.15% of mobile gamers account for 50% of all in-game revenue

Unknown

http://venturebeat.com/2014/02/26/only-0-15-of-mobile-gamers-account-for-50-percent-of-all-in-game-revenue-exclusive/

Interesting. Personally I would have gladly paid $10 for the game at launch and $5 for however many DLC packs they would have launched by now. Instead I paid $5 early on for some extra cover slots and nothing since. The pricing is so gratuitous and gross that it actually repels me from spending money. Want a single cover for that shiny new character you need to complete certain PvE missions? $50 please. Seriously, HP is more expensive than milk.

Imagine if there was a burger joint that implied this strategy. You can get a table and eat all the coleslaw and ketchup you want and if you eat 3lbs of food you get a burger for free. If you just want a burger, that'll be $80 please. Now put that same burger joint next to McDonalds that offers $1 McDoubles and I wonder which one will thrive.

If I could get a single guaranteed cover for say, $3, I probably would have taken the bait one or more times by now. But sadly they're not marketing to someone like me. They're looking for the people who think money is just as imaginary as the digital comic book covers they're hustling. So, congratulations "whales", just like the world economy the top 1% are ruining it for every else.

Unknown

Thanks for sharing this! Interesting stats.

Also, I think if guaranteeing the new cover for less than $5 would really hurt this particular game since this game relies so heavily on pvp, tourneys and leader boards. If it were cheap to get the new cover without participating in the events - it would be really hard on the mmr. This game needs a big population to play so everyone has a set of people to play against. You feel the low-population=mmr hell issue as soon as you hit top 10 in elite or shield.

Unknown

I've seen this before. I don't think it's bad. If it was equal across the board then it prolly wouldn't be f2p.

Also, bad food analogies never fail to amuse me. You should've gone with a car analogy instead.

Unknown

ihearthawthats wrote:

I've seen this before. I don't think it's bad. If it was equal across the board then it prolly wouldn't be f2p.

Also, bad food analogies never fail to amuse me. You should've gone with a car analogy instead.

How about this? If you walk across the continental US barefoot you can get a Honda Civic for free, or you can pay $300k for the same Honda Civic and have it delivered to your house. Huh? Huuuuhh?

jojeda654

ihearthawthats wrote:

Also, bad food analogies never fail to amuse me. You should've gone with a car analogy instead.

But food is the only way I can do math!

Unknown

pandaberry6 wrote:

Thanks for sharing this! Interesting stats.

Also, I think if guaranteeing the new cover for less than $5 would really hurt this particular game since this game relies so heavily on pvp, tourneys and leader boards. If it were cheap to get the new cover without participating in the events - it would be really hard on the mmr. This game needs a big population to play so everyone has a set of people to play against. You feel the low-population=mmr hell issue as soon as you hit top 10 in elite or shield.

I don't think it would be a bad thing if everyone had every character. If anything Iso should be more expensive so that you can at least get the necessary covers, then grind to your hearts content to level them up (or spend a bunch of money and enjoy playing against other "whales"). MMR seems to be broken so matter what. In the current BP tourney I've seen everything from a lvl 2 Moder Storm to a maxed GSBW. But if this game is as balanced as the devs think it is, it shouldn't matter who has what. Winning should rely on a little bit of luck, a fair amount of skill and a dash of diligence and patience. Not on dollars. I'd love to see a F2P game that caters to the masses rather than the high rollers.

Unknown

SUPERTOM wrote:

So, congratulations "whales", just like the world economy the top 1% are ruining it for every else.

I've been happily playing for almost 3 months, and aside from a few hundred hp bought for roster slots (about €14 iirc) I haven't didn't anything. I'm well on my way to having a really good roster, having 4 maxed out 2 star heroes and a number of 3 stars between Lvl 60-70. I would sincerely like to thank the MPQ Whales who keep this game afloat, so I don't have to.

Unknown

I think it illustrates what a gross manipulation these games are that they rely on the money of so few people. People who usually fall into a few categories, 1) people with weak wills 2) those that don't value money the same way the average person does (could be rich or poor). Or a little combo of both.

If the people in charge of making laws (who are usually 45+ older) were actually hip to this industry they would be seeking to regulate it, just as they do any enterprise that can potentially prey on peoples foibles. That's just the facts.


I guess I'm just as guilty, because I am deriving entertainment from these games while they fund themselves on people who can't help themselves.

Unknown

Badlands wrote:

SUPERTOM wrote:

So, congratulations "whales", just like the world economy the top 1% are ruining it for every else.

