The Blog - Ninja Metrics^®

Steam Refund Policy

Last week Steam introduced its refund policy, allowing customers to request refunds on games, DLC and microtransactions within two weeks of purchase and with less than two hours of playtime.

Fallout 4 Announced

After several years of rumors and speculation, the highly-anticipated Fallout 4 is finally becoming a reality. The news all started yesterday, as Bethesda software's website displayed a vintage Indian-head test pattern-styled countdown clock. This morning, the official trailer for Fallout 4 was released. You can watch the trailer below:

F2P Comes of Age

The Free-to-Play (F2P) business model is unquestionably one of the most popular ways to monetize a video game these days. Unfortunately, it’s also one of the most controversial.

Marketing Games Without a Budget

Many indie developers don’t have a budget set aside for marketing, since most of their money and effort is spent towards developing the game itself. Unfortunately, marketing is a vital  component to getting visibility for your video game - especially in such a competitive market.

Gaming deals hit an inflection point

Last year was huge for M&As in the video game industry - Minecraft’s creator Mojang was bought by Microsoft for $2.5B, Facebook bought Oculus for $2B, and King, creator of popular Candy Crush, went public on the stock market. The total value of M&As in 2014 surpassed $180B - can 2015 match it?

Apple’s App Analytics

Earlier this week, Apple began rolling out its new app analytics service in beta. Soon, developers will no longer need to use third party services like App Annie. If you’d like to be a part of the beta, sign on iTunes Connect here. For more information on the news, see this article on PocketGamer here.

Apple Watch Games

The Apple Watch started making its way into consumers’ hands last week, giving game developers the opportunity to make bite-sized games for the 300 pixel-wide device. Surprisingly, there are already thousands of Apple Watch apps available on the App Store - many of them being games.

Global Video Games Spending

According to a new report by Newzoo, the world is expected to spend $91.5 billion on video games this year - a 9.4 percent increase year-over-year. So what exactly are consumers spending their hard earned cash on?

The State of Video Games in America

There’s no doubt that video gaming has become a staple of american culture. With so many consoles and mobile devices to choose from, and a plethora of PC components to modify your gaming rig, games have become more accessible than ever.

Why do Apps Fail?

As the mobile apps market continues to grow, developers’ chances of becoming successful decrease with stiffer competition. And the growth is not letting up anytime soon - by 2017, the number of app downloads is expected to reach 269 billion (that’s almost 40 app downloads per person in the world!).

Monthly App Downloads Decline

Fiksu just released its latest monthly report on App Store downloads for the top 200 free iOS apps, revealing that the number of daily App Store downloads dropped by nearly one million from January to February, for a total of 9.7 million daily downloads.

Media Relations Tips for Devs

If it’s your first time doing so, speaking to the media during an interview can be an extremely nerve-wracking experience - especially if you haven’t properly prepared for the interview. Your composure and responses to the media can have a huge impact on how the public perceives you, the company, and your video game.

Media relations is a very important part of your video game business that shouldn’t be overlooked, since it allows you an opportunity to influence the public and gain exposure for your game. Fortunately, if you prepare beforehand with enough practice, media relations can be easy and stress free.