How Fire Emblem Heroes made $100 million, Strike of Kings becomes Arena of Valor, and MZ's new UA strategy
MZ pumps enormous amounts of money into advertising the two games that it has launched, a user acquisition strategy which has helped propel its games to the top of the charts.
But something strange has happened - it's download numbers have fallen off a cliff as MZ appears to be focusing its efforts elsewhere - something spotted by our man Jon Jordan in our most read article of the week.
Second on our Hot Five is the news that Tencent has rebranded Strike of Kings as Arena of Valor, in a move that has annoyed and confused the game's fans in equal measure.
Heroes, risers, and lineages
Third up is a breakdown of what makes Fire Emblem Heroes so enjoyable to play, and why that led to it generating $100 million from just 10 million downloads.
And finally, Bohdan Chernobai stops by to talk about the rising stars of the mobile gaming market, and Lineage M has reportedly generated over $233 million in just a month.
Click the link below to find out more about the stories that caught our reader's eye over the last week.
#5: NCSoft's Lineage M reported to have generated over $233 million in revenues in first month of release
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NCSoft's Lineage M reported to have generated over $233 million in revenues in first month of release »Lineage makes huge money in South Korea - just look at how well Lineage 2: Revolution did in its first month.
Except now NCSoft has come along with its own Lineage mobile release, Lineage M, and its blown all records to smithereens by generating $233 million in revenues in a month.
That's from an estimated 10 million downloads, which is a frankly ridiculous sum to have made from such a small number of players.
The figures aren't confirmed yet, however - we'll need to wait and see if NCSoft publishes them itself before we know for sure that Lineage M has been so incredibly successful.
#4: Mobile games market rising stars: New promising countries in terms of revenues
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Mobile games market rising stars: New promising countries in terms of revenues »We hear about the big markets like China, Japan, South Korea and the USA all the time.
But what about the rest? Zenna's Bohdan Chernoba has analysed the rising stars of the mobile games market and offers the data on which countries could prove lucrative ventures for developers and publishers.
"In 2013, when the US mobile games market was almost a four times bigger than the Chinese market, it was hard to imagine that just in few years China will overtake the market leader and become the new world’s largest mobile gaming market," said Chernobai.
"Who knows where the next mobile gaming "Sangrail" will be? In the meantime, game developers are able to get the most out of the new and very promising games markets such as SEA, LATAM, and MEA."
#3: How Fire Emblem Heroes made $100 million from 10 million installs
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How Fire Emblem Heroes made $100 million from 10 million installs »You may not hear too much Fire Emblem Heroes following its launch, but that doesn't mean it's not bringing in the money for Nintendo.
Indeed, the game has apparently made $100 million from just 10 million installs - something which Anil Das-Gupta was keen to break down.
"From a personal perspective, I would say that the game feels less grindy than some of its rivals because the core gameplay is more enjoyable," he writes.
"There are also options to auto battle and skip animations to speed up proceedings if you are more of an idle RPG fan who is more interested in the metagame, progression systems and min / maxing your favorite character."
#2: Tencent rebrands Western release of mobile MOBA Strike of Kings to Arena of Valor
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Tencent rebrands Western release of mobile MOBA Strike of Kings to Arena of Valor »Honor of Kings is a genuinely great game, but one small problem that it has is that Tencent can't decide on a name for it.
Known around the world by Penta Storm, Realm of Valor, or Strike of Kings, the publisher has now seen fit to rebrand it again for the full Western release, with the new name Arena of Valor.
Fans aren't happy - some of them prefer Strike of Kings as a name, while others just wish they'd pick a name and get on with it.
Not that anyone has asked for our opinion, but for our money, they could do with coming up with something a bit more interesting than "X of Y". Ho hum.
#1: Has MZ just pulled all its legacy game marketing to focus on Final Fantasy XV?
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Has MZ just pulled all its legacy game marketing to focus on Final Fantasy XV? »You may sometimes wonder to yourself how MZ gets so many downloads of its super-hardcore strategy games that really seems to focus on the big spenders - well, it's advertising.
The games are so heavily marketed that when MZ decides to pull its money away from them to focus on a new game, they crash out of the downloads ranks quite spectacularly.
Instead it seems its marketing budget is being spent on Final Fantasy XV: A New Empire, which even now still seems like a bizarre choice for a cross-over game.
But as Jon Jordan points out, it doesn't matter what we may think - whatever MZ is doing, it appears to be working.