Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by levirosol 4252 days ago
Take my $0.99 and give me an ad free version!

Take additional $0.99s and give me boosters, like clock extenders, wild letters, and hints.

Leaderboards. OMG. Leaderboards...

Let me grow your user base by inviting my FB friends in exchange for said boosters.

Relevant leaderboards (because people i know are on them)

Spend half of those $0.99s and hire a designer to create a design that caters to the middle aged women crowd. Spend the other half of the $0.99s on advertising. Web / Fb of course, but late night TV seems to do exceptionally well for that demo.

Recoup those $0.99s by running your own ads for said ad free version and boosters with a larger audience.
2 comments
MichaelGG 4252 days ago
Careful, it sounds like you're proposing a pay to win model. Maybe that's good financially, but it ruins the game. If "boosters" (sounds like cheats) are allowed, somehow compensate in game. Maybe by offering pure matches, or by giving the boost to both players (kinda defeats the point).

OTOH, perhaps I'm a strange minority, and these annoying, unbalancing devices are loved by many.

I'd certainly pay for ad free, even a buck or so s month (Google Play has subscriptions).

link
levirosol 4252 days ago
you are the minority, and so am I. I hate that stuff in most games, and rarely fork over my cold hard cash.

But the middle aged women demo does not think like your typical HN reader. And that demo is orders of magntude larger than the HN community.

At best, OP should pray to monetize 2% of their audience. Of that, only maybe 15% end up being repeat customers.

and remember, 37% of all stats quoted on the internet are made up. but you get my point ;)

link
xiaoma 4251 days ago
The vast majority of gamers don't spend anything.

The thing about free to play games with in app purchase is that there are a few "whales" who spend so much money they dominated all revenue statistics. Here's a video from Kongregate talking about this phenomenon on their platform (which has since broadened to include android games):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ekz466sDprg&feature=youtu.be...

link
quiqueqs 4252 days ago
This is some really useful info!
link
wernercd 4252 days ago
Everything except the booster/wild-cards/etc...

Unless THOSE people are kept in separate leader boards.

.99 for add free version would be much appreciated.

link