

Monument Valley in Numbers - shawndumas
http://blog.monumentvalleygame.com/blog/2015/1/15/monument-valley-in-numbers

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pchristensen
I love MV and I'm glad they made ~4x their costs, but geez, if you have to be
a pantheon-level game to make a few million dollars, it's a bad sign for
normal paid games. Mobile games are either freemium farming games or have an
absurdly high bar to be financially successful.

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jdk
Pretty much. A 4x return is great and all, but MV was likely the best reviewed
and most Apple-hyped paid iOS game of the year. To only make 4x return off of
it is pretty unfortunate for the platform.

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idbehold
They also managed to piss off many of their original customers by charging
them for the Forgotten Shores levels. When the original was released, the main
menu indicated that there were going to be more levels added in the future.
Many people were under the assumption that the $4-5 they'd already spent on
the original ten levels would've included the the cost of the additional
levels that was advertised in the main menu. It didn't and then ustwogames got
upset when they started getting one star reviews for their bait and switch.

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sbochins
In terms of revenue, they would still be making much less if they didn't
charge for the expansion. You can see most of the revenue came from the
initial release of the original and expansion. If the expansion were given for
free it may be more like a 3x gain on their investment. If they added IAP for
the new levels, they would probably still get the 1 star reviews.

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rdoherty
Anyone know how they achieved such huge sales the first day/week they
released? From other app/game stories I've heard it often takes a while for
people to notice new apps and gain traction.

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jdk
It was Apple's Editor's Choice in the app store (across all apps, not just in
games) in its release week plus a fair amount of pre-release hype. Though
mostly it's about being Editor's Choice.

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ronyeh
People don't pay up front for games anymore. They need to make a MV 2 that is
free with a few levels + IAP to unlock the rest. That way more people can get
hooked to the game mechanic and decide to upgrade.

Also, it still looks like android users expect free-ish games.

~~~
JabavuAdams
There is a group of people who want to pay up-front for games. It's a question
of whether you can make this a viable business model.

I was chatting with the CEO of a company that makes kids' games, and he
mentioned some interesting feedback from parents: The price of a $1 game isn't
really $1, because they had to buy a bunch before finding one their kid liked.
So, they would happily pay more than $1 for a trusted brand that's likely to
satisfy their kids.

~~~
ronyeh
But why wouldn't that same parent prefer a game that was free to try and then
have a single IAP to unlock the full version? I'm a parent and I'd love to not
have to purchase lots of $1 apps. I'd rather try them for free first.

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s_m
Wait, you can drown the totem?

~~~
freshyill
I was wondering about that too. Doesn't he always drown in that one level (I
forget which one). Maybe that's the number of players who completed that
level?

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edent
Interesting that Google Play made 12.1% of sales and 13.9% revenue. Amazon
Paid was 3.7% sales to 4.3% revenue.

That said, I really do find the success of this game baffling. It's 45 minutes
of play time. The graphics are good, but the puzzles are simplistic and the
story is... thin.

Their previous game - Whale Trail [1] - was fantastic. Offered a huge amount
of gameplay, was a critical hit, but appeared to be a commercial flop.

Is it just the luck of the draw? A better PR campaign this time? Or something
else?

Still - good luck to 'em!

[1]
[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.jakyl.whal...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.jakyl.whaletrail&hl=en)
& [https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/whale-
trail/id450163154?mt=8](https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/whale-
trail/id450163154?mt=8)

~~~
Owenzy
"45 minutes of play time" \- slight exaggeration there.

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edent
It took me less than an hour to complete. I don't consider that great value
for money.

How long did you take to complete it?

