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Growth Strategies for Mobile Gaming

Kay TurnerOct 25, 2017

The mobile gaming market has been one of the big success stories in recent years. If you travel on a train during rush hour these days, it’s common to see many passengers playing on their smart phones. Whether it’s puzzles games from successful franchises like Candy Crush, or enjoying city building there is something for everyone.

There’s still plenty of growth in the market, with just 55% penetration achieved. If you’re an app developer then you still have the chance to design and build the next big game. But how can you make sure that you maximise your chances of success?

Think Differently

Gaming is escapism. Players want to enjoy the game because it helps them to take a break from real-life. It has been shown that playing video games has benefits for wellbeing and brain function. Often, though, developers spend more time thinking about the creative aspect of a game and not enough thinking about how to make it pay.

The most common model these days is to aim for a large enough number of downloads to ensure that revenue from in-game advertisements pays for development costs. This is probably a more reliable model for new developers than hoping players will take a chance on an unknown and pay for the download.

Work and Rework Fast

While you certainly don’t want to be releasing a sub-standard game, the longer it remains in development, the higher the costs. One strategy that works for some developers is to start with a basic game or app, and then to improve it with subsequent releases.

This has worked for apps such as IFTTT which has added functionality and links to third party apps in updates since its release. The app, which helps automate use of your smart phone based on certain conditions (it this happens, do that) has been regularly updated.

Make like a puffer fish

Players like to download what they know. That’s why existing franchises are always being moved to the mobile market. The people who love them are sure to download them. This is what has ensured the success of recent hits like Pokémon Go!

If you’re a new developer then the chances are that you won’t have a loyal following as a game like Pokemon does. In that case, what you can do is produce multiple titles. This allows players who have enjoyed one of your apps to stay loyal and download the next.

There are two approaches to engaging players with your app. You can either create longform content which stands in its own right. The alternative is to hook into a current trend and hope that attracts downloads. This is why you will often see rebranded versions of a game; for example the popularity of Disney’s Frozen prompted a whole raft of dress up games and slot sites with ‘ice princesses’.

There is still a lot of scope for entrepreneurs to make their app a runaway success. It’s a growing market, and with wearable devices becoming more popular and VR on the horizon, your only real limit is your imagination.