Candy Crush Saga will blow out its 10 candles on April 12, which does not prevent it from continuing to rally some 273 million players per month. How and why is this popularity not fading?
Multicolored candies, tiring little music, sometimes hyper-hard levels, here are the main characteristics of Candy Crush Saga, game everyone has played at least once. And its history is fascinating.
It all started in 2003, when the King company was founded … a year before Mark Zuckerberg put Facebook online. King begins to offer games to its partners, namely web portals, such as Yahoo or AOL. King specializes in titles playable on browsers and is becoming “dominant in Europe”, according to his co-founder, Sebastian Knutsson, in a 2009 interview.
Then, “a company called Facebook started removing a lot of users from the portals,” he said. King quickly changed his tune and the following year launched into research in order to break into the Facebook market. King then launched, in 2011, five games. And hits the nail on the head with his Bubble Witch Saga. Then, still the same year, candy Crush sees the light of day, borrowing elements from a previous title designed by King’s teams, Miner Speed – unfortunately nowhere to be found. And obviously, candy Crush reminds Bejeweled, game in which you have to eliminate jewels by collecting them.
So much Miner Speed than Bubble Witch Saga and candy Crush are successes. King holds the winning idea, because the presentation of the games in the form of a “saga” is an innovation. The titles are designed as board games with a board that indicates the player’s progress. The rewards are disseminated regularly, and, taking advantage of social media, one can ask for help from friends in the form of extra lives. Monetization comes in the form of micropayments. For amounts that are not scary – just over $ 1 – it is possible to buy boosters or elements that facilitate progression. No one is resisting. In a few weeks after its release, more than four million players are having fun with the 65 levels offered.
In 2012, the company anticipated the success of the games on phones and released a version for Android and iOS that syncs with the profile the player created on Facebook. In January 2013, Candy Crush Saga dethrones Farmville 2 as the most played game on Mark Zuckerberg’s social network. And in September 2016, a 2000e level is created to celebrate the trillion games played.
Of course, King is developing sequels. Candy Crush Soda Saga was launched in 2014, the following year saw the release of Candy Crush Jelly Saga, the company’s first game not to be accessible on Facebook, then, in 2018, casual gamers have fun with Candy Crush Friends Saga.
P.-S. This article was written while playing Candy Crush Saga… and especially while waiting for my extra lives!
Why Candy Crush Saga is it so addictive?
Faced with the enthusiasm generated by the game, the magazine Time carried out, in 2013, a very serious study on the harmful effects of the title, questioning Tommy Palm, one of the designers, as well as psychologists. Here are the explanations:
- the player constantly obtains positive reinforcement through praise, which increases self-esteem;
- it is possible to play it with one hand, while eating, while holding the metro or bus bar – in short, it is an easy distraction;
- waiting between 15 and 30 minutes for extra lives not only pushes players to buy more, but also creates a feeling of lack;
- the game is free … although it is easy to spend money on it;
- the social side helps to give the impression of not being alone;
- you don’t think of anything else when you play the game;
- we fall back into childhood;
- there are an infinite number of levels, of varying difficulty.
The link book
- Candy Crush Saga: https://www.king.com/game/candycrush for browsers, iOS, Android, Surface
- Candy Crush Saga: https://www.facebook.com/candycrushsaga on Facebook
- Bubble Witch Saga: https://www.gamepix.com/play/bubble-witch-saga for browsers
- Bubble Witch Saga 2: https://www.king.com/game/bubblewitch2 for browsers, Android, iOS and Facebook
- candy Crush: https://www.play123.in/game/candy-crush for browsers
- Bejeweled https://www.ea.com/games/bejeweled for Android, iOS and Facebook
- Candy Crush Soda Saga: https://www.king.com/game/candycrushsoda for browsers, Android, iOS, Facebook and Surface
- Candy Crush Friends Saga: https://www.king.com/game/candycrushfriends for Android, iOS and Surface