Coming soon to gaming: rewards for playing

So, there's a report that shows that -for mobile game developers- 82%
of 'em find that "reward-based user acquisition outperforms
traditional marketing channels".*

Which is probably gibberish to you (I know it was to me, initially).
"Rewards based" gaming recompenses gamer "with rewards such as Amazon
vouchers for completing specific actions in a game. Those actions may
include reaching a certain level, or acquiring in-game items." So
rewards based UA means using the above to attract new gamers to your
product, with the hope that their spend will outpace the cost of the
rewards.

In the mobile game, this means making your game so grindy your players
have to buy lots of MTX to keep playing so they can level up and get
the virtual equivalent of kewpie dolls as a reward to stay on the
treadmill. Except this strategy has the added bonus of partnership
deals (with marketplaces like Amazon) and data-collection that makes
your gameplay even more valuable to the game developer, beyond what
you might bring in with all your microtransaction purchases.

A huge number of the polled mobile developers have implemented rewards
based UA strategies, most of them intend to add or expand its use in
2025, and many see it as a net benefit to the bottom line. All of
which means its going to become more prominent in mobile gaming... and
increasingly it will likely be seen as something that needs to be
added to gaming outside of the mobile space. E.g., onto PC and mobile.

Which just makes me sad for where our hobby is going. Remember when
just  ENJOYING the game was enough to keep us playing? Or when we got
games that were PROGRAMMED to be enjoyable? Now it's all about the
bottom line, and rewards-based strategies like the above are only
going to make our games more predacious and tedious as they struggle
to claw back the cost of those rewards.

And people wonder why I keep such a prodigious library of old games.
Why shouldn't I, when those games were actually fun to play and not
designed to separate me from my last penny?







* linky link!
https://www.gamesindustry.biz/report-82-of-mobile-game-devs-say-reward-based-ua-outperforms-traditional-channels