Mobile gaming generates billions in revenue each year, with big hits like Clash of Clans and Candy Crush Saga bringing in millions of dollars daily from die-hard players. The mobile game business globally has already surpassed the revenues from console games. Even so, mobile games have yet to reach their peak, according to N3twork CEO Neil Young.
Pocket Gamer reports that Young, who recently spoke at Develop:Brighton 2015 event, explained that mobile has a big future ahead of it, especially with the usage of augmented reality and virtual reality. “I’m a big believer in that future,” he said. However, we’re not likely to see their potential for the next three years, where it could reach its “significant scale.”
Young went on to explain how he “rebooted” N3twork, originally intent on aiming at social networks, to instead focus on mobile games. He believes there’s plenty of life left in the market yet, proclaiming, “we’re not even close to peak mobile gaming.”
While some companies are concerned about user size, Young instead focused on yield per user, with the typical consumer spending $3.50 for Candy Crush Saga, but then splurging on Puzzle & Dragons to the tune of $28. As a result, these top-grossing games can easily generate $10 billion a year.
Where this success lies, Young believes, is in finding the key free-to-play approach, as many games like Clash of Clans have already done. “I think you have to unlock the potential of a new business model,” he explained. “Fundamentally, we need to make games where people want to pay, not where they need to pay.”
He also believes that “console-quality” games isn’t quite the way to go, as technically innovative as it may be. Instead, he proposes games that can get started quickly (within a ten second time frame), and ones with repeat play value that consumers can come back to – like Candy Crush Saga after all lives are recharged. If games are run as a service – and one that’s convenient to customers – and introduce regular planned events with “managed moments of drama”, they have a better chance to succeed.
