development.
Most of the 60k games are single-player, most of the VG games are multiplayerRevenue is extremely concentrated – just 0.3% of games do majority of the revenue
As the Kreds platform has grown, so has the breadth of games on it. Mix of social games and stand-alone MMOs, both western & asiandevs. RPG, strategy, & collectible card games have done the best.
What makes a game successful? Advantage of having a platform is comparative stats.
These are lifetime #s, the size of bubble represents lifetime revenue. Single-player games ARPPU cluster around $5 ARPPU, multiplayer game $20-$200. Most games with ARPPU > $100 are Asian MMOs.
What makes a game successful? Advantage of having a platform is comparative stats.
These are lifetime #s, the size of bubble represents lifetime revenue. Single-player games ARPPU cluster around $5 ARPPU, multiplayer game $20-$200. Most games with ARPPU > $100 are Asian MMOs.
These are lifetime #s, the size of bubble represents lifetime revenue. Single-player games ARPPU cluster around $5 ARPPU, multiplayer game $20-$200. Most games with ARPPU > $100 are Asian MMOs.
These are lifetime #s, the size of bubble represents lifetime revenue. Single-player games ARPPU cluster around $5 ARPPU, multiplayer game $20-$200. Most games with ARPPU > $100 are Asian MMOs.
What makes a game successful? Advantage of having a platform is comparative stats.
These are lifetime #s, the size of bubble represents lifetime revenue. Single-player games ARPPU cluster around $5 ARPPU, multiplayer game $20-$200. Most games with ARPPU > $100 are Asian MMOs.
These are lifetime #s, the size of bubble represents lifetime revenue. Single-player games ARPPU cluster around $5 ARPPU, multiplayer game $20-$200. Most games with ARPPU > $100 are Asian MMOs.
Secret of the virtual goods business: the majority of revenue comes from a small group of big spenders
Very little correlation here, with a nearly flat trendline. The average person can totally dislike your game and you can have a high arpu, and the reverse is true as well. Meaningful increases revenue appear as you increase repeat %, as it correlates well with rating & spread. Games with >50% repeat generally do very well (with the smaller, low ARPU bubbles being single player games that don’t monetize at the same level regardless of popularity due to capped ARPPUs).(Even with low correlation to ARPU, it’s still a good stat to look at though – correlates well with rating and spread)
What makes a game successful? Advantage of having a platform is comparative stats.
Very little correlation here, with a nearly flat trendline. The average person can totally dislike your game and you can have a high arpu, and the reverse is true as well. Meaningful increases revenue appear as you increase repeat %, as it correlates well with rating & spread. Games with >50% repeat generally do very well (with the smaller, low ARPU bubbles being single player games that don’t monetize at the same level regardless of popularity due to capped ARPPUs).(Even with low correlation to ARPU, it’s still a good stat to look at though – correlates well with rating and spread)
Very little correlation here, with a nearly flat trendline. The average person can totally dislike your game and you can have a high arpu, and the reverse is true as well. Meaningful increases revenue appear as you increase repeat %, as it correlates well with rating & spread. Games with >50% repeat generally do very well (with the smaller, low ARPU bubbles being single player games that don’t monetize at the same level regardless of popularity due to capped ARPPUs).(Even with low correlation to ARPU, it’s still a good stat to look at though – correlates well with rating and spread)
What makes a game successful? Advantage of having a platform is comparative stats.
Very little correlation here, with a nearly flat trendline. The average person can totally dislike your game and you can have a high arpu, and the reverse is true as well. Meaningful increases revenue appear as you increase repeat %, as it correlates well with rating & spread. Games with >50% repeat generally do very well (with the smaller, low ARPU bubbles being single player games that don’t monetize at the same level regardless of popularity due to capped ARPPUs).(Even with low correlation to ARPU, it’s still a good stat to look at though – correlates well with rating and spread)
Very little correlation here, with a nearly flat trendline. The average person can totally dislike your game and you can have a high arpu, and the reverse is true as well. Meaningful increases revenue appear as you increase repeat %, as it correlates well with rating & spread. Games with >50% repeat generally do very well (with the smaller, low ARPU bubbles being single player games that don’t monetize at the same level regardless of popularity due to capped ARPPUs).(Even with low correlation to ARPU, it’s still a good stat to look at though – correlates well with rating and spread)
What makes a game successful? Advantage of having a platform is comparative stats.
