In Clash of Clans, player starts with a small village in a treeless area in the forest and builds it into a large fortress with a huge army to raid other towns or to defend attacks. Hay Day is a simulation game that makes player become an heir to the uncle’s farm, charge with turning its chicken pens and dilapidated silos into a bigger business.
Both games have advancements like cannons or mills that cost virtual currency, which can take an irritating long time to gather in meaningful sums. Players can purchase premium items from Stores to speed things along by a credit card. Normally, a player plays a game 10 times a day. Because threats are still there when the player are logged off, so the games frequently remind players with warning notification about incoming raiders or broken plowshares, demanding player logging in and investing in reinforcements or supplies.
Farmville – a Zynga’s Facebook popular game released in 2009 - had more than 32 million daily players at its peak in 2011, giving the company more than $1 billion in revenue the year before it went public. But soon after, the movement to mobile left a hole for Zynga in its user base. And then in February, Zynga reported a net loss of $209 million for 2012. On mobile platforms, Rovio in Finland – creator of Angry Bird - made money by putting tons of ads to free players and charging users with an ad-free version. In contrast, Clash of Clans players are paying $100 a pop for a chest of gems to climb past levels; and Hay Day users are the same when spending $80 for each trunks of gold coins. Supercell’s developers keep releasing a new level of advancement for players each month. And since December, both Hay Day and Clash of Clans have stayed on the top 5 in iOS store grosser, according to CEO of market-research firm App Annie.
Supercell has also invested heavily in testing new game to improve its position and ensure eager users migrate to the next game. “With console games, they cost a lot to develop and you cannot do it quickly,” Paananen says. “Our aim is to put a new title into the hands of users as quickly as possible, either via focus group or in beta sessions. That creates an instant feedback loop. Do you invest more in the game, or kill it and come up with something new?” Like this one.
Paananen is also spending generously on customer service, so that it will maintain a round-the-clock game support team orperating in 12 languges online. The support team will check Twitter feeds, online forums to help users to troubleshoot the apps and answer questions.
“We need to talk to our users 24/7” Paananen says, because it pays off. “When people meet in the cafe, they compare apps and games. It is the great games that spread naturally”, he says. “We have launched in some markets, like Germany and Turkey, with zero marketing spend”.
The video game business has lots of developers who have shot up, crashed and been forgotten. If others can match the addictiveness of Supercell’s games, it’s hard to stop them from duplicating the model, says Schmitt, noting the similarities between Hay Day and Farmville. Supercell’s biggest handicap: Paananen says he has no set plan to expand into Android OS, the fastest-growing mobile market. That makes half of current market untapped and vulnerable to clones or competition from larger players (especially in Japan and South Korea). The popular game Puzzle & Dragon creator, Japan’s GungHo Online Entertainment is already making a killing on Android phones. Rimer of Index Ventures said his firm is confident that Supercell’s achievement will continue, but it needs time to see how. “That’s the question,” he says. “What do they do for an encore?”
Both games have advancements like cannons or mills that cost virtual currency, which can take an irritating long time to gather in meaningful sums. Players can purchase premium items from Stores to speed things along by a credit card. Normally, a player plays a game 10 times a day. Because threats are still there when the player are logged off, so the games frequently remind players with warning notification about incoming raiders or broken plowshares, demanding player logging in and investing in reinforcements or supplies.
Farmville – a Zynga’s Facebook popular game released in 2009 - had more than 32 million daily players at its peak in 2011, giving the company more than $1 billion in revenue the year before it went public. But soon after, the movement to mobile left a hole for Zynga in its user base. And then in February, Zynga reported a net loss of $209 million for 2012. On mobile platforms, Rovio in Finland – creator of Angry Bird - made money by putting tons of ads to free players and charging users with an ad-free version. In contrast, Clash of Clans players are paying $100 a pop for a chest of gems to climb past levels; and Hay Day users are the same when spending $80 for each trunks of gold coins. Supercell’s developers keep releasing a new level of advancement for players each month. And since December, both Hay Day and Clash of Clans have stayed on the top 5 in iOS store grosser, according to CEO of market-research firm App Annie.
Supercell has also invested heavily in testing new game to improve its position and ensure eager users migrate to the next game. “With console games, they cost a lot to develop and you cannot do it quickly,” Paananen says. “Our aim is to put a new title into the hands of users as quickly as possible, either via focus group or in beta sessions. That creates an instant feedback loop. Do you invest more in the game, or kill it and come up with something new?” Like this one.
Paananen is also spending generously on customer service, so that it will maintain a round-the-clock game support team orperating in 12 languges online. The support team will check Twitter feeds, online forums to help users to troubleshoot the apps and answer questions.
“We need to talk to our users 24/7” Paananen says, because it pays off. “When people meet in the cafe, they compare apps and games. It is the great games that spread naturally”, he says. “We have launched in some markets, like Germany and Turkey, with zero marketing spend”.
The video game business has lots of developers who have shot up, crashed and been forgotten. If others can match the addictiveness of Supercell’s games, it’s hard to stop them from duplicating the model, says Schmitt, noting the similarities between Hay Day and Farmville. Supercell’s biggest handicap: Paananen says he has no set plan to expand into Android OS, the fastest-growing mobile market. That makes half of current market untapped and vulnerable to clones or competition from larger players (especially in Japan and South Korea). The popular game Puzzle & Dragon creator, Japan’s GungHo Online Entertainment is already making a killing on Android phones. Rimer of Index Ventures said his firm is confident that Supercell’s achievement will continue, but it needs time to see how. “That’s the question,” he says. “What do they do for an encore?”