Getting Your Game to Players: Keela Robison, VP of GameHouse Distributions (Part 3)

Sramana: What is the split between those who pay to play and those who you monetize through advertising?

Keela Robison: We don’t make those particular numbers public. I will say that it is very similar to a mobile environment where the 90/10 rule is generally accepted. In that case, 90% of the users are not paying out of pocket.

Sramana: I think Zynga had numbers of 98% playing free.

Keela Robison: Some free-to-play games are more extreme. For us, it is important to understand that we have two different ways of monetizing our paid games. We monetize through retail [outlets] such as app stores. We also have subscriptions, and that is a payment form that has not taken hold yet in the mobile app world. We have an “all you can eat” subscription for $20 a month. Essentially the games are provided on a rental basis, and once that period is up, then you no longer have access to the games.

We also have our fun ticket duo, which offers two games a month at 50% off each title, and then 30% off any other game purchase. For more active players, those subscriptions are an economical way to purchase games.

Sramana: How popular are those subscription models?

Keela Robison: Subscriptions account for the majority of our sales.

Sramana: Let’s do a similar overview in the mobile space. What are your market dynamics there?

Keela Robison: Our monthly audience is still relatively small. We reach a few million unique users per month. That is smaller because the majority of our catalog games on mobile are premium games. It is free to download and install them, but in order to unlock levels later on in the game, we require payment. That was the dominant model on mobile until about a year and a half ago.

The industry has had a big shift toward free to play, or freemium, games. These games have ongoing consumable items available for purchase throughout the game. Those games are where we see the industry shifting. That is true for us as well.

Sramana: Is it accurate to say that you differentiate between the freemium model, which offers virtual goods to be purchased, and the premium model, which requires payment to complete the game?

Keela Robison: Free to play is definitely based on virtual goods, which tend to be consumables. There is an ongoing need to keep purchasing the virtual goods. The premium games model is a classic model which may offer a free sample, but at a certain point you have to make a one-time payment. That premium style of game is becoming less and less common. The big breakout hits are happening using the free-to-play model.

Sramana: What is your audience like? Do you maintain that 30- to 65-year-old female audience?

Keela Robison: The audience is 55% to 60% female, although the demographic is a bit younger. It is 25 to 45, and a few titles will reach as high as 50.

This segment is part 3 in the series : Getting Your Game to Players: Keela Robison, VP of GameHouse Distributions
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