| Session Name: | Analysis and Lessons from the Global Free-to-Play Market |
| Speaker(s): | Chris Akhavan, Tom Nichols |
| Company Name(s): | Glu Mobile, Aeria Games & Entertainment |
| Track / Format: | Free to Play Design & Business Summit |
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| Overview: | The free-to-play mobile gaming market is ripe with opportunity for global expansion. Identifying notable trends and parlaying them into opportunities is easier said than done. In the first segment of this talk Glu Mobile's president of publishing, Chris Akhavan, will provide a high-level assessment of global trends and examine the keys to success in both Eastern and Western markets. Free-to-play game monetization differs significantly between games from Western and Asian developers. Western developers have focused primarily on limited monetization systems, striving to achieve a harmonious game balance for free players and spenders. Asian developers have focused on selling power through gear enhancements and gambling systems such as mystery boxes, resulting in much higher ARPU, but sometimes creating a perception that the games are pay-to-win. In the second segment of this talk Tom Nichols, Aeria Games & Entertainment's VP of PC games, will explain how Asian free-to-play games drive such high monetization, and discuss how Western developers can apply these ideas to their games while achieving proper game balance. |
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