Comments on: The Economics of a Free-To-Play Console Game http://freetoplay.biz/2007/06/28/economics-of-making-a-free-to-play-console-game/ The Business and Design of Free-To-Play Games Tue, 09 Mar 2010 16:33:49 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Adrian Crook http://freetoplay.biz/2007/06/28/economics-of-making-a-free-to-play-console-game/comment-page-1/#comment-590 Adrian Crook Mon, 11 May 2009 16:23:08 +0000 http://freetoplay.wordpress.com/2007/06/28/economics-of-making-a-free-to-play-console-game/#comment-590 Hi Chloe, The 5-10% number is pretty standard. Daniel James (Three Rings) writes openly about their microtrans conv rates and this is what he frequently cites (and has told me in person). But this Nov 2008 blog post from The Long Tail sums it up pretty well: http://www.longtail.com/the_long_tail/2008/11/freemium-math-w.html Some excerpts: "In online free-to-play games, companies aim to structure their costs so they can break even if as little as 5-10% of the users pay." "Estimates for the number of free Flickr users that convert to paid Flickr Pro range from 5-10%." "For the typical Web 2.0 company planning to use Freemium as its revenue model, my advice would be to set 5% as break-even, but balance the mix of free vs. paid features with the hopes of actually converting 10%." Hi Chloe,

The 5-10% number is pretty standard. Daniel James (Three Rings) writes openly about their microtrans conv rates and this is what he frequently cites (and has told me in person). But this Nov 2008 blog post from The Long Tail sums it up pretty well: http://www.longtail.com/the_long_tail/2008/11/freemium-math-w.html

Some excerpts:

“In online free-to-play games, companies aim to structure their costs so they can break even if as little as 5-10% of the users pay.”

“Estimates for the number of free Flickr users that convert to paid Flickr Pro range from 5-10%.”

“For the typical Web 2.0 company planning to use Freemium as its revenue model, my advice would be to set 5% as break-even, but balance the mix of free vs. paid features with the hopes of actually converting 10%.”

]]> By: Chloe http://freetoplay.biz/2007/06/28/economics-of-making-a-free-to-play-console-game/comment-page-1/#comment-586 Chloe Thu, 07 May 2009 10:54:56 +0000 http://freetoplay.wordpress.com/2007/06/28/economics-of-making-a-free-to-play-console-game/#comment-586 "..5-10% of users ever pay for your product. Sometimes it can go as high as 15% or as low as 0% (of course).." How do you know 5-10% is the norm? Where can I find out more about that? “..5-10% of users ever pay for your product. Sometimes it can go as high as 15% or as low as 0% (of course)..”

How do you know 5-10% is the norm? Where can I find out more about that?

]]> By: NCsoft To Bring Free to Play Games to PS3 « Free To Play http://freetoplay.biz/2007/06/28/economics-of-making-a-free-to-play-console-game/comment-page-1/#comment-6 NCsoft To Bring Free to Play Games to PS3 « Free To Play Wed, 12 Sep 2007 17:41:25 +0000 http://freetoplay.wordpress.com/2007/06/28/economics-of-making-a-free-to-play-console-game/#comment-6 [...] for their F2P products due to Microsoft’s Live infrastructure. Aspects of my earlier post, The Economics of a Free To Play Console Game, may be relevant here as I examined the feasibility of doing a F2P XBLA game. [...] [...] for their F2P products due to Microsoft’s Live infrastructure. Aspects of my earlier post, The Economics of a Free To Play Console Game, may be relevant here as I examined the feasibility of doing a F2P XBLA game. [...]

]]> By: Adrian Crook http://freetoplay.biz/2007/06/28/economics-of-making-a-free-to-play-console-game/comment-page-1/#comment-5 Adrian Crook Wed, 04 Jul 2007 00:39:06 +0000 http://freetoplay.wordpress.com/2007/06/28/economics-of-making-a-free-to-play-console-game/#comment-5 I might be missing something. I'm pretty sure Daniel said $100 ARPU lifetime for the average paying user at the Virtual Goods Summit a couple weeks back. I might be missing something. I’m pretty sure Daniel said $100 ARPU lifetime for the average paying user at the Virtual Goods Summit a couple weeks back.

]]> By: James Hogan http://freetoplay.biz/2007/06/28/economics-of-making-a-free-to-play-console-game/comment-page-1/#comment-4 James Hogan Fri, 29 Jun 2007 20:42:38 +0000 http://freetoplay.wordpress.com/2007/06/28/economics-of-making-a-free-to-play-console-game/#comment-4 Thanks for this analysis! It appears from http://www.zenofdesign.com/?p=838 that Puzzle Pirates's ARPU is ~$100/year, not $100/lifetime. Am I missing something? Thanks for this analysis!

It appears from http://www.zenofdesign.com/?p=838 that Puzzle Pirates’s ARPU is ~$100/year, not $100/lifetime. Am I missing something?

]]> By: Raph’s Website » Analyzing console online revenues http://freetoplay.biz/2007/06/28/economics-of-making-a-free-to-play-console-game/comment-page-1/#comment-3 Raph’s Website » Analyzing console online revenues Thu, 28 Jun 2007 18:54:08 +0000 http://freetoplay.wordpress.com/2007/06/28/economics-of-making-a-free-to-play-console-game/#comment-3 [...] Adrian Crook has an interesting article titled “The Economics of a Free-To-Play Console Game&#..., which attempts to break down the revenues that you could expect to see from having an online game on XBLA that was free-to-play and then monetized via upsells or item sales. In other words, monetized via what is widely considered the “rising wave” business model. [...] [...] Adrian Crook has an interesting article titled “The Economics of a Free-To-Play Console Game&#…, which attempts to break down the revenues that you could expect to see from having an online game on XBLA that was free-to-play and then monetized via upsells or item sales. In other words, monetized via what is widely considered the “rising wave” business model. [...]

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