Which Revenue Model Works for Online Games?

The gaming industry is an important part of the entertainment industry and includes three main kinds of players. From the game engines that help the developers to build their online games. For publishing gaming houses & gaming consoles. Whereas the business model for years was that of selling the console at a particular cost, and earn money on the games. Digital games have changed in the way online games like 20Bet etc. gets distributed and sold out in the market and opened up a new way of free-to-play gaming models.

There are 6 kinds of revenue models that currently exist in the online gaming market and they are:

• Free games: You can get a boat for free, however, you have to pay for oars.
• Premium games: Ones that show the price tags before getting the hands over them.
• Hybrid games: It is a mix between the in-app purchases & Ad-display that allows you to pay to shun off the advertisements.
• Ad-Supported games: It is the same model like TV, you may watch shows free providing you do not mind all the ads.
• Blockchain-based online games: The decentralized system, which generates information from the particular user & keeps this chain flowing.
• Crowdsourcing game model: You have to crowdsource the information from your users & sell this to somebody who wants the information. This game is made in a way that users do not even mind doing this work for you.

Smartphones & Tablets

Apps in an Apple Store actually follow 5 business model patterns: a free model where an app may earn money through paid ads. The freemium model where the app charges for the premium features; the subscription model, paymium model, and paid model is the mix of freemium and paid.

As an important part of the digital gaming industry, smartphone devices & tablets have different distribution logic. For enjoying the full experience in those devices, the gamers may need to download this gaming app, just by following an application store (Google or Apple).

The games within the app stores generally follow 3 main revenue models or strategies:

Game purchase: It is where a digital gaming firm sells at the given price.

In-app purchases: Just like a free-to-play gaming model, these free games prompt the gamers to buy digital goods and premium versions or upgrades of their game.

Ad-supported: Next model is ad-supported, and where players get this free, and marketing will be rendered within a game that may monetize on an impression & click basis.

Advertising

The younger generations prefer watching less & less traditional media compared to prior generations. Due to this, the advertisers are searching for new ways for targeting the younger population & engage them in video games. The show and movie where you can be on the phone multitasking through the “second screen,” online video games need full attention and presenting some unique advertising challenges & opportunities. Obviously, because of concern for the player sentiment, the game publishers aren’t likely to slap the insurance company logo at its side of the new weapon; but, savvy advertisers may find new ways to insert the brands authentically in a game in such a way, which adds value to the players & the brands.

Important Points to Look At

Like we have learned, you will find different ways for the developer to monetize their app; they will charge the users with some in-app purchases, and through ad monetization that depends on the type of apps they use.

If an idea of the game is engaging enough, the app can become a hyper-casual game; it will mean that this can finance through ad monetization and will do not need in-app purchases, and terming this as the arbitrage game.

Like the fact the hardware precedes apps, and big companies like Apple, Samsung, Xiaomi are doubling on the gaming specifications in the devices just to ensure their smartphones will be able to manage to run some most demanding games with the gleaming results and giving handheld consoles the run for the money. This precedent holds some exciting mysteries for the future, will more prestigious games such as Fortnite, PUBG even come to mobile? That we will check out in coming years!