The Blog - Ninja Metrics^®

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.

Nintendo Coming to Mobile

Amidst recent rumors and speculation, Nintendo has finally announced that it’s coming to smartphones. Nintendo and DeNA Co., a fellow Japanese game company, will be working together to bring some of video gaming’s most iconic characters to consumers’ mobile devices starting this Fall.

As part of the deal, Nintendo now owns 10% of DeNA, while DeNA owns 1.24% of Nintendo. The announcement has been a huge surprise, because in recent years Nintendo has campaigned heavily against mobile gaming and refused to license its characters, fearing it would devalue the importance of the company.

Since the mobile gaming market is expected to surpass console sales by $4B later this year, it seems like a logical and smart move for Nintendo. Also part of the announcement was Nintendo’s next console, codenamed NX. Nintendo is keeping details about the NX under tight surveillance, but we should hear more about it in the coming months.

Apple Watch Announcement

Earlier this week Apple held its “Spring Forward” event, announcing final details on their upcoming smartwatch, the Apple Watch. The company also unveiled a brand new, ultra thin and light MacBook (how much thinner can they really get? Take a look here), as well as a standalone Netflix-like subscription for HBO (Game of Thrones fans rejoice!).

Mobile Game Use on the Rise

A new study by market research company NPD has revealed how much time each person spent playing mobile games daily, in 2014. Surprisingly, that number has increased by 57% since 2012. The answer? The average person spends just over two hours a day playing mobile games.

This news is great for F2P game developers, since longer play sessions can increase the likelihood of spending. “Continued mobile growth will stem from existing customers paying more to play, especially in the free-to-play portion of the market,” said Liam Callahan, the NPD's industry analyst.

Check out NPD’s full findings here, for more insight.

How to Promote your Game on Social Media

For many indie game developers, the whole game promotion process can be a one-man band. Fortunately, there are a bunch of tools to help you schedule your social media content (such as Buffer) and engage with your Facebook and Twitter fans all in one place (i.e. HootSuite), which help ease the whole process a bit.

Mobile and Social Gaming Industry Highlights in 2014

2014 was a huge year for the mobile and social gaming industry. According to App Annie, iOS games revenue increased by 70% year over year, and Android games revenue increased by 60% during the same period. Total mobile games revenue is expected to reach $25B by the end of 2014, surpassing console gaming which has suffered a 28% revenue decline over the last year.

What about social gaming? Looking at Facebook games, Gamasutra found that on average, 365 million users played Facebook games daily in 2014 - which is 5% higher than the year before.

Global expansion played a huge part in the growth of mobile/social games during 2014, as many of the major game publishers made an effort to localize their games in countries such as China, Japan and India. In just the first six months of 2014, China had over 330 million mobile gaming players!

What were the top mobile and social game genres of 2014? Based on the 4 major gaming platforms, a study found that Match 3 and slot-type games came out on top, while farm and building simulators followed close behind.

As 2014 is winding down, it’s finally time to take a look at some of the most important video game happenings from throughout the year. This year we had everything from the Oculus acquisition to the highly controversial #GamerGate topic. Below are the top 4 trends that shook the video game industry in 2014:

Facebook buys Oculus

Back in April, social media giant Facebook announced that it would be acquiring Oculus VR, makers of the famous Oculus Rift headset for $2 billion. This came as a huge shock to the gaming community: why would a social media company buy a virtual reality company? Facebook’s answer, from CEO Mark Zuckerberg himself, was along the lines of “we want to revolutionize how people in the real world interact with the virtual world”.

Facebook’s & Apple’s Games of the Year

On Wednesday, Facebook announced their favorite Facebook and mobile games of the year for 2014. Facebook chose Cookie Jam as their top game of the year, a puzzle-based game where players try to match ingredients and complete recipes. As for mobile games, take a look at Facebook’s top picks below - most of which were dominated by the base-building strategy (think Clash of Clans) type of games:

1. Boom Beach
2. Crazy Taxi
3. Disco Bees
4. Family Guy: The Quest for Stuff
5. Star Wars: Commander

Earlier this week, Apple released their mobile picks of the year (including both apps and games). Apple’s favorite mobile games included the wildly popular Monument Valley, Threes!, Device 6, Blek and Leo’s Fortune - all games that we love here at Ninja Metrics. What are your favorite mobile games from 2014? Share your picks in the comments below.

