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Product Launch vs. Marketing Launch for Games
Here’s a very interesting idea from Eric Ries, author of The Lean Startup. Start-ups often mix them up but there are fundamental differences between Product Launch and Marketing Launch.
Product Launch is:
- Making your product available.
- Use SEO tactics to acquire users like SEM on $5 a Day.
- Use analytics to understand from real-world user behavior, understand what your fundamental driver of growth really is.
- It’s not a Beta test or limited launch. Your goal is not to test your software with a limited set of users – you are really going public. (Of course, you can still call the public version a Beta, but that’s another thing.)
Marketing Launch is:
- Announce a new product.
- Spend a lot of money in PR, promotional actions, ads.
- PR with blogs, magazines and newspapers to get Media Coverage.
- Buzz/viral marketing activities.
Eric is saying startups should not Marketing Launch until having a solid understanding of how their products retain and monetize, which is only really discovered after a Product Launch with real-world users.
Could that be applied to games?
Now consider each game is a Product or even a startup all by itself (for many small studios, the company is the game). Could this tactic work?
Recognized IPs can’t do that. Marketing Launch will occur spontaneously the moment they Product Launch. Portal is a big franchise, a media powerhouse, and media will swarm to cover availability of the next installment. Less-known IPs which caught media attention in the past will also naturally draw awareness, such as the next Scribblenauts or World of Goo.
It also looks nearly impossible to operate such tactic on consoles. You must be able to update your game fast. Not only there’s the retail problem but the platform-owner also impose a lot of barriers through approval policies and fees. Even with online stores and online updates, those things constrain developers quite a lot on frequent updates.
Finally, it looks like it would work a lot better for free-to-play games than for premium, pay-to-download games. Maybe you can still go premium and do a trial-basis or shareware-basis thing, but you won’t get all of the benefits as your players will inevitably quit after a limited time.
Online Games
This tactic is perfectly possible for Desktop, Browser-based or Facebook online games. In these platforms, we can update the game daily to optimize the user experience. Development teams will already be prepared to implement user analytics and some BI to support Live operations. So we’re just changing the context of Launch a little bit.
Some people still think games can’t be saved after a Product Launch, even online games. If the DAU goes downhill after launch, it’s doom. In fact, in 2011 we saw many companies like Atari giving up from Facebook initiatives for not showing results early. They expected big launches that make a lot of money, just like old retail days.
But look how Playdom did the opposite: using the experience with real-world users and investing in a re-design of a game already Product Launched, the team of Wild Ones showed impressive increase in retention and turned into a successful product.
Mobile Games
Some people in mobile games are also pursuing big launches. Part of this is because the iOS App Store, the main Mobile revenue source of today, operates in a way to favor you to download the next cool thing. There are the Genius helper, there are the Top downloads charts, and there are the Featured tab and banners.
But take a look at Tap Paradise Cove: launched in March 2012, the game went reasonably well on downloads upon launch but quickly dropped. Pocket Gems ran a few marketing campaigns to put the game back in Top 100 Free downloads but nothing impressive. It’s been very low on downloads for the past couple months. However, it’s far from dead – Tap Paradise Cove climbed the Top Grossing charts and stayed there. The game is acquiring fewer and fewer new users, but optimizing itself for more and more retention and revenue-per-user.
The thing about Product Launching before Marketing Launching with Apple (and now Microsoft) is approval times. You need to account for the fact a binary update may take from 1 to 3 weeks to be approved. Just because of that you will likely need months to get good improvements. Android doesn’t have this problem, but if you’re using Android to optimize you app after a Product Launch, always remember Android is different.
Conclusion
I think it’s perfectly possible to Product Launch first on games, optimize the product with fewer users, get more and more of revenue out of them, and then Marketing Launch using ad networks, social networks and good old PR. In online games it looks like a very good fit. It’s also possible for mobile games.
And remember, we’re not cutting Marketing Launches altogether, as it is still a very good thing when done in the right time. We’re just making it differently.
