Hello!
Each week I’ll be sending out a mail that highlights a particular game. I’ll explain how it works, how it makes money, and why it’s particularly important right now. Feel free to pass it on, to tell me to stop emailing you, or to suggest particular games or genres that you’d like to know more about.
This week’s game is Battle Pirates. You can play it on Facebook. 240k people played Battle Pirates yesterday, and 1.6m played it in the last 30 days. It was created by Kixeye, a social games company based in San Francisco who have been hiring aggressively of late – they just picked up a Zynga General Manager and recently released a recruitment video lampooning several of their competitors.
How does it work?
Build a navy and smash your rivals! You are the commander of an island base on a waterlogged future Earth. The aim of the game is to build up your fleet and strengthen your base, partly through smart resource management and partly by defeating human- and AI-controlled opponents. As you gain in experience and in-game currency, you can purchase or upgrade your buildings (most of which gather useful resources like metal or oil), and pimp your ships in preparation for battle. The battles involve manoeuvring your ships and targeting the opposing fleet’s weak points; victories are rewarded with loot and swollen pride.
How does it make money?
You can use Gold, the in-game currency, to buy three things: resources, speed-ups (which finish building/upgrading faster), and protection (e.g. 24 hours immunity from enemy attacks). You start the game with a small amount of Gold, but you can use real money to buy more if you want to progress faster.
Why is this game particularly interesting?
Battle Pirates is this week’s Game of the Week because it’s one of the most recent examples of the success of ‘core’ games on Facebook.
Most of the highest-grossing games in the past few years have been simple, casual games, aimed primarily at middle-aged women (cf. Farmville) because that demographic has been found to spend a lot of time and money on casual games. Core games, however, are aimed at the core gaming market – younger males.
Kixeye in particular has found success here, and despite a lower number of users than the successful casual games, Kixeye is generating huge revenues because its players tend to monetise at an extremely high rate – its flagship title, Backyard Monsters, is projected to bring in nine-figure revenues this year.
Perhaps that shouldn’t be a surprise: after all, its target market is people who would spend $60 on a console game. Providing them with a game for free, but offering thousands of opportunities and reasons to purchase, has proven a profitable strategy.
Spend 10 minutes playing Battle Pirates, and let me know what you think. Enjoy!
Todd
P.S. Give me a shout if you’d like me to send you the previous Game of the Week emails – on Amazing Alex, Candy Crush Saga, Living Classics, Plants vs. Zombies, Triple Town, Matching With Friends, Slotomania, and Diamond Dash.