Social games boom behind: The miserable life of a game that is not being favored

The monthly sales of a game amounted to XX billion yen!
　　
......
　　
Almost always see the news, it seems that the mobile game market is a prosperous scene, the game companies are making a pot full, but the real is only a few lucky few, more is struggling on the brink of the edge of the game.
　　
This article is an article shared by a Japanese game developer who will tell the tragic life of one of the many not-to-be-seen games, with light and shadow, and how the game that is huddled in the dark struggles over its life.
　　
This article will be based on the following data as a precondition, many assumptions, for reference only.
　　
Development fee: 50 million yen development fee for iOS app "Gamecast"
　　
Labor cost: 500,000 yen/person/month, 10 people operation
　　
Advertising fee: Initial advertising fee 2 million yen
　　
Server: 500,000 yen/month
　　
Pay Rate: 5%
　　
Paid amount: 10,000 yen
　　
30% of sales paid to App Store app platform
　　
First of all, the production of a game development costs are necessary, if not to earn back the development costs, will certainly lose, so, before the development has been given at least to earn back the development costs of the obligation, so the game "Gamecast" at the birth of the 50 million yen has been saddled with the cross.
　　
Then, start making! The game is done! But who's going to play?
　　
This is the time to advertise. Add 2 million yen to the advertising cost.
　　
So the money spent here is 52 million yen, can the game respond to the expectations of these producers?
　　
After putting in the advertisement, "Gamecast" the first month the momentum is good, the download quantity reaches 50,000 times, the actual core player reaches 20,000 people. Among them, the paid users are calculated by 5%, total 1000 people, pay 10,000 yen per month, the game monthly sales of 10 million yen. In that case, 5 months will be able to earn back the development costs? NO, it's naïve!
　　
First, 30% of sales are paid to the App Store platform, so only 7 million yen is left. Moreover, the mobile game is not like the host game, do a good sell even if the finished, mobile games must also hold a variety of in-game activities, in order to keep players fresh. Running a game at its best requires a minimum of 10 people, a 500,000-yen monthly salary per person, plus a 500,000-yen server, and a 5.5 million yen deduction from sales, with the last 1.5 million yen remaining. Minus the advertising fee of 2 million yen, the first month on the shelves lost 500,000 yen.
　　
If you stop advertising for the second month, you can make a profit of 1.5 million yen, and it will take 34 months (about 3 years) to recover the development cost without a reduction in the number of players. Therefore, only 10 million yen per month of sales is not sustainable.
　　
Because there is no loss, so it is not too much failure, but the operation is too difficult, at this time there are two ways to put in front. The first is to reduce the number of operations in order to increase the profit range, immediately after the loss of the game. Although in the final analysis is only hypothetical, but the more powerful enterprises in SAP department, most of them adopt this method, if the game performance is not good immediately off the shelf, re-develop other games.
　　
Another way is to increase advertising investment, and actively improve the game experience, improve revenue. Because if the game's sales increase to 15 million yen, at least can survive. However, the game on the starting line, even if the lucky remnants down, after a large area of improvement, still need to advertise again to revive. Of these, only a part of the investment, the operation of a good game to stabilize. If it does not go well and all the money is exhausted ... It means the end.
　　
Some people say the company is not willing to pay, from the user can not get it?! This is called "squeeze operations" at the end of a social game. But even raising the game's pay rate will ease the crisis? The answer is still no!.
　　
Without money can not improve the game experience, as the last struggle to extract from the user's hands, if nothing is done, then only sit idly by. So, a lot of companies will bet on everything for this last glimmer of hope.
　　
Just, if the price increases too much, will cause the user to leave, in order to keep the game to lose the user base, the end of the game will have to be a few examples of the rack.
　　
And this last dying self-destruct means, if not play a role in increasing sales, most of the game will choose to slowly die. As for why the "slow" demise is to thank the players who have been supporting to the end, because for the game company, these users are very valuable, before the end to give these loyal users a good impression, I hope the next work will be able to get their support.
　　
In this state, surely the developers will feel very reluctant. Some people once thought that "social games are a gamble", and that is true. For game developers, works are like their own children. Their work failed to respond to the expectations of the paid loyal players, so they felt unwilling.
　　
"Social game is a cash cow!" ”
　　
"It's easy to make money. ”
　　
......
　　
There are still a lot of naïve people who say these things. Just, I hope you can understand, under the halo of this cash cow, there are game developers who silently regret in the dark. Http://www.zgios.com

Social games boom behind: The miserable life of a game that is not being favored