作者：Tyler York

当前，移动游戏领域最明显的趋势之一就是向免费增值模式的转变。始于2011年早期的这种转移热潮，目前免费增值模式已经主宰了iOS和Android应用商店。从传奇的《愤怒的小鸟》同时跻身免费应用榜单第5名与热门游戏榜单第52名，人们显然能够看出免费增值游戏不仅越发盛行，而且可以为游戏领域创下丰厚收益。Natural Motion工作室还曾告诉新闻媒体，公司旗下具有AAA品质的免费游戏《CSR Racing》发行一个月已创收超过1200万美元，这表明即使是高质量的游戏通过免费增值模式所创造的收益，也还是比通过4.99美元以上的售价所获收益更可观。

freemium games(from gamasutra)

为何免费增值游戏对用户具有如此吸引力，对游戏公司极具盈利性？

1）免费模式移除了费用障碍

当用户在App Store上寻找游戏时，你只能在有限的时间内吸引他们的注意力。这实际上难度很大，这也是为何App Store Optimization日益普及，以及提高应用商店曝光度的经验分享等此类文章一直能够获得较高流量的原因。

我们很难说服用户下载一款免费的应用，那么为何还要在游戏中设置一道门槛呢？让用户为一款游戏花钱，就算只是0.99美元，也等于是在迫使他们制定到底要不要体验游戏的决策。如果他们只玩一次就不再体验，那么他们将损失0.99美元，而如果他们体验的是免费游戏，即使他们不再投入时间，对他们而言也没有任何损失。而免费的应用对用户而言，移除了一大关键障碍。只要用户进入你的游戏，你就可以去说服他们这款游戏值得付费。

2）让玩家体会到付出的价值

假如你制作出一款优秀的游戏。如果玩家已经下载并且正在体验游戏，他们需开始在游戏中投入时间，慢慢地会投入自己的情感，无论是他们培养出的可爱僵尸，或者是他们努力获得的直线竞速赛车。只要玩家投入了自己的精力，那么开发者就更容易说服他们购买一只出色的新僵尸，或者适合赛车的贴纸。

开发者应在玩家对游戏付费前，先让玩家体验游戏，这实际上可以增加玩家为游戏消费的意愿。这主要依据心理学的认知失调原则。在游戏的环境下，这意味着在游戏中投入时间和情感的玩家会根据投入的比例衡量购买的价值。这并非坏事：实际上，玩家可以更好地判断哪种商品值得付费。与其为一款令人失望的主机游戏支付60美元，玩家更愿意根据一款游戏中的独特或者完善的体验而决定自己的消费情况。

3）玩家自己定价

当你以0.99美元、4.99美元、或者甚至30美元的价格出售自己的游戏时，你不但排挤了那些不愿出这种高价的玩家，而且还过滤掉了那些可能支付更高消费额的玩家。据Flurry数据显示，免费增值游戏有50%以上的收益来自至少价值20美元的交易，这在所有交易中占比高达13%。此外，游戏中有5%的交易价格超过50美元，这在移动游戏领域闻所未闻。这些交易的平均消费额为14美元，这一金额明显超出了玩家乐意为尝试一款新游戏所支付的费用。

转变

打算将游戏转变为免费增值模式？可以看下Rovio的Michail Katkoff分享的博文：《分析付费-免费增值模式转变的权衡过程》。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Why Freemium is Dominating Mobile

by Tyler York

One of the most prominent trends in mobile gaming is the move to freemium. Spotted as early as 2011, the move to freemium has come to dominate both the iOS and Android App Stores. With the legendary Angry Birds simultaneously sitting in the Top 5 Free Apps and #52 in the Grossing ranks, it’s clear that freemium games are not only more popular, but they’re making significantly more money. Reinforcing this point, Natural Motion informed the press that CSR Racing made over $12 million in its first month with it’s AAA-quality free-to-play game, showing that even high quality titles stand to make more from the freemium model than charging an uber-premium price of $4.99+.

So why is it that freemium games are simultaneously so attractive to consumers and so profitable for game companies?

1) Free removes friction

When someone is looking for games on the App Store, you only have a limited amount of time to catch their attention. This is very hard to do, as evidenced by the rising popularity of App Store Optimization and the fact that our post on Hacking the App Stores still gets substantial traffic almost one year after it was written.

It’s hard enough as it is to convince people to download a free app, so why would you give people another barrier to trying your game? Making people pay for a game, even $0.99, forces people to make a decision about your game. If they play it once and never play it again, they lose $0.99, while if they play your free game and never play it again, they lose nothing. Making your app free removes a key point of friction for user adoption. Once they’re in your game, then you can convince them it’s worth paying money for.

2) Players feel invested

Hopefully, you’ve made a good game. Once players have downloaded and are playing your game, they start to invest in it. They invest their time, to start, but slowly they can become emotionally invested as well, whether its to their cute Zombies that they’re farming up, or into their drag racing car that they’ve worked hard to acquire. Once the player is invested, then it becomes much easier to convince them they should buy a cool new Zombie type or a sweet decal for their ride.

By giving players the ability to play your game before spending any money in it, this can actually increase the amount they are willing to spend. This is because of a psychology principal called cognitive dissonance. In the context of a game, this means that players who have invested their time or emotions into the game will use that investment to justify a purchase. This isn’t a bad thing: it actually gives players more control over what they feel is worth paying for. Instead of paying $60 for a disappointing console game, players can price themselves according to how much a unique or improved experience of a game they already love is worth to them.

3) Players price themselves

When you sell your game for $0.99, $4.99, or even $30, you’re not only pricing out people who might have been willing to pay less for your game; you’re actually pricing down people who would have been willing to pay more. Over 50% of a freemium game’s revenue comes from purchases of $20 or more, and those account for 13% of all transactions! Furthermore, 5% of all transactions are for more than $50, a price unheard of for a mobile game. All of this nets out to an average transaction size of $14, a significantly higher price point than most players would be willing to pay to try a new game.

Make the switch

Looking to switch your game to freemium? Check out Rovio’s Michail Katkoff guest post on the switch: 3 Steps from Paid to Freemium.(source:gamasutra)