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.
