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As the title states, what is the best way to get income from mobile games? (taking into consideration that creating the games only costs a lot of time and the games are relatively simple)

As I see it, there are multiple ways of getting money from mobile games,

  1. Selling them for a fixed price (seems like a high threshold for potential buyers)
  2. In-game purchases (I can imagine this only works for several types of games, I don't see this working well for monopoly unless you like really fancy hotels ;)
  3. Ingame advertisements / sponsorships

Which way will most likely bring the most profit?

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    \$\begingroup\$ Impossible to say which would be best. It depends on how each is implemented, the game they're implemented for and the market trends at the time. If there was a certain "best" way, everyone would be doing it that way and there wouldn't be any alternative. \$\endgroup\$
    – House
    Commented Nov 14, 2012 at 16:02
  • \$\begingroup\$ @Byte56, You assume everyone has the foresight and will to both understand and implement a "best way". For all we know, there is a "best way", but the curiosity and arrogance of man will never acknowledge such a thing. \$\endgroup\$
    – Cypher
    Commented Nov 14, 2012 at 17:17
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    \$\begingroup\$ What is the reason for the downvotes on this question? Is it not relevant enough to game development? \$\endgroup\$
    – n s
    Commented Nov 14, 2012 at 20:06
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    \$\begingroup\$ @extropic_engine most likely because people feel this has no definitive answer. \$\endgroup\$
    – Thomas
    Commented Nov 14, 2012 at 21:35

1 Answer 1

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I believe the answer you seek is, all 3.

You should release a free version of your game with ad support. Offer a paid version that removes ad support and adds a few bells and whistles. and if it makes sense to do so, have features where you can purchase in-game content.

But to answer the question about how to profit, that is much harder.

To profit you need to consider things not related to the game.

  • Time spent on the project
  • How much it will cost (art, design, programming, API's, hardware, software, licenses)
  • Marketing: this is a big factor, you have to get noticed in the sea of existing games
  • maintenance

and many other things related the the SDLC (software development life cycle)

I hope this gets you started on your journey! And remember: If the game isn't fun who is going to want to play it?

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  • \$\begingroup\$ This is probably what you are looking for and defiantly the right road most traveled. Can't say I like it (I miss the days of games being completely free and created just for fun). \$\endgroup\$
    – Benjamin Danger Johnson
    Commented Nov 14, 2012 at 22:26
  • \$\begingroup\$ I don't mind people making money off of their work. I just want everyone to be making something they can be proud of, not just copying the most successful and hoping to get a cut of the pie. \$\endgroup\$
    – Needsnaming
    Commented Nov 14, 2012 at 22:39

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