A Complete Guide to Virtual Reality Game Monetization | Crysberry
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A Complete Guide to Virtual Reality Game Monetization

Marketing, VR / AR

25 June 2019

Virtual reality has been a hot topic for more than sixty years now.

This might sound crazy, but it’s true.

Can you believe it?

As Nelson Rodriquez, director of games industry marketing at Akamai, has recently told VentureBeat, “VR is the Johnny Depp of technology. It’s been around 60 years, but it seems like an infant. It hasn’t gotten its moment in the sun, just like Johnny Depp has never won an Oscar.”

Yet, these last several years VR truly is in its prime. Specialists and VR believers state that it is within the next couple of years that VR will change gaming once and forever.

And as businesses seriously consider using VR technology and continue developing virtual reality games, they wonder how they can increase their revenue with it.

Here at Crysberry, we know at least eight ways to do that. So, learn how to skyrocket your profits with VR technologies in gaming with our complete guide to it

8 ways to virtual reality game monetization

1. In-game advertising.

Advertising is one of the most common and easy ways to monetize your VR games. By introducing in-game ads, you can keep the application free of charge and still have the game bring in decent revenues.

Statista reports that “in 2015, global mobile in-app advertising revenue amounted to 40.5 billion US dollars and are expected to surpass 117 billion US dollars in 2020.” The same tendency is also true for VR games, as users are more likely to have the ads running rather than pay for playing their favorite game.

However, there is one side effect: most users find ads annoying and obtrusive. So, it is important to have a “Close” button for the ad or offer an ad-free subscription.

2. Video ads.

Fierce Wireless offers some statistical data that can make you clap your hands. After conducting in-depth research, these guys stated that at least 78% of surveyed were willing to engage in watching an in-game video ad if an in-game reward was offered while around 62% of them do this regularly.

Source

Besides, most users prefer this type of ads over any other one. And more than half of all developers reported that video ads are that type of advertising that brings in the highest revenue.

Source

Thus, if you do not want to have annoying ads all over your game, but still want to increase revenue, then video ads can be the answer.

3. Premium content.

Having limited content available for free and then offering users to pay to get full access to premium content is another way to monetize your VR games.

Thus, you can specify what other features you have to offer for an additional cost. Users will want to have exclusive functionality at hand, and you will get a steady source of income.

Offer your users such an upgrade option as long as they know their way around your game and understand why they need these features and how this functionality can make them better players.

We should also mention educational games that were changed with AR and VR. Find out about nine ways VR technologies changed education in our “How Technology Changed the Face of Education” article.

4. Subscription.

This method has a huge potential even though it did not become as popular among the developers as other types of virtual reality game monetization.

Paying to play some game within a specific time is one way to run your business and increase profits, but this method will only work if you can offer fresh content on a regular basis. Otherwise, the subscription will bring no value to the target audience.

However, even though market giants shift away from subscription practices, Big Fish Games still report that at least 40% of all game revenue normally comes from selling digital content and subscriptions.

5. In-app purchases.

In-game purchases are one of the most popular sources of revenue for businesses. As you understand from the name, money comes from all the purchases made inside the account.

According to the trusted sources, this type of monetization is very successful.

AppsFlyer states that any user spends $0.50/month on average on in-app purchases per application with purchase activity. They also state that Asian users spend more ($0.7 per user per app) than European, while the Latin users spend the least ($0.16 per user per app). Besides, iOS users spend more ($1.08 per user) on in-app purchases than Android ones ($0.43 per user).

Read also: “6 Jaw-Dropping Virtual Reality Benefits for Businesses” .

6. In-game gifting.

Offering players to buy a gift for their fellow players is another perfect way for businesses to make money with their games.

This makes the gaming experience more fun and exciting for both sides. Users seem to be eager to purchase gifts especially if the offers are targeting them at the right time.

Besides, if players send gifts to their friends that have not logged in for a long time, they are more likely to return and continue playing (who would say “No” to a free gift in the game?)

So, this approach can change your monetization game.

7. Cross-marketing.

You can also join the affiliate market and make money on promoting some other apps inside your game.

You can make money by letting other companies use your app as a platform for their product promotion. Alternatively, you can promote your own game inside their app.

However, if you opt for this method, make sure to work with neighboring niches and not your business rivals as well as do not make the ads take over your app. Do not let them be annoying and obtrusive.

8. Freemium.

Finally, another great way to monetize your game is by releasing its free “lite” version to let the users taste it a bit only to offer full access at a reasonable fixed price after some time.

To make this method work, your game must have a number of valuable additional features and improved functionality available after the purchase.

In the 2018 year, virtual reality games monetization reached 9.6 billion dollars. It is going to increase to 22.9 billion dollars by the 2022 year.

Impressing figures, don’t you think?

If so, then not taking advantage of them right now is almost a crime. You definitely need to monetize your VR game using one of the approaches we mentioned above.

And who knows what figures your company will see in the upcoming year?

l.sidorenko