Sometimes, following the formula for free-to-play games can pay off. Just ask the team at Hipster Whale.
The company’s latest mobile release, the Frogger-style arcade game Crossy Road, has managed to generate over $1 million from in-game ads since the game’s launch in November 2014, according to Unity. These ads were separate video pieces that, when watched, awarded players with in-game currency, which could then be turned around to purchase new characters.
$1 million is a staggering amount of money for a game that’s based on a free-to-play basis, only charging players for additional characters featured in the game, including “special chickens,” a walking piggy bank and more. Those purchases have been measured on a separate scale, although no specific numbers were given by the publisher at this time.
The game had been out on iOS for over a month before it finally arrived on Android in time for the holiday season. Thus far, it’s racked up 10 million downloads on iOS, and just over a million on Android over its release weekend.
“We wanted it to be free, so that everyone has a chance to play,” said the game’s co-creator, Matt Hall, speaking with MCV UK. “I thought that video ads were a really good way to earn money without getting into people’s faces. We just needed to figure out a fun reason for players to watch them.
“We didn’t want any consumable purchases, we wanted to do something that everybody could pay a little bit for if they wanted to, but where it wasn’t necessary to keep paying.”
It’s a move that’s certainly paid off, keeping players addicted without pounding or punishing them with necessary purchases to continue onward. And obviously Hipster Whale has benefitted as well, perhaps paving the way for a new business model for companies to adapt with their own free-to-play releases. We’ll see what the year brings as it goes along.
Meanwhile, we’ve got a Road to cross…
