Game monetisation, a fair and transparent business model
Game monetisation is how a game brings in money. Sales, subscriptions, in-app purchases, additional content or licensing. From Bastia, Corsica, we help you pick a model that suits your game and your audience. Then we put it in place clearly and fairly, taking account of the rules that apply.
The main business models for a video game
No model is good or bad in itself. Each one sets up a different relationship with players.
- 01
Premium
The player buys the game once and gets all of it. Easy to understand. You do, however, have to convince people before they buy.
- 02
Free-to-play
The game is free. It pays for itself through in-app purchases, made inside the game. The way in is wide open, but you have to produce content regularly and keep a close eye on the ethics.
- 03
Subscription
A recurring payment opens access to the game or to extra benefits. It fits a game that keeps changing and whose service costs money all the time, an online world for instance.
- 04
Downloadable content
DLC, or downloadable content, means paid expansions released after launch. A new story, more levels, more characters.
- 05
Cosmetic items
Outfits, decorations or effects that change how things look without giving any advantage. Among in-app purchases, this is one of the forms that best keeps things fair between players.
- 06
Licensing
The game is licensed to a business, a local authority or an institution, which uses it for its own audiences. A serious game, say, or an event activity.
How to choose the right business model for your game
Whether you are a creator in Haute-Corse or a studio somewhere else, the model is chosen at the design stage, not at release. It weighs on the game design, on the pace and the progression in particular. A game people buy once is not built like a free game that has to make them want to come back.
A few questions help settle it. Who are your players, and are any of them minors? How long will someone play, one evening or several years? Does the game have permanent costs, servers for example, that call for regular revenue? And where will it be distributed? On the web, you choose your payment provider. App stores, on the other hand, take a commission and impose their own rules on digital purchases.
Finally, a game made for a business or an institution usually goes through a licence or a service contract. Not through purchases made by the players themselves.
In-app purchases, minors, loot boxes
In-app purchases can fund a game in a healthy way. They can also wreck players' trust. We recommend a few simple principles, and we stick to them.
- 01
Clear prices
The real price, in real money, is shown before any purchase, even when the game uses a virtual currency. Digital credits only work inside the game, and what they are worth is obvious without a calculator.
- 02
No pay-to-win
We advise against pay-to-win, where paying gives a decisive edge over other players. Better to sell appearance, convenience or new content.
- 03
No artificial pressure
No fake countdowns. No pushy reminders, and no flows designed to trigger impulse buying.
- 04
Protecting minors
Parental controls, spending caps, purchases that can be switched off. A game likely to attract children is designed with extra safeguards.
- 05
Caution with loot boxes
Paid random rewards, or loot boxes, raise regulatory and ethical questions. Several countries regulate them and some even treat them as close to gambling, so we advise against them, especially with a young audience, and any mechanic of this kind should go past a lawyer first.
- 06
Consumer law
Pre-purchase information, terms of sale, refunds, personal data. These obligations go into the design from the start, and we suggest having them checked by your legal adviser.
In-app purchases and payments you can rely on
- 01
The offer catalogue
Items, bundles, subscriptions, additional content. Each one is clearly described, and they can be changed without touching the code.
- 02
Payment
Through the stores' own systems for a published app. Through an online payment provider for a web game. Each channel has its rules.
- 03
Server-side verification
The server confirms every purchase before granting it. No fraud, no items picked up without paying.
- 04
Accounts and restoring purchases
A player who changes phone must get back what they bought. That takes an account, and careful handling of data.
- 05
Player support
Purchase history, dealing with refund requests or complaints.
Our approach, through to follow-up after launch
We do not promise revenue. A game's success depends on its quality, on its audience, on how it is promoted. Our job is to build a model that is coherent and measurable, and honest with players.
- 01
Understand
Your game and your audience. Your goals, your distribution constraints.
- 02
Design
The business model goes into the game design and into the prototype. The purchase flow is mocked up, then approved with you before development.
- 03
Build
We build in the payments and the catalogue, along with the admin tools, then test purchases and refunds, and every error case we can think of, before anything goes live.
- 04
Launch and support
We track indicators such as retention (the share of players who come back), the share of those who buy, or refund requests. Adjustments are agreed together.
What drives the cost of monetising a game
The cost depends less on the model chosen than on how it is put in place. We set it out in a clear quote after a first conversation, in Bastia or remotely.
- 01
Complexity of the model
A one-off purchase is simpler to set up than an item catalogue with a subscription and seasonal offers on top.
- 02
Sales channels
Web, App Store, Google Play. Each channel adds its own integrations and testing, with rules of its own.
- 03
Admin tools
Managing prices and offers, player support.
- 04
Running costs
New content to produce, indicators to follow, payments to maintain year after year.
Technologies and methods
- In-app purchases
- Subscriptions
- Online payments
- Server-side verification
- Player accounts
- Analytics
Frequently asked questions
What is the best business model for a game?
There is no universal one. A narrative game played once lends itself to a one-off sale. A permanent online world leans towards a subscription or cosmetic purchases, a serious game towards licensing. We look at your game and your audience first. Then we recommend an option, with our reasons.
Does free-to-play earn more than a paid game?
Not necessarily. A free game attracts players more easily, but it only pays its way if some of them buy, and it demands regular content. We make no revenue promises. We help you weigh up the costs and the assumptions behind each model.
Do we have to go through the App Store and Google Play to sell?
Only if your game is published in those stores. Their rules then generally require their own payment system for digital content. A web game can use an online payment provider. These rules change, so we check them at the time of the project.
Can we include loot boxes in our game?
We advise against it. Paid random rewards are regulated or under debate in several countries, and they raise ethical questions, above all where minors are concerned. If you want an element of chance, we prefer transparent alternatives, such as items sold individually whose contents are known in advance.
Our game is also aimed at children. What should we plan for?
Several things, from the design stage. Purchases that can be switched off or need a parent's approval, no incentives to buy, data collection kept to the strict minimum. And a legal review of the terms of sale.