Do Microtransactions Have Staying Power In Flash Games?

Today the developers of the Flash game SAS: Zombie Assault 2, which  served as proof of concept for MochiMedia's Mochi Coins virtual currency, released new data regarding the game's microtransaction revenue. In Zombie Assault 2 players can spend $1 on slight enhancements like extra health regeneration and new weapons, or spend $9 on a special pack that grants them all of the game's virtual items and enhanced features immediately. The game is currently monetizing at a rate of $3.60 per 1000 plays through microtransactions.

Revenue from ads per 1000 plays during the same period amounted to $.20 to $.30 per 1000 plays. There can be no doubt that for SAS: Zombie Assault 2, microtransactions are still tremendously more profitable than advertising payouts. What is less clear from the profile of SAS: Zombie Assault 2, as reported by Gamasutra, is that the monetization rate from microtransactions in Zombie Assault 2 is declining significantly over time.

Today's Gamasutra piece credits SAS: Zombie Assault 2 with an official release in mid-June. Early stories about the game's monetization rate from late June described a $6.50 per 1000 plays monetization rate. Stories covering the official launch of the Mochi Coins payment platform in mid-July mention a $7 to $10 per 1000 plays monetization rate.

To reach the current $3.50 per 1000 players monetization rate, a tremendous decrease in SAS: Zombie Assault 2's conversion rates must have happened in the past month. The likely culprit for such a decline may be the game's completely static inventory of virtual goods. All of the in-game virtual items described in today's Gamasutra piece are essentially the same items the game offered in June and July.

Where companies like Zynga make huge money through microtransaction games is by turning the game into a continuing service that players revisit frequently. In Zynga's Farmville, for instance, the game is updated twice a week just for the purposes of introducing new virtual items. SAS: Zombie Assault 2 launched at around the same time as FarmVille but appears not to have gone through any significant content updates during that time.

Could this doom microtransaction Flash revenue to the same declining sales cycles that plague console games? Traditional development of Flash games is generally modeled on the console model, where users pay for content in single lump sums, while social games have adopted a model that more resembles the ever-evolving nature of purely multiplayer online games like MMORPGs. It seems clear that while the social games can keep players coming back through new items, Flash developers are creating more static inventories of virtual goods.

Comments

[Firecue]

You're absolutely right about keeping the game fresh. I think there's a lot of value in virtual currency enabled flash games, but first there needs to be a shift in the game dynamics for it to be truly effective - which will come naturally in time.

[Chris Harris]

Hi there, Chris from www.ninjakiwi.com here, we made SAS: Zombie Assault 2. I'd just like to quickly comment on how things are going. The real reason we can see for the fall off in eCPM is actually the game getting played heavily in China. We're still seeing $10+ for most of Europe and USA. Also as far as fresh content we released a new map SAS: Zombie Assault 2- Insane Asylum just under 4 weeks ago. This brought in 2 new purchaseable weapons and body armour, and allowed the sharing of all purchaseable items and ranks/perks across both games.

[Alicia Ashby]

Hey Chris, thanks for commenting!

I'm wondering if you could elaborate on why Chinese users are driving down your eCPM? It's usually assumed that Chinese consumers are more willing to spend on virtual items than their Western counterparts, but you seem to be experiencing the opposite.

[Chris Harris]

Hi Alicia, mainly in this case it's a language thing I believe. Gotta get moving on multi-language support Mochi!

[malc@flash games master]

there is not much out there at the moment other than mochi, but they need to step up to the mark.

[www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=701098827]

mochi need to step up to the mark regarding multi lingual