To Be or Not to Be … Social : Incorporating Simple Social Features in Mobile Game Customer Lifetime Value Predictions

Mobile games make up the largest segment of the games industry, in terms of revenue as well as players. Hundreds of thousands of games are available with most being free to download and play. In freemium games, revenue is predominantly generated by users making in-game purchases. As only a small fraction of users make purchases, predicting these users and their Customer Lifetime Value are key challenges in Game Analytics and currently barely explored in academic research. Furthermore, while social factors have been shown to be essential for retention in games in general, the impact on retention and monetization in mobile games is unexplored. In this paper, the problem of defining social features in freemium casual mobile games is addressed through a case study with over 200,000 players. The study evaluates the influence of specific types of social interactions typical of casual mobile games, on predictions of premium users and Customer Lifetime Value by applying classifiers and regression models respectively. Results indicate that social activity does not correlate with the tendency to become a premium user, but that social activity increases over time in a cohort

Is freemium a good revenue model for MOBAS?: analysis of sucess factors

ProjectMOBAs for the personal computer generated $2.4 billion in 2014 and the user base in the genre has been growing exponentially in the last few years. With freemium being the revenue model of the leading MOBA titles and 75We try to determine how important user bases are to these games and how, by their never-ending, persistent nature, a sustainable approach should be preferred. We look specifically into the top four leading titles and how they monetize their offers. Furthermore, some light is shed into how current competitors and new entrants to the market can expect to achieve success: the former mainly by maintaining user bases and innovating within the boundaries of continuity whilst the latter by creating meaningful differentiation.As MOBA para o computador pessoal geraram$2.4 biliões em 2014 e o número de utilizadores tem crescido exponencialmente nos últimos anos. Uma vez que o freemium é o modelo de receitas predominante nos MOBA e constitui 75% dos modelos de receita dos MMO em geral, foi tomado como ponto de partida para investigar da possibilidade de modelos de receita alternativos ou estratégias de monetização – bem como o game design subjacente – serem aplicáveis aos MOBA. Foram considerados apenas jogos para o computador pessoal no mercado Ocidental. Procurámos determinar o quão importantes são os utilizadores para estes jogos e como, pela sua natureza interminável e persistente, é preferível adoptar uma postura virada para a sustentabilidade. Foram tomados em consideração especificamente os quatro jogos de topo e a forma como monetizam as suas ofertas. Também foi tida em atenção a forma como os actuais ou futuros competidores poderão esperar alcançar o sucesso: os primeiros essencialmente pela manutenção dos utilizadores e pela inovação dentro das fronteiras da continuidade e os segundos através da criação de diferenciação significativa

Overcoming the monetization challenge in freemium online games

Purpose: Online games based on a freemium business model face the monetization challenge. The purpose of this paper is to examine how players’ achievement orientation, social orientation and sense of community contribute to willingness to pay (WtP). Design/methodology/approach: A multi-method study of an online game community is used. Interviews and participant observation are used to develop an understanding of social and achievement orientations followed by the development of hypotheses that are tested using survey data. Findings: The findings indicate that a sense of community is positively related to WtP, whereas satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the service provider is not. The authors examine the moderating role of players’ achievement orientation and social orientation and find that while a stronger connection to the community may encourage achievement-oriented players to pay, the opposite is indicated for socially oriented players. Practical implications: Decision makers need to understand that not all players are potential payers; while socially oriented users can help to maintain and grow the community, achievement-oriented players are more likely to pay for the value they extract from the community. Originality/value: While communities are held together by people with common interests, which intuitively suggests that WtP increases with the strength of connection to the community, the authors find this only applies in the case of players with an achievement orientation. For those with a social orientation, WtP may actually decrease as their connection to the community increases. These perhaps counter-intuitive findings constitute a novel contribution of value for both theory and practice

Mapping the Monetization Challenge of Gaming in Various Domains

The cost of developing successful games for either entertainment or business purposes is a high-risk investment but mandatory due to the nature of the sector. However, there are discrete and innovative ways that minimize the investments risk and assure profitability without losing the player’s engagement. Gaming monetization can be approached from direct or indirect financial charges based on the scope of the game and its target group. As of today, no monetization practice can be considered as a silver bullet as they are all affected by geographical, cultural, social, economic and other factors. This paper attempts to define the major monetization elements in the gaming industry. It also attempts to define the major gaming categories and subcategories and associate on them the monetization elements and techniques. Furthermore, it creates a map for the development of gamification monetization approaches per case which can contribute towards effective gaming investments management

Revenue models, in-app purchase, and the app performance: Evidence from Apple's App Store and Google Play

In this paper, we empirically examine how the revenue model (paid, free, or freemium) adopted for a given app affects the app revenue performance as measured by the app daily revenue rank. We also study the impact of in-app purchase on this measure of performance. Moreover, we study how such relation- ships are contingent upon the distribution platform where the app is marketed as well as the type of category to which the app belongs. We test our hypotheses relying on a large sample of top grossing apps from the two major app stores, namely Apple’s App Store and Google Play. Our findings reveal that in the Apple’s App Store, paid and freemium models are equivalent and both are more effective than the free model in terms of app revenue performance. On the other hand, in Google Play no significant differences between paid and free revenue models emerge, whereas the freemium model is shown to be less effective even than the free model. Moreover, while in-app purchase is shown to positively influence the app revenue performance in Apple’s App Store, this effect is reversed in Google Play. Finally, the type of category is also shown to influence the effects of the revenue model and in-app purchase (the latter to a lesser extent) on the app performance