Mobile games | When free pays off

Noises from slot machines, tactics to provoke impulsive purchases, unwanted advertising: developers of free game applications reap huge profits by infiltrating the heads of players, notes Vannara Ty, who has 28 years of experience in the field of video games in Montreal. With unusual transparency, the creative director is preparing a graphic novel to reveal the strategies of an industry that remains far from the spotlight. Because “no one from the inside has yet published a book to dissect how you make money with a free game,” says the illustrator, who authorized The Press to publish some extracts.

The Press published last week the results of a survey showing that dozens of free games introduce children to games of chance and money, which are very addictive. How did we get here ?

It all started on Facebook in 2009, with the game FarmVille, which played slot machine sounds. Smart people understood that it made players want to continue, because it was very rewarding.

The competitors brought this to mobile devices, with fireworks, etc. But the symbolism of casinos is much more exploited in the United States and China than in Quebec, where game designers are more conscientious.

How lucrative is the free games market?

The thousands of games that don’t break through the market bring in little or nothing, but the big free-to-play games easily bring in over $100 million a year. During the pandemic, money was coming in by the bucket load. When I saw our income after three months, I thought there was a mistake! They fell drastically as people started going out and spending elsewhere again. But it’s still a huge market and everyone is trying to get their share of the pie.

What brings in the most money?

In-game purchases are very profitable, even if only 1% to 3% of players make them. Engaged players spend between $10 and $20 daily per day. Some players – who we call “whales” – spend lavishly. These are generally people who want to place first, no matter what. I once thought a guy had his credit card hacked because he paid $10,000 in one weekend to buy all our dragons!

What makes players switch to spending?

We can know what a player is doing at the minute, if he watched a promo, if he bought something. After several refusals, he was presented with a special offer and given one hour to decide. It will happen at key moments, when he feels euphoric because he has just won or is only missing a few points.

Once he has tasted the advantages it provides, falling back into a very slow game will be very unpleasant and he will no longer hesitate to pay $5 to regain his comfort. The space between two purchases will then be reduced all the time.

How do you follow the players?

We insert markers into our lines of computer code. This allows us to track all players at once, or by country or age group, etc., to analyze their behavior. If a person is connected to Facebook, we could even see their email address, their phone number, their friends and everything they share (unless they have checked everything necessary in their profile). But it wouldn’t be useful for us to know, because we’re interested in groups.

Since purchases bring in so much, why do the majority of games display so much advertising as a bonus?

Advertising providers pay from a few pennies to a few dollars per thousand views and this allows them to raise millions of additional dollars per year. Small studios are flooding the market with “fast food” games, developed in a few weeks and quickly abandoned by players. They are bombarded with advertising to bring in as much money as possible in a short time.

Conversely, large companies can put 80 people on a game for two years. Afterwards, they do everything to retain players and limit advertising so that they do not uninstall the game before making purchases and bringing friends.

The games from China and Japan contain more advertising and come to us as is.

How can we justify games for children displaying advertisements for casinos or games for adults?

Game designers do not control or see the advertising sent to them by suppliers. They give us a piece of code, which we will integrate into the game.

Some bundles of resources are very expensive, do you set limits?

As soon as we saw prizes at US$150, US$200 or US$250 appear, all the competitors rushed to offer some. It was Apple that put an end to the escalation, imposing a limit of US$100 per purchase. We once sold a virtual mammoth for $100 thinking that no one would buy it. But many players have done it!

Do the laws change anything?

Not so much… European law allows players to obtain the data collected about them, have it deleted and no longer be tracked. Two developers worked three or four months full time to adjust our codes. But ultimately, nothing! We have received zero requests from Europe or elsewhere!

We also complied with the American law on [lots aléatoires]. If the player presses a button before betting, he can now find out his chances of hitting a particular prize. But even when they don’t exceed 0.0004%, it hasn’t lowered our sales.

What can parents do to protect their children?

When parents say that their children are on screens too much, but give them some at the restaurant to keep them quiet, that’s inconsistent, in my opinion. They should not wait for their child to play eight hours a day before reacting. And must at least block purchases on their phone as well as notifications and tracking as soon as a game is installed.