I've been happily playing for almost 3 months, and aside from a few hundred hp bought for roster slots (about €14 iirc) I haven't didn't anything. I'm well on my way to having a really good roster, having 4 maxed out 2 star heroes and a number of 3 stars between Lvl 60-70. I would sincerely like to thank the MPQ Whales who keep this game afloat, so I don't have to.

That is a very positive way to look at it. I too have a pretty decent roster (every character, a few maxed 2*, a few lvl 80+ 3*) but I guess I'd just rather the game not be F2P at all. Pay for a game, play the game. It would solve many of the frustrations that people have with the game. Frustrations that the devs intentionally implement hunting for that top .15%.

MarvelMan

Toxicadam wrote:

I think it illustrates what a gross manipulation these games are that they rely on the money of so few people. People who usually fall into a few categories, 1) people with weak wills 2) those that don't value money the same way the average person does (could be rich or poor). Or a little combo of both.

If the people in charge of making laws (who are usually 45+ older) were actually hip to this industry they would be seeking to regulate it, just as they do any enterprise that can potentially prey on peoples foibles. That's just the facts.


I guess I'm just as guilty, because I am deriving entertainment from these games while they fund themselves on people who can't help themselves.

The worst part for me is that they have to tailor the games to those players (either preying on the #1 types or balance around the #2 types) which are minorities in their playerbase. I know that because it is balanced around those I am less likely to pay.

As for the people in charge of making the laws, I see it less of an age thing as I know quite a few elder people (even 60+) that are quite tech savvy. To me, it is more of a life style that prohibits them from being in touch. Im not saying its the result of a privileged upbringing as even those from humble backgrounds fall victim, rather that the atmosphere in which our law makers exist is completely out of touch.

wirius

You know what they say about fools, money, and parting...

Unknown

This game is a lot less whaling than the average F2P. For all the complaining about iso 8 being too expensive, if they're trying to whale people in, iso 8 would be way cheaper than it is now.

At any rate a game with a whaling model would be more like you can RENT a pre nerf Ragnarok for $100/month. At current prices it's about $200 to max out a character from scratch on iso and maybe $100 for the covers (provided you've the first 1) and that's actually not very much for a whaling. You could make that much money in one month by renting out 3 pre-nerf Ragnarok power level of characters.

Unknown

If I work 60 hours in a week and I don't have much time to play, but I take 6 hours of my 20 hours of overtime and purchase iso, I would have 104,000 iso. One might be able to earn 10k iso in an hour (PVE/PVP event progression awards), but I don't think anyone can legitimately get 60k in 6 hours, let alone obtain 104k iso in 6 hours. For me it is 6 hours I would have otherwise spent playing the game.

If someone makes the argument that I have the money and I could spend it elsewhere, I could argue that I have time to play the game, I could do something else with that time, like get a second job or work more overtime.

Unknown

The games that are usually identified with whaling can be summed up as 'consumable special ammo'. Most people complaining about F2P greed really doesn't understand how greedy companies can be. They're not satisified selling Black Panther for $300. They want to do is repeatedly. Yes you can say there are boosts but the PvP model doesn't really support splurging on boosts (you still get beat up by multiple players even if you could buy an unlimited number of boosts). As we can see the safest strategy is simply use shields and the cost of the shields are nowhere in whaling territory for normal tournaments. Even on the elite tournaments you can argue that it's quite possible to make the HP you spent back unless you're fighting for the #1 spot.

In MPQ the equivalent model would be pre nerf Ragnarok for rent. A true whaling game would never be content to merely sell you that kind of power only once.

Colognoisseur

So I am one of the 0.15% whales. I started when I was introduced to the game at the Marvel Video Games panel at New York Comic-Con in mid-October.
I quickly realized I wanted as many cover slots as I could get and so spent the money to get the HP necessary to buy the max at the time 40 slots. Which is where I sit and once they increased the price of cover slots that turned out to be a great buy. I have never had to think about getting rid of a cover I've earned.
I have averaged $20-40/week on the game since the initial buy. When they have had the occasional sale I have spent more that week and probably less the week following.
I have a full time job and a wife who has no problem with my spend level on the game because I clearly enjoy playing it.
The equation I use to figure out what is worth my spending money on is how much my time is worth. I've always calculated it at $100/hour.
So the time it would take for me to generate 20,000 HP would be much, much longer than one hour. So in my world I can spend that $100 and gain back more on the reward end. Somewhere around the time of the Heroic Juggernaut PvE I now realized that the money spent gave me the ability to compete for any new cover I wanted. The rewards that money spent has lead to me having more ability to win things within the game.
The devs haven't made it easy for me with the new scaling I always see lvl 230 opponents and I'm okay with it. I've bought/developed a strong roster and the game wouldn't be fun if I logged on and crushed it. For Daredevil, Psylocke, and Black Panther it was a chore for me like anyone else to stay in the running.
Finally, I enjoy when people criticize my spending as foolish. I am sure if I ask most who level that charge what they spend $20-40/week on I might find some of that spending foolish. A Starbucks Latte a day? What are you foolish? Can't you make your own for pennies? 10 comic books a week? Fool! Are you a child! A movie a week? Fool! Wait until it come on television for free. It never ends. If you can pay all your bills and with what you have left you want to spend it on something frivolous; fantastic that's part of what makes life worth living.
Each of us choose what we can do with the income we have which gives us the most enjoyment. I enjoy MPQ. I am happy to pay instead of spending hours in-game gathering the same resources. Instead of calling me foolish be happy I am one of the 0.15% who can afford to make sure the devs make some money on the game. In the end if they can't make some of their own disposable income that will really be the end of this game.

