In-app advertisements have become a commonplace occurrence on many of the free-to-play games on any given app store. After all, even free game developers have to make money somehow. King.com has now opted not to have intrusive ads in their games though, including the popular Candy Crush Saga. Instead of using ad revenue, King is hoping the incentives of purchasing items in-game through the use of real money will be a sufficient revenue stream to make a profit.
King is banking on their popularity and the allure of microtransactions to be enough to keep their company in the black. Without having to rely on the ad revenue that many other free-to-play developers use as their primary monetization, King hopes to provide a better game experience. This may be a smart move by King, seeing the profit they are currently making from microtransactions and acting upon it to build customer confidence. The risk is that the company is relying on more customers to play the game and buy items, with the assumption that without ads the games will attract more users. If users don’t really mind the ads, King may be leaving money on the table.
Source: GI.biz
