Would you rather have had this game be paid vs fremium?

I was just thinking that I would have enjoyed this game much more if it wasn't a fremium where you can buy success, but instead if it was just a simple purchase and play app.

Looking at the latest numbers I could fine, SuperCell made $179 million from both of its games in the first quarter of 2013. If we use that for the whole year, that's annual revenue of $716 million. Let's assume it's mostly from Clash of Clans (70%) vs their other game Hay Day.

That's ~$500 million annual revenue from Clash of Clans.

Now according to what I could find online, they've had approximately 47 million iphone downloads and 14 million ipad downloads. That's 61 million downloads total.

That is $8.20 per download per year ($500 million divided by 61 million) for SuperCell to have the same revenue from both models.

Of course if it was a purchasable app, a lot of people wouldn't play... so let's say half the people wouldn't want to play. That means the rest of the players would have to pay ~$17 a year (or $1.5 a month) to play for SuperCell to break even.

[Edited for clarification:]
So my question is,
If SuperCell were to start a brand new Clash of Clans (exactly the same as this one) but everyone starts from scratch again. In that version, you have to pay $2 a month to play that, and there are no gem purchases allowed. Would you join the other game? Would you stop playing the fremium version to play the other version? or play both? or just stay with fremium?

Look at it this way, if tomorrow SuperCell came out with a new Clash of Clans version which is the $2 a month I was talking about, WHILE having the current game running as it is, what would be the pros and cons of that?

Pros:
- Game is already built, so no extra programming costs and just extra costs on the server side and maybe a few more staff. Any update that happens for the normal game happens in the Paid version as well
- Some % of people would completely move over, some would play both, and some would just keep playing the freemium version... I don't think it would affect SuperCell's current revenues from the fremium game much, but it adds the extra $2/month/person from anyone playing the Monthly Payment version
- People like me would love to pay $2/month to play in the game where it's level playing field, so there will be demand for sure
- All those who don't like this version, can continue playing the current fremium version

Cons:
- all i can think of is the revenue loss from top fremium payers if they decide they'd rather play the monthly payment version.. which even this means that they think the monthly payment model is better than the fremium model, so you're improving their gameplay experience (and trust me, for those who don't mind spending ridiculous $ on gems that get used up so fast, would have no problem paying $2/month for this version... all it does is makes people like me a lot happier with the game)

90% of people wouldn't play if it wasn't free.

Why did you even bother adding this thread? It's never gonna happen, besides you can't force people to pay money every month for a game! What is wrong with you?

I love the way that have setup their freemium model. As mentioned above, if it was a paid app I would have probably never downloaded it in the first place.

Who the hèll rated this 5 stars? Do you suffer from a brain disease?

Wow easy guys... I was just curious to know what the people thought about the fremium model vs the paid model. no need to insult!

A lot of people are willing to pay for a premium quality, if that means a better competitive environment, I'd personally be much happier paying $1.50 playing this game with no one being able to buy their way to the top, than pay $0 and play the current version.

Let me ask you the question differently. If SuperCell were to start a brand new Clash of Clans (exactly the same as this one) but everyone starts from scratch again. In that version, you have to pay $1.50 a month to play that, and there are no gem purchases allowed. Would you join the other game? Would you stop playing the fremium version to play the other version? or play both? or just stay with fremium?

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Originally Posted by GetCreative

I was just thinking that I would have enjoyed this game much more if it wasn't a fremium where you can buy success, but instead if it was just a simple purchase and play app.

Looking at the latest numbers I could fine, SuperCell made $179 million from both of its games in the first quarter of 2013. If we use that for the whole year, that's annual revenue of $716 million. Let's assume it's mostly from Clash of Clans (70%) vs their other game Hay Day.

That's ~$500 million annual revenue from Clash of Clans.

Now according to what I could find online, they've had approximately 47 million iphone downloads and 14 million ipad downloads. That's 61 million downloads total.

That is $8.20 per download per year ($500 million divided by 61 million) for SuperCell to have the same revenue from both models.

