5 Steps to Ignite your Free-to-Play Revenue (without Advertising)

5 Steps to Ignite
Your F2P Revenue
without Advertising
MIGS 2014
Paul Winterhalder
@winterhalder

What is brainCloud?
brainCloud is a ready-made,
cloud-based backend
for game development.
Using brainCloud, developers can
access pre-built features to jumpstart
building the most popular free-to-play
game types, without having to reinvent
the wheel.
2
by bitHeads

Background
Only one in ten
mobile games succeed.
3

Background
Harsh Reality: Free-to-Play games
make more money.
Free-to-Play Games have been
outpacing Premium Games since 2011.*
If you check the Top Grossing list on iOS,
you’ll be hard-pressed to find a
premium game in the top 50
— other than Minecraft.
* Source - Flurry http://www.flurry.com/bid/65656/Free-to-play-Revenue-Overtakes-Premium-Revenue-in-the-App-Store#.VF2WF4elMe0

Background
Mathematically, the concept is simple…
X
$ Success % Conversion
$ Spend
X
# Players
=

Background
In practice, success requires a lot of
design and meta-systems to achieve.
Multiplatform
Free-to-play
Social
Cross-play
Multiplayer Game-as-a-service
In-app
Promotions
Competition
Players
Conversion
Spend

Background
Which in turn require tons of
back-end technology and tools.
Clan-style
Turn-based Matchmaking
Multiplatform Multiplayer
Free-to-play Social
In-app
Promotions
Cross-play
Game-as-a-service
Competition
Leaderboards
Cloud Data
iOS
Android
Windows
Achievements
Quests
Virtual Currencies
Design tools
Analytics
Store Integration
Notifications
Pricing Controls

Background
The “Big Guys” have spent years and
millions of dollars building these systems.
49* of the 50 Top Grossing games
in the iOS App Store
incorporate cloud-tech to enhance
gameplay and monetization.
* based on data from August 29th, 2014

Background
Most of us are not the “Big Guys”
Rise of the Indie:
75% of development studios
are less than 25 persons.
Break-down of
game developers:
Individual
Small (2-24)
Mid (25-100)
Large (100+)
Owned by Publisher
Publisher
M2 Research Developer Survey, presented at Casual Connect, July 24th, 2014

Background
5 Steps to leverage the cloud
to ignite your F2P Revenue
(without advertising)
10

Solution
Step 1: Go Cross-Platform
Add
Consider and (↑ARPDAU)
Consider (↓ARPDAU, ↑Players)
Consider and
Mobile OS NA Market Share*
September 2014
blackberry
2%
ios
42%
windows
4%
android
52%
Source - http://www.comscore.com/Insights/Market-Rankings/comScore-Reports-September-2014-US-Smartphone-Subscriber-Market-Share

Step 1: Go Cross-Platform
12
Still plenty to do!
Platform-specific porting still
required for leaderboards,
achievements, notifications,
purchasing, etc.
Strategic use of cloud tech can
greatly reduce these costs.
(Integrate once with the cloud tech,
and take advantage of it on each
platform.)
Yay Engines!
These days the heavy lifting is done
by the game engines — Unity,
Unreal, Cocos2d-x save you tons of
time in moving to new platforms.

Solution
Step 2: Enable Cross-Play
Takes Cross-Platform further
Single Experience across devices
Single Community
player
experience

Step 2: Enable Cross-Play
Cross-Play Effective?
14
To be effective, must:
Share game state across
platforms (cloud saves)
Include purchases
King.com (Candy Crush Saga) has
attributed their cloud save feature as
a critical factor in the title’s success
— GDC 2013

Solution
Step 3: Add Social Competition
Social Competition is an excellent way to
give players additional objectives in your
game.
Attract additional players
Competition increases engagement

Step 3: Make it Social
Social Competition Effective?
16
Cloud features for social
competition:
Social Identity
Brags / Posts
Social Leaderboards
Visits
Challenges
Multiplayer !!!
Clans
20 of the Top 50 Grossing iOS Games
are Multiplayer.*
Another 11 are Social Builders (visits).*
* based on data from August 29th, 2014

Solution
Step 4: Reduce Cheating + Theft
Client-side IAP validation isn’t secure
Client hacks can ruin a competitive game

Step 4: Reduce Cheating + Theft
Reduce Cheating Effective?
18
Cloud features for social
competition:
Server-side receipt validation
Server-side game config +
tuning files
Server-side game logic and win
determination
Server-side matchmaking
Server-side player data
protection
Some developers claim to experience
3X revenue gains by implementing
server-side receipt validation — would
definitely vary by platform though.
We’ve all experienced or heard stories
of cheating ruining games.

