Apple drops Game Center app, Kabam on launching in China, and how much games will offer you for your Facebook info
Ever wanted to know how much your personal data is worth to a mobile game developer?
Our readers certainly did, as Tilting Point's analysis on developer's offerings for connecting to Facebook in their games was our most read article of last week.
In second place, Kabam discussed going it alone when publishing in China, and why it decided to drop Android in favour of focusing solely on an iOS launch.
Never stop never stopping
Thirdly, we chatted to Kopla Games and Flaregames about the making of Nonstop Knight, the idle action-RPG that has been the most successful of Flaregames' launches to date.
And finally, Apple dropping the Game Center app from the iOS 10 beta, and it looks like Britney Spears: American Dream, and the entire celebrity game genre, is falling out of favour with players.
Click the link below to find out more about the stories that caught our readers' eye over the past week.
#5: As Britney Spears: American Dream crashes, it looks like Kim Kardashian: Hollywood's success is the outlier of celebrity sim games
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As Britney Spears: American Dream crashes, it looks like Kim Kardashian: Hollywood's success is the outlier of celebrity sim games »Britney Spears: American Dream is a great game, and a much better experience than any of Glu's other celebrity games - we've proven that with science.
Despite this, it's clear that the celebrity game genre is no longer drawing in crowds, as the latest game's launch has failed miserably at gaining an audience.
Bringing in just 110,000 downloads in the first few days of launch - less than a quarter of Kendall & Kylie - the game is also struggling for revenues and retention, as are all of Glu's celebrity games.
While Kendall & Kylie currently has around 1 million MAUs, SurveyMonkey predicts that this will soon slide below Kim Kardashian: Hollywood's 800,000 MAUs.
And that's despite being two years older than the former title.
#4: Is it game over for Game Center as Apple removes the app in iOS 10?
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Is it game over for Game Center as Apple removes the app in iOS 10? »Apple's Game Center has had something of a troubled history - it's caused games to slow and crash, and straight up didn't work when iOS 9 was first launched.
With these problems comes a continued lack of interest, so it's no real surprise that Apple has dropped the Game Center app from the iOS 10 beta.
The service itself isn't going away completely - developers will still be able to build leaderboards with it, for example - but it seems unlikely Apple will be giving it much more attention anymore.
Especially since Apple is also opening up its first-party apps to third-party developers, like iMessage and Maps.
#3: All loot, no hassle: the making of Nonstop Knight
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All loot, no hassle: the making of Nonstop Knight »Nonstop Knight, a cutesy idle RPG that has your titular knight killing everything in his path forever, has become Flaregames' most successful launch ever.
So to find out more about the game, and what makes it so good, we chatted to developer Kopla Games about monetisation, design decisions, and how the game found its way to Flaregames.
On the topic of rewarded video ads, something Nonstop Knight offers but doesn't push very hard, Kopla CEO Mika Kuusisto said "the player needs to be able to play the game at their own pace."
"The player can choose to watch the ad to receive coins or gear, but it should never hinder the action when the player wants to be "in the zone" and score those juicy multikills."
#2: Why Marvel: Contest of Champions ditched Android and went auto-play/pay-to-win in China
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Why Marvel: Contest of Champions ditched Android and went auto-play/pay-to-win in China »Getting your game out in China requires a lot of work, translation, culturalisation, and all the in-betweens, and even then there's no guarantee it'll do well in the market.
Two main pieces of advice often offered are to work with a Chinese partner and make sure your game is available on the many, many Android app stores.
But when Kabam decided to bring Marvel: Contest of Champions to China, it promptly ignored both of those pieces of advice, and decided to self-publish on iOS only.
It wasn't just a simple translation job either - the game's core design had to be revamped for the new market.
"We added an auto-play option because players wanted to level up faster," said Kabam's COO Kent Wakeford.
"They're much more about the meta-game."
#1: From $0 to $9.98: the surprising spread in how much developers will pay to connect their mobile game to your Facebook friends
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From $0 to $9.98: the surprising spread in how much developers will pay to connect their mobile game to your Facebook friends »One way to get players to hand over their Facebook information is to offer them some in-game currency or items in exchange for logging in to their accounts in your game.
But how much are developers actually willing to offer for players to share their private info?
According to Jerome Sudan, director of marketing at Tilting Point, the average is $1.29, though some developers go up to as much as $9.98.
Other points Sudan raises is that Supercell don't offer in-game rewards for logging in on Clash of Clans or Clash Royale, but does for social-oriented Hay Day.
Is it such a bad thing to ask players to exchange their personal lives for some gems, though?
"No shame or judgment here," says Sudan. "We’ve all done much worse for much less."
