Significant increase in traffic after free
User reaction to the introduction of paid skins is good
The free policy is changing the game market. There seems to be a growing voice that both game companies and users can ‘win-win’ without inducing excessive charging or setting high game prices. While games that have recently been made free are recording good results, there is interest in whether this will spread throughout the industry.
Combining the results of the Green Economy Newspaper coverage on the 12th, it is observed that Krafton ‘Battleground’ and Epic Games’ ‘Pol Guys’ are entering their second heyday. As the two games have recently implemented a free policy, the industry has raised the prospect of a sharp drop in sales, but considering the explosive increase in traffic, opinions are being raised that sales are expected to increase.
In the case of Crafton ‘Battleground’, which went free in January, a significant number of long-term churn users returned, and average MAU traffic increased about three times compared to the previous quarter, and the number of paid buyers more than doubled. This leads to an increase in sales, and analysts are predicting that Krafton will enter a full-fledged monetization period after the third quarter.
Epic Games’ ‘Pol Guys’ is also seeing a significant increase in the number of users thanks to the free effect. It has surpassed 50 million users within two weeks of being free. In addition to free conversion, Epic Games also unveiled a new season “We All Free to Play” with new round obstacles such as ‘Speed Circuit’, ‘Blast Ball’, ‘Bouncing Floor’ and ‘Pol Guys Volleyball’.
In the industry, curiosity is growing about the secret of the two games being able to continue to generate profits even after they became free. If this can be applied to other games, there is a growing voice that a healthy game culture can be established without excessive charging.
The secret is a paid skin BM that does not affect character specifications. Both ‘Battleground’ and ‘Pol Guys’ are selling items to decorate the character’s appearance by introducing a paid customization function.
However, there are objections that it is difficult to introduce such a BM to all games considering the specificity of the genre. In the case of MMORPGs, it is pointed out that if all paid items to raise the character’s specifications are removed, users may be dissatisfied and it will be difficult to preserve the value of the items.
Nevertheless, everyone agrees that changes are necessary for the current mobile games in Korea, which rely mostly on probability-type items for their sales. Among the game companies representing Korea, 3N, NC is also increasing the number of paid skins for its flagship game ‘Lineage W’ as if conscious of such public opinion.
An industry official said, “If ‘Battleground’ and ‘Fall Guys’ record better sales results than before the free version, the total free policy is expected to spread throughout the global game industry. There is a growing expectation that we will be able to draw results,” he said.