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.
News
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.
Related Articles
Interview
Oct 17th, 2023
Big Fish Games’ Janice Gao on how keeping an open mind helped build up her mobile marketing skillset
Top Stories
News
1 hour, 57 minutes ago
Pocket Worlds’ Highrise surpasses 40 million users as it unveils new development tools
Feature
Mar 25th, 2024
5 takeaways from GDC 2024: The games industry reckons with key challenges, Godot competes with Unity, and AI was the big trend without the big announcements
Feature
Mar 25th, 2024
Hot Five: Epic’s app store plans, Turkey’s tax exemptions, and Call of Duty Warzone: Mobile finally releases globally
Events
Mobidictum Network Lisbon April 2024 | Europe | Apr 16th |
HIT Games Conference Istanbul 2024 | Apr 18th | |
App Promotion Summit London | Europe | Apr 25th |
Dubai GameExpo Summit 2024 | Middle East | May 1st |
Mobidictum Meetup Berlin May 2024 | Europe | May 7th |
Mobidictum Meetup Tallinn May 2024 | Europe | May 21st |
Israel Mobile Summit 2024 | Middle East | Jun 6th |
Mobidictum Meetup Barcelona September 2024 | Europe | Sep 1st |
Popular Stories
Feature
Mar 25th, 2024