Instagram's power, Star Wars Uprising analysed and Subway Surfers does a billion
Welcome to PocketGamer.biz's weekly rundown of the stories clocking up the hits, picking up the click-throughs and generally keeping the advertisers happy by serving up page views.
Or, if you'd prefer, the top five stories currently dominating our readers' attention.
Each week, we'll be counting down the biggest news from the previous seven days, giving just a glimpse of the industry's big issues, from five to one.
Handy for you, each headline in the list also allows you to click through to the article in full, so you can make sure you've not missed out on any of last week's big stories.
#5: 7 steps to avoid for mobile marketing automation heaven
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7 steps to avoid for mobile marketing automation heaven »Tapjoy's senior vice president of partnerships Shannon Jessup argued that the premise of mobile marketing automation is that it is supposed to help app developers do their jobs better, faster and more easily.
But that doesn't mean it's a silver bullet solution to all your problems.
"The tools and technologies that empower mobile marketing automation are only as good as the marketers that use them, and since the tools themselves are still relatively new to the market, there is a natural and expected learning curve in getting the best results from them," she said, before pointing out 7 things to avoid if you want automation to make your life easier and your business more successful.
#4: Preliminarily metrics suggest Instagram is a strong but expensive UA source for mobile games
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Preliminarily metrics suggest Instagram is a strong but expensive UA source for mobile games »Facebook is now opening up Instagram to the full force of the mobile industry's advertising reach.
That means we're getting the first reports of UA campaigns on the platform; something marketing outfit Kenshoo has highlighted.
It's just revealed some preliminarily numbers from what it called "a selection of games spanning the Social Casino, RPG, Strategy, Sports, and Match 3 genres".
These are:
- Average click-through rate (CTR): 2.32%
- Average cost-per-install (CPI): $4.17
- Average cost-per-click (CPC): $0.36
- Average cost-per-thousand impressions (CPM): $6.22
By comparing these with numbers from Facebook and more general UA channels, we can make a comparison in terms of Instagram's effectiveness and value.
#3: Honed to perfection: the monetisation of Star Wars: Uprising
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Honed to perfection: the monetisation of Star Wars: Uprising »Our IAP Inspector continues to be busy: most recently checking out Kabam's Star Wars Uprising.
Praising the game's control system and high production values, he also had good things to say about its monetisation.
"Pleasingly, the game's positive first impression also extends to its monetisation. Kicking you off with 300 Chromium (the game's hard currency), it's a haul that would cost $9.99 to buy with IAPs," he pointed out.
"It's a move that shows Kabam is betting big on reciprocity, with immediate generosity up there with Rival Kingdoms."
Of course, there are more involved mechanics, notably the Premium Crane, which for $4 will provide you a random item guaranteed to be worth at least 3 stars.
Interestingly, Kabam also limits the maximum you can initially spend on IAP to $29.99, with higher priced micro-transactions not available to the player unless they spend the maximum shown in-store at that time.
Overall, the game gets a creditable 'Approved' rating.
#2: Subway Surfers breaks 1 billion downloads barrier, boasting 27 million daily active players
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Subway Surfers breaks 1 billion downloads barrier, boasting 27 million daily active players »Only three mobile games had broken the 1 billion download milestone, so it was many congratulations to Danish developers Kiloo and Sybo Games as Subway Surfers was announced as the fourth.
One interesting aspect of the game's global success is that apart from the Chinese Android version, it's not been localised into any languages: it's just available in English.
Of course, that's a mark of its intuitive gameplay.
Similarly, with updates being released on a three-weekly cycle, the game also boast staggering retention with 27 million daily active players.
#1: 2 years, 20 contributors, and "alarming" sales - The making of Spider: Rite of the Shrouded Moon
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2 years, 20 contributors, and "alarming" sales - The making of Spider: Rite of the Shrouded Moon »Two years is a long, long time on the App Store.
That's one conclusion to draw from our Making Of interview with US indie Tiger Style.
It first came to prominence on mobile with its beautifully-crafted and commercially-successful Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor.
The sequel Spider: Rite of the Shrouded Moon only matched the original in one of those two attributes, however.
"The amount of attention and praise we've seen from players, critics, and press for Shrouded Moon is even more than our other games (both of which won Game of the Year awards, so that's saying something), but the sales have been very disappointing and even alarming," said Tiger Style co-founder Randy Smith.