What is freemium?
Freemium is an economic concept whereby a product or, in most cases, a service is offered for free. A freemium game is generally aimed at the largest possible number of players. The aim is to turn these users into customers for a more finalised version of the service. Often, this version will be paid for and will include additional services for which a fee will be charged.
The freemium concept is most common in mobile games and social networks. It is also called ” free to play “. Its abbreviation is F2P. The financial sources are mostly provided by additional paid levels, purchasable virtual goods or time optimisation services.
The freemium principle has become more popular with the web, as it offers the possibility to provide a cheap free service and to finance it through advertising. Many games have a mixed model, mixing freemium and paid. In the end, the main objective of freemium is to do everything possible to make users switch to paid games. In addition, many games are very successful as freemium versions, but have great difficulty in generating significant revenue from them.
An increasingly popular phenomenon + Examples
The freemium concept has spread very quickly on smartphones in recent years. It has been a worldwide and growing success. However, some controversies have arisen in relation to freemium games. Indeed, for many of these games, many of them would not be free in the end. Indeed, a good part of free-to-play MMORPGs cover additional micro-costs in order to optimise the life of the game in question. Thus, we can draw a parallel with this type of game as well as online gaming platforms offering the possibility to play poker for free, but also with real money if you wish. So in the end, aren’t there more disadvantages than strengths behind this beautiful word “Freemium”?
Here are three famous freemium titles that can be played on the phone and are widely downloaded: Candy Crush, Game of War and Clash of Clans. In each of these games, micro-purchases are obviously available, such as for customising your characters, getting new levels or new weapons. Thus, the accumulation of these numerous micro-purchases can bring in a lot of money for the game in question, even though it is only an MMORPG F2P title.
See also >> Lexicon