4 ms·

Why do they need to attract consumers? Isn't Fortnite already the most popular game in the world? From what I can find, latest report of Steam MAU is 90 millio

by a13n 8y ago

Why do they need to attract consumers? Isn't Fortnite already the most popular game in the world? From what I can find, latest report of Steam MAU is 90 million people, and latest report of Fortnite MAU is 75 million. They already have the consumers.

nottorp 8y ago
But Fortnite is free to play crap, so like 0.1% of those 75 million actually paid something?
- tialaramex 8y ago
  Valve got the initial userbase for Steam via, among other things, giving away "free to play crap" as well as their award-winning Portal. It was several years before my Steam account had a single purchase on it, Valve correctly guessed that users who never buy anything at all help generate those enormous userbase numbers and don't cost that much to service so it's fine.
  - nottorp 8y ago
    Hmm, wasn't it Half Life 2 (paid for) and only then their award-winning Portal (also paid for)? There were no or very few free to play abominations back then.
    - tialaramex 8y ago
      Portal was free on Steam. That was the incentive. Heard about this cool game but not sure you can justify full price for what sounds like a weird tech demo? Install Steam and it's free (for a limited time). Most people I know who play some games but not many installed Steam precisely to try Portal for free. Valve has doubtless made back the investment many times over, even if you ignore the fact that Portal was already wildly successful and so didn't need to earn Valve one single extra penny.
- moate 8y ago
  Fortnite is making hundreds of millions of dollars a month{1}. IDK what "free to play crap" is, but if it can pull in over a billion a year I think most companies would be happy to have it on their ledger. 1- https://www.recode.net/2018/6/26/17502072/fortnite-revenue-game-growth-318-million https://www.recode.net/2018/6/26/17502072/fortnite-revenue-g...
  - nottorp 8y ago
    It's simple. 99.9% of the users play without paying a dime, and the game has to cater to the "whales" that spend thousands. That's fine when you peddle digital hats, but if they want to open a store, they want paying customers in it don't they? Most actual games they'd want to sell need to be paid for upfront... and I don't see the average Fortnite (or any other free to play abomination) player doing that.
    - deleted 8y ago
      [deleted]
    - a13n 8y ago
      Yeah, you'd think, but this survey of 1,000 players said 68.8% had spent money on in-game purchases. Maybe they somehow managed to target just the 0.1% of players who spend money (according to you), but it seems highly unlikely that the numbers are that low. https://lendedu.com/blog/finances-of-fortnite/ https://lendedu.com/blog/finances-of-fortnite/
      - nottorp 8y ago
        That's interesting. Personally, I'll still think I'm too poor to afford free games though.
    - matty_makes 8y ago
      My kids have put more of their money into Fortnite stuff in 1 year than they have paid for in total for any other AAA title game. So have all of their friends. It isn't whales, its the 10-18 yo disposable money. They get into the stage where physical toys don't hold interest, their birthday and allowance money piles up and social/peer pressure comes into play.

by a13n 8y ago

nottorp 8y ago

But Fortnite is free to play crap, so like 0.1% of those 75 million actually paid something?

tialaramex 8y ago
Valve got the initial userbase for Steam via, among other things, giving away "free to play crap" as well as their award-winning Portal. It was several years before my Steam account had a single purchase on it, Valve correctly guessed that users who never buy anything at all help generate those enormous userbase numbers and don't cost that much to service so it's fine.
- nottorp 8y ago
  Hmm, wasn't it Half Life 2 (paid for) and only then their award-winning Portal (also paid for)? There were no or very few free to play abominations back then.
  - tialaramex 8y ago
    Portal was free on Steam. That was the incentive. Heard about this cool game but not sure you can justify full price for what sounds like a weird tech demo? Install Steam and it's free (for a limited time). Most people I know who play some games but not many installed Steam precisely to try Portal for free. Valve has doubtless made back the investment many times over, even if you ignore the fact that Portal was already wildly successful and so didn't need to earn Valve one single extra penny.
moate 8y ago
Fortnite is making hundreds of millions of dollars a month{1}. IDK what "free to play crap" is, but if it can pull in over a billion a year I think most companies would be happy to have it on their ledger. 1- https://www.recode.net/2018/6/26/17502072/fortnite-revenue-game-growth-318-million https://www.recode.net/2018/6/26/17502072/fortnite-revenue-g...
- nottorp 8y ago
  It's simple. 99.9% of the users play without paying a dime, and the game has to cater to the "whales" that spend thousands. That's fine when you peddle digital hats, but if they want to open a store, they want paying customers in it don't they? Most actual games they'd want to sell need to be paid for upfront... and I don't see the average Fortnite (or any other free to play abomination) player doing that.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
  - a13n 8y ago
    Yeah, you'd think, but this survey of 1,000 players said 68.8% had spent money on in-game purchases. Maybe they somehow managed to target just the 0.1% of players who spend money (according to you), but it seems highly unlikely that the numbers are that low. https://lendedu.com/blog/finances-of-fortnite/ https://lendedu.com/blog/finances-of-fortnite/
    - nottorp 8y ago
      That's interesting. Personally, I'll still think I'm too poor to afford free games though.
  - matty_makes 8y ago
    My kids have put more of their money into Fortnite stuff in 1 year than they have paid for in total for any other AAA title game. So have all of their friends. It isn't whales, its the 10-18 yo disposable money. They get into the stage where physical toys don't hold interest, their birthday and allowance money piles up and social/peer pressure comes into play.