References
http://www.startuplessonslearned.com/2009/03/dont-launch.html
http://www.startuplessonslearned.com/2008/09/three-drivers-of-growth-for-your.html
http://www.startuplessonslearned.com/2008/09/sem-on-five-dollars-day.html
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/134856/interview_the_secrets_of_woogas_.php?print=1
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/12/ios-revenues-vs-android/
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/134731/redesigning_wild_ones_into_.php?print=1
http://www.insidesocialgames.com/2012/05/03/zynga-com-2-8-million-mau/
http://gigaom.com/2012/09/16/563158/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/appsblog/2012/jun/10/apple-developer-wwdc-schmidt-android
Mobile Studios Taking Off in Brazil
For nearly 4 years many mobile studios in Brazil have been investing in games or apps for the smartphone era. Early games such as PoChickenPo (Tectoy Studios) and Drums Challenge (MusiGames) earned good results but in the last couple years between 2011 and 2012 more companies in Brazil are getting significant traction in Apple’s App Store.
MobJoy was founded in the city of Campinas around 2009. Early success with an iPad-exclusive title Undead Attack! Pinball enabled the company to raise investments and make more iOS games. Road Warrior was launched in November 2011 and topped #18 position at Top Free downloads and #13 in Free Games, but consistently held positions on Top 200 Free Games charts for over an year now. On revenue, Road Warrior topped #97 Grossing among all apps but held positions on Top 200 Grossing for several months.
Top Free Games is another mobile games studio from São Paulo, developer of Bike Race, a major iOS hit with consistent performance. Launched in April 2012 the game took off and held the #1 position in Top Free for several days. Henceforward it consistently held positions in Top 100 Free but climbing to Top 50 Free in several occasions. On revenue, Bike Race held in Top 200 Grossing for over 8 months, peeking on #16 Grossing in November 2012.
Top Free Games is also developer of Penguim Race and Mouse Maze. Launched mid-2011 and an immediate Top 25 Free hit for 2 months, Penguim Race held positions among Top 200 Grossing apps for several months. Mouse Maze was also a quick hit, topping #4 Free downloads upon launch and #19 Grossing couple months after.
Unlike the examples above, Movile is a traditional mobile company in Brazil with a huge history at the feature-phone apps market and solutions for carriers. In the last couple years Movile started to invest in smartphone publishing, focusing first on entertainment apps instead of games. In the last 3 months alone, n Photo and Video category ZeeweTV topped #10 in Photo and Video apps and PhotoFun topped #7.
As the user base for smartphones and tablets rapidly expands in Brazil several game studios are finding new opportunities in work-for-hire and advergames. WebCore and Jynx Playwere, the best known advergames studios in the country, have been steadily expanding the portfolio of sponsored tablet and smartphone games. Such is also the case for Tectoy Studios.
Blood & Glory
In November 2011 Glu Mobile launched Blood & Glory worldwide to be the fastest-grossing game of the company in Q4 2011, quickly climbing to #6 Free downloads and #8 Grossing. Marketing campaigns and item promotions in the months ahead made the game top at #3 Free downloads and #6 Grossing.
Blood & Glory was developed by the studio in São Paulo, which I was proudly part of. Public statements accounts for a first-month revenue of roughly US$ 2.4 million plus US$ 2.7 million more across the first quarter of 2012, making it one of the most successful Brazilian games ever.
A sequel, Blood & Glory Legend, was launched 9 months after in August 2012. Albeit not as big of a hit as the first installment, the game still topped at #4 Free downloads and #52 Grossing, making nearly US$ 800,000 in the first month after launch according to public statements. However, unlike the first game, Legend has a lot more features for Live and promotions teams to explore in the months ahead.
Unfortunately last week Glu decided to shut down its São Paulo studio. It was very sad for all of us, but it’s not necessarily a terrible thing for Brazilian mobile games in the long run, as I’ll discuss in a future blog post.
Keep hungry!
References
https://itunes.apple.com/app/pochickenpo/id317220802?mt=8
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/drums-challenge/id317080099?mt=8
https://itunes.apple.com/br/app/blood-glory-2-legend/id496748308?mt=8
http://deixadenerdice.com/2010/11/12/jogos-made-in-brazil-entrevista-com-a-mobjoy/
http://www.pocketgamer.co.uk/r/iPhone/Road+Warrior/news.asp?c=35783
http://www.movile.com/pt/mobile-marketing/
http://www.webcoregames.com.br/cases.html
http://www.jynx.com.br/wordpress/?page_id=15&cat=advergames
http://www2.portodigital.org/portodigital/imprensa/entrevistas/40529;46573;0802;4693;18290.asp
I've been making games since 2005, started a new game company and worked at bigger and older ones. This is my (randomly updated) blog. More about me at:
Tex Pine 