Monument Valley dev, ustwo, has spoken out, saying it believes the premium mobile game market isn’t dead yet.
Following yesterday’s revelation that only five per cent of Android and sixty per cent of iOS Monument Valley players actually paid for the game, ustwo has defended the premium mobile game segment.
“We’ve had this for many years now, analysts saying free is the future and there’ll be no more paid games,” said Monument Valley Producer, Dan Gray, in an interview with Re/Code. “And every year, there continue to be a number of premium games that do very well for themselves. That area of the marketplace is not dead yet.”
It’s interesting to look at the success of the free-to-play genre, which includes games like Candy Crush Saga, Clash of Clans and Farmville, in comparison to the premium games. Some, including Monument Valley, have been stand out successes, while others have faded into oblivion.
“We’ve nowhere near made the amount of money that a lot of top free-to-play games would, but then again we have relatively low overhead. Monument Valley was made with only eight people. We had no advertising spend. We’re confident we can make premium games work in the future, and we’re confident we can outdo what we did with Monument Valley next year and the year after that.”
Related: Android piracy is a problem, but developers shouldn’t jump ship
Ustwo also commented on the idea that piracy directly correlated to lost sales. It said that “the majority of those users probably won’t have bought the game anyway”, adding that “some of those users have recommended the game to friends who maybe aren’t as tech savvy as they are.”
Thus, piracy could lead them to a bit of free marketing, as those friends actually download and paid for the game.
Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
