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We already know that virtual economies are powering over 90% of the top grossing games but how many developers are actually planning on implementing in-game economy in their game and what other alternatives are developers using.
We asked the mobile game develoepr community of the The SOOMLA Project the following question “What business model will your freemium game use?”. The options we gave were:
- Free with Virtual Economy (in-game coins)
- Free with option to buy full version
- Ads (banners and full page)
- Free and sell levels and upgrades
- I’m making a premium game
The results are given at the chart below:
The trend towards Virtual Economies is very strong and combined with some other data about the number of new mobile game projects starting every month, one can reach the conclusion that there are about 12,000 games that are trying to integrate virtual economies at any given moment.
What’s even more interesting is the fact that if you combine all the coding efforts being put into virtual economies you easily reach 1,000 years of man work. One can only imagine what could be achieved if even 1% of this effort would have been funneled towards a collaborative project.
This is what The SOOMLA Project is about. Standardizing Virtual Economies and colloboratively creating a Virtual Economy Framework that will benefit everyone. |
See http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/134576/virtual_economic_theory_how_mmos_.p
hp
I believe you can identify 3 different models:
1 - In Game purchases of upgrades, features and levels
2 - Games where the user can earn, collect or win a currency as well as spend it on goods
3 - Games where the user can earn and spend but also trade and exchange with other users
I wish to distinct #2 from #1 since many mobile game developers are missing the power #2. If #3 is Virtual economy and "item-shop" or "micro transactions portal" are describing #1. How would you call #2?