| RolStoppable said: I don't think it's a good business model, but I doubt that it is a complete failure. Supposedly around 95% of players don't use microtransactions in smartphone games, so if a similar ratio holds true for Pokémon Shuffle, then it's not that bad of a money maker. Let's say 4% used microtransactions and these 4% averaged $10 per person. At over 2.5m downloads, that would be 100k people or $1m. That should cover the costs for development and continued updates. On the other hand, if Nintendo had released this game for $8 like the similar Pokémon Link Battle and sold 200k units (I'd say that's a feasible number, considering that Shuffle is a solid gameplay concept with the Pokémon IP attached to it), that would be $1.6m. That's certainly a better model despite a considerably lower amount of users. And it works, because people who buy dedicated gaming hardware expect and don't mind to pay for games. But Nintendo made Shuffle the way it is because the game is an experiment for different payment methods. They've tried plenty of things over the past three years. |
I think the real number is much lower. Judging by the last Challenge Event (Mega-Turtok) there were app. 80.000 active gamers according to the highscore. And there are probably more active gamers than paying gamers.
However I enjoyed the game. It's free and I got nearly every pokemon available (3 of the bonus stages are still left) without using one of the "Klunker" ...
