The impact of ongoing monetization tools on the sustainability of online free-to-play game services

Abstract

In the current online game market, freely accessible products struggle to attract, keep and monetize users. This paper creates and applies a new framework to measure the impact of monetization tools on performance indicators for sustainability in online Free Play game services. The center of the study is a 9-month-old active video game case. Monetization Tools and Performance Indicators that represent a game's sustainability are defined and clustered. The game data is used to find correlations between the Tools and the Indicators by conducting a Linear Regression and ultimately finding out how game companies can predict sustainability through changes in monetization tools. The outcome is that Monetization Tools can have a substantial impact on the average revenue made by paying users. Especially In-Game events that offer exclusive, time-limited content have a significant effect on the sustainable growth of game service. Monetization Tools can also have a non-monetary positive or negative effect on a game service's ongoing success. The resulting change in player retention and the number of first-time purchases can boost or damage a game's long-term success, making this paper's findings interesting for practical implementation.