Black Friday: Consoles Dominated but Online and Mobile on the Rise

This year’s Black Friday was a huge success for the gaming community, as the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) ranked video games as the 5th top tech product among consumers between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday.

Furthermore, research firm Newzoo estimated that as much as $20B in video game sales are expected to be made in the fourth quarter of 2014 alone, with most of the revenue coming from Black Friday events.

What were the most popular Black Friday deals in gaming? According to Larry Plotnick, category leader for Amazon Games, hardware and console bundles took the lead in Black Friday games sales, with big-box retailers like Wal-Mart and Best Buy offering the best deals.

But online and mobile are changing the Black Friday landscape as well - CEA estimated a record breaking 103.3 million U.S. consumers (42% of the american population) shopped online between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday. A recent article on Fortune highlighted the topic, and asked our CEO Dmitri Williams about the influence of online and digital on Black Friday sales. He said “As we advance towards a focus on digital distribution and mobile games, the social impact of Black Friday and Cyber Monday is becoming more important than ever. Mobile and digital developers are using the holiday sales opportunity to leverage their most influential players to increase spending. Social influence during Black Friday and Cyber Monday can account for up to 40% of all spending within games.”

Games Industry Growth

ESA, known as the Entertainment Software Association, released a report earlier this week in partnership with Economists Incorporated, about the impact of the video games industry on economy in the United States.

Surprisingly, the key takeaway from the study found that the video games industry is growing 4 times faster than the U.S. economy.

Other interesting statistics from the study revealed that from 2009 to 2012, video game industry job growth increased 13 times the rate of the U.S. labor market - and the average annual salary of someone directly employed in the video games industry is $95,000.

You can take a look at more of the report’s findings here on GamesIndustry.

The Business of Games

Because video games have a relatively short life cycle and highly competitive nature compared to other industries, it can be difficult to create a long-term and sustainable business out of them.

Mobile-App User Acquisition Costs on the Rise

A new study by mobile marketing firm Fiksu revealed some unfortunate news this week for mobile developerswho plan on making money. According to the report, the cost of acquiring a mobile-app user has risen 34% since last year - peaking just last month in September, at roughly $2.25 per loyal user.

Fortunately, there’s some good news to all of this - enthusiasm for devices has also increased, giving developers more opportunity to acquire users and take advantage of the latest technology. Fiksu’s data revealed that during the first 30 day launch-period for each device, the iPhone 6 outsold the iPhone 5 by 116%.

Mobile app adoption rates have also increased, at 5.5 million daily App Store downloads versus only 5.3 million a month before. You can take a look at more of Fiksu’s report here on VentureBeat.

Poll: Male vs Female Gamers

Writing Slideshows

Slideshows are a necessary component to presenting your video game, whether it be at a developer’s conference, marketing briefing or pitching investors during a meeting. They’re an effective and concise way to get your message across visually, while also supplementing your speech.

If you’re an independent game developer who focuses mostly on the programming aspect or is completely new to the industry, writing a slideshow can be a daunting task as you determine what information to include.

Matt Southern, a former gameroducer and slideshow veteran at Evolution Studios recently put together a great guide for both newcomers and old-timers in the industry to help you create an effective slideshow. He covers everything from software basics to overall design/content, to presenting your actual slideshow.

Mobile Spending

Earlier this week, a new study by mobile gaming firm Everyplay (owned by Unity) revealed some surprising statistics about mobile spending habits. The study, which surveyed over 3,000 people, found that 35-44 year-olds are the biggest spenders in mobile games - spending up to $6.07 per month. Contrastingly, the 18-24 year-old demographic was found to onlyspend up to $3.73 per month.

What about gender? According to the study, males spend an average of $5.63 per month on mobile games, $2 more than females do. Moving up to the highest-spending whales (which Everyplay defines as players who spend $50+ per month), the study found that while whales are less than 1% of your user population, they can make up 29% of your total revenue.

One of the biggest reasons why whales contribute so much to your bottom line is because of their social influence among peers – these types are called “Social Whales”. Social whales are the most influential players that cause other people to play because of their social connectedness, charisma and positive effect on others.