If you follow this blog you probably know what a whale is in the context of freemium games. If you follow this blog you might have (or not) noticed that I have not used the term whale. Or freeloader… or minnow… or dolphin!
I have very strong feelings regarding this. Here’s why. Continue reading
There’s way too much noise about mobile games freemium model. I can understand why. I’ve read stuff on prefrontal cortex and children that make me appreciate the fact that there’s tighter control on in-app purchases, that the button name changed and there are warnings about in-app purchases.
Yes, some people went too far and focus way too much energy in seeing their ARPDAU grow $0.0001 through methods that go way beyond marketing and data analysis.
My personal opinion is that they are pursuing the wrong things. First a great game, then monetisation. I believe monetisation can be built around a great game. I don’t believe that a great game can be built around monetisation. I also believe the freemium model is a good thing for games and players if we build a great game. I have two perspectives on why this is. One passionate, one cerebral… no surprises I guess. Continue reading
The term The Holy Trinity of Monetisation struck me when I was writing Monetisation 101. I had never read it and I’ll admit I even googled it just in case someone had coined it before. All performance dashboards that I maintain have a line graph with the three parts of this trinity:
These are the three most important KPIs of monetisation of freemium games because… they are free.