This doesn’t mean you should price items at $1,000, though some games do. Lower priced items ($5-20) that are worth buying repeatedly work fine for most games. It also doesn’t mean that you should focus only on your whales – rather, just make sure that your whales can spend big bucks if they want while keeping everyone else happy too, and be confident with pricing.
This doesn’t mean you should price items at $1,000, though some games do. Lower priced items ($5-20) that are worth buying repeatedly work fine for most games. It also doesn’t mean that you should focus only on your whales – rather, just make sure that your whales can spend big bucks if they want while keeping everyone else happy too, and be confident with pricing.
Without a strong endgame, the value proposition for spending money in your game is pretty weak. People want to make long-term investments in something they are passionate about. Having strong social features like Guilds, and competitive PvP and leaderboards, helps take a game to the next level, keeping players interested and engaged far past the pre-written campaign has been completed.
Fantasy Online, by one-man-shop Pixelated Games / Jeromy Stroh, is a retro-styled MMO, sort of an 8-bit World of Warcraft with a quirky sense of humor. It has a high rating and has been played quite a lot.
At launch, the game was rather acclaimed by players, but they only sold aesthetic items. It was quite popular but didn’t monetize well, with few people buying, and those that did spending on average only about $5.50 in the first month. We’re going to focus on monthly ARPPU for this case since it shows the story more clearly than ARPU. The reason is that during larger promotions, which are usually timed with big releases and events, a wide audience of new players is brought to the game. New players are less likely to purchase right away, so this leads to a small, very short term dip in percent buyers. The dip confounds the ARPU – promotion can end up hiding the gain in ARPPU. The ARPU definitely does grow over time, but this case study is more about how to monetize your paying players than how to get first time buyers. Over the next few months, new “zones” (areas for the players to explore, usually with new enemies and loot) were added, which combined with players getting farther into the game helped grow the ARPPU to a better but still modest $8.50. After that, very few updates were made and the ARPPU stagnated in the low $8 range.
At this point, we started encouraging the developer to investigate higher price points to enable his whales to spend more in the game. He released the first of a series of “uber” items priced at a premium level ($30+) that came with status and stat bonuses. He also added “Gem packs” that were essentially unique bonus items that you could only get by buying the bigger packs of premium currency. The results were tremendous, nearly doubling monthly ARPPU to $32.80. More incremental releases and events built on this jump, increasing to $36 by November. Then in January 2012 guilds were given a competitive mechanic, which helped drive sales and competition in the game, hitting a new peak of nearly $42.
Here we have the monthly ARPPU since launch on Kongregate.
Here we have the monthly ARPPU since launch on Kongregate.
If your traffic drops over time, you get down to your core users and so your ARPPU, and especially your ARPU, will grow artificially. Fantasy Online maintained high and consistent traffic levels, so these numbers are all meaningful. Purchase rates were good, though not great, generally ranging from 1.1% to 1.5%. As mentioned earlier, promotion brings in a lot of new users who may not monetize right away, so the purchase rate drops briefly.
Here is another view of Fantasy Online, this time graphing weekly revenue. The spikes occur due to increased interest from players and promotions run by Kongregate, but then the low end after each spike gets higher. Players react well to a game that feels like it is alive and growing, and are more willing to invest in it when they feel that their investment will retain value in the long run, or perhaps even gain in value as the game develops.
Thanks for reading! We hope this is helpful as you analyze existing and new games for the virtual goods market.