Of course if it was a purchasable app, a lot of people wouldn't play... so let's say half the people wouldn't want to play. That means the rest of the players would have to pay ~$17 a year (or $1.5 a month) to play for SuperCell to break even.

So my question is, would you rather pay $18 a year ($1.5 a month) to play this game, but no one can buy gems to accelerate and buy their success instead of working for it, or would you rather do it this current way.

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Taken by itself, I can answer your question. Yes I'd rather have a game that costs $20 but has no ads and no IAP.

However, that's because I've been playing the game for a while and have a significant time investment.

Let's roll the clock all the way back to August where I first saw the game pop up in the app store. Would I have paid $20 then? No. In fact, it took me about a month of playing the game before I decided that it was worth it to pay for the builders.

The thing is $20, $40, or even $100 isn't much to pay for something you really enjoy. It is a lot to pay for something sight unseen.

Freemium is a genius model. Although at this point I would have rather had a paid CoC ($5?) vs a freemium CoC, before I started playing, seeing a price tag on this game would have made it much less attractive. Even if it was 99 cents, it would have been a risk, since there are so many 99 cent games that are pure ♥♥♥♥, and are a waste of money. I would not be able to differentiate CoC from other crappy games.

Instead, now that I got into CoC, I have purchased all 5 builders on one account, and 4 on the other, so I have spent more on this game than any other game on the app store. Obviously a paid one would be better, but the community would be so much smaller as people would have a much lower incentive to actually download the app in the first place.

I guess different people want different things out of video games. I personally don't just look for something to pass time by. I want a game that let's me experience something I normally wouldn't. But also, I want a game that has a good fun and fair competition side.

Right now, it's kinda fun just attacking and upgrading continuously, but the second I start thinking about what it would take for me to get to the next level of experience on this game, and to get to a fun competitive state, I'd have to invest a lot of money, and even then, there is no way for me to catch up with the top guys.

That alone is a demotivator for me. I have no problem paying money for games that are worth it, but think about what you're getting from paying in this game: you spent a chunk of money so you can build faster? why would you want to build faster? normally, to catch your competition and beat them... but here you have to spent thousands and thousands of dollars to even get a chance.

So you can spent $20-$60 on a gizillion other game options out there where you can get everything that you get out of this game (community, simple fun, fun-on-the-go on your mobile), so I don't see how anyone could justify paying for fairly worthless gems in this game instead of just playing casually and for free and spend those $$ on other games that give you much better overall value.

But if SuperCell were to start a Clash of Clans: Paid Version where you pay $1-$2 a month to play (similar model to other MMORPGs) then I'd be more than happy to pay that, since the value it brings me is a chance to compete.

And if I wanted to take part in yet another activity where money, not skill, decides who the winner is, I would just stick to most activities in real life!

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Originally Posted by GetCreative

I guess different people want different things out of video games. I personally don't just look for something to pass time by. I want a game that let's me experience something I normally wouldn't. But also, I want a game that has a good fun and fair competition side.

Right now, it's kinda fun just attacking and upgrading continuously, but the second I start thinking about what it would take for me to get to the next level of experience on this game, and to get to a fun competitive state, I'd have to invest a lot of money, and even then, there is no way for me to catch up with the top guys.

That alone is a demotivator for me. I have no problem paying money for games that are worth it, but think about what you're getting from paying in this game: you spent a chunk of money so you can build faster? why would you want to build faster? normally, to catch your competition and beat them... but here you have to spent thousands and thousands of dollars to even get a chance.

So you can spent $20-$60 on a gizillion other game options out there where you can get everything that you get out of this game (community, simple fun, fun-on-the-go on your mobile), so I don't see how anyone could justify paying for fairly worthless gems in this game instead of just playing casually and for free and spend those $$ on other games that give you much better overall value.

But if SuperCell were to start a Clash of Clans: Paid Version where you pay $1-$2 a month to play (similar model to other MMORPGs) then I'd be more than happy to pay that, since the value it brings me is a chance to compete.

And if I wanted to take part in yet another activity where money, not skill, decides who the winner is, I would just stick to most activities in real life!