Solution
Step 5: Grow + Keep your MVPs
All players are not created equal
Track and categorize your MVPs
Figure out what they like — why they leave
Create promotions to keep them longer
Create promotions to grow more of them

Dividing your player base into segments
allows you to better target your promotions.
Non-repeats Repeats
Play once,
then bounce
Play 2-9
times
37% 0% 40% 3% 12% 13% 11% 84%
Percentage of
Regs
Play 10-49
times
Committed
Play 50+
times
Percentage of Revenue
Example classifications based on Emily Greer’s (Kongregate) talk at Casual Connect 2012.

Define promotions to monetize players and
move them upstream.
Non-repeats Repeats Regs Committed
Play once,
then bounce
Play 2-9
times
Play 10-49
times
Play 50+
times
Ignore Push them
into Regs
Push them to
Committed
Don’t let them
leave!

Promotion Example: Committed
Committed
Play 50+
times
Goal
Keep them
from leaving
Segment
Definition
Played >50,
spent >$20,
hasn’t played in
>5 days
Most committed players play every
day… if you start to see gaps in
activity, it’s a sign they’re thinking
of leaving
Promotion
Definition
Veteran Sale!
Super sale on an offer large enough to
get them recommitted again.

Enter brainCloud.
brainCloud is a ready-made,
cloud-based backend
for game development.
Using brainCloud, developers can
access pre-built features to jumpstart
building the most popular free-to-play
game types, without having to reinvent
the wheel.
23

brainCloud is…
Rich gaming back-end - multiplayer,
cloud data, leaderboards, in-app
purchases and much more
Extendable via custom cloud code
Native libraries for iOS, Android,
Windows and more
Unity, Cocos2d-x and Unreal engine
integration
Easy-to-use development portal
Advanced promotional tools to
maximize your monetization
Affordable usage-based pricing
24

Any Engine, Any Platform…
brainCloud supports Unity,
Cocos2d-x and Unreal - with native libraries for
iOS, Android, Windows, Blackberry and more!
25

And Any Game Type
26
Sweet Spot!

Architecture
We have built a secure, reliable and super-scalable
architecture — so you don’t have to.

Key APIs
And pre-built all the key APIs that you’ll need.

Tools
brainCloud is more than an API. It’s a toolset to
aid in all aspects of the product lifecycle!
Design
Development
Test +
Support
Product
Management

No-brainer Pricing
30
Tier
API Calls /
month
DAU * Cost / month
Early Adopter!
(until 2016)
Per M API +
Tier 0 - 100** $0 $0 $0
Tier 1 2M 2K $49 $25 $35.00
Tier 2 5M 5K $149 $125 $35.00
Tier 3 10M 10K $299 $250 $34.00
Tier 4 25M 25K $799 $700 $33.00
Tier 5 50M 50K $1,599 $1,450 $32.00
Tier 6 100M 100K $2,999 $2,700 $31.00
Tier 7 250M 250K $7,399 $6,900 $30.00
Tier 8 500M 500K $13,999 $13,000 $28.00
Tier 9 1B 1M $24,999 $23,000 $26.00
* Based on 33.33333 API calls per DAU.
** Limited to 100DAU during development (Free!)
Sign up in 2014 -‐ get
Early Adopter Pricing until 2016!

Sign up now!
Register today to level the
playing field!
Thank you!
Go to http://getbraincloud.com
Remember - sign up before Dec 31st, 2014 to
get Early Adopter Pricing until 2016!
Contact me at paulw@bitheads.com

5 Steps to Ignite your Free-to-Play Revenue (without Advertising)

5 Steps to Ignite your Free-to-Play Revenue (without Advertising)

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5 Steps to Ignite your Free-to-Play Revenue (without Advertising)