4 ms·

Note how Football Manager 2014 dominates both the Mean/Median "number of hours played per owner" charts, but doesn't register on the "Most played games" charts.

by Goosey 12y ago

Note how Football Manager 2014 dominates both the Mean/Median "number of hours played per owner" charts, but doesn't register on the "Most played games" charts. This seems to indicate this game is the most successful at hooking it's players, but not the most successful at reaching large numbers of players. Not really surprising, but I find the implications interesting: A game such as this (and perhaps this can be applied to non-game contexts) is going to benefit mostly from some way of deriving revenue per time spent, rather than revenue per unit sold. Put another way, player reach is low but player investment is high. Golden opportunity for microtransactions? How about something radical, like the game is free for the first 20 hours, but each hour played after that costs $0.01 (pulling numbers out of my ass here, but you get the concept)

sliverstorm 12y ago
this game is the most successful at hooking it's players, but not the most successful at reaching large numbers of players Rather than "hooking" its players, you could read it as, this game has a devoted cult/niche following. One of those things certain people love & cannot do without, yet has narrow appeal. Kind of like snake antivenin.
AimHere 12y ago
And risk alienating an entrenched and fanatical fanbase? Note the '2014' in the title; this is one of those regular sports games franchises, and it has been around since 1992 (For the first 10 years or so, it had the name 'Championship Manager', but that was changed due to legal hassle). Every year, these guys upgrade their engine, upgrade the player database, pile on some improvements and tweak stuff, and put out a new game. Some fans buy the game every year, some every two, or every three years. It might be a niche product, but Football Manager owns that niche; it has a recognisable brand name and product (one that is well-recognised in the real-life sport itself to the extent that one Premiership Football Team - Everton - even bought early access to the player database), a large and fanatical fanbase (the company has fans in almost every football team in the world scouting players for it), and constant (if not growing) revenue stream. Gamers aren't stupid; trying to nickel-and-dime them with those hated microtransactions is the sort of thing that would easily lead Sports Interactive down the road to an EA Dungeon Keeper-style PR nightmare. SI are already onto a very good thing; the sort of quick-buck Zynga/King style cynical disruption you're suggesting would be a total disaster.
adwf 12y ago
I'd be more tempted to attribute FM2014's hours played to the style of game that it is. It's very much a "spreadsheet" game in many regards - you can leave it running in the background while it plays through the simulation of the football leagues. I know plenty of people who just leave it running while they browse the internet or watch TV. All they have to do is occasionally check on their lineups and watch through a match.

by Goosey 12y ago

sliverstorm 12y ago

this game is the most successful at hooking it's players, but not the most successful at reaching large numbers of players Rather than "hooking" its players, you could read it as, this game has a devoted cult/niche following. One of those things certain people love & cannot do without, yet has narrow appeal. Kind of like snake antivenin.

AimHere 12y ago

And risk alienating an entrenched and fanatical fanbase? Note the '2014' in the title; this is one of those regular sports games franchises, and it has been around since 1992 (For the first 10 years or so, it had the name 'Championship Manager', but that was changed due to legal hassle). Every year, these guys upgrade their engine, upgrade the player database, pile on some improvements and tweak stuff, and put out a new game. Some fans buy the game every year, some every two, or every three years. It might be a niche product, but Football Manager owns that niche; it has a recognisable brand name and product (one that is well-recognised in the real-life sport itself to the extent that one Premiership Football Team - Everton - even bought early access to the player database), a large and fanatical fanbase (the company has fans in almost every football team in the world scouting players for it), and constant (if not growing) revenue stream. Gamers aren't stupid; trying to nickel-and-dime them with those hated microtransactions is the sort of thing that would easily lead Sports Interactive down the road to an EA Dungeon Keeper-style PR nightmare. SI are already onto a very good thing; the sort of quick-buck Zynga/King style cynical disruption you're suggesting would be a total disaster.

adwf 12y ago

I'd be more tempted to attribute FM2014's hours played to the style of game that it is. It's very much a "spreadsheet" game in many regards - you can leave it running in the background while it plays through the simulation of the football leagues. I know plenty of people who just leave it running while they browse the internet or watch TV. All they have to do is occasionally check on their lineups and watch through a match.