Great profits to be made with free games
The new virtual value exchange is brilliant because a player can pay for the game as much as s/he wants – or not pay as the case may be.
If you buy a game at a shop, it costs the usual 50 euro and the buyer’s relationship with the seller ends right there moneywise. Instead, the price of a free-to-play game is not limited to a certain point. You can use one euro or a thousand euro in micropayments says games researcher and project manager Janne Paavilainen from Information Studies and Interactive Media at the University of Tampere.
– Free-to-play games are the most significant thing that has happened in the gaming industry in a very long time.
Game researchers at the University of Tampere work together with the Helsinki Institute for Information Technology HIIT to research the virtual value exchange and the buying motivation of free-to-play players with survey and interview data. The survey was posted online and 3,500 people responded.
Big Volumes
In December 2010 Facebook published the free game CityVille. In 43 days, the game had a hundred million monthly users. This is so far the record in quick popularity among free games.
At present, the numbers of players of individual hit games have come down but, all in all, the numbers of players of free-to-play games are rising. The games are visible especially in Facebook. The social network service gives the games a huge social platform where programs are distributed from one user to another.
The subject matter of Facebook games comes from popular culture. For example, people take care of their own farms or restaurants. Instead, successful free-to-play games outside social media rather resemble traditional video games.
– The games in Facebook are very simple and easy to play. When the theme of the game is familiar, people become interested and new players find these games too, says Paavilainen.
Free-playing players are also important
The players have varying attitudes to micropayments. Some are irritated by the payments and some can even that that it is some sort of hoax if you can make payments and advance better in the game.
Both paying and non-paying players are important to the gaming companies. Free players bring volume and popularity to the game and the payers bring in the profits.
– 1–3 percent of players in Facebook use money to play, but the most popular free-to-play games may have as many as 30 percent paying players, says researcher Janne Paavilainen
Depending on the game, a paying player is estimated to spend on average 5 - 30 dollars on games per month.
Laughing all the way to the bank
The gaming industry has ambiguous feelings about free gaming. The representatives of the company Zynga that has developed the most popular free games on Facebook, FarmVille and CityVille, were booed at at the Game Developers’ Conference just a few years ago.
Game makers who think of themselves more as artists do not look kindly at free-to-play because it is thought to be a moneyman’s thing.
– Business oriented gaming companies laugh all the way to the bank, Paavilainen says.
At present, Zynga is the obvious number one. Its Facebook games have more than 270 monthly players. Electronic Arts comes second with its 45 million monthly players.
Regular video games will not disappear
The future game makers of free-to-play games must understand marketing and economics.
– A game maker has to be half analyst so that s/he understands how to design hooks in the game and to decide at what point and with what price the micropayments are offered in order to get the players committed to the game and potentially also to pay.
Free-to-play games are developed according to the actions of the players. Those features that get a lot of clicks are developed and the features the players ignore will be deleted from the game.
At least at this stage, the popularity of free-to-play games does not mean that the demand for regular video games or games with monthly payments would suddenly dwindle. According to Paavilainen, they will remain on the market for a long time but free-to-play will be taking its share of the field.
Free-to-play, freemium
* Playing does not cost anything but in-game items and features can be bought with micropayments.
* Zynga is the number one producer of free-to-play games in Facebook with its 270 million monthly players. FarmVille and CityVille are examples of Zynga games.
* Finnish game companies that use the free-to-play virtual value exchange model are for example Rovio, Supercell, Grey Area Labs and the Helsinki Studio of Digital Chocolate.
* Popular free-to-play games outside Facebook are for example Team Fortress 2, World of Tanks and League of Legends.
Text: Tiina Lankinen
Translation: Laura Tohka
http://aikalainen.uta.fi/2012/06/05/ilmaisilla-peleilla-tehdaan-isot-voitot/
