is mobile game a good business?

[richxiaohe]

I actually released a playable version of this before PUBG. I started building the game back in 2013 ish and told my son who is a pro gamer about it. He said it was a stupid idea and no one would play this type of game (the game is not really battle royal though although it kinda started as that). When I finally got the game to a large multiplayer playable state, I got my son and a group of his mates to play it. They all loved it. The concept probably didnt make too much sense but when the concept was put in place and the game was playable, it all came together. How the game failed is because I did not market it - while I do provide website design services, and I provide local marketing as such for my clients, games marketing is a whole different kettle of fish and I dont have a clue about it. I though Steam would pull through and sell hundreds of thousands. How I was 100% wrong.

Did you see my Defender game?

thanks for the sharing.
so you chose paid to play. if you price them $5. you need to sell 10k copies to reach 50000 dollars. or at least 2000 copies to earn 10000 dollars, then you could keep making another one.my question is: is it possible for "paid to play" game making by individual or a indie team achive the goal above? and is it a good business?

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[richxiaohe]

in my point of view, can we check the Commandments for a good bussiness first?
1. need
of course, game as a special product offers players such things: entertainment, some kinds of educational meaning(as NursingTn mentioned above). but these needs are flexible. dose flexible need comply the commandment of need?
2.entry
as Quarky said above, developping a high quality product still has barries in nowadays industry, not every one could entry it.
3.control
if you published a game all you need to do is just keep updating and if the game is f2p you can add more IAP(in app purchase) contents to expand the income.
4.scale
you can offer your game to every one without any cost, but even though it succed. so not sure if it comply the commandment of scale.
5.time
if you published a game, you don't need spend much time on it. so it comply the commandment of time.

 

[Barry_M]

thanks for the sharing.
so you chose paid to play. if you price them $5. you need to sell 10k copies to reach 50000 dollars. or at least 2000 copies to earn 10000 dollars, then you could keep making another one.my question is: is it possible for "paid to play" game making by individual or a indie team achive the goal above? and is it a good business?

simple answer...
NO.
Go free to play and microtransactions.

 

[Quarky]

is it possible for "paid to play" game making by individual or a indie team achive the goal above?

I am about to offer a different perspective than Berry.

Complicated answer: Yes, in some game niches. But you'd have to carefully avoid those game genres that are already dominated by big budget triple-A studios

With that said, I have heard from some statistics saying freemium games make approx. 12-18% more than premium games. But ultimately when you test the market on your own, these stats are irrelevant. Cause every game will have a different monetisation strategy, and you'd know what your game's own after you have released as beta on Google Play.

That's my experience so far.

I spent 2 years making a sports mobile game. The game is still incomplete. I published it as beta access. It had 2000 downloads (during free sale period) and 5 unit sales (during non-sale period).

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Kid]

I'm tired of "is it possible" questions.

 

[OverByte]

Is your goal to build a business to achieve freedom or is it to follow your passion of creating a game. If the former then in my opinion there are much better ways to make money. A game is not a need it is a desire and is much harder to convince a consumer of the value proposition than say creating a solution for business owners which saves them time/money.

Can you make money in mobile games, sure there are some behemoths and the industry itself is huge as people have highlighted some numbers in this thread. But what are the probabilities of you being successful in this field. The field is dominated by a very few number of huge players, these companies make hundreds of thousands to millions each day but 99.9% of games released will make almost nothing.

You are competing against those giant players for your customers scarcest resource: attention.

 

[Quarky]

creating a solution for business owners which saves them time/money.

If you ask me, I feel like businesses targeting business owners have even less of a need.

Sometimes I hear these companies pitching to our studio for operational services and stuff. I think they are parasites. Why do we who face the world need to create flawless products that sell, while they could just sit back and leech on us?

I see some multi-million dollar VC funded services pitching to our studio. But after talking to their founder, I knew they couldn't go to series A funding at all, and will soon have to close up shop, cause they can't find real studios wanting their parasitic presence.

If you read MJ's book again, he did say creating "fun" for people is a need.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[OverByte]

You can argue the semantics of entertainment as a need vs a desire that's not the point. In B2B sales often the value proposition can be very clear and easier to validate if the problem/need exists. It's much harder to know if someone will consider something fun.

I feel like businesses targeting business owners have even less of a need.

Regardless of your experience or opinions B2B sales are alive and well.

The OP asked is mobile games is a good fastlane business, my point is that if his goal is a fastlane business there are better avenues.

 

[Quarky]

Regardless of your experience or opinions B2B sales are alive and well.

I worked in the legal industry before. Like during the lunch hours. Sometimes I see these sound-smart ex-lawyers forming service companies for law firms and pitch to our firms. But like no lawyers are really listening to him and only 4 persons attended the luncheon. These B2B sounds like a service job instead of actual businesses to me.

Don't all B2B violate the commandment of scale and time? If you want to make millions, you must impact millions. Why will these parasites not doing the actual work but leeching on real businesses not end up doing a job instead of running a time-independent business?

