Creating a Monetization Model for a Free-to-play Mobile Game

Abstract

Mobile games are a very popular form of entertainment due to their accessibility and wide range of different games to choose from. Free-to-play mobile games dominate the charts of the most profitable mobile games in every region. These statistics show that mobile games are proficient at generating revenue for their developing companies.

The goal of this thesis was to provide a robust monetization plan for Battle Cards, a game developed by the commissioning company, that can be utilized and further refined as need-ed. The thesis was commissioned by an Armenian mobile game development company, Rockbite Games.

The author created the thesis with some help and resources from the commissioning company. The commissioning company provided the author with some internal statistics and the product to test on.

The demarcation of the thesis was to specifically focus on testing the effects of minor visual and functional changes on the financial performance of Battle Cards. Both qualitative and quantitative research methods were used. The author had recommendations for other changes that would have likely improved the performance of the game, but these changes were outside the scope of this thesis and were subsequently omitted.

The research finds that experiments on an insufficient user population do not yield implementable results. However, other results can be utilized by the commissioning company when developing new games.