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What mistakes to fix in mobile game to increase user retention? — Gideros Forum

What mistakes to fix in mobile game to increase user retention?

annakannak Member
edited August 2015 in Suggestions & requests
It is possible to download high-quality games for free and play with practically anyone in the world at lightning-fast speeds.
How do gaming companies like Konami, for example, make money off of this? They are still trying to figure out the best ways to monetize things on their end of the gaming world and are learning from mistakes along the way. The following list covers 7 mistakes that open opportunities for Konami to increase revenue with their incredibly popular game, PES Club Manager.

1. Being too Generous to Make Up For Bugs and Glitches

The servers crashed multiple times when PES Club Manager first launched.
As a way to appease the frustrated users, Konami awarded them each with 5 PES coins.
The users sometimes didn't even notice the problem. Every time there is a system error or bug, Konami awards users with a prize. It has gotten to the point where the average user has too much money and doesn't know what to do with it.

2. No Motivation to Buy New Players at Market

The main monetization technique is built around the players that you buy. But you can only buy them with currency earned by your skills at the game. In the auctions, you can only buy experienced players, meaning you will only have them for a few years before they retire. This takes away credibility from the auction process. Gamers lose motivation to buy players because they can’t obtain someone like Messi or Neymar. So again, the player is left with loads of earned currency and nowhere to spend it. In an ideal situation, the game would allow the currency to be spent on players to keep the user playing more or purchase a paid currency to be exchanged for players.

3. Game Timer is Too Late

The game suggests playing five rounds before it asks the player to pay for the next one. So why is this an issue? By the time a user reaches the sixth round, they are tired. Five rounds can be exhausting, even half an hour of play can be too much. Waiting too long to get a player to pay for another round is detrimental to the monetization process. The chance they will want more after already playing so much is small.

4. Player Purchases Don’t Make Sense

The main motivation in the game is for users to buy a lot of players. The main problem with this is that it is possible to put together a great team without ever needing to buy more players. Because of this, the main motivation in the game is lost to the users. The ability to build a strong team quickly is too easy and the process should be spread out, leaving gamers playing more to be able to build their rosters over time.

5. Medicine Currency Lasts too Long

Motivation currency and training points are utilized perfectly. Unfortunately, that isn't the case with the medicine currency that lasts way too long. Due to this, it is nearly impossible to experience a team situation with injured players because they can be healed instantly. The user ends up with no reason to spend their stockpile of medicine points and they just continue to add up. It would be better if the medicine points zero out after every few levels. It would motivate the user to spend more money.

6. Too Easy for Newbies

The game is way too easy for a new player. It isn't uncommon for a newbie to experience an 18-game winning streak, something that would essentially never happen in real life. Free-to-play games are designed on a range, meaning the more the player almost wins the more engaged they will be, and the more they will continue playing. If a player continuously dominates the game they will stop playing. A gaming company decreases their chances to capitalize using this method.

7. Infrequent Event Updates

Events are great opportunities for players to earn gold coins for their skills. However, events in PES Club Manager can be upwards of a month old. Electronic Arts, on the other hand, have events every couple of days. Events leave gamers playing for a set period of time as they complete tasks. If you complete a task, you earn gold coins for being an active user. This idea could work a lot better but only if Konami put together more frequent events for their users.

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Comments

  • So basically you're saying we should build our games around cashgrab mechanics. I think you're on the wrong forum with your customer-milking tips.
  • So basically you're saying we should build our games around cashgrab mechanics. I think you're on the wrong forum with your customer-milking tips.
    AdtoApp is a revenue autopilot for mobile applications. AdtoApp doubles revenue from mobile apps. It monetizes any app, even without built-in apps, not just f2p-games. It delivers highest eCPM on a market and always 100% fill rate.
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