Maybe I am biased. But you see I made my arguments based on actual cases. Maybe you can show me the other side of the scene. Something I am too ignorant to be aware of.

 

[Quarky]

It's much harder to know if someone will consider something fun.

That actually explains why so many profitable games exist, and opens an unlimited upscale amount of market. Not saying it's easy to make an actual game that is fun to even a small portion of people though.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[OverByte]

Don't all B2B violate the commandment of scale and time? If you want to make millions, you must impact millions.

Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, Salesforce, Shopify all serve B2B also Amazon AWS (and also I suppose it's core platform which provides an ecosystem for other businesses, also allowing for ppc, and other services). These are industry titans. MJs limos business was also b2b I believe, his customers were limousine businesses.

There is no debate over whether b2b is a viable fastlane path or if they provide real value. Maybe you read MJs book on a Kindle (the platform is a b2b service to authors) or maybe you bought a print copy (the printer is a b2b service) the entire economy is enabled by b2b companies.

Are there shitty b2b companies? Sure but there are plenty of shitty b2c as well. I wouldn't judge a business model based on the spam you get.

 

[OverByte]

To bring this conversation back to the OPs question. Mobile apps can be a fastlane business, I am arguing that it is perhaps a harder path to gain success. I think the probabilities of success are higher with other business models, just look on this forum, there are plenty of success stories, I haven't seen many (any?) millionaire mobile game successes here.

 

[Quarky]

Are there shitty b2b companies?

Lol, you don't even get what a b2b business is to begin with. Thanks for wasting my time and telling me Facebook is a b2b... Bye.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Quarky]

I haven't seen many (any?) millionaire mobile game successes here.

Lol, what a waste of my time. Then what is Angry Birds, Mario Kart, Flappy Birds, Stardew Valley, Roblox, 2048, Zynga, and the 10k+ games which had millions in revenue. The more of people like you running marketing distributors jobs and doing webpage design (how I made 100K+ in 18 months running webpage design kind of crap) posting on this forum, the more I feel like I am wasting my time here.

I don't care about your 100k lmao. My seed funding is 2m pound sterling.

 

[srodrigo]

If you read MJ's book again, he did say creating "fun" for people is a need.

I'd be interested in reading that within its context. Was that on TMF , or Unscripted ?

 

[OverByte]

Maybe English isn't your first language but they key is I said mobile game successes here as in this forum. You can obviously point to examples of successes but the point is in probabilities.

And if you don't think Facebook is b2b then I guess you've never run (or heard of) Facebook ppc ads? You know the ones based on the massive demographic data they monetize... I didn't think I needed to point that out that is where the bulk of their revenue comes from.

Anyway your right talking to you is a waste of time. I was trying to help OP make an informed decision, I have no interest in arguing with you. Goodbye.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[broswoodwork]

Thanks for wasting my time and telling me Facebook is a b2b... Bye.

Facebook is b2b though...

 

[Quarky]

Facebook is b2b though...

After it has impacted/served billion individuals.

 

[Quarky]

I'd be interested in reading that within its context. Was that on TMF , or Unscripted ?

CHAPTER 30 - The Commandment of Need, TMF :

Make a freaking impact and start providing value! Let money come to you! Look around outside your world, stop being selfish, and help your fellow humans solve their problems. In a world of selfishness, become unselfish.

Need something more concrete? No problem. Make 1 million people achieve any of the following:

1. Make them feel better.
2. Help them solve a problem.
3. Educate them.
4. Make them look better (health, nutrition, clothing, makeup).
5. Give them security (housing, safety, health).
6. Raise a positive emotion (love, happiness, laughter, self-confidence).
7. Satisfy appetites, from basic (food) to the risqué (sexual).
8. Make things easier.
9. Enhance their dreams and give hope.

. . . and I guarantee, you will be worth millions.

So the next time you’re trolling the Web looking to make money, sit back and ask yourself, “What do I have to offer the world?” Offer the world value, and money becomes magnetized to you!

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Entre Eyes]

It is hard to believe the dough that some game makers are making and at the same time the number of copy cats that pop up seconds after your release!

 

[Quarky]

It is hard to believe the dough that some game makers are making and at the same time the number of copy cats that pop up seconds after your release!

Try copycat a Mario Kart. Haven't seen one.

 

[Entre Eyes]

Try copycat a Mario Kart. Haven't seen one.

The man who built his own Lamborghini

When Mike Vetter’s dream of owning a Lamborghini didn’t come to fruition, he built one himself. Now he earns a living making his own supercars.

thehustle.co

There is a poor mans version of just about everything and people looking for it.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Quarky]

I said mobile game successes here as in this forum.

Sure. I would care about your 100k in 18 months working as a webpage designer crap post here in this forum. Maybe an IQ to understand a native speaker isn't the 1st thing you are gifted with? Maybe? There's always a maybe to anything, right?

 

[Manfern]

I think building game can be fastlane but not every game is
There are even games for kids and it can be educational as well, there many shitty games out there, cause many people are money chasers and want to make quick buck
Is there is a metric on barrier of entry for industry?