Free-2-play is the dominant monetization model

As part of the App2Top special project dedicated to the Casual Connect conference, Igor Bukhman, co-founder and president of Playrix products, told us about the reorientation of casual games to mobile platforms and the dominance of the free-2-play model in them.

Playrix is known as a developer of hit casual games for PC. Are you still doing this, or have you completely reoriented to mobile platforms?We continue, but the main focus is shifting more and more towards f-2-p mobile games. 

Is there any experience in creating games directly for mobile platforms (meaning games originally conceived for devices)? If so, is it possible to say that projects that are immediately focused on mobile devices show themselves better than ported ones?We are currently developing several games that are initially focused on mobile platforms.

None have been released yet, and it’s too early to talk about the results. However, in order to make a conclusion, it is not necessary to have your own games. Just look at the already released games from other companies. The most successful are interesting games that are well suited for mobile devices. These can be both games initially focused on mobile phones, and games successfully adapted to them.

Which method of monetization of mobile games do you consider the most successful? Have you tried free-2-play? Now the free-2-play model obviously dominates.

Which of your games could you call the most successful on mobile platforms?At the moment, we have launched only ported games from our catalog of downloadable casual games.

These are good games, but initially focused on a different audience. I would say that their results are all equally average. Some would call this very good results (it is true for ports of downloadable games), but, in our opinion, success means something else in such a huge market. Yes, some game brought a little more than another, but the orders are the same. I hope we will be able to talk about real success after the launch of our free-2-play projects.

Now many companies are trying to become publishers of mobile games. Are you planning some kind of publishing activity (meaning publishing not only your projects) and why?We do not position ourselves as publishers of third-party games.

We try not to lose focus and concentrate on the production of high-quality products. Nevertheless, we cooperate with a small number of developers. We do this rarely and only if we see the potential and feel that we have a similar development culture.

Are you going to make games for Windows 8 and WP8?We’re already doing it.

For example, it has already been announced that our game “4 Elements II” will be included in the package of games that will be offered in the operating system immediately after its release on October 26. We have a pretty close cooperation with Microsoft right now, but I can’t tell you the details yet.

You have a pretty successful Township social game. Are you planning to launch it on iOS?We are planning.

The mobile version has been in development for a long time, and we hope to complete it by the end of the year. 

It is fashionable to create startups now, especially in the field of mobile development. Do you think such teams have a chance to make a really hit game when there are a lot of “bison” of the gaming industry around?There is always a chance.

However, it is difficult, and for one resounding success there are thousands of failures, which, sometimes, no one knows about.

Name three memorable mobile games over the past six months? And why they were remembered. I will name two: Kingdom Rush and Clash of Clans.

They’re cool. Rare games that I play, not because I have to, but because I want to.