Josh Larson, Kongregate

Mining the Web for Cross-Platform Gems

(White Nights Conference Prague 2018)
The official conference website — http://wnconf.com

Transcript

1. 1 Mining the Web for Cross-Platform Gems Josh Larson CRO, Kongregate February 14, 2018
2. 2 About this Session The web platform continues to serve as a great testing ground for game concepts that can then have cross-platform success on mobile, PC and console. Learn what characteristics and KPIs the best web game prospects have for growing into something bigger. This session will draw on Kongregate’s experience as cross-platform publisher and managing the Kongregate.com platform.
3. Corporate 3 Kongregate Mission To nurture the long-term growth and health of independent developers and player communities
4. Corporate 4 Kongregate Business Overview Powerful symbiosis between three core competencies Platform Products that connect game developers and their communities Publishing Best-in-class marketing, insights, and live operations Studios Talented game developers building Kongregate’s biggest hits
5. Corporate 5 5 Kongregate Stats 50 M Mobile Installs in 2017 > 12 M Monthly Active Users 45 Games Published > 115,000 Games Live on Kongregate.com
6. 6 Cross-Platform Publishing Experience Coming Soon 2018
7. Publishing 7 AdVenture Capitalist Iterate on Web, Launch as Polished Product on Mobile & Beyond Art, F2P, Polish Kongregate.com (August 2014) Insane retention Repeat purchasers iOS & Android … & Beyond (February 2015) Over 25 million mobile installs Also Steam, Facebook, PS4 Successor is AdVenture Communist
8. Publishing 8 Realm Grinder …. Art, UI, Polish Kongregate.com (August 2015) iOS & Android (January 2017) Top 10 grossing title Great long-term retention Armor & Steam (Sep 2016 & Jun 2017)
9. Publishing 9 Bit Heroes …. UI, Scaling Kongregate.com (September 2016) iOS & Android (May 2017) Charming pixel art & nostalgic gameplay MMO appeal in engagement & spend Steam (Dec 2017)
10. 10 Biggest Web Predictor of Cross-Platform Success? They found THE FUN
11. 11 Best signals of a fun game on web User Rating on Kong Web 3.8 is good, 4.0 is great Adventure Capitalist 4.2, Realm Grinder 4.3, Bit Heroes 4.5 Kong Team reaction: “I knew that AdVenture Capitalist was something special when I looked around the office and realized the entire office was playing it!” -- Emily Greer, CEO, Kongregate
12. 12 Other Key KPIs of Cross-Platform Hopefuls Strong Long-Term Retention Translates well to other platforms Monetization % Buyer Rate: 1-1.5% is good, over 2% is really good ARPPU (Lifetime): $40-$80 is good, $100-$200 is really good (viewing the two together is important context)
13. 13 Deeper into retention curve across web games D1 on web *much* lower than other platforms … zero friction to load/leave game Long-term retention on web converges with mobile/other Day 30+ retention is the real separator behind revenue performance on web … and predictor of success on other platforms Retention Curve by Revenue Band (Kongregate.com)
14. 14 Deeper into monetization stats across platforms Most games monetize better on Web and Steam than Mobile Varies by game & genre, more competitive and social titles have higher increases Ads is a big caveat: can be majority of revenue on mobile for certain genres … lesser % on Web, and zero on Steam Monetization across Platforms (ARPDAU) Mobile Web Steam Idle RPG $0.05 $0.08 $0.05 CCG $0.35 $2.30 $1.64 RPG $0.45 $1.60 $0.97 CCG $0.70 $0.80 $0.82
15. 15 Where a Publisher can add some Pixie Dust Art & Polish Get one chance at first impression with platform editorial UI Optimize for smaller screen size and touch control Monetization Revisit store, event, content release strategy In-Game Ads Consider rewarded video & offerwall for mobile
16. 16 Pleasant Surprises from going Cross-Platform #1: Ads can be a win-win #2: You may attract multi-platform users #3: Other platforms may consume content … quickly! AdCap mobile users checked in 5-6 times a day (vs 2.5-3 on web) Idle game players on Steam utilize second window An ad network outage one day led to users complaining they couldn’t watch ads. Chart displays daily active users on Kongregate.com only.
17. Publishing 17 KPI Analysis Buyer Rate & ARPPU Long-Term Retention Benchmark against portfolio ROI analysis Evaluating Games We Play Hundreds of Games Alignment with Team We evaluate games, we sign teams Long term partnership Good fit between our strengths/gaps Games We Love Trust our intuition Validated by Kong users’
18. 18 Flash Games Nostalgia is real! Super Fancy Pants Adventure (PC: Sep 2017; Mobile: Jan 2018; Console: Q2 2018) Burrito Bison: Launcha Libre (Mobile: November 2016) Over 100m gameplays from web franchise Now premium on to PC/Mobile/Console Burrito Bison Revenge voted best Kong game ever Fun F2P successor hit mobile & 11mm+ installs
19. Publishing 19 Questions? (also visit blog.kongregate.com)
20. Publishing 20 Thank You