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In order to make a game worth paying for it either has to be one that engages me for many hours (this one) or one such as Bastion or The Room (both really great games IMHO) which offer a unique gaming experience.

You certainly have the option of pouring a lot of money into this game, but you can also substantially increase the quality of your gaming experience with a relatively small investment in builders. Builders don't just enable you to build faster. They also allow you spend resources faster meaning that there is more incentive to keep playing. If my storages are full I turn the game off. It's a lot quicker to get to that point with 2 builders instead of 5.

Questioning why others might spend more to maintain spots on the leaderboard is pointless. Clearly they like it and that's all that really matters. The rest of us are just passing the time, and get to cheaply, because they are largely footing the bill.

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Originally Posted by zachUVA

I love the way that have setup their freemium model. As mentioned above, if it was a paid app I would have probably never downloaded it in the first place.

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My post summed up in zachs post ;p

Quote:

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Originally Posted by GetCreative

If SuperCell were to start a brand new Clash of Clans (exactly the same as this one) but everyone starts from scratch again. In that version, you have to pay $1.50 a month to play that, and there are no gem purchases allowed. Would you join the other game? Would you stop playing the fremium version to play the other version? or play both? or just stay with fremium?

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Who would want to start from scratch?

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Originally Posted by Ejj

Who would want to start from scratch?

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All those premie TH 10s...

I don't think I can do a very good job of putting this into words... :/

I haven't spent a penny on this game. If we were to all pay for the game, but no gems, what would be the point? You gain absolutely nothing, and lose nothing by freemium. I don't care if other people can buy gems, i play free. Supercell would about 50k downloads if they were to do this. Why would you pay for something, if you can nothing less, for free?

I understand op the argument of being able to make top rankings, but then that 19$ or w.e is what it takes to be a top player, with active ness, and you are therefore no better than today's tops, spending money to have a chance

Look at it this way, if tomorrow SuperCell came out with a new Clash of Clans version which is the $2 a month I was talking about, WHILE having the current game running as it is, what would be the pros and cons of that?

Pros:
- Game is already built, so no extra programming costs and just extra costs on the server side and maybe a few more staff. Any update that happens for the normal game happens in the Paid version as well
- Some % of people would completely move over, some would play both, and some would just keep playing the freemium version... I don't think it would affect SuperCell's current revenues from the fremium game much, but it adds the extra $2/month/person from anyone playing the Monthly Payment version
- People like me would love to pay $2/month to play in the game where it's level playing field, so there will be demand for sure
- All those who don't like this version, can continue playing the current fremium version

Cons:
- all i can think of is the revenue loss from top fremium payers if they decide they'd rather play the monthly payment version.. which even this means that they think the monthly payment model is better than the fremium model, so you're improving their gameplay experience (and trust me, for those who don't mind spending ridiculous $ on gems that get used up so fast, would have no problem paying $2/month for this version... all it does is makes people like me a lot happier with the game)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by GetCreative

Look at it this way, if tomorrow SuperCell came out with a new Clash of Clans version which is the $2 a month I was talking about, WHILE having the current game running as it is, what would be the pros and cons of that?

Pros:
- Game is already built, so no extra programming costs and just extra costs on the server side and maybe a few more staff. Any update that happens for the normal game happens in the Paid version as well
- Some % of people would completely move over, some would play both, and some would just keep playing the freemium version... I don't think it would affect SuperCell's current revenues from the fremium game much, but it adds the extra $2/month/person from anyone playing the Monthly Payment version
- People like me would love to pay $2/month to play in the game where it's level playing field, so there will be demand for sure
- All those who don't like this version, can continue playing the current fremium version

Cons:
- all i can think of is the revenue loss from top fremium payers if they decide they'd rather play the monthly payment version.. which even this means that they think the monthly payment model is better than the fremium model, so you're improving their gameplay experience (and trust me, for those who don't mind spending ridiculous $ on gems that get used up so fast, would have no problem paying $2/month for this version... all it does is makes people like me a lot happier with the game)

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Good now I can get my point across. WHY DO YOU CARE ABOUT A LEVEL PLAYING FIELD?