Unknown

One would think that customer service would be a bit better for whales. I'm a bit of a MPQ customer service hater right now.

Moral

It must be tough being a developer of a F2P game.

Seems to me like they're a jazz club where the free peanuts and ice water crowd complains that the best seating is reserved for the 5 tables that get the Surf and Turf.

Unknown

Moral wrote:

It must be tough being a developer of a F2P game.

Seems to me like they're a jazz club where the free peanuts and ice water crowd complains that the best seating is reserved for the 5 tables that get the Surf and Turf.

F2P still boils down to delivering a good game. Unless you're hoping to simply be lucky like Candy Crush Saga, having a reasonably fair model and a good game is still the best way to succeed.

Of course, then there's also stuff like Candy Crush Saga which may cause a developer to lose faith in humanity.

Moral

Phantron wrote:

Moral wrote:

It must be tough being a developer of a F2P game.

Seems to me like they're a jazz club where the free peanuts and ice water crowd complains that the best seating is reserved for the 5 tables that get the Surf and Turf.

F2P still boils down to delivering a good game. Unless you're hoping to simply be lucky like Candy Crush Saga, having a reasonably fair model and a good game is still the best way to succeed.

Of course, then there's also stuff like Candy Crush Saga which may cause a developer to lose faith in humanity.

It's where the good music and good food comes in. You'll still get the freeloaders that mock those buying the 'overpriced' meals while enjoying the venue that wouldn't exist but for the paying customers.

I'm no whale, but I've made some purchases because I believe the developers have put out a product that is good enough they should make a living from it. Keep the lights on and servers running, too.

If they screw it up, they can find someone else to compensate them.

Unknown

Interesting chart, thanks for posting it.

This is the first F2P game I have ever spent money on, I really enjoy it.

Just as a background I spend a ton of money on computer and video games. My PC Steam Library is worth thousands. I regularly buy PS3 and PS4 games.

I've never spent money on F2P games before though because the value was never there for me. In fact, I don't know if I like the model, because I can easily end up spending a lot more for the game than if I was able to just buy it outright like the Playstation games.

I justify spending money on Marvel PQ because I enjoy it immensely, but I also rationalize it like I did when I played Everquest and World of Warcraft....those games I was spending $15 a month on, and not always playing, but I felt like I got value for my money. Spending 50 cents a day is a cheap form of entertainment.

I do believe the ISO and HP prices are high, but I also don't want them so cheap that everyone just buys there way to victory without any thought. Personally I feel the prices are twice as high as need be, so I feel when ISO goes on sale it's a reasonable purchase. I have never seen HP go on sale before on mobile (I play on an iPhone and ipad), but as a disclaimer I did purchase the $50 HP pack to get my Spidey up to 5 blue, which made me competitive in PVE tournaments as I was now able to place higher. Again, I figure I play this game as much as any Playstation game I've purchased, so it's worth at least $50 to me. With the number of hours of gaming I get out of it, I'm still getting my money's worth. Better than spending $15 on a movie that only lasts 2 hours, and who am I kidding, I usually buy my girlfriend's ticket as well as food and drinks, so a night out of the movies runs me close to $50 as well.

user311

Mizake wrote:

This is the first F2P game I have ever spent money on, I really enjoy it....

You make some good points here. I am still a free player but I have nothing against spending some money on a F2P type of game. Believe me, I have been tempted to drop some money in. I probably would if there was some value. I think I looked and for $20 I maybe could buy two covers but not enough ISO to level up to the new max. If they had a full character pack for $50 then I think so many people would be buying that (say like an original character). I just think that THIS game makes it very difficult for F2P people like myself to earn covers and level up; but at the same time makes it very expensive to outright buy your way to leveling up. I think that this development team would make so much more $$$ if they just improved the value. I mean why just cater to the whales when there is an ocean of hungry sharks.