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Has the free-to-play bubble burst?
Richard Bartle isn't alone in thinking the free-to-play bubble is soon to burst. Talking at this week's Develop Conference in Brighton, UK, three mobile game designers with an expertise in free-to-play discussed the negative direction that F2P titles are headed and why that may be coming to an end. "I would rather have 10,000 people who play my game for two years, than a million people who only play for a short time," Matthew Wiggins of mobile studio Jiggery Pokery states. The discussion, as reported by Gamasutra, focused on the unsavory practices of quick in-and-out publishers who were only out to make gobs of cash as quickly as possible. But one industry vet thinks that the F2P bubble has burst. "I think we're moving away from the aggressive initial monetization," CSR Racing studio boss Jason Avent says. "Those people who love your game are happy to pay for it. It's getting people into that longer game... We need to move away from exploiting a small number of people, and instead work to make lots of people stick around."
Engadget Giveaway: win a new Nexus 7, courtesy of CSR Racing!
You've seen the review, now enjoy the real thing for yourself. This week's giveaway centers around the hottest tablet at the moment, the Nexus 7. Our friends at NaturalMotion want to get one into a lucky reader's hands so they can enjoy the company's signature game, CSR Racing. The app is free, so it's definitely worth giving it a good look on whatever Android device you use. While you're waiting for it to download and install, make sure you head to the widget below to enter to win. Good luck!
Natural Motion on track to make $12 million a month with CSR Racing, acquires dev team Boss Alien
NaturalMotion started off working on a state-of-the-art physics system for consoles, but the since company moved to iOS, it's found a lot more monetary success, putting out seven top-grossing games. Now the company has reportedly found a bonafide hit. CSR Racing was released on the App Store on June 28, and NaturalMotion says it's been making $12 million a month since -- all from in-app purchases. To celebrate, NaturalMotion has bought the game's developer, BossAlien and says it's planning on going even bigger with mobile games like this in the future. Unfortunately, this isn't all good news for players. I haven't sat down to play CSR Racing yet, but many of the iTunes reviews say that the game is extremely restrictive with its microtransactions. One look at the offerings on display shows that they're relatively high priced. That might generate a big revenue stream, but it doesn't build longevity, and it certainly doesn't win the company any long-term fans. NaturalMotion might have a hit here, but to keep that growth going, they'll have to nail down good, solid gameplay and not just depend fleecing as much money out of players as possible.
