We see different kinds of gaming companies.
Those who decide to make their games whale traps.
And those who choose the “make everyone happy” path.
The question is: from a purely economical PoV, which model is better for the company itself?
What earns the company more money? And what factors go into the decision making?
Marketing experts, give us your insights.
I’m sure a company makes more money if everyone buys something small in contrast of a single person who spends a lot 
When PvP comes out in 2023, If it costs money, everyone will (probably) buy it
Why not both of them?
How both?
And the question is, which one is better. Because we see those 2 kinds of companies.
So I wonder which one is more profitable.
Their adopted pricing takes the full market into account. People quoting nonsense like 10% of the players buy regularly is an absurdity of the highest order, the figure is way closer to something like 50% or more.
In the long run, the making everyone happy model makes the most I’d wager. Whale mode is so many leagues better in the short run for profit though.
But a lot of big companies want that profit margin to look nice and good RIGHT NOW. Which is why you see so many games released when they clearly could use more time in development.
Choose not to spend anything whatever your class is. It’s the only form of protest we can take until the game is better
The thing about whales is that there aren’t a lot of them. That’s kind of the whole point.
A whale isn’t “a person who spends money on games”, a whale is a person who spends a lot of money (usually in the realm of thousands of dollars) on games.
The whole “whale” conversation that’s been happening here has just been throwing the term around as an insult in an effort to avoid critical thinking.
All I know is UK will have it rough for a while.
“Whale” targeting is 100% the better play - why else do you think so many game publishers are going down this route?
F2P games bring more money in general compared to B2P anyway so most likely they target the average player while also implementing a bunch of predatory tactics to bring in the whales.
It’s really hard to say regarding long term because you can irreparably damage your company’s reputation. Most gamers these days usually think of greedy monitization practices whenever the name EA pops up. Blizzard is going to have this effect too soon after Diablo Immortal. Personally I won’t buy anything from EA or Nexon because I know what is going to end up in it. It could mean different things to different people though.
Short term it’s hard to argue that whale farming is the most lucrative… but if countries are banning certain monitization and companies try to find loopholes, it doesn’t look good.
Middle of the two. Creating a system that whales can spam while consumers don’t feel bad for the odd purchase or two.
If it leans too far towards whales, regular people don’t buy the systems. If you lean to close to the regular, whales aren’t interested.
COD is a perfect example and proof of this. Lootboxes made alot of money because it enticed whales. But lootboxes in COD were very predatory so most people didn’t even partake in the system.
MW 2019 made a system where cosmetics were overpriced, but now you bought what you wanted AND didn’t add p2w stuff into it (atleast not directly P2W). As a result alot more of the casuals bought into the system which vastly outweigh’d the lower amount of whales buying a metric tonne of the horrible system. MW 2019 ended up making a ridiculous amount more than lootboxes ever did.
Whale route is most money, reasonable route earns the most respect possible out of the model while still turning a profit I imagine
Oh, but also the combo whale and affordable model is the lamest one since that can be a money sink on a good game. A whale focused game is a throwaway experience so that at least loses the majority attention as it deserves.
Whales bring 90% of profit in big gacha games.
Problem is, Overwatch is not a gacha game.
So how do you milk those beggars who are too-broke-to-pay? Answer is, Battlepass lol
It’s not really a matter of which, it’s a matter of finding a way to implement both. You can have high priced items that only whales will buy, and moderate priced items that most everyone can afford. With everyone buying somethings, this maximizes profits. There are only so many whales for every thousand regulars. You need those regulars to also want to spend money. That’s why we will see stuff like Battlepasses AND mythic skins being sold together. The whales will buy both, the regulars will buy Battlepasses. With 9 week seasons and only one mythic skin per season, you also increase the chance that some regulars will dive in and pay for that mythic. Seeing it in action for almost 3 months, seeing each time you log into the game, some regulars who can afford it, will likely cave in and buy it if it’s a hero they love. And even the regulars who can’t afford it immediately will have 9 whole weeks to beg, borrow, and steal to come up with the money for the skin.
Whale is person who whale spending llike in Casinos. That would be $100,000 and above.
One might think there not many of those, its wrong. Our planet is big, very big. There thousands and thousands of players who can casually drop such sums.
Players casually dropping 1k? millions of those
It’s one of the new favourite terms around the forum. Shill being the other.
it’s almost like there is a pareto-optimal pricepoint