PM2. Plan the provision of requirements for specific production
WII 1. Understand job roles, career structures and business models across the games, animation and VFX industries.
WII 3. Understand how products in the games, animation and VFX industries are taken to market.
Monetisation for video games comes in many forms across various different platforms. Whether it is a mobile device, a console game or a PC game, there is monetisation models behind everything in order to make money from the game, in hopes of returning a profit.
Firstly, Mobile Games are the easiest to assess and break down, mobile games are essentially the monetisation kings if this can be done correctly. Most mobile games tend to follow a Free-To-Play model that include many micro transactions such as removing ads, in game currencies, extra lives etc. Typically speaking, there are 3 different models that can be implemented as an IAP.
Consumable
A consumable item would be something like an in-game currency or an extra life within in a game.
Non-Consumable
A Non-Consumable item would be something like a character skin or access to certain events.
Subscription
A subscription model would be something like a battle pass or a premium world only accessible by subscribers.
Another for of monetisation for mobile games is In App Advertising. In App Advertising consists of adverts in the game to generate a revenue, this can be broken down for target audiences to increase user engagement. The more engagement you have, the more money you will make.
Moving on to console gaming, Console games typically use DLC such as expansion packs to monetise their games aftermarket, other monetisation will come at the point of sale, pre-order incentives or Free-To-Play console games using different methods of monetisation.
Live Service games such as Destiny which is also Free-To-Play rely on expansion packs, in-game cosmetics, a battle pass and also seasonal activities to make money and increase user engagement. A good example of this is Destiny 2’s Festival of the Lost event which happens around halloween time. It gives players the chance to play spookier versions of activities that are currently in the game whilst offering halloween themed items using premium currency. What is good about this also, is that Season Pass owners don’t need to purchase a premium currency if they have been actively playing the game as the season pass will offer an in-game currency that allows them to buy the same cosmetic items as those who don’t have access to the season pass.
Subscription models are also coming into fruition now as well with services such as PlayStation Now, Google Stadia and XBOX Game Pass. These are services where players can subscribe to play games over the cloud, the studio will receive a lump sum of money from the host to be able to put their game onto one of these subscription models. The disadvantage to one of these services is that you would need a fast enough and stable enough internet connection to play the game, even though you pay a monthly fee to access the games, furthermore from a developer stand point, there are often sales or promotions for the subscription platform that might not give true insight to statistics from the players.
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