No one would play and supercell wouldn't be able to get anywhere near the 2.4+ million dollars per day they currently do.

I honestly doubt very many people would pay just for the sake of denying purchasable items to other players.

That said, if the game were truly a paid app (which it won't ever be), many aspects of the game would need to be changed for it to make sense. For example, it would no longer make sense for armies to take so long to create, or buildings days/weeks to complete. Saving time is the primary motivation for purchasing gems, if there are no gems that you're trying to get people to buy, what would be the point of long, frustrating waits between raids and upgrades?

This entire game is based around the freemium model, you really couldn't just switch it over to a paid, non IAP model and maintain all the same mechanics.

Freemium was a good idea, not many people would have bought the game at the start if you had to pay :eek:
and not everyone even buys gems anyway so it would get rid of alot of player :O

Again, I'd like to reiterate that the Paid version I'm talking about is not meant to replace the fremium version, but be a separate/side version of the game.

As for the comment about this game not being fit for a paid version, I think it is! The purpose of the delay in building troops and buildings is to make the game less reliant on time investment. If troops were to be trained quickly, people with a lot of time on their hands would dominate while those who like to check in 2-3 times a day or even once a day would be at a big disadvantage. The focus would be on efficient and skillful attacks, as opposed to the number of attacks.

And finally, to comment the guy who said "why do you care about a fair playing field"... do I even need to answer? Which games have you played that were more fun because they had an unfair playing field? I mean anything in the world is more fun when it's a more fair playing field. Would you rather play Call of Duty if your opponents could pay to have 3-4 times more health than you vs the current paid version? Would you rather play in a football league if the opposing teams could have 3-4 more players on the field or a league where teams have equal number of players?

The only people who play the paid version are those who hate gemmers because they can't afford gems themselves. Supercell is a business. Gemmers are the ones who pay the bills so everyone else can play for free. Money runs the world and, unfair or not, this is never going to change.

Absolutely not! The target market for the paid version is the people who have the following attributes:
- enjoy the competitive aspect of games (huge number of people) but enjoy the games more if there was no way to buy your success... just skill and time (still a large number of people considering the success of SO MANY paid games out there)
- are currently playing this game without buying any gems (so no dropped revenue for SuperCell) and would love to pay a small amount of money to play in a much more competitive and fair environment (still should be a significant enough number of the current users)

I know the world is not fair... but that's why people play video games. It gives them a chance at something that they otherwise can't because the world is not fair.

Maybe the best way to gauge this is to make a poll (I don't see an option here) to see how many people would be playing the $1-2/month version.

I could see that creating an alternate version based solely on gameplay, which excludes gems, might also be profitable. It wouldn't have as many players but it would still turn a profit...especially since the development is already done and it would only require minor coding changes.

In fact, I would buy it and play both versions simultaneously.

Subscriptions to play games are usually for online MMO's like Runescape, World of Warcraft, Diablo III, etc. Those games are very addictive and fun to level up (I've played a few myself) while costing a small monthly fee to play. You'll notice in those games, there are higher levels, medium levels, low levels. People can't just ♥♥♥♥♥ and buy their way to the top. I like it better than fermium, however, the only way I ever see a subscription to Clash of Clans, is if it becomes an online game and generates a little bit more attention in the gaming world. Otherwise, great idea. Keep up the good posts!

Cheers,
Ian

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Originally Posted by IanMcPherson

Subscriptions to play games are usually for online MMO's like Runescape, World of Warcraft, Diablo III, etc. Those games are very addictive and fun to level up (I've played a few myself) while costing a small monthly fee to play. You'll notice in those games, there are higher levels, medium levels, low levels. People can't just ♥♥♥♥♥ and buy their way to the top. I like it better than fermium, however, the only way I ever see a subscription to Clash of Clans, is if it becomes an online game and generates a little bit more attention in the gaming world. Otherwise, great idea. Keep up the good posts!

Cheers,
Ian

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Diablo 3 is not a subscription game ;)

Why would anyone want to pay for a game rather than have it free even with a more competitive enviroment.