In the sophisticated ecosystem, a panel talk entitled 'Monetising gaming apps - maximise your revenue' is so broad to have the potential to be meaningless.
Nevertheless, at the gaming tracks of Apps World 2012, the panelists did their best to go beyond the obvious.
Of course, free-to-play remains the cornerstone that all such panels are chained to.
"I don't think freemium has changed the industry that much," pondered Paul Farley, MD of developer Tag Games, in a somewhat devil's advocate manner.
"It's still the same brands in the charts. We're seeing with our free-to-play games that the majority of revenues are made in the first 48 hours."
Oscar Clark, evangelist for US/Chinese social gaming network PapayaMobile, had different numbers.
"It takes 8-12 days for users to start spending money," he said. "We need to be better at using the data we have over the lifespan of a player."
Banner-bold
Of course, each company had its own particular axe to grind.
Ollie Clamp, director of publisher services, Millennial Media, was keen to push the value in-game advertising.
"A revenue pot should be attached to every user," he stated. "If someone's not buying IAP, you can service them advertising."
Clark was quick to interject, however, saying advertising only accounts for around 10 percent of free-to-play monetisation.
Skinning the cat
Consultant Will Luton reckoned ads - notably interstitials "could make sense in certain situations and certain games". He pointed to Zynga's Words with Friends as an example .
"But you need to be cautious with it, because it can change the likelihood your user will spend," he added.
Farley disagreed.
"I hate being sold something everytime I play the game," he said. "I've downloaded the game. I just want to play the game and enjoy the experience."
Chris Sweis, co-founder of JunoWallet - a service that enables users to convert game points to real world reward cards (iTunes, Starbucks, Amazon etc), looked towards more sophisticated retailing and eventual monetisation.
"Developers have to find a new way to engage with their userbase," he said.
"It's super important to keep delivering a great experience to your users to keep them. That's cheaper than acquiring new ones."
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
News
Oct 2nd, 2012
Apps World 12: Dlala Studio's AJ Grand-Scrutton explains his decision to go indie on Windows 8
News
Oct 2nd, 2012
Apps World 12: Indies can thrive on PlayStation Mobile, despite C# requirement, says Sony
Top Stories
News
2 hours, 52 minutes ago
Week in Views - Apple back themselves bigstyle, Clash bags Haaland and dreams come true at King
News
5 hours, 43 minutes ago
Mobile Movers: All the latest appointments and job moves from around the industry
News
6 hours, 28 minutes ago
Squad Busters has 20 million pre registrations with 30 million in its sights
News
6 hours, 50 minutes ago
Carry1st's African Cup to feature Call of Duty: Mobile tournament with $15,000 prize pool
News
2 hours, 52 minutes ago
Week in Views - Apple back themselves bigstyle, Clash bags Haaland and dreams come true at King
Feature
5 hours, 4 minutes ago
Apple and Nintendo's Delta blues: A legal timebomb or just the new normal?
News
5 hours, 43 minutes ago
Mobile Movers: All the latest appointments and job moves from around the industry
Feature
10 hours, 5 minutes ago
Mobile Mavens: The industry wades in on Squad Busters from its “transformative impact” to being “corporate box ticking”
Feature
11 hours, 48 minutes ago
New release roundup: The best new mobile games from the morality of AI to Dadish’s 3D journey
Events
GameDev Atlantic 2024 | May 4th | |
LA Games Conference 2024 | North America | May 6th |
Mobidictum Meetup Berlin May 2024 | Europe | May 7th |
Valencia Indie Summit 2024 | Europe | May 16th |
Mobidictum Meetup Tallinn May 2024 | Europe | May 21st |
Israel Mobile Summit 2024 | Middle East | Jun 6th |
WN Conference Istanbul 2024 | Jun 11th | |
DevGAMM Vilnius 2024 | Europe | Jun 14th |