Mobile games

The Business of Mobile Gaming

Y2la GamesBy: Micky Mouse

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Mobile Gaming MarketBiggest market of our generation; fastest growing consumer technology ever

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Game history

1970 >> games industry has been growing exponentially. 1982 >> games industry has been growing to 8 billion USD.

1995 >> to 22 billion USD.

Current Size around 36 Billion USD .

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Why going into mobile gaming business?

Low entry barrier Very large market

High purchasing power buyer

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Information come from::

InterviewsQuestionaires

EventsInternet

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Types of game companyGame as Service Game as Product

Ongoing game

Key success measure is not units sold but from active users and conversion rates.

Marketing: Focus on acquiring users and converting them to paying customers

Finance: Can generate revenue on an unfinished game but require substantial marketing cost

“ Fire and forget” games that are complete when they launch

No ongoing relationship with gamer

Marketing: Big launch; Majority of sales in first month (as one time purchase)

Finance: Require sufficient resources to develop 100% of the game and market it before seeing any revenue

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Rules for Free-to-Play Games

Rule 1: Make it Fun Rule 9: Make it possible to spend $100Rule 2: The Starbucks test Rule 10: Have pizzazz, not polish

Rule 3: Come for a minute, stay for an hour Rule 11: Kill the tutorialRule 4: Complexity in layers Rule 12: I must not fail (No Game over)Rule 5: The importance of never ending Rule 13: Sell emotion, not contentRule 6: Be generous Rule 14: Experiment and learnRule 7: Be Free-to-Play forever Rule 15: Game development never endsRule 8: The no-brainer first dollar

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Revenue channel

Game content revenueAutomated advertisementOther revenue source

1 .Real, physical product advertisement within the game (e.g. Coca-Cola drinks in game)

2 .Selling original sound track (OST) in the games on iTunes3 .Selling merchandise (dolls, t-shirts) of characters in hit titles

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Business Plan

Marketing Plan:: Product

Price Place

Promotion Operation Plan::

Cumulative phase Startup phase

RISK AND ASSUMPTIONS

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Stolen Ideas

Game’s idea stolen when using crowd funding services ::Some entrepreneur worry that posting unfinished ideas on crowd funding website could exposed a great idea to a potential thief.

In order to have the project successfully crowd funded.the important thing is not the idea, but the execution of the project

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MOBILE GAME INDUSTRY ANALYSISFive forces analysis of mobile gaming industry

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Mobile Gaming Market

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Mobile Gaming Explosion

Game Design and Mechanics:

What Makes a Good Mobile Game?

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Game Design and MechanicsGames tell a story:

What is the setting ?

Who is the hero ?

What are the hero's desires?

Cues : Visual

Audio

Dynamic

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Addicting Game Components

Make the game easy and fun 

Lots of short levels 

More content they can unlock

Depth- building up from a simple to difficult game play

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6 Key Steps To A Successful App

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Growth of the Gadget

Monetization

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Why Pay? Expanded features and capabilities (77 percent)Remove ads (44 percent)Trial expired (35 percent)To support the developer (22 percent)Curiosity (16 percent)

Mobile Ad Frameworks Google AdSens

e Millennial Medi

aiAdAdMobBrightrollGreystripeInMobiJumptapMdotMSAY Media ZestADZ

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“Freemium”Free To Play. Costs to unlock additional contentApple, Android and Amazon all Keep 30%Barnes and Noble most likely will do the same

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SubscriptionSimilar to Freemium which uses and In-App PurchaseApple, Android and Amazon all Keep 30%

Production 

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Production phase Goal

the goal is to get the game up and running as quickly as possible in one form or another; this is a key component to solving unseen design issues. In an ideal

situation .

the goal is to have a working build of the game functions every week or two; this means that the

product as a whole is constantly being prototyped .

Distribution

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DistributioniOS Apps Must go into the App store.

Amazon and Kindle Apps must go intotheir respective stores. Google Apps can be distributed a number of different ways including Email, posting onwebsite and several distributionchannels.Distribution Channels include: Amazon, GetJar, AppBrain, Appsfire

Acquisition

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Acquisition Options::

Viral/Social effects All about game design and product

App Store optimization Optimize for search results, name, icon, screenshots

Mobile advertising Buy from everywhere and measure

PR Give a story rather than press release

Engagement

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Engagement

Engagement Basics (core mechanics, progression, etc)

Constant Balancing Regular Content Updates

Player interaction Re-engagement

Retention

How to measure?

Usage pattern: session behaviorRetention: short-term, lifetime retentionFeature engagement: % of users interacting with a feature

Change from plain volume to Regularity; not just “fire and forget” but ongoing

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Engagement & Retention

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The Rise of FreemiumWorldwide distribution platform – unprecedentedThere is always a FREE alternativeEasiest way to get scaleOnce you have users, multiple ways to monetize instead of a single, up-front transaction

Micro-transactions Advertising

Usage BehaviorPaid apps model only for true IP innovation

Questions