Mobile application Promotion: 10,000 dollars to create 1 million dollars in revenue

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Ten years ago, Remedy Entertainment a third-person shooter game "Payne" to market. Sold over 7 million copies globally, and spawned a film starring Mark Wahlberg.

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Located in Finland, Remedy entertainment once by virtue of a "hero (Maxpayne)" fame, its strong technical strength and familiar action game design skills have been recognized by the industry. The greatest feature of the "hero" is the use of the "Matrix" ballistic time concept, and its perfect application to the game, its cool action at that time caused no small stir. Later launched the "Hero 2" has also been greatly praised. However, the "Hero 3" was submitted to Rockstar production is expected to be listed in May 2012. and remedy other main direction ...

Last year, remedy began trying to kill into the mobile gaming world. "Death Rally" (Death Rally) is one of the most representative works, which marks the first step in the company's major transformation. These midsize game developers come from the traditional home game host area. They started exploring a new product pricing and a set of development strategies for smart-phone gaming. Let us take a look at how remedy is playing a 10,000-dollar marketing budget, earning 1 million dollars in 9 months ' time.

Figure: Death Rally Game screenshot

First trick: Death rally This game debut was in March 2011, priced at 4.99 dollars. After the game on-line Remedy's PR department immediately launched the promotion work. First death rally participated in the Freeappaday limited-time free activity, cost 5000 dollars, in addition the campaign cost about 5000 dollars. Remedy's CEO, Matias Myllyrinne, said: "Mobile games spread as fast as the virus, its swiftness far more than the traditional home host game." Early publicity is a must, and it will create a snowball effect, which is based on the attractiveness of your game. Apple is most concerned about the games that are featured, which works better than any advertising. Death rally in the last 3 days, earning all the development costs.

Second recruit: In May 2011, remedy the game's price from 4.99 dollars to 0.99 dollars. Death rally has become the world's top app for the iphone platform and has been in the top spot for five consecutive days. It captures the hearts of players in more than 80 countries. It is true that by lowering prices to increase income, the road is small profits but quick turnover. After that remedy game, the average price at 0.7 dollar level. A 5-dollar application is tempting for a person who likes to be a delicacy. And after the price cut, the user gave attractive evaluation and positive assessment, which also tightly cover their wallets of consumers is a great temptation.

The third recruit: Remedy adopt "soft marketing law". Consumers can download to the free version of Death Rally, and consumers will not be forced to pay for props when they reach a certain level. Consumers can try a prop for 15-30 minutes before deciding whether they want to buy it. Remedy's core strategy is to charge for free gaming, but it's not like the traditional pay-as-you-go game, which has too many mandatory pay factors. Remedy sells single mode experience point acceleration props, which can enhance the performance of weapons and vehicles in multiplayer mode. Experience acceleration can help players unlock new grades and faster cars, dramatically increasing the player's advantage in multiplayer battles.

The four strokes, the steel stack pestle, pay the game's inside pay. For a game of 0.99 dollars, the revenue generated can be roughly divided into three parts. One is to buy the game income, one is the single mode of experience accelerated income, there is a multiplayer model of the characteristics of weapons and vehicles income. It is worth noting that more than 60% of the total game revenue comes from users paying for their purchases in the game. In a free game, two types of income are divided into 55. This means that single and multiplayer games can generate maximum income by paying for them.

Figure: Unlocking new cars and new equipment

Five strokes, mobile game is not a one-time product. "Mobile gaming users need more intimate services," said Remedy's executive vice president. Remedy released 9 content expansion packs in 10 months. Continuous content updates, so that products maintain vitality and influence, will continue to bring new customers and a variety of paid behavior. A good mobile phone game, compared to the traditional home host game has a longer life. Since joining the multiplayer feature, Death Rally's users have exploded to 50 million, while revenues have soared by 30%.

Six strokes, free pull pay. Remedy released a free version of Death rally in June 2011, coinciding with the weekend of the Great Nordic Festival "Midsummer Festival". Contributed 2 million new users to the game one day. and the corresponding game income increased year-on-year. This free model helps game users avoid the embarrassing situation of criticisms after paying for the pit. The free version can boost sales, but it's not a simple pull trick that requires a more sophisticated and clear market strategy design. This marketing may not be suitable for all game applications, but at least in the first few months, developers can accumulate a huge game user base. For the game to pay the mechanism, more need a complex, balanced game planning. It also requires a perfect shopping framework within the game. Based on the experience of Death Rally, a free version is used to promote paid content, a business model that will go a long way in the next few years.

The seventh trick, Remedy, also focuses on the Android platform. According to their experience Android version of the game, often only bring the equivalent of the iphone platform 30% of the game revenue. Some of the champions ' Android games are barely able to hold up to 10% of the iphone's total revenue. In fact, in order to make money on the Android platform, you have to design a game-paying mechanism. For example, the famous "offer wall" consumers can download a number of free bundled apps or games, and consumers can get a bonus. Remedy through this form of advertising to earn other applications of the promotion costs.

Eighth trick, when can the game be free? Remedy thinks it usually takes at least 1 million active players. At the moment, Death rally has 2 million active users each month. This number is quite impressive, but it is still far behind the popular free gaming user level. In general, if your application is of high quality, a paid download user base may be between 3 million and 20 million. If you want to further expand the user base, then 50 million to 200 million users, you can consider the free game. Further through advertising, cooperative marketing, franchising and other forms of profit. Each paid game has a certain popular life cycle, generally 6-9 months. And then in the transformation into free applications, with the vast number of user groups and value-added, advertising and other forms of fees. As a result, this will result in a two-time profit explosion for the application. During the charge, there are many gifts, such as props and scenes. That way, even if the future is free, it won't be too disappointing for paying players. When the application is excessive to the value-added payment stage, it is important to keep the player as fresh as possible, creating more DLC additions, expansion packs, featured holiday versions, and more. At the same time, more for the game publicity.

Editorial Reviews:

With the iphone and Android gaming platform increasingly competitive, the market is like a giant pressure cooker, and every mobile game developer is under a lot of stress. The quality of the game's production, publicity, pricing, promotional strategies, the entire industry winds almost daily change. But in any case, mobile gaming is still better than the traditional mainframe games, and the market is showing a geometric growth trend.

Through the analysis of these strokes, we can now see that there is a lot of learning about mobile apps: Start with a high price, make a free quick climb list, and then gradually lower prices, push downloads, post free versions, and charge through attentive value-added services and modest value-added content.

Death Rally was a very humble game when it was launched on the 1996 PC platform. The money was not as good as a fraction of the iphone's platform, but it did shine on the iphone platform. It's definitely a good way to make a big move on the old game, quickly porting it to the smartphone platform.

In 2011, the sales of home game host software in North America and Japan had a significant downward trend. This may be a cyclical problem for home game hosts, but we also see a long-term downward trend here. For the most part, the download of mobile games increased by 120% over the Christmas period of 2011 during Christmas 2012.