GamesBeat features game monetization

September 2014 – At the Games Beat 2014 event, the exhibit area was not filled with gaming companies and designers; rather it featured the monetization partners for mobile, social and casual game developers. The shift to mobile platforms for casual and social games has made the Free 2 Play (F2P) model with in-game purchase the dominant model.

Sponsors and exhibitors like Tapsense and Sonic Ads were showing game integrated solutions and also mobile solutions for non-game apps. These included cooking apps, that release new recipes and coupons if you watch a sponsored tutorial or product pitch. These do not directly drive in-app purchase, but they drive traditional brand loyalty and retail store purchase of products. In some applications, the content can link to on-line retail partners for the direct product purchase.

The structure is the same as for the in-game content – the purchase system is to unlock additional content to keep the user engaged. This includes real time bidding exchanges, ad mediation, multiple ad formats, and source attribution. The technologies support interstitial ads and supported reward walls. The key to all of these systems is the management and administration of the ads, monetization and the user tracking. This allows for both policy based and individualized use rewards and monetization servicing.

While these suppliers were outside the main talks, they were the core of the new gaming environment that is not based on a physical media $60+ retail purchase model. This will bring creativity to the marketplace, as publishers can now work effectively with independent developers and bring their products to market, and make a functional trailing revenue stream rather than relying on a large ad campaign for up front purchase.