Kabam: traditional retention rates are useless

Retention rates of the first day, the thirtieth and the ninetieth say nothing about the long-term success of the game. It is necessary to measure the retention for years, according to Kabam.

“Traditional retention rates are useless where our company and the industry as a whole is heading,” Kevin Chou, CEO of Kabam, is confident. The most valuable category of players, he believes, are those who have been playing for years. So, you also need to measure retention for years and even decades.

“We are so confident in our rightness that we have completely moved away from the traditional measurement of retention from the first to the nineties. This is not an unfounded statement – we have invested millions of dollars in our vision of the future. But the results are also promising: the first game created with the new strategy in mind, Marvel Contest of Champions, is about to become the most popular game in the Marvel franchise among all gaming platforms. And 18 months after the launch, the game’s audience continues to grow,” says Chu.

With this approach – measuring retention for years, not days – you need to focus on users, whom Chu calls “regular players” (Regulars). These are users who spend several years in the game. Chu claims that by their nature they are hardcore players, since they spend at least 15 hours a week on the game. And the most devoted – 40 hours.

These players require a special approach.

“Since we decided that we were rebuilding games in such a way as to be able to keep the player for a long time, we needed a completely different approach to creating projects. In the mobile gaming industry, it often happens that the game will be released first, and then finished. We started to take a completely different approach. And to begin with, we asked ourselves what type of gameplay will be able to interest a regular player for 10+ years? And this is exactly the kind of gaming experience we provide to users from the very first day of the game,” says Chu.

The CEO of Kabam believes in this approach so much that the company’s next game, Avatar, is being made in the same vein.

“Here’s a simple fact: if the development of the game is guided solely by optimization and monetization, then such a project is doomed. Nowadays, gamers need developers who are inspired to create titles that people who are in love with games will love to play,” concludes Chu.

Source: VentureBeat