Ping Pirates!

Original article from my paper <<我报>> Singapore's first free chinese newspaper,

The following is the Chinese to English translation.

Page 1:

3 university students founded a gaming software company that did not take off, and nearly collapsed. Fortunately, the social networking site, Facebook, provided a lifeline at the most critical moment.

The company, Tyler Projects, started anew and designed the massively multiplayer online game (MMOG) “Battle Stations” and launched it on Facebook. The revenue generated saved the company and enabled them to continue their dreams.

Battle Stations is a type of social game, and is the first Facebook MMOG launched by Singapore developers. It is currently the most popular Singapore Facebook MMOG.

Battle Stations generated a monthly revenue of US $30, 000.

Figures show that Battle Stations has 15, 000 daily active users (DAU). In other words, Battle Stations has an earning potential of US $2/mth/DAU.

According to experts, social gaming have an earning potential of up to US $1.20/mth/DAU.

Having higher earning potential than other social games, Battle Stations' popularity is apparent.

If the 55,000 monthly active users is used as an indicator, Battle Stations can earn US$0.58 from each player on average.

According to one of the company's partners, Leonard Lin (27 years old), some social games and web applications can only earn US $0.01 from each active user.

What criteria is needed for a social game to become popular and profitable? Will social gaming development be a potential source of revenue for game developers in Singapore? Today's “Headline News” will take you through the world of social gaming.

Page 2 (Section on Tyler Projects only):

Local video game start-up companies find it hard to attract investors. Because of this, Tyler Projects had to find more sources of revenue.

Leonard Lin recalled the situation 2 years ago, “We were full of ambition, and wanted to create a “Final Fantasy” like computer game. When the game was finished, there were over 3 million unique downloads for the trial version. But only 1500 copies of the full version were sold.”

After analysing and going through gamer's feedback, Leonard and his partners realised that the games they create need to have earning potential, such as through advertising revenue and sale of virtual goods. “We couldn't spent one year designing a product that can't earn revenue.”

60% of Battle Stations' revenue comes from virtual goods, 20% comes from in game cost per action advertising (eg inviting players to fill up surveys, buying discounted items, etc), remaining 20% come from conventional advertising.

Ultimately, a social game needs to increase its player base in order to be profitable. “The game needs to be easy to pick up, yet must have enough depth and scope, as well as many small gaming sections, in order not to lose the gamer,” said Leonard.

“Some very popular social games and applications are over simplistic, causing their popularity to be transient, leaving little chance for earning revenue.”

The game must also limit the the expenditure of the player. Usually, virtual goods sold by fighting genre games give an advantage to the player. If the purchase of such virtual goods is not limited, players with greater spending power will quickly gain invincibility in the game, and lose the desire to play further. Gamers who are unable to afford the virtual goods may feel injustice and thus quit the game.

Tyler Projects will chose a two prong approach to further develop its business. Besides building public opinion by rolling out social games that have depth and scope, simple social games will also be rolled out to attract more users, in order to attract investors to invest in the company. The company, in collaboration with Scrawl Studios, plans to rolled out a beta version of “5 Kingdoms” at the end of October.