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In the tough free-to-play mobile space, gamers can be demanding. The churn rate for players is high, and fighting for an audience, and that magic profitability can be a struggle.
Consumer research outfit The Nielsen Company have tried to help, and through research, they have identified when players are clamouring for updates and what type of content they want. It started when the Nielsen Company noticed that despite a number of high-profile launches in the last few months, many of them have faded back into semi-obscurity.
As a result, the company have put out a new report on "Long-term Mobile Game Success Beyond Awareness and Adoption" and has found a few things game makers can do to increase their chances of a hit. "In the majority of cases, new content demand among gamers reached a peak three to five weeks after a new title launched," the company said in their report. "This plateau usually occurs when early adopters run out of content to enjoy or grow fatigued with the gameplay still available. This trend held true for most of the titles Nielsen analyzed regardless of game genre or target audience."
Nielsen suggested releasing new content within the first three-to-five week window to capitalise on the buzz that surrounds a new launch. This isn’t a hard rule, and different games will have different schedules and different requirements, but it does seem to be a good rule of thumb to follow when trying to plan post-launch content.
Neilsen have found that this desire for new content is near constant through the first six months of an apps lifetime, but the demand peaks in the first few weeks.
