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Winter Nights 2013: Big Fish's mobile F2P business grew 275% in 2012

#wnconf Three games generating $4 million per month

Winter Nights 2013: Big Fish's mobile F2P business grew 275% in 2012
Well known for its premium PC/Mac casual games business, US publisher Big Fish is now moving strongly into free-to-play gaming.

It currently only has three mobile F2P products live, something its VP and GM of F2P Chris Williams said was a "strategic decision" for the company

They are Big Fish Casino, Found and Fairway Solitaire.

And Big Fish saw strong growth in its free-to-play mobile business (currently iOS-focused) during 2012.

As explained in his talk - 'Best practises for developing free-to-play game services' - at the Winter Nights conference in St Petersburg, Russia, the company now generates around $4 million per month from these games.

That's up 275 percent.

The daily rhythm

"Your players should be playing your game, or thinking about playing your game," Williams explained.

One key improvement for Fairway Solitaire during 2012 was an update which added a daily golf course to play. This strongly boosted the game's retention.

He also said that notification was a strong channel for driving usage. "Correctly used, it can drive more than 20 percent of all sessions," he stated.

Longterm love

Yet, Williams was keen to point out that you have to treat your audience properly.

"Monetisation isn't a trick. It's an expression of passion," he explained.

"Focus on retention first and monetisation second. Monetisation is your players telling you they love your game.

"You need to create a rhythm of play before you can disrupt it,"

And the results from this approach can be lucrative. For example, Big Fish's F2P hidden object game Found generates $0.15 average revenue per daily active user on iOS.

But released as a free-to-play game on the Big Fish PC App Store, this rate was four times higher - peaking at over $0.60c.
Contributing Editor

A Pocket Gamer co-founder, Jon is Contributing Editor at PG.biz which means he acts like a slightly confused uncle who's forgotten where he's left his glasses. As well as letters and cameras, he likes imaginary numbers and legumes.