paying to win? battlefield heroes, virtual goods and selling gameplay advantages ben cousins,...

Paying To Win?

Battlefield Heroes, virtual goods and selling gameplay advantages

Ben Cousins, General Manager, Easy (EA)

Who am I?

Facts about EasyO Battlefield heroes started in 2007 at DICE

O 20 staff from Heroes team spun out into Easy in

Nov 2008 ’act like a startup’

O Almost ten million registered users

O Profitable after 16 months

O FY12 revenue forecast at double FY11

Hey Ben,

… Do you feel like a big man now Ben? I bet you do. That's good. I hope you enjoy watching your playerbase crumble and all your customers turn against you. A lot of us really loved your game Ben, and the ideas that you started out with. When I saw the first Heroes trailer I was amazed. It sounded too good to be true. Then it turned out that it was…You went behind our backs and changed the basic things that made this game different and great. You ruined your game Ben. You and the higher-ups at EA ruined OUR game…I hope you're happy Ben, I hope you're really, really happy. Do you know how many children you ruined Christmas for Ben? Why don't you think about that too while you're at it.

R.I.P Battlefield: Heroes.

-A formerly loyal customer.“

How did we get here?

Learnings from KoreaO Items that sell well

O Customization items

O Clothing, name colour

O Convienience items

O XP boost, currency boost, stats reset

O Advantage-giving items

O BE CAREFUL – the looser MUST NOT know

they have lost because of the use of an

item

Heroes Launch Catalogue

HeadFaceNeckChestJacketHandsLegsFeetBackWaist

XP BoostVP Boost

ARPU =Total gross revenue

Total number of users

$3 million in funding

2 million users = $1.50 ARPU

ARPU =Total gross revenue

Total number of users

$3 million in funding

2 million users = $1.50 ARPU

Our (conservative) target = $0.50

ARPUOur launch month ARPU = $0.25

Working out what was going wrong

KPIs*O Monthly ARPU (av. revenue per user)O MAU (Monthly Active Users)O Monthly Conversion rate (% of

Actives spending)O Monthly ARPPU (av. revenue per

PAYING user)

*Key Performance Indicators

July KPIs*

O ARPPU (av. revenue per PAYING user)

O $20.25

*Key Performance Indicators

July KPIs*

O ARPPU (av. revenue per PAYING user)

O $20.25

O Conversion rate (% of Actives

spending)O 1.29%

*Key Performance Indicators

Fix Conv. RateO Good MAU and ARPPU

O Bad ARPU caused by poor Conversion Rate

O What were spenders buying?

“I think their plan to get the

low hanging fruit is right, but

it is going too slow…

They need some heads and a

little bit of $$$ to pick up

speed and make some

needed changes to the game.

“

Frank Gibeau

”This game is too free, we are giving away too much”

”This game is too free, we are giving away too much”

”Too much VP in the system”

Action PointsO Increase VP-per hour cost of hiring ’demo’

weaponsO If you play a few hours a day, maintain a

weapon for a single character

O Drop cash-prices of permanent weapons

O SMS payment methods for some EU

countries

O Release more powerful versions of normal

weapons

O 3 weapons slightly bigger magazines

O 5 weapons slightly greater chance of critical hit

O 2 weapons slightly more damage

O One recoil reduction

O Sub Machine GunO Rounds in magazine from 40 - 45O Critical hit chance from 0.025 - 0.04O Damage for a critical hit from 15 –

20O Pistol

O Rounds in magazine from 12-15O Critical hit chance from 0.04 - 0.13

O Machine GunO Critical hit chance from 0.03 -0.07

O ShotgunO Rounds in magazine from 12 – 15O Critical hit chance from 0.05 – 0.07

O Sniper RifleO Rounds in magazine from 5 – 7O Better over short rangeO Recoil slightly reduced

O KnifeO Damage from 28-30O Hit radius from 2-3

O RPGsO Critical hit chance from 0 to 0.3O Critical hit damage set at 10

What happened next?

Fix Conv. Rate

O Good MAU and ARPPU

O Bad ARPU caused by poor

Conversion Rate

Total gross revenue from

forum posters

Total number of forum posters

Total gross revenue from

forum posters

Total number of forum posters

= $22 ARPFP

Total gross revenue from

forum posters

Total number of forum posters

= $22 ARPFP

Forum posters spend more than 10x

the average user

Hey Ben,

… Do you feel like a big man now Ben? I bet you do. That's good. I hope you enjoy watching your playerbase crumble and all your customers turn against you. A lot of us really loved your game Ben, and the ideas that you started out with. When I saw the first Heroes trailer I was amazed. It sounded too good to be true. Then it turned out that it was…You went behind our backs and changed the basic things that made this game different and great. You ruined your game Ben. You and the higher-ups at EA ruined OUR game…I hope you're happy Ben, I hope you're really, really happy. Do you know how many children you ruined Christmas for Ben? Why don't you think about that too while you're at it.

R.I.P Battlefield: Heroes.

-A formerly loyal customer.“

To recap…O The original store catalogue was sub-optimal because we;O Had insufficient info about western gamer’s appetite for virtual goodsO Were scared by the Bad Company 1’s ‘weapons for sale’ controversyO We were being too conservativeO As a result our conversion rate was too lowO We quickly identified what we needed to do to increase conversion rate with a surveyO We were understaffed until Frank Gibeau allowed us enough to staff upO We were still too conservative about changing game balance…O …until we got very concerned about losing ours and our team’s jobsO Which forced us to make radical changes…O …which caused a huge uproar online…O …but which didn’t actually correspond with a declining userbase

Common assumptions about the types of

virtual goods it is acceptable to sell are

incorrect

What should virtual goods games be?

What do consumers want virtual goods games to

be?

Questions?

bcousins@ea.comTwitter -